5 NBA Draft sleepers in the NCAA Tournament
By Cole Zwicker
The NCAA Tournament is a great chance to get introduced to the next crop of NBA stars. Here are a few below-the-radar prospects to keep your eyes on.
The term “sleepers” is very relative and thus requires an element of subjectivity. It can easily be argued that Josh Hart is a draft sleeper because he is outside the top 30 on basically every mainstream draft site, despite the fact everyone knows his name.
A different interpretation of sleeper could lead to the inclusion of someone like Sterling Brown, someone who nobody knows about and who might not be drafted but fills an NBA role at the next level. There is a wide area to operate here. The following list is composed of under the radar, higher upside potential draft picks that could either declare in 2017 or 2018.
5. De’Anthony Melton (USC)
At 6-foot-4 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, Melton is a swiss army knife 3-and-D-plus lead guard prospect, who impacts the game in multiple ways. His per-40 minute pace adjusted stats of 12.5 points, 7 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 2.9 steals, 1.4 blocks and 2.6 turnovers paint an excellent all-around picture of Melton’s contributions. He’s a fantastic defensive player who plays with competitive fire. He has the athleticism to contain dribble penetration, the length to contest shots and the coordination to amass chase down blocks. His off-ball instincts getting into passing lanes are also superb.
Offensively, Melton is a combo guard with surprising feel for his age, showing good vision and court sense on the move. He is a capable handler who can run a pick-and-roll and make reads out of that action. Melton’s biggest bugaboo is his shooting, where he’s only at 29 percent on 69 attempts this year 3-point attempts and 70.8 percent from the foul line on 106 attempts, neither of which are encouraging figures.
The likelihood is that Melton goes back to USC for his sophomore campaign to improve upon his shooting to vault his draft stock. But if USC wins their play-in game against Providence as expected, Melton has a fantastic opportunity against Shake Milton and the Mustangs on the docket to showcase his skill. DraftExpress already has Melton No. 18 overall in their 2018 mock draft, hinting at Melton’s upside. He’s definitely someone to monitor.