NBA Draft: How Impactful Will Anthony Black be at the NBA Level?
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Arkansas Razorbacks point guard Anthony Black had one of the more interesting college basketball seasons as a team and as an individual NBA Draft prospect.
Nick Smith Jr. was the headliner coming into the season, but had an injury riddled and inconsistent season. Jordan Walsh was another top-20 recruit in the 2022 class, along with the Razorbacks adding in transfers Ricky Council IV and Trevon Brazile.
Even with all of that talent on the roster, it was actually the third member of that strong recruiting class that stole the show this season with his all-around play and impact on the court.
Black was a top-20 recruit in his own right out of Duncanville HS and the 3D Empire AAU program.
The 6-foot-7 Black is in the mold of the new aged jumbo creator that NBA teams have been falling in love with as the league continues to value the idea of positional size.
The freshman filled up the box score night in and night out by averaging 12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 2.1 steals and even added in over half a block per game.
One of the big questions around his game coming into the season was his ability to knock down shots. Black finished the season with shooting splits of 45% from the field, 30% from the 3-point line and 71% from the charity stripe.
Those numbers will not wow you by any means, but the fact he was willing to take two-and-a-half 3-point shots per game is actually a great sign and being just over 30% is even better for the archetype of player that he is. Even the 70% from the free throw line is something you can point to for a foundational ability to shoot the rock.
As stated, where the 19-year-old truly makes his impact is using his extremely high basketball IQ to impact the game in a variety of ways. That's not only shown in the box score counting stats but also represented with his Cerebro Sports metrics.
Black was 60-plus in every single individual metric with his best score of 83 being in defensive stats impact (DSI) but also an impressive floor general skills (FGS) score of 71.
The two skills that will seem to determine the ceiling of Anthony Black seems to be these two. Just how good is he going to be defensively and how high level is his ability to create for others?
If both of those are things that Black is able to turn into great or elite traits to go along with the capable scoring ability he showed this season, he is going to make a team that drafts him in the 2023 lottery very happy with their return on investment.
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