Santa Cruz Warriors two-way guard Quinn Cook was named to the 2017-18 All-NBA G League First Team, the league announced on Monday.
Cook, who recently signed a multi-year deal with Golden State, led Santa Cruz in scoring, averaging 25.3 points per game, while also dishing 8.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds over 29 contests.
An efficient 6-foot-2 guard, the Duke University product was the first player in G League history to post a 50-40-90 season. He shot 52.7 percent from the field, 43.9 percent from deep and 94.9 percent from the free-throw line.
“Quinn Cook recorded one of the best seasons in Santa Cruz Warriors history, but his leadership and professionalism with the team will be his enduring legacy,” Santa Cruz General Manager Kent Lacob said through a press release. “We are thrilled that Quinn received this All-NBA G League recognition and look forward to his continued contributions to Golden State’s postseason run.”
Santa Cruz finished the season 23-27 overall and missed the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history.
Cook joined Raptors 905 guard Lorenzo Brown, Texas Legends forward Jameel Warney, Salt Lake City Stars forward Georges Niang and South Bay Lakers center Thomas Bryant on the league’s first team.
Santa Cruz was the only team to have a pair of players from its opening night roster named to the G League First Team.
Niang spent a good portion of the season with the Warriors before signing a two-way deal with the Utah Jazz.
In other news around the G League:
NEW SALARIES
The league announced on Tuesday that it will forgo the tiered salaries of seasons past for a new base salary of $7,000 a month — or $35,000 in total — for the five-month regular season, starting in the 2018-19 campaign.
The new one-size-fits-all salary is a change from last season’s tiered salary, which featured tiers “A” and “B,” paying players $26,000 and $19,000, respectively.
Players on two-way contracts will continue to earn $77,250 per season, and have maximum potential earnings of $385,000 with days of NBA service included.
CONTINUED GROWTH
A record 50 players earned 60 Gatorade Call-Ups during the 2017-18 season, the G League announced on Wednesday.
The new mark was one of several records set during the league’s 17th year.
Following its partnership and rebranding with Gatorade in the offseason, the G League also set a record for NBA players assigned (101) and players on end-of-season NBA rosters with G League experience (265) — 53 percent of all NBA players.
Along with growing to 26 teams this season, the league also received a greater amount of exposure. More than 1.6 million fans attended G League games, an increase of 11 percent from the last season, making it the ninth straight season in which total attendance surpassed 1 million. And the G League Finals between the Austin Spurs and Raptors 905 on ESPNU were up 82 percent in viewership from last season.
