Stakes remain higher for Cook
MINNEAPOLIS — Little more than a half-hour after the Warriors’ 109-103 loss Sunday afternoon to Minnesota, point guard Quinn Cook leaned forward in the chair in front of his locker stall, staring blankly as he thumbed through his iPhone.
Messages from friends and family helped ease the sting of a disappointing performance. Starting in place of the injured Stephen Curry for the second straight game, Cook had four points, two assists, four rebounds, three turnovers and three fouls in 29 minutes. His final five shot attempts were misses.
“My shot just wasn’t really falling like I’d like it to,” Cook said. “It’s frustrating, but it happens. You can’t let that take away from the rest of your game.”
In a couple of weeks, Sunday’s defeat could be of little significance to the Warriors. Getting healthy for the playoffs — in its past two games, Golden State has been without five rotation players — is more important than beating Houston for the No. 1 seed.
The stakes were much higher for Cook, a two-way-contract player with no guarantee of playing in the postseason. Each NBA game is a chance for him to show the Warriors or other teams that he deserves a 15-man roster spot. With Curry set to have his tweaked right ankle re-evaluated Tuesday by team doctors, Cook might not get extended playing time with the big club again this season.
The scouting report on him is that he is a three-point specialist who is too small to defend many guards. But in a combined 81 minutes over his past three games, Cook has missed all eight of his threepoint attempts. His numbers in 18 Golden State games — 3.3 points on 37.7 percent shooting, including 28.6 percent from three-point range, 1.1 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 12.1 minutes — won’t wow front-office executives.
“Without Steph there, Quinn is asked to do a lot,” said Kevin Durant, who grew up with Cook in the Washington, D.C., area. “It’s definitely a different dynamic when, as opposed to Steph Curry, you have Quinn Cook. He’s doing a good job of stepping in and playing extremely hard. I’m happy for him.”
Cook has yet to parlay success in the NBA’s minor league — he was the 2015-16 Development League Rookie of the Year, a two-time D-League All-Star and the 2017 D-League All-Star Game MVP — into a long-term NBA role.
In the 32 months since he went undrafted out of Duke, Cook has been waived four times and signed three 10-day contracts. Stints last season with New Orleans and Dallas lasted a combined 14 games. He signed a training-camp deal this past summer with the Hawks, only to be one of the team’s final preseason cuts.
One of Golden State’s two players on a two-way deal, Cook navigates a split existence, yo-yoing between the defending NBA champions and their G League affiliate in Santa Cruz. He keeps a black duffel bag packed with essentials — underwear, socks, sweat suits, T-shirts — in case he must make Highway 17’s winding trek across the Santa Cruz Mountains at a moment’s notice.
Per his contract, Cook can spend up to 45 days with Golden State and the rest of the season with Santa Cruz. His $75,000 G League salary is augmented by a prorated portion of the NBA rookie minimum salary — roughly $816,000 this season — for any days he is with the big club.
Steve Kerr’s staff has mapped out a plan to maximize Cook’s NBA opportunities the rest of the regular season. But to use Cook in the playoffs, Golden State would need to waive someone from its 15-man roster. It all puts the pressure on him to make the most of every time he enters an NBA game.
However, the Warriors will look at more than numbers when deciding whether to make Cook a part of their longterm plans. He has impressed coaches and teammates with his professionalism, defensive effort and command of the offense since inking his twoway contract in mid-October.
“He’s going to be in this league for a while,” Kerr said.