Bub Carrington | 6-4 guard | 18 years old | Pittsburgh
College assistant coach No. 4 (his team played Pitt): I love him. I know him well. Recruited him a little bit. Works his ass off. Gotten taller. Not the best athlete, but the skill set — ballhandling, shooting. I bet some of that athleticism, quick-twitch stuff improves. And he’s young for his grade. Grew late. Dad had a plan. He wasn’t sending him to anybody; he was going to send him to good people. But the kid can play. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a good comp for him, and Nickeil was (17th, in 2019). That kind of big guard, can play both positions, shoots the 3.
Western Conference scout No. 1: Not a great athlete, but he has size. He’s 18 years old. Can dribble, pass. He shoots it will enough. People think he doesn’t shoot well enough. I do. He’s going to get better. He’s got a feel. He cuts hard. Someone’s going to get a good player.
College assistant coach No. 5 (his team played Pitt): Long, makes shots, tough. Just a prototypical NBA guard. Can come off the ball screen, got the floater. Can defend. But more than anything, he’s got that ball-to-ball toughness. He’s tough. The right team, that’s used to big guards, he’s going to have a long career in the NBA. Other than McCain, who’s been doing this longer, I don’t see them having a different career when it’s all said and done. What they do right away may be different, but down the road, you may be talking about similar players. And Bub can play some point, too. He’s the one that can definitely bring it up the floor and do all that.
College head coach No. 3 (his team played Pitt): To me, he’s somebody who (you) can conjecture, people will say down the line that he’s one of the best players to come out of this draft. His upside is tremendous. And his body of work, in a short period of time, he put in work. He’s versatile. He can make shots. I think his versatility as a guard will be seen as he goes along.
I like him. I think he’s got a shot. And, he’s young. He’s a good player. I thought he was one of the best players in the conference as a freshman. To me, he was a seasoned offensive player. He can play with it and without it. He can play in ball screens, he can get DHO, make the play. He made good reads. And he’s got good size.
He hit a lull, I think, early ACC. But he made up for that. He had a good disposition as well. It isn’t easy to come as a freshman from day one. He wasn’t highly recruited. That meant he had some good coaching, and you can tell by the way he plays. He plays the right way. He was seasoned. That s— means something to me. It wasn’t just about scoring the ball; he was filling the whole stat sheet. As he gets stronger, he’ll get better (defensively).
College head coach No. 4 (his team played Pitt): The thing that was really impressive about Bub, to me, was he can go get his own shot. It wasn’t like he had to have his feet set, catch and make a shot. He can get it off the dribble. I mean, he can shoot it off the catch. The most impressive thing for me was his size, and his ability to create a shot off the dribble. In that league, that’s probably paramount, right; having guys that can create and make shots.
And, he’s young. I know the NBA is all caught up in that. I like Bub. Not a great athlete, but good enough. Not a high flier. But just an old-school, East Coast, Baltimore, tough-ass guard. I think he passes it OK. For Jeff (Capel) and their team, it was about scoring. I saw him in high school, and I didn’t envision him having that kind of impact as a freshman. I think he’s a tough kid. So I’m not surprised he’s a first-round pick.
Stephon Castle | 6-6 SG/SF | 19 years old | Connecticut
Western Conference scout No. 1: He’s got great size, he’s a really good athlete, he’s strong. He does everything but shoot it really well. Played for a terrific coach, and if you don’t play the right way and hard for Danny (Hurley), you don’t play. He buries you. He did all that, a freshman on a terrific team.
He’s got upside to his game. What is he, 19? I think he’s got a really bright future. It’s just, where is it? What’s his ceiling as a shooter? … If he can get to 35, 36 (percent) from 3, you have a really good player. I don’t think he’s a stone-cold point guard, but can he be a secondary ballhandler? Absolutely. …
When you can run pick and roll on both sides of the court, you really have the defense in a tough place. Can he be your primary guy? I don’t think so, but maybe he morphs into that one day. Secondary? Yeah, absolutely. Because he wants to pass. It’s not like, hey, I want the ball to score all the time. I’m willing to make plays. I think he can handle the ball plenty. Likes (defense). He’s tough, he’s gritty. He’s got that wired right now.
Eastern Conference executive No. 1: I don’t think Castle is a point guard, even though Connecticut played him there. He’s more off guard. Castle is a better defender (than Isaiah Collier). To me, they’re at two different positions. Because of the team they had, his development was probably hindered early, and he came on late.
