Auburn basketball: Sharife Cooper joins Joel Embiid/76ers in latest mock
NBA Draft season is fun for college basketball fans, particularly those with prospective draftees/recent collegiate departures. Auburn basketball fans are looking at their third season in a row with a Tiger selected in the first round of the draft.
2019 saw Chuma Okeke selected with the #16 pick by the Orlando Magic. 2020 saw Isaac Okoro selected with the #5 pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Where Sharife Cooper, Auburn basketball’s latest entry into the NBA realm, will land is anyone’s guess at this point. Some mocks have had him in the lottery, while others see him falling to the low 20’s late in the first round.
Bleacher Report’s latest mock is one of the latter, with Cooper landing with the Philadelphia 76ers at the #28 selection.
How does former Auburn basketball star Sharife Cooper fit with Philly?
The 76ers are an intriguing destination for Cooper because of the lack of playmaking in the lineup. Philadelphia, like his the Tigers he played with in 2021, are a bigger group. Joel Embiid is the team’s clear #1 option, while Ben Simmons serves as the table-setter from the power forward spot.
Simmons isn’t a conventional point guard–or really a conventional player in general–at six-foot-ten. Like Cooper, he lacks shooting from the position, and also like Cooper, he does his best work in transition.
Philadelphia’s second-highest assist leader is Tobias Harris at 3.5 a game. Cooper would be a clearly superior backup PG option to Shake Milton or George Hill, who are better suited playing alongside a traditional floor general.
In a lineup full of shooters–featuring seven players shooting 36% or better from beyond the arc–Cooper could put up video game-like numbers if current HC Doc Rivers can get the most of the dynamic ball-handler.
The six-foot-one Cooper was born in Newark, New Jersey, so Philly would be close to his original home, even if he has adopted the Deep South as home as well.
The fit in Philadelphia is a good one, so let’s hope things don’t change too much between now and July when it comes to where Cooper might land.