A former Auburn Tiger and second-round NBA draft pick has been re-signed to his NBA team.
[autotag]Sharife Cooper[/autotag], who played for Auburn during the 2020-21 season before declaring for the draft, was re-signed by the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA on a two-way contract on Friday. In the NBA, a two-way contract stipulates that a player can play 50 of a team’s 82 games and is paid a flat rate equal to half of the league minimum with no guarantees. Due to the nature of a two-way contract, it’s likely that Cooper will spend some time with the Hawks’ G-League affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks.
So far, Cooper hasn’t really caught on with the Hawks. In his only season playing for them so far in 2021, he’s only averaged three minutes per game in the 13 he played with 0.5 points per game and a shooting percentage of 21.4 percent. He’s fared better in the G League so far, averaging 30.7 minutes, 17.1 points and four rebounds per game while shooting at 43.5 percent.
Time will tell how the Hawks plan on using Cooper for the upcoming 2022 season, but it’s clear that they believe he needs some more developing in the NBA G League before he’s ready for a prime role on an NBA squad.
The Atlanta Hawks have re-signed Sharife Cooper to a Two-Way contract, a league source tells @spotrac.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 22, 2022
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