Sports
Agent: Cooper’s Chances Unscathed After Nedovic Signing
< < Back to agent-coopers-chances-unscathed-after-nedovic-signingD.J. Cooper was officially named to the Golden State Summer League roster on Monday, which features 18 total players and three point guards.
WOUB Sports first reported Cooper’s commitment to play for the Warriors on June 28, a day after the former Ohio guard went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft. Despite not having any picks, Golden State traded into the first round to select Serbian guard Nemanja Nedovic this year.
The Warriors announced to the press via email on Tuesday that Nedovic had officially signed his contract. Per team policy, the terms of the agreement were not released.
“Nedovic is currently with the Warriors Summer League squad in Las Vegas and is expected to play in the team’s game on Saturday, July 13, before returning to Serbia to fulfill commitments with his National Team,” Golden State’s press release read. “The Warriors anticipate that Nedovic will join the team at training camp, which is scheduled to begin on September 29.”
Nedovic has been called by draft analysts the “European Derrick Rose,” and Cooper’s agent, Mike Naiditch, called the Serbian a “combo guard,” or a player that can fill in at the point guard and shooting guard positions.
Although the roster has not been officially made, Nedovic is likely to take up a spot, but that’s something Cooper and Naiditch expected when they decided on Golden State.
On June 28, Cooper had “several” teams interested in adding him to their Las Vegas Summer League rosters. After thoroughly researching the best situations available, the two carefully chose Golden State with the possibility of joining another team for the Orlando Summer League.
The next day, Cooper joined the Philadelphia 76ers Summer League roster, where Naiditch said the 76ers’ trade of Jrue Holiday to New Orleans “definitely turned Philly into a better fit (than they were before the draft).”
With Nedovic playing on the Warriors’ Summer League team, Naiditch stressed the importance of his client competing against the players that are not guaranteed to make the roster. These players include Kent Bazemore and Scott Machado, whom both played little minutes in the NBA last year.
Bazemore is a shooting guard that played in 61 games for the Warriors and averaged 2.0 points a game, while Machado played in six games last year as a point guard for the Rockets and averaged 1.3 points per game.
Naiditch also pointed out that “summer league is a tryout for 30 teams, not only one,” so if the Warriors do not have a roster spot for Cooper, there could be other possibilities out there for the 6-foot point guard.
Cooper’s first Summer League game for the Warriors is Saturday, July 13, against the Washington Wizards at 1 p.m. In the Orlando Summer League, he has played in one of Philadelphia’s two games, where he scored six points and was 2-for-4 from three.
The 76ers’ next game is Wednesday at 1 p.m. against the Oklahoma City Thunder.