College assistant coach No. 1 (his team played UConn): He’s come a long way. … He’s kind of progressed. His shooting improved throughout the course of the year. But from the point guard standpoint, I think it’s possible for him, because he can handle the ball, he’s a talented kid. If the point guard is bringing the ball across halfcourt and throwing the ball to Devin Booker or Kevin Durant or Luka Dončić, then, sure.
He didn’t have a ton of reps at making plays for others in ball screens, and bringing the ball up and setting the table and all of that stuff. He wasn’t a guy that we just tried to attack one-on-one (defensively). … We tried to maintain and sustain our pace and movement as opposed to just going at him. And not just him. Tristen Newton was a good on-ball defender. Donovan Clingan was a monster. …
(Castle) was able to compete at the highest level because of his God-given tools, and then as the game became a little clearer for him over the course of the year, you could see him just improving on both sides of the ball.
College assistant coach No. 2 (his team played UConn): First time we played them, and I’d seen him at AAU, we were in the layup line and I told (my coach), that guy’s a pro. He’s gifted. I didn’t see the point guard thing. I’ve seen him saying that. I haven’t seen that. Obviously he didn’t play point for UConn. I don’t know. I can’t answer that. I know he’s a good player.
College assistant coach No. 3 (his team played UConn): I do love Castle. I think he’s going to be a real good pro for a long time. I just love his whole demeanor. His defensive side is so much ahead of his offensive size. Legit can guard three positions on the floor. He can get into a rotation because he can play three positions and he can guard three positions. He doesn’t shoot it great right now and it’s something he can work on. But you can put him on the floor, and he can guard.
Eastern Conference executive No. 2: They knock his shooting, and it needs to get better. But it’s not bad, and it’s gotten better. To me, he’s the best chance of any of them to be an All-Star. He can play the one. He’s got a great feel. Can handle it. He’s a really good passer.
Is he a true one right now? Probably not. But he’s still better than most of the ones in the league right now. The (shooting) mechanics are good. This year at UConn he was much improved. … He’s got a great feel, great floor game. If he drops to San Antonio (at four), oh, my God. They’re going to be a bitch.
Reed Sheppard | 6-2 guard | 20 years old | Kentucky
Eastern Conference executive No. 3: He can playmake enough, as much as T.J. McConnell can. ‘Cause you’ve got to honor his jump shot. You’ve got to at least come out and guard him, and that’s going to open the floor up. A shot fake, he can put it on the floor, and he can pass it. And he played well in big games. That bodes well.
Western Conference executive No. 1: Sheppard, he fits everywhere. Because he can pass, he can dribble, he can shoot. And if you have those three things every single night, which he’ll do, he can fluctuate. Tonight, I don’t need to shoot and score it as much; I’m going to facilitate and pass it. I’m going to get us into our stuff.
Teams are going to test him. They’re going to go at him. He blends in nice and easy, not a lot of fanfare. But you pick up the stat sheet, he had 14 or 16 (points), four or five rebounds, seven or eight assists, and he just walks out of the arena, and no one knows who he is.
Eastern Conference executive No. 1: Elite shooter. Somebody mentioned he had a workout similar to what JJ Redick had coming out. He will be a point guard. He’ll be like Steph (Curry) was when he first came in; he played more on the ball than he does now. He has to improve his ballhandling. He has to learn the intricacies of pick and roll.
Great steal rate and quick hands, but most of that is coming off ball, not on ball. I think he’s going to struggle guarding point guards when he’s out on the island. He’s going to struggle, also, in pick and roll defense. But, he will win NBA 3-point shooting contests. Shooting and IQ will keep him on the floor. Depending on where he goes, the coaches will figure out what they can do to help him defensively. His height is his height. He’s close to what Kentucky had him. His wingspan is just a plus-two.
Eastern Conference executive No. 2: He’s a very good player. He’s like (Zaccharie) Risacher. I’d love to have him. But as a top five to 10 pick? I don’t think he’s a lock to be a starter in the NBA. He might be, because he’s very good. But he’s not a true point. He’s a little undersized. He shoots the s— out of it. He does everything well, but I don’t know if he’s great at anything.
I think (Arkansas transfer) D.J. Wagner, if he has a good year next year, will be better than both of them (Rob Dillingham and Sheppard). If he goes to the right place and they put him in to score quick points, he’ll probably be pretty good. It depends.
College head coach No. 1 (his team played Kentucky): As good of a pure shooter as there was in college this year. Willing passer. Understands the offensive side of the game. Makes the right play. Unselfish. Defensively, he has a knack of anticipating passes and being able to jump passing lanes. Below average defender. Really struggled to keep good offensive players in front of him.
