2015 NBA Draft: Post Lottery Draft Top-10 Big Board

Mar 18, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Emmanuel Mudiay of Prime Prep Academy poses for a portrait. He is a finalist for the USA Today Player of the Year Award. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

3. Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, China

Six-foot-five point guards don’t grow on trees. Six-foot-five point guards, who have the speed, explosiveness and natural scoring ability that Mudiay has come maybe once every five years, so it would be foolish for a team picking in the top five to pass on him.

Coming out of high school, Mudiay was, and is still is, being compared to Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook because of his size, acceleration and aggressiveness, but like Westbrook coming out of UCLA, the appeal in Mudiay is what he can possibly turn into, not what he is now.

Instead of playing college basketball under decorated pro and college coach Larry Brown at SMU, Mudiay opted to play professionally in China, where he averaged 18 points, 5.9 assists and 6.2 rebounds in 12 games. On the surface, those numbers suggest that Mudiay can compete with any guard coming out of college basketball, but one has to wonder how much the lack of physicality and frenetic style of play had to do with his statistics.

Regardless, Mudiay still seems to be green, and has a lot of room to polish his game, namely his jump shooting and decision making. Although Mudiay shot a respectable 34.2 percent from the 3-point line in China, his mechanics and shot selection, are points of skepticism on whether or not he can sustain that type of success moving forward.

In addition to his shooting, Mudiay doesn’t appear to have the vision or ability to create for others, that is needed for a top tier NBA point guard. But like Okafor, Mudiay’s problems can be fixed over time, and perhaps Mudiay learns how to utilize his athletic gifts to simply see the floor better and create favorable passing lanes, rather than probing patiently through defenses.

At this stage, Mudiay has too much upside, paired with enough production, to make him a anything less than a top five prospect.

Next: D'Angelo Russell