Carson Cooper and Jaxon Kohler are used to playing next to each other in the same frontcourt. For the past couple of years, the duo of talented bigs held down the post for Michigan State and their individual improvements were a driving force in the resurgence of Spartan basketball.
Now, they’re about to be friendly rivals.
For the first time (well, second if you count the Portsmouth Invitational), Cooper and Kohler are about to take the court as opponents.
On Monday, July 6, at 9 p.m. ET, according to ESPN, Kohler and the Utah Jazz will be facing Cooper and the Memphis Grizzlies on Day 4 of the NBA Summer League. If you have some free time after the holiday weekend, the game will be on ESPN. It’ll be one of the first times that we’ll see Kohler and Cooper on the same floor but playing for different teams.
While they may be good friends, they’re both intense competitors so don’t expect them to go easy on each other, assuming they match up at least a few times throughout the game. Kohler is a power forward and Cooper is a center, but the coaches may match them up with each other based on familiarity. Kohler and Cooper know each other’s game, so it would make sense that they’re tasked with guarding one another.
It’s been fun to watch them grow as players throughout their Spartan careers and now it’s all coming full circle as the former zero-star IMG B-teamer and the former four-star nicknamed “Baby Jokic” coming out of high school are facing off with NBA aspirations on the line.
May the best Spartan win.
Jaxon Kohler may have a little more to prove
While both guys are fighting for a spot on their respective team’s roster, Kohler is the one who has a little more to prove than his frontcourt counterpart.
Kohler signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Jazz, meaning that he’s eligible for a two-way deal after Summer League, but he’ll be battling for one of those with over a dozen players. If he wants to be the next Jaden Akins or Cooper, who have both signed two-way deals, he’ll need to have a big Summer League with the Jazz.
It’s only going to help that Kohler is playing most of his Summer League games in his home state of Utah as Salt Lake City is one of the hosting cities over the next few weeks.
A strong showing (maybe a double-double average) could set Kohler up with a two-way contract and a real chance to achieve his NBA dream. Regardless, I believe we’ll see both him and Cooper in the G-League to start the 2026-27 NBA season — that’s not a bad thing.
Tom Izzo’s fingerprints are all over these two
When people talk about Tom Izzo’s development, there are a few guys that come to mind immediately like Kenny Goins, Adreian Payne (his freshman-to-senior transition was unreal), Xavier Tillman, Denzel Valentine, Travis Trice, and the list could go on forever. We need to start talking about Cooper and Kohler joining that group.
Cooper came to Michigan State as an unranked IMG B-teamer — as stated above — and he turned into one of the best post defenders and pick-and-roll lob threats in the Big Ten. He was one of the most improved players in the country from his freshman to his senior year.
Kohler, on the other hand, was a highly-touted big from Utah who came in with a ton of hype, was buried a bit on the depth chart as a freshman and then suffered an injury that forced him to miss a good chunk of his sophomore year. When he came back, it was pretty clear that he was rusty but he bounced back with a breakout junior year and then a career year as a senior. Izzo helped him fight through adversity with that injury and turned him into an All-Big Ten-caliber big man.
If you want to see how well Izzo can develop players, tune in on July 6 to watch these two face off.
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