Indiana Pacers Draft Profile: Auburn PG Sharife Cooper

What does Sharife Cooper need to work on?

Cooper is a very interesting case study of a player that cannot shoot the ball well but loves to give it a chance anyway. He attempted 4.8 three-pointers per game last season despite only connected on 22.8 percent of them. The confidence is great, don’t get me wrong, but he needs to hit those shots if he expects to take that many moving forward.

He can take over the game but that does not mean he should be expected to take 15 shots per game when he is not converting. Shooting below 40 percent from the field has to be taken into account at some point in his mind.

While he does a good job of drawing defenders and causing havoc near the rim, he needs to do a better job of anticipating the help defenders and kicking it to the open shooter. He earns foul shots and has flashed the touch to be a successful finisher but he cannot keep attacking the rim when his shots are not falling.

His love for passing was not always a good thing. Cooper is a sucker for the flashy pass which led to an extreme turnover rate of 4.2 per game. That can be cleaned up with experience but it will be a struggle early on.

Cooper will make some plays defensively thanks to his motor but his expectations on that end should be very tame. He does not possess the size or length to be a reliable defender on a consistent basis and opposing offenses will have their way with him.