Is Quinn Cook In The Nba?
Contents
Quinn Cook is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Who is Quinn Cook?
Quinn Cook is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Duke University. As a senior, he was named the Consensus National Player of the Year.
Early Life
Quinn Cook was born on March 23, 1993, in Washington, D.C., to parents Corey and Stephanie Cook. He has two younger sisters, Gabrielle and Samantha. As a high schooler at DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, he helped lead his team to three straight Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championships from 2010 to 2012. He played AAU basketball for the D.C. Assault alongside future NBA player Victor Oladipo.
College Career
Quinn Cook played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils from 2011-2015. He was a four-year starter and helped lead Duke to a National Championship in his senior year. Cook was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2015 NCAA Final Four.
After going undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft, Cook began his professional career with the Canton Charge of the NBA G League. He was later signed by the New Orleans Pelicans, but was waived before the start of the season. Cook then had brief stints with the Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers before signing with the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
Cook has spent the majority of his NBA career with the Warriors, winning two NBA Championships with them in 2017 and 2018. He has also won an NBA Finals MVP award and an NBA Championship series MVP award.
Professional Career
Quinn Cook began his professional career in 2016 after going undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft. He joined the New Orleans Pelicans for the NBA Summer League. In August 2016, he signed with the Pelicans, but was later waived by the team in October 2016. He then joined the Canton Charge of the NBA Development League as an affiliate player of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In January 2017, he returned to New Orleans after signing a 10-day contract with the Pelicans. He signed a second 10-day contract with the team in February 2017, and went on to sign a multi-year deal with New Orleans in March 2017. He appeared in 23 games for the Pelicans during the 2016–17 season, averaging 4.6 points and 1.9 assists per game.
In July 2018, Cook joined the Golden State Warriors for the 2018 NBA Summer League. On July 25, 2018, he signed with the Warriors. During his debut season with the Warriors, Cook won an NBA championship after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals. He appeared in 28 regular season games for Golden State, averaging 5 minutes per game.
Why isn’t Quinn Cook in the NBA?
Quinn Cook is a 6’2″ point guard who played college basketball for Duke University. He went undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft but he has played for the Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Golden State Warriors in the NBA. He has also played for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Santa Cruz Warriors, and Canton Charge in the NBA G League. So why isn’t he in the NBA?
Lack of Exposure
In spite of his successful college career, Quinn Cook went undrafted in the 2015 NBA Draft. He has since had stints with a number of NBA teams, but has yet to find a permanent spot on an NBA roster. So why isn’t Quinn Cook in the NBA?
One reason may be lack of exposure. Cook played his college basketball at Duke University, which is not known for producing a lot of NBA talent. In fact, since 2000, Duke has only had 9 players drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. This is in contrast to schools like Kentucky and North Carolina, who have had 20 and 19 players drafted in the first round over that same time period respectively. This lack of exposure may have hurt Cook’s chances of being drafted or signed by an NBA team.
Another reason may beCook’s size. He is considered a “tweener” at 6’2″, 185 pounds and does not really have a true position at the NBA level. He is too small to really play shooting guard and not quite quick enough to play point guard. This lack of a true position may make it difficult for him to find minutes on an NBA court.
Whatever the reasons, Quinn Cook has yet to find a permanent home in the NBA. But with hard work and persistence, he may one day find himself on an NBA roster for good.
Lack of Talent
Quinn Cook was not drafted by an NBA team and has only spent time on NBA rosters as a member of the G-League or on a two-way contract. He does not have the athleticism or size that teams look for in an NBA player and he is not a good enough shooter to make up for those deficiencies.
Lack of Opportunity
Quinn Cook played collegiately at Duke University from 2011 to 2015. He went undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft but was signed by the New Orleans Pelicans to a Summer League contract. He was later traded to the Dallas Mavericks, where he spent the first two years of his professional career. In 2017, he joined the Golden State Warriors for their 2017 NBA championship run. After winning his first and only NBA championship, he was waived by the Warriors. He then spent time with various G-League teams before finally getting another chance in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019. However, he was again waived and has not been able to latch on with an NBA team since then.
The main reason for Cook’s lack of NBA success is simply that he has not been given an opportunity to play significant minutes on any team. He has bounced around between different organizations and has never really been given a fair chance to show what he can do at the highest level. This is likely due to his lack of size and athleticism, as he is just 6’1″ and 180 pounds. Additionally, he is not a great shooter, as his career three-point percentage is just 34%.
Cook has had a very successful career in the G-League, where he was named MVP in 2018-19 after averaging 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game. He even won a championship with the Santa Cruz Warriors in 2015-16. However, despite his success at lower levels, he has not been able to make a successful transition to the NBA. It seems unlikely that he will ever be more than a role player in the league, but stranger things have happened and perhaps he will eventually get another chance to prove himself at basketball’s highest level.