In all three of the mock drafts I’ve done so far, the Suns have ended up with a point guard — first Tyrese Maxey and then Kira Lewis. It seems fairly obvious that the Suns are building around Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton with Mikal Bridges, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Cam Johnson in mind as the 3-and-Dish wings to keep everything running smoothly. Ricky Rubio was revelatory at point guard for the Suns this season but he’ll turn 30 before next season and probably ages out of usefulness before Phoenix is ready for their still imaginary title run.
There’s no way Hayes or Ball fall this far and so if the Suns stay put on draft night and are looking for a point guard, they’re left with a few imperfect options. Anthony certainly doesn’t look like a star after a disastrous freshman season at UNC and this scoring and shooting indicators were obscenely troubling, per Sam Vecenie:
"He made just 39.2 percent of his shots around the rim, a stunningly low number for someone this talented and athletic in transition. Even with the situation around him, that’s just abysmal. He actually made a much higher percentage of his midrange jumpers this year in the halfcourt (44.4 percent) than he did shots around the basket. That’s extremely suboptimal for someone entering a league contingent upon 3s and layups. It’s fair to raise the alarm bell here."
If the Suns take him they’ll be banking on the idea that the terrible match between system and player at UNC, and the woeful supporting cast, made Anthony look much worse than he really is. Remember, he was the No. 2 player in his high school class, according to ESPN.
Learn more about Cole Anthony with our full scouting report.