2019 NBA Mock Draft: Re-evaluating the top prospects
G. North Carolina. Coby White. 7. player. 24.
Our own Trevor Magnotti writes a wonderful column each year calling out the nonsensical comparisons that are thrown around this time of year relating to the draft. Last year was particularly ripe for hilarity, as such comparisons as “Luka Doncic is Darko Milicic” and “Deandre Ayton is David Robinson” were used regularly. The comparison White has been getting as he’s risen firmly into the top 10 of this class is that he could be the next Jamal Murray. Let’s go ahead and debunk that now so Magnotti doesn’t have to.
According to DraftExpress, Murray measured in at 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-6.6 (plus-one) wingspan at the combine in 2016. White, on the other hand, will enter the league about an inch shorter with a neutral wingspan. Yet this is a case study in the idea of functional length. Murray plays much bigger than those measurements (his arms seriously may have grown) and uses his positional size advantage to get off shots from odd angles and stitch a smooth handle in tight spaces.
Murray’s playoff production speaks for itself. He is a killer tough shot-maker, one of the absolute toughest type of player to find in the NBA. White doesn’t seem to have a path to becoming that type of guy. Overall, White shot 44.6 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers this season compared with 25 percent on pull-ups, per Synergy. Some difference is expected as most catch-and-shoot jumpers are open while pull-ups are by nature going to have more pressure, but that discrepancy speaks for itself.
The core strength of Murray’s game is absent from White’s right now. More importantly, you could see traces of Murray’s shooting prowess at school, whereas White really never got on track as a tough shot-maker as a freshman. Instead, White excels in space, driving to the basket or attacking in transition. That doesn’t necessarily feel like a top-10 pick and certainly not a hand-of-god solution to the Bulls’ point guard woes.