Heat Draft Daequan Cook

The early results are in: Miami has taken an interesting route to answer some questions.

They got younger and more athletic by landing Daequan Cook from Ohio State. The 6'5" shooting guard freshman was traded to the Heat, along with a 2nd round pick in the 2009 draft and some cash, by the Sixers for Jason Smith. The Heat drafted Smith at 20 while the Sixers drafted Cook at 21 and traded with the Heat for essentially one spot higher on the draft poll.

Cook, comparing his own game to that of Ray Allen (who was dealt to the Celtics), gives the Heat probably one of the best midrange shooters in the draft. He is explosive and athletic, and has the ability to finish at the rim and draw contact as well.

Take a look at Cook's Heat workout:
Daequan Cook Interview

Cook looks like a prospect that is ready to go and be an impact player offensively. He could work well with Wade as Wade will handle the ball and setup the offense while Cook can find a spot on the floor to pick his shot from and even take the ball to the hoop and draw contact. He has an ability to finish a drive in dramatic fashion and he also has three point range as well.

Daequan Cook has big time potential, eventhough there are some doubts about that. The reason why the Heat were able to take him at the 21st pick was due to the depth of this draft and in part, to Cook being overlooked. He reportedly impressed Heat officials at the Orlando pre-draft camp, and impressed them the more they saw him play during his first and only college season.

But questions remain about his second half college season performance and his championship game disappearing act as well. Certainly, there are things he needs to improve upon; one is becoming a more consistent ball handler and developing his court vision and decision making. He has the ability to take his man off the dribble and coupled with a talent like Dwyane Wade, that could be lethal for opposing teams.

Cook is a high value pick and could turn out to have more of an impact than some of his higher drafted peers but there are some things he needs to fine tune - and to be honest, a pick in the lower half of the 2nd round will have some kinks to work out. Surprisingly, there aren't as many kinks in Cook's game as some might suspect. Just some questions and doubts that he seemed to start to clear up in workouts since his college career ended.

Further Reading
MiamiHeatwave Forum Reactions

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The Heat drafted 7'2" project Stanko Barac with the 39th pick, but dealt the "Stan Van Gundy" pick to the Pacers for a 2nd round pick in the 2009 draft. Looks like the Heat will have some work to do for that draft as they now have two more picks in that draft in the second round.