The Atlanta Hawks had two really bad games to start Summer League. They are without two of their more talented players for the tournament with AJ Griffin yet to play a game and Jalen Johnson out due to a non-surgical procedure.
This has left Sharife Cooper shouldering the load which he has struggled to do due to his own injury issues that he is playing through. In fact, we here at Soaring Down South wondered if it might be a better idea to shut him down for Summer League as he was unable to play up to his potential.
Well, on the second of a back-to-back Cooper showed that he is such a talent. This reinforced why the Hawks extended him a two-way qualifying offer earlier in the summer. Cooper is such a hard worker that anything you ask of him he will practice until he is not able to improve at that skill any further.
How Sharife Cooper turned around his poor play for the Atlanta Hawks.
I only say poor play because he was not able to overcome the obstacle of injury until the third game. My educated guess is that in order for Cooper to come out and impact the game the way that he did against the Miami Heat was that he sat down with Summer League head coach Nick Van Exel.
There are few better people to coach young point guards than Van Exel. He played with a cerebral nature that few others in the league could ever meet. As such, if a guard like Cooper needs to know how to impact a game without huge scoring numbers, Van Exel is your guy.
Cooper changed his game style against the Heat, becoming a pass-first player who got his teammates going. Usually, Cooper can carry a team for a period with scoring but thanks to a hand injury his shot is off. Nine assists, however, is enough to spark the offense in his other players. Six of these were in the first half
It means that his defender does not know where Cooper will be going, or where the ball will be passed to. This destabilizes a defense meaning that his teammates get more open shots. For a player to be as effective as Cooper was with one major skill taken away shows that he is willing to put the team before himself. This is a quality that the Hawks value extremely highly.