The Wizards are looking overseas in an effort to bolster their roster, with the club reportedly agreeing to terms on a deal with the reigning Most Valuable Player of Australia’s National Basketball League.
Washington inked star Sydney Kings forward and NBL MVP Xavier Cooks to a contract through the 2023–2024 season, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday, via Cooks’s agent Daniel Moldovan. Cooks, 27, is expected to join the Wizards as soon as the Kings finish competing in the NBL Finals in the coming days.
The Wizards (30–33) are currently in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, and fighting to stay in a play-in spot with 19 games left in the season. The club will look to hold off a possible late-season surge from the Bulls (29–35) and Pacers (28–36), a push Cooks could potentially have a role in.
Considered one of the top players in Australia, Cooks is coming off a career year in his fourth NBL season. The 6-foot-8, 183-pound forward averaged 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and displayed his versatility as a passer and defender en route to earning league MVP honors for the defending NBL champion Kings (19–9).
The 2022–23 NBL season saw Sydney finish in first place for the first time in three years, a resounding follow-up to a third-place finish that eventually led to the team’s first championship since ’05. Cooks, who was named NBL finals MVP a year ago, guided the Kings to back-to-back finals appearances for the first time in over 15 years.
As of Sunday, Sydney is tied, 1–1, in its best-of-five series against the New Zealand Breakers, with Games 3 and 4 set for March 10 and 11.
Prior to joining the NBL in 2019, Cooks spent time with the Warriors and Suns summer league teams and playing in Germany and France after going undrafted in ’18. Cooks’s star first began to rise during his days as a college star at Winthrop from ’14 to ’18, where he was Big South Conference Player of the Year as a senior and a two-time first-team All-Big South selection.
