Strengths
Right-handed… Cook's game surrounds his excellent speed and quickness; he is one of the few prospects that has great top-end speed with the ball in his hands that is somewhat limited in Duke's style of offense. He gets to the rim with relative ease with a quick first step after his low-cross over, a spin-move with his back starting facing the defender or an in-and-out move. Cook has great court vision and handles the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop situations well with Duke's bigs… Although inconsistent, Cook shows promise as a future lead guard who can score from the perimeter and run the team effectively. Passing the ball is Cook's biggest strength- he makes excellent post-entry passes and delivers the ball effectively to his wings when he can create and penetrate off the dribble…. Defensively, Cook could be a pest when pressuring opposing ball-handling. He gets into the passing lanes fairly well, knowing when to gamble and when to hedge and recover which leads to lots of deflections…
Weaknesses
Cook doesn't have ideal size for a future NBA point guard, only about 6 feet tall with a similarly-sized wingspan; it hurts him with an inability to see over taller/lengthier guards or under-pressure… For someone as quick as Cook is, he really should be penetrating and get into the lane more often than he does. He didn't even average two free-throw attempts per game as a freshman on a Duke team that was searching for a point guard to step up with its roster of shooters. Unfortunately, Cook didn't elevate his game… He was much more streaky than we had hoped as a perimeter shooter. His shot selection was anything to brag about and Cook looked to struggle with his range and release from time-to-time. Still, he is inconsistent from beyond 15-18 feet.
