The NBA draft is the start of a dream come true for 60 young athletes every year. One by one they are selected by the teams that will govern the next few years of their future and play a significant role in their success as a professional basketball player. However, countless other hopefuls put their name down to be entered into the prestigious draft and didn’t hear their name called by Adam Silver, they now begin a long and arduous journey to prove that their name deserves to reside beside some of the best players in the world on an NBA roster.
The NBA is an extremely selective league that only houses about 450 of the top basketball talents in the whole world. The skill gap between an NBA player and the amateur player is so incredibly large and it’s been demonstrated by players like Brian Scalabrine and Michael Jordan. Usually going undrafted is somewhat of a death sentence but in today’s day and age with the amount of tooling the franchise does with the roster and the existence of two-way contracts, a player can never know when his phone will ring with a team executive on the other line.
The best-undrafted players have a history of signing two-way contracts
The cream of the crop among undrafted players regularly ends up signing two-way contracts with NBA teams. These contracts stipulate that the player may shift between the NBA team and its G League affiliated as per the front office’s wish. In this way, the team gets an opportunity to work with a player and see if their skillset gel with the squad, and the players get a last chance to prove their mettle to a franchise.
Here are the 3 best prospects to go undrafted at the 2023 draft are :
1. Ricky Council IV
Ricky Council IV is coming out of Arkansas State, and is a primary shooting guard, standing at 6 feet 6 inches. Council has an impressive scoring game, averaging 16.6 points per game, leading Arkansas in scoring. Ricky has an elusive quick first step and has the hops to jam it home on a quick drive.
His downside and the probable reason for going undrafted lie with this shooting. Council sports an unnatural shooting motion that hasn’t worked for him and has led to him being a well below-average shooter. While he converts at the line, Ricky must hope he can fix his jumper as shooting is paramount in today’s NBA.
2. Omari Moore
Moore holds the title of The Mountain West Conference Player of the Year. Another 6-foot 6-inch shooting guard, Moore came into the draft from San Jose State University. He has become a well-established leader after frontrunning an uncompetitive Spartans team to a 21-win season.
Averaging 17 points and being the only offensive threat on the team, Moore put in good work during the season but a closer look at his mixtape reveals a lack of defensive fundamentals and average athleticism at best. Moore was barely a factor on defense in any of his games, which doesn’t translate well to the NBA due to the ultimate level of offensive skill on display from the opposing team.
3. Colin Castleton
Colin Castleton aims to enter the NBA from Florida State, where he interesting played 2 seasons rather than the usual 1 to gain NBA acceptance. Castleton is a 6-foot-11-inch power forward who shows great promise as a defensive specialist.
Castleton resorted only to the post using his build and size to overpower smaller guards playing for Florida so his offensive bag remains underdeveloped but he makes up for it on the other end of the court. Blocking almost 2.5 shots per game during his 2 years in college, he seems to be an elite rim protector. Due to him breaking his hand halfway through last season and his advanced age of 23, Castleton flew under the radar of most scouts but still has potential.