BIO: Derek Cooke Jr was born in Washington, DC (USA).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Derek Cooke Jr made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 26 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

The Wildcats were able to re-sign Grand Final MVP Bryce Cotton for the 2017/18 season but lost two-time Club MVP Casey Prather, who was unable to commit to the Wildcats season due to pursuing NBA opportunities. Perth would replace him with Devondrick Walker in the meantime, leaving Prather with no place on the roster after he had exhausted his NBA options. Unable to play with the Wildcats, he signed a contract to play with Melbourne.

In a bizarre twist, Devondrick Walker then suffered a foot injury during the pre-season and was replaced by JP Tokoto without having ever played a regular season game. Other changes to the roster included Derek Cooke Jr replacing Jameel McKay and Lucas Walker being elevated from a training player role to a full-time squad member to replace the retired Shawn Redhage.

Around this time, Matthew Knight (5.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) made it public that he would retire at the end of the season, but as a result of three early-season head knocks, he chose to bring his retirement forward and retired in early November, playing in only five games.

In a bizarre twist, Devondrick Walker then suffered a foot injury during the pre-season and was replaced by JP Tokoto without having ever played a regular season game. Other changes to the roster included Derek Cooke Jr replacing Jameel McKay and Lucas Walker being elevated from a training player role to a full-time squad member to replace the retired Shawn Redhage.

Around this time, Matthew Knight (5.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) made it public that he would retire at the end of the season, but as a result of three early-season head knocks, he chose to bring his retirement forward and retired in early November, playing in only five games.

The Wildcats started the season 10–3, as they sat atop the ladder following Round 9, but on 14 December 2017, Damian Martin (4.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists 1.5 steals) was ruled out for two games with an ankle injury.

Other injuries to Clint Steindl (2.8 points, 1.3 rebounds) and Greg Hire (2.1 points, 2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) saw the team drop to 13–9 record in mid-January but as all three returned to the court, Perth finished the regular season of strong and secured third place on the ladder (16–12) by season’s end. Despite facing repeated criticism that the Wildcat’s should replace Cooke Jr (5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 0.6 assists) due to his lack of production, he would remain with the team for the entire season.

On the eve of their finals campaign, Martin was named the league’s Best Defensive Player, earning the honour for a record-breaking sixth time. Tokoto (15.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists 1.7 steals) earned a spot on the All-NBL Second Team, and Cotton (19.8 points, 3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.3 steals) was selected to the All-NBL first team, as well as being named league MVP, becoming just the third Wildcat to win the award after Paul Rogers (2000) and Kevin Lisch (2012).

In game one of the semi finals series against second-seeded Adelaide 36ers, the Wildcats were soundly defeated (109–74) in what was their second biggest finals loss in club history. The only time the Wildcat’s have lost by a larger margin in their 32-year finals streak was in 1989, when they lost to North Melbourne by 55 points. Game two saw a much closer contents but Perth fell short by one point (88–89), ending this season prematurely.

Derek Cooke Jr played one season in the NBL. He averaged 5.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in 29 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.