NBA Draft 2019: 5 best undrafted players

1. Yovel Zoosman, Guard, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Yovel Zoosman is another player that looks even weirder as an undrafted free agent because of a player did go in the draft. In a stretch of the draft in the early second round that was providing surprisingly good value, the Charlotte Hornets selected Cody Martin of Nevada with the 36th pick. This pick has been widely made fun of, but Zoosman’s existence is the main reason why it’s so exasperating for Hornets fans. A team that drafts Martin is going to ask him to be a drive-and-kick wing that makes good passes and plays some modicum of defense by means of switching.

Which is exactly what Zoosman is not only good at but much better than Martin at. He has some of the strongest passing vision in this class, already making professional level reads while playing at a higher level of competition than Martin has ever seen with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He can take people off the dribble comfortably and either initiate the offense from either the top of the key or the sideline pick and roll. And unlike Martin, he can actually somewhat shoot the ball. Despite having a release that almost qualifies for awkwardly high, he’s seen good results in European play, making 36 percent of attempts in the past season.

Further, Zoosman is significantly younger than Martin. But even though I’ve been harsh on the Hornets in this section, they were hardly the only team to pass on Zoosman. In the 24 subsequent picks, no one took him, even though another European wing went at 60 to Sacramento in Vanja Marinkovic. Further, with the freedom with which picks moved, any team that didn’t pick in that range could’ve easily bought in. Overall, with Zoosman already having a team in Europe, this may keep him over there, which will only be a loss for the NBA as a whole.