The Best Non-Big Bucket Getting Draft Prospects Entering New Year
While defense and rebounding are vital parts to success in the game of basketball, you can’t win if you don’t put the ball in the basket. Cerebro Sports has put together a metric that:
- Blends the two major components of scoring - volume and efficiency - to create a role-neutral representation of scoring ability.
- If priority were given to per game scoring at high usage, skills like cutting or spot up shooting would be undervalued. If efficiency were the more weighted element, players who are not primary creators & benefit from advantage created by others would be overrepresented.
- Put plainly, we believe that a 70th percentile high volume scorer & a 70th percentile low usage creator grade out more similarly than was previously possible with a comprehensive metric.
Each skill score is graded on the same 100+ point scale – 60+ is good, and 80+ is great, and 100+ is elite.
Compared to the first iteration of this series, we now have another four weeks of college basketball to identify some of the prospects that have really been scoring the ball well and impressing scouts.
Not only are players who have not been tracked for at least eight games and average 20 minutes per game filtered out, players who are not consistently looked at as 2023 NBA Draft prospects have been filtered as well.
This time around, the focus will be more on the non-big prospects which will also leave out player’s 6-foot-9 or taller.
Maxwell Lewis (Wing | Pepperdine) - 95 PSP
The 6-foot-7 sophomore is having a breakout season for Pepperdine as his name is now regularly coming in first-round discussions.
Lewis leads the Waves in scoring at just under 19 points per game on 54% from the field and 44% from behind the 3-point line. Lewis fell just short making the top five prospects in 3-point efficiency (3PE) with his score of 92.
The Las Vegas, Nevada native has made great strides from his freshman to sophomore season with improvements in every shooting percentage, with higher volume, and box score statistics.
Kris Murray (Forward | Iowa) - 84 PSP
Our No. 2 prospect on the list has seen a massive drop in his PSP after coming inas the top guy a month ago.
While the 6-foot-8 Murray’s score has dropped from 106 to 84, he is still leading the Hawkeyes in scoring at just under 20 points per game on 50% from the field.
Murray is also showing his all around impact with scores of 83 in 3PE, 84 Around the Rim (ATR) and 78 Defensive Stats Impact (DSI).
Tucker DeVries (Wing | Drake) - 83 PSP
While the 6-foot-7 wing has also seen a significant drop in his PSP, he actually moves up the list. Remember, our first iteration of this included all college basketball players, while this one is limited to players 6-foot-8 and under.
DeVries has helped lead the Bulldogs to a 10-3 start to the season with his 18.7 points per game on just under 50% from the field.
The Iowa native is shooting 38% from behind the 3-point line as well which actually gives him an even higher 3PE score (85) than his impressive PSP.
Jaylen Clark (Guard | UCLA) - 81 PSP
One of the hottest names around the NBA Draft fight now, Clark is the second leading scorer on a very talented Bruins team.
The 6-foot-5 junior is leading a top 15 team in the country in overall C-RAM (11.0) and DSI (99).
Clark has essentially doubled his box score output in every possible way from his sophomore to junior season. Most impressive is his jump in scoring from 6.7 to 15.7 points per game on better efficiency from the field and the 3-point line.
Emoni Bates (Guard | Eastern Michigan) - 80 PSP
The 6-foot-9 sophomore lands on the top five PSP list after landing in the top five in 3PE in our first iteration.
Bates' NBA Draft stock hinges on his ability to score the ball highlighted by less than impressive floor general skills (FGS), ATR and DSI scores.
The Michigan native is leading the Eastern Michigan Eagles in scoring at over 19 points per game on 44% from the field and a still impressive 37% from behind the 3-point line on 7.5 attempts per game.
Dropping Out
Terrence Shannon Jr. (Guard - Illinois) - Previous Score of 96, Current Score of 77
Worth Noting: Two prospects that were in the top five a month ago but did not qualify because of limiting to players 6-foot-8 and shorter include:
- Trayce-Jackson Davis (Forward | Indiana) - Previous Score of 104, Current Score of 83
- Oumar Ballo (Center | Arizona) - Previous Score of 101, Current Score of 93
Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.