NBA Draft: Is Mark Sears a First Round Talent?
The Alabama guard had dramatic improvements between his two seasons in Tuscaloosa – is it enough to get him in the first 30 picks?
After leaving Muscle Shoals, AL to enroll at Virginia's Hargrave Military Academy, Mark Sears opted to, out of high school, play for the Ohio Bobcats, quickly becoming a star in the Mid-American Conference even as a younger player.
Upon entering his junior season, however, Sears transferred back to his home state to play for Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
It's pretty hard to argue he didn't make the right choice. 1,260 points, an all-SEC First Team appearance, and a Final Four later, Sears has transformed himself into a bonafide NBA Draft prospect in this 2024 class after flying under the radar his first three years.
This past season, Sears put up a blistering 21.5 points, 4.2. rebounds, and 4.0 assists on 50.8% from the field and 43.6% from beyond the arc, as well as led Alabama to their greatest basketball season ever.
The problem with Mark Sears is that he stands at just 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. It's pretty well known at this point that there is a very small margin of error for guards under 6-foot-3, because regardless of offensive prowess, the size lends itself to struggling on the defensive end.
Luckily for Sears, the skill most suited to overcoming a lack of size is shooting, which is arguably his biggest strength. The percentages mentioned above were on volume; 50.8% on 13.4 total field goal attempts total and 43.6% on 5.9 three-point attempts.
He also vastly improved his shooting over his career, especially in the two years he played for the Tide. His junior season and his first in Tuscaloosa, he scored 12.5 points per game on 40.6% from the field and 34.5% from deep – obviously he was splitting reps with 2nd-overall pick in the 2023 Draft, star wing Brandon Miller, so that partially limited his scoring ceiling.
From a development perspective, he also hit 85.7% of his free-throw attempts this past year, meaning that the increase in shooting percentages year over year is backed up by even more data.
In this past year, Sears was the star, the man who ran the show. He was the Tide's leading scorer and essentially tied for most points per game in the SEC this season with Tennessee's Dalton Knecht.
He's drawn comparisons to New York Knick point Jalen Brunson as a tough-nosed, undersized guard that can score and shoot at a very high level. He's a guy that could go as high as the early 20s, but could also fall to the 40s.
Depending on when he's picked, he could return enormous value if put into the right system. It'll be intereresting to see how he's used in the NBA.
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