re: Jalen Cook's Waiver Denied

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WW also thought Manning was a better player than Cook at the time as well. He did not make one 3 pointer all year.

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Manning only played 6 games that year because of injury.

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Brilliant move by Wade to let him go to begin with. Cook was THE ONLY traditional PG on the roster at the time. Gaines, Thomas, Mays, Manning were not true PG's

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Mays wasn't on that team. Smart was the starting PG with Thomas as the SG. Considering those two combined for 39 ppg and played averaged 34 mpg per game, there wasn't a ton of minutes for freshman guards.

Wade clearly preferred Gaines over Cook that season. But I don't think you can sit here and say it was obvious to everyone that Cook should have been the first one off the bench. Gaines didn't shoot the ball particularly well, but he had athletic traits that made him a more impactful defender/rebounder (most notably, great length). The next year Gaines was one of LSU's better defenders on a team that was an elite defensive group.

You're viewing this situation through the lens of hindsight knowing what Cook would do at Tulane. But Gaines wasn't bad at UAB himself. His a preseason first team all conf. selection.

Could Cook have played a little more his Freshman year? Sure. But during that year, on that team, at that time, he's wasn't the Jalen Cook of today. He was a freshman.