2019 NBA Mock Draft: A crazy lottery throws everything into question
North Carolina. Nassir Little. 14. player. 18. . F
The rest of this mock will be centered around what the lottery prospects said during last week’s draft combine and how they helped or hurt their stock at the event. The primary story of Little’s freshman season at North Carolina was that he never escaped a sixth man role under Roy Williams and therefore was mostly unable to flash the playmaking and shot creation abilities he was known for in high school.
Little was very open with the media in Chicago about the difficulties of his one year at school:
“(The role) created a lot of hesitancy, which wasn’t really allowing me to play like myself,” Little said, but it wasn’t just the transition to a new role that was hard for him.
More from Little:
“In high school, there’s no help, you beat your guy and dunk. If you think you’re going to the NBA and you think it’s going to be that easy, you’re in for a rude awakening. Going to college exposes you to that a little bit and I think it’s helpful for guys going to the NBA.”
As the year went along, the flashes from Little were more frequent. In up-tempo games, the pace and space system the Tar Heels tried to go to did simplify the game for Little, but often he made mistakes and fell behind the action mentally when the game slowed down.