Believe it or not, the NBA Draft starts one week from tomorrow; as we inch closer, former Kentucky sharpshooter Koby Brea‘s stock continues to rise.
Brea is up three spots to No. 35 in The Ringer’s latest Big Board, which ranks the top 46 players in the draft. Although that’s not a mock draft, it’s the highest I’ve seen Brea rank in prospect rankings so far. He’s a consensus second-round pick in the major mock drafts, ranging anywhere from No. 38 (Yahoo! Sports) to No. 54 (ESPN, The Athletic).
As The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann — a huge Kentucky fan and friend of KSR — writes, there’s always a spot in the draft for a good shooter, and he believes that Brea is the best of the bunch. Last season, Brea averaged 11.6 points per game on 43.6% shooting behind the arc. He totaled 93 threes, an average of 2.6 per game.
“There are obvious concerns about Brea’s game,” Mann writes. “He’s already 22 years old. He’s not the fastest, he’s not vertically or laterally explosive, and seldom will he beat anyone off the dribble or defend an opponent doing the same. But pound for pound, he’s the best 3-point shooter in this draft, and he can get his shot in a number of ways. This past season, Brea shot over 44 percent in handoffs, over 46 percent coming off screens, and an incredible 42.4 percent off the dribble. The important detail here is that he did all that while also standing at 6-foot-7. So hand-wringing over what he can’t do at the moment may be missing the point. When you’re that level of a threat, teams will find ways to get you on the floor.”
I’d be doing Mann a disservice if I didn’t include his player comp graphic, the bulk of which compares Brea’s game to Sam Hauster and Matt Ryan; however, there is a little bubble there for another familiar name, former Kentucky guard Mychal Mulder, who had a successful run with the Golden State Warriors a few years ago and most recently played in the G League.
Sam Vecenie also dropped new player rankings today as part of his massive NBA Draft Guide over at The Athletic. He broke his top 100 prospects into eight tiers. Brea is No. 49 overall, which lies in Tier 7, “Priority two-ways.” If you’ve got a subscription to The Athletic, do yourself a favor and go through Vecenie’s draft guide. At almost 200 pages, it has to be the most comprehensive resource out there. Vecenie agrees with Mann that Brea is the best shooter in the draft class, especially since he proved it at the SEC level during his season at Kentucky; for that, he believes it’s worth taking him in the second round even if Brea’s defense can be a liability.
Brea is the highest-ranked of the four former Cats in Vecenie’s top 100; the remaining three are in Tier 8, “Two-ways, stashes, and exhibit 10s”:
No. 74: Jaxson Robinson
No. 75: Amari Williams
No. 78: Lamont Butler
Andrew Carr did not make the cut, but is working out today for the Detroit Pistons, according to Pistons beat writer Omari Sankofa II. It’s not long before all the speculation becomes real and the former Cats find new homes.
