Cooper is being rewarded after spending the last two seasons with the Cleveland Charge.
The Cleveland Cavaliers announced that they’re signing 22-year-old point guard Sharife Cooper to a 10-day contract.
Cooper has spent the last two training camps with the Cavs and the last two seasons with their G League affiliate the Cleveland Charge. Cooper was a second-round pick for the Atlanta Hawks in 2021. This is the first time he’s received a call-up to the NBA since being on a two-way deal with Atlanta.
The 6’ 1” guard is averaging 18.2 points on .448/.313/.809 shooting splits with 7.1 assists and 1.6 turnovers per game in 34 appearances with the Charge this season.
Cooper’s professional career hasn’t gone as originally envisioned. He was touted as one of the most intriguing prospects of his draft class coming out of Auburn, but it hasn’t yet materialized in the professional game. The Hawks weren’t a good fit for Cooper and the Cavs have been chock-full of undersized guards already on the roster.
Even so, Cooper has repeatedly chosen to be in Cleveland. He believes in and is appreciative of what this organization has done for him. That trust is being rewarded with a 10-day deal.
“I owe a lot to the Cavs organization for just believing in me,” Cooper said earlier this season at Charge media day. “I was coming off a rough summer with the Hakws, had a bad training camp, and they took a chance on me and allowed me to get back to myself. They instill confidence in me from the head coach all the way down to the trainer. They’ve meant so much for my progression.”
How the Charge are integrated into what the Cavs do on a daily basis is something that has stood out to Cooper.
“I respect how J.B. [Bickerstaff] orchestrates things,” Cooper said last week. “How Mike [Gerrity] orchestrates. How they talk to everybody more than just the 15 [on the roster]. Koby [Altman] will say what’s up to guys. That’s what I mean when I say I like the organization.”
It remains to be seen what the Cavs’ long-term plans are for Cooper. They currently have an open roster spot. At this point, it would seem that the logical choice would be to convert Emoni Bates’s two-way deal to a standard one and use the open two-way spot on an internal player like Cooper or Zhaire Smith who received a 10-day contract earlier this month.
Either way, Cooper will be on an NBA roster again. It’s something he’s been working towards for two years now.
