Looking at prospects in the NBA Draft, there are a lot of important factors to consider. To me, tools are perhaps the biggest, but it's also important to recognize what players do on the court and what they've done in the past.
That's why I think Duke star Cameron Boozer is one of the more interesting players in this upcoming draft, as there simply wasn't a better player in college basketball last season, and he did that as a teenager.
If this were a four or five-year senior, just as we see with many of the top players in college basketball nowadays, things would be different. However, for Boozer to come out the way he did and dominate the college basketball level, there has to be something said about that.
On the flip side, it's always fair to point out some problems that a prospect and a player could have in the NBA, and there were some fair ones recently examined about Boozer.
“While Boozer’s size and strength helped him dominate the college game, his wider skillset is a strong reason for optimism as he begins his professional career. First, Boozer shot 39.1 percent from 3, looking like an NBA stretch-four with legitimate floor-spacing ability. He’s also a solid handler and creator, who refined how to pass out of double-teams this season, and who is comfortable running the sorts of on-ball actions that will be asked of him at times in the league. And defensively, while Duke mostly used him as a center-fielder rather than a strict low-post defender, his timing and instincts improved dramatically throughout the season.
“There are some questions about how Boozer will handle NBA length — given some of his struggles against longer college forwards and centers, like Virginia’s Ugonna Onyenso in the ACC tournament championship game — but his package of skills makes him a high-floor option who should have a lengthy, productive pro career,” Brendan Marks of The Athletic posted last week.
Boozer probably will struggle with NBA size, but again, I don't necessarily think that's the biggest deal.
A lot of players that come out of college typically struggle with size in the NBA, no matter how good they are.