Jared McCain | 6-2 guard | 20 years old | Duke
College head coach No. 2 (his team played Duke): He was a dog, man. He brought a toughness to their team. He can really, really shoot. And he knows how to play. He looks like he loves to play basketball, like there’s a joy there. There’s a competitive spirit. He’s not afraid. He’s really physical. I thought he took pride in trying to guard. He was the guard in our league that I was probably most impressed with. I thought he was (Duke’s) best pro prospect. …
They didn’t do ball screens with him as much. They ran him off of pindowns. He would get lost in transition, and when you were doubling Flip (center Kyle Filipowski), he can really shoot. He gets it off quick. And he knows he can shoot, so now he can attack the closeouts.
I thought he had really good strive. He can drive and bump you off to create space. His strength and physicality, it really showed on defense. He can really pressure you when he wanted to get after you. And he had the physicality where it’s hard to knock him off. That dude, man, is competitive. He played with an edge, but also a joy. He was like, I’m here, but I’m gonna smile, I’m gonna have fun.
College assistant coach No. 4 (his team played Duke): He’s really competitive. You know who he is? He’s the other Curry (Seth). More in that mode. But takes and makes big shots.
College assistant coach No. 5 (his team played Duke): Impressive. A lot of guys make shots when it don’t matter. He makes shots when it matters. It was my scout. He’s just a shot maker. In today’s NBA, I’m not sure, right now, if he puts it on the floor well enough to build a team around. But watching teams, right now, most teams have two stars, and you need somebody surrounding them making shots. With these great playmakers you’ve got, you need someone making shots. I think he can make an immediate impact. He did in high school. People doubted him. And he came to college and he did the exact same thing. And it’s not like he’s small. … He’s a scorer.
As good as the guards (in the ACC) are, I know from myself, and talking to the other coaches in the league, he’s at the top of the scout list. He’s the NBA guy on that team. Everyone else, you had to live with one-on-one shots with their guards. … But he can take over a game. He makes four or five in a row. It’s a tie game, and before you know it, you’re down 10, 15.
I didn’t think Jalen Williams could (initiate offense). But Jalen Williams does a pretty good job, when Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander)’s not getting going, of being able to initiate the offense and make shots. (McCain’s)’s not a point guard, like Jalen Williams is not a point guard. But if you ask him to do that, yeah. I think he could develop into a poor man’s (Tyler) Herro. He’s not as crafty making shots. He’s not as crafty getting everybody else shots. But he can shoot it. And Herro developed into getting everybody else shots down the road. When he came in, it was about how do I get my shot?
College head coach No. 3 (his team played Duke): He can really shoot the ball. I thought that was the biggest thing with him. He can really defend. For me, maybe it was just against us, because when I watched against other people it was there. They say he can facilitate. I didn’t see that. I didn’t see no point guard. I saw an undersized two guard.
Well, let me say this — a positionless player, that if he plays with the right team, he’s capable of making shots, able to attack poor closeouts. Maybe in the Duke system, he wasn’t allowed to do as much dribbling. They obviously had (Jeremy) Roach and they had those guys, so it wasn’t like he was going to be the number one option. So I don’t want to take that away from him.
The thing that stuck out to me was the way he can shoot the damn ball. In transition, he was really good. I thought he did a good job of sprinting to space and attacking closeouts. And defensively, I thought he did a great job. He was good on the ball and off the ball. As we like to say, I don’t think he’s running from no competition. He came from California and went to Duke. Taking Cherokee Parks out of the equation, we’d be hard-pressed to think of the last California kid who went to Duke and had success.
Rob Dillingham | 6-1 guard | 19 years old | Kentucky
Eastern Conference executive No. 3: He’s kind of like the Tyrese Maxey of this draft. ‘Cause if you look at his Kentucky numbers, his stats are way better than Maxey’s were coming out of Kentucky. Guys like that, in that combo box, that can score, they stay around. And that’s what they do — they score. Dillingham is 6-1, 6-2. When everybody kept saying he’s little, I was saying ‘he ain’t Isiah Thomas little, or Nate Robinson little.’ They’re like, ‘I worry about his size.’ I’m like, he’s probably bigger than f—— Maxey. When he came out, everybody was talking about size, and what position can he play. When a guy can hoop, let him hoop and put him out there and leave him alone. That’s Dillingham. Let’s not overthink it too much. He’s got short arms, so he doesn’t look tall.
