NBA Draft Prospect Watch: Stock up, stock down

Stock Down: Tyler Herro, Kentucky

While Johnson has proven he has an NBA future, it’s been very difficult to say the same about many of his Kentucky teammates, especially Herro. Billed as one of the freshman class’s best shooters, Herro has hit just two of his 10 3-point attempts so far, and is shooting under 40 percent from the field.

The problem has been that Herro just doesn’t seem to be able to translate his shot-making ability into a functional role in Kentucky’s offense. Instead of feasting on spot-ups, he has mostly been taking off-the-dribble jumpers, many of which come early in the shot clock. Teams know what’s coming in these situations, as he hasn’t shown the ability to separate on drives. When projecting him to the NBA, you’d expect a player with his skill set to be shooting off movement, and we’ve seen very little of this from him so far. That is fairly concerning.

His defense has also been a disaster to this point, despite what are impressive steal and block rates in a vacuum. He has poor technique on this end — rarely sitting in a stance, and hopping around with a twitchy nature that takes him out of position for no reason. It’s hard to see him becoming even a functional defender in the Kevin Huerter mold at this point.

It’s early, and there’s time for the shot to stabilize and for Herro to improve. But right now, he looks far from an NBA level player, despite the hype that he could be one of the best shooters in the class.