2021 NBA Draft Profile: Sharife Cooper
Size and poor shooting numbers in a small college sample have Sharife Cooper in the Knicks’ range, but could the point guard out of Auburn with amazing vision and passing ability be a star bet for New York?
Position: Point guard, Auburn University
Age: 20 (6/11/2001)
Height: 6 ft
Wingspan: 6 ft 1 in
Weight: 185 lbs.
The Sales Pitch: Good point guard prospects almost inevitably get picked in the top eight picks of their drafts. We looked at this on this very website. But what if I told you the stars aligned in a way that made a great point guard available for the Knicks later in this draft? The lilliputian from Atlanta, Sharife Cooper, is the best in this draft at passing, the best in this draft at penetrating into the paint, the best in this draft at drawing fouls. All of these are skills which disproportionately make the players around him better. He couldn’t shoot at Auburn, but his shot isn’t any more broken than RJ Barrett’s was, and RJ turned out fine. If anything, it’s better than where RJ was in college. And besides, him not shooting well didn’t stop him from making his team better and getting anywhere he wanted on the court. If his jump shot becomes even decent, he’s not just a nice player, he’s a star, full stop. And while no one will confuse him for Marcus Smart, his defense isn’t nearly as bad as you think.
Elite Traits/Skills: Passing, penetrating, ball handling, drawing fouls
The Devil’s Advocate argument: Actually, he needs more than just an improved jump shot. He needs to prove he can improve his shot selection so he doesn’t chuck around the rim and get his shot punched four times a game. He needs a floater, something we don’t know he has in his bag. All the small point guards in the league who can score are great shooters — Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley, Chris Paul, Kemba Walker, Darius Garland, Devonte’ Graham, hell, even Cam Payne. Are you willing to draft a player on a bet that he’s that rare of an exception? And that’s without getting to his defense, which even if he is merely competent, is still problematic in the playoffs. We’ve seen coaches hide Trae, FVV, and Kemba successfully but that belies the greater point — they had to sacrifice other potential defensive advantages to cater to a weakness.
The Misconceptions: A few, if you ask me. He’s short, but he’s closer to a strong body type of Lowry or FVV than a skinny dude like Conley or Kemba. He’s also more athletic than all four of those players. Finally, while he’s not a good shooter, I think the numbers and small sample have skewed the perception a bit — he took the same amount of threes in AAU as an upperclassmen as he did at Auburn and made 35% of them, in contrast to the 23% at Auburn.
Important numbers:
39/23/83: His bizarre college slash line in 13 games
23%, 35%: His 3P% in college and in EYBL
8.6: His free throws attempted per game in the SEC in 13 games
52%: His sky high AST%
52%: His FG% at the rim — a low number
6.7%: The percentage of his rim attempts which were assisted, lowest among any point guard prospect I could find
10: The number of floaters he took in 13 games
.310: His 3-point rate
+45: His net rating for Auburn, highest on the team, achieved without a single game vs. early-schedule cupcake opponents
Knicks Fit: Great. He wouldn’t provide the spacing from the 1 spot that so many of us crave — nay, deserve — but he does, more than any other pick, project to help the two biggest weaknesses of the 2020 Knicks: lack of penetration and lack of passing/playmaking. Additionally, with versatile point guards Derrick Rose (presumably) and Luca Vildoza, the Knicks also have buffers to bring him along as slow — or as fast — as they deem appropriate.