Western Conference executive No. 1: When he’s on the floor, he has the free pass card. You’re not putting him in the corner and watching him stand. He has the ball, and he is doing his thing. And if he has it going, you’re letting him get loose. And he may not have it that night where he doesn’t and then he’s sitting. But he changes the speed, the offensive flow. Cat-quick. You let him do his thing. Dillingham is going to become a crowd favorite for whatever team he plays for, because he’s just electric. He’s going to have his jersey sell out with kids, because (they’ll think) ‘I can be like him.’
Eastern Conference executive No. 1: As we say, he’s a bucket getter. He knows how to create off the dribble with his game, where he can get to spots, even though he’s very thin and not very strong. But he can get to his spots and get his shot off. He may struggle early with getting to the basket. More of what you call a scoring point than a true point. He would be, whereas Reed could be a starter, Robert may be more valuable as a sixth man. That’s not to say he can’t start. But his importance to a team may be more coming off the bench. When Maxey came out, Cal had him at more of a two than the point. Maxey played (point guard) in high school, whereas this guy was a scorer with the ball in his hands. Defensively, he’s going to struggle to stay in front of people. He was in foul trouble a lot this season, because he was out of position, or he was reaching to steal the ball. I don’t see that changing in the NBA until he gets the defensive discipline to keep his hands in front of him.
Eastern Conference executive No. 2: You’re going to think I’m crazy, but Dillingham scares me. He’s an explosive scorer, and he’s tough. But he’s the worst defender. And he does not have a great feel as a point guard. Those kind of guys scare me. It may work out, but he’s a bad defensive player. He’s small and doesn’t defend. Look at Bones Hyland, who I like. Very good on offense. He struggled in Denver because he couldn’t defend. Gets to L.A. (with the Clippers), same thing. With NBA coaches, if you can’t defend, it’s hard to get on the floor. (Dillingham) is an elite scorer. I’ll give him that. And he’s tough as nails. It’s not that I hate him. But they’re talking about top 10. I wouldn’t do it.
College head coach No. 1 (his coach played Kentucky): Explosive speed and quickness. Unlimited range. Can shoot you out of games or shoot you back into games. Has good offensive basketball IQ with his passing ability. Needs to add weight and get stronger. Very slight and will get pushed around.
Isaiah Collier | 6-3 guard | 19 years old | USC
Eastern Conference scout: I think the guy that’s going to be (Tyrese) Maxey, this year’s Cam Whitmore, this year, is Isaiah Collier. I’m betting on what I saw before he went to USC. He just can’t go to a dysfunctional team. It’s like Whitmore. If he goes to a team where there’s guys that are ahead of him, and he has to work his way into it, and he’s not in a dysfunctional program, I think he’s got a chance to be pretty darn good. Especially if he falls like Cam and Maxey (did) to the 20s, or the late teens. Like Whitmore (at Villanova), their team didn’t do well, and there’s not a touchy-feely love story to them. Isaiah’s obviously got a few issues here and there. We all make excuses for the guys we like, and we do the opposite as well. It’s easy to dismiss those guys because of their persona.
Eastern Conference executive No. 1: Football body that he can bully people with. I think Collier is a lot better than he showed this season. His decision making has to improve, because he was throwing some passes he shouldn’t have thrown, getting into the lane, making decisions. He got hurt, also, so that hindered him a little bit. He struggled early because he couldn’t shoot the ball well. You also had Boogie Ellis on that team, who was trying to get his.
Western Conference scout No. 1: If he was at pick 20 or something, he would get my interest a little bit. He gets on the rim. He gets to the basket. Is he a great shooter? No, he’s not. If he was a great shooter, we’d be talking about him in the top five. But he’s talented, and he’s 19. Don’t ask me all these inane, stupid questions. He’s talented. They’ll figure it out. Don’t give me these bums that can’t play. That’s what this is about.
A.J. Johnson | 6-4 guard | 19 years old | Illawarra
Western Conference executive No. 1: I was impressed with the tape that we got. I was really, and it’s such a small sample size. But I thought the way he played in Chicago was pretty darn good for a youngster. He didn’t back down to anybody, and he made plays. Defensively, he is, right now, completely lost. But how many 6-4, 6-5, legitimate point guards, that can make a play, seize it, can deliver it, have some imagination, and are 18, 19 years old? What does this kid look like in three years? If you do it the right way, he on (G League) assignment, he’s in the weight room, he’s with your strength and conditioning, he’s with your dietician. You may have the makings, at worst, of a reliable backup? That’s not a bad swing. If this kid was in college, and he was a freshman, and he went back to school, he’d be one of the top returners in the country. And I doubt you could, in next year’s draft, that you could get him where you can get him in this year’s draft.
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