Darius Garland has done a good job for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Year 2. That’s been encouraging for the Wine and Gold.
But it’s been unfortunate that the Cavs haven’t had a natural backup point guard option really during this season.
Now, Damyean Dotson has done a decent job at that at times, and I give him his credit in that regard. And Collin Sexton has made strides as a passer, albeit he’s more suited to mostly be a secondary playmaking presence in that realm.
It’s been tough for Cleveland and Matthew Dellavedova that he hasn’t been in action yet, though.
Dellavedova is still working his way back from complications involved with seemingly a severe concussion in preseason and he had an emergency appendectomy a few weeks back. Delly has had other concussions in his career, so we’ll have to see if/when there’s a set timetable for him.
Nonetheless, while he’s not nearly the passing presence of Garland or Dellavedova, Quinn Cook has helped some in his 10-day stint thus far.
Cook, who was signed last week, has done some nice things in his first two outings for the Cavs during this 10-day.
To be clear, I’m not saying it was at all a positive team performance on Friday at the New Orleans Pelicans, but Cook did hit some shots and I liked the pace he was playing at.
In that one, although it was a blowout loss, Cleveland was getting Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. back some into the fold, so I didn’t read a ton into that. Granted, we’ll have to see if Love, who left early in Cleveland’s last game at the Atlanta Hawks to reportedly avoid a setback, will be missing time.
Albeit in Cook’s case, in his first game with Cleveland, he had 13 points on five-of-eight shooting, including three-of-four from three-point range in 17 minutes.
And considering he hit 41.8 percent of his triple attempts with the Golden State Warriors and a respectable 36.7 percent with the Los Angeles Lakers, but with more of a role with the Warriors, he should help spacing for the Cavs.
From there, Cook I thought provided some nice energy in Cleveland’s loss on Sunday at Atlanta, even though the Cavs had a horrific fourth quarter in that one.
Cook shot only two-for-eight in 18 minutes and had five points, but was taking good shots I thought, by and large, and was looking to get others involved/initiate productive ball-swings. He had three assists, for what it’s worth, and did appear to help out Garland some, who was back in that game.
Moreover, from my perspective, Cook’s done a solid job thus far in this 10-day stint for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Although we’ll have to see if he’ll get a second 10-day, and regarding potential Cavs trades, from a roster numbers standpoint, Cook could end up having a case.
Regardless, I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Cook so far in this Cavs stint, and perhaps he’ll end up sticking around more.
We’ll again have to see, but the former Canton Charge (Cleveland’s G League Affiliate) guard and two-time NBA champ has looked comfortable in reserve minutes for the Wine and Gold through a few games here.
I’d imagine he’s been a great presence behind the scenes with the Cleveland Cavaliers, too, as has reportedly been the case in his career to this point.