Felder was the hardest guy for me to evaluate. He wasn’t really even on my radar until he started doing pro-day workouts and even then, I’m still not sure how I feel about him. I think he’s shown out enough in workouts that he will be taken fairly high, but I think he is arguably the biggest boom/bust guy in the entire draft.
Felder is yet another undersized point but unlike some of the other guys above him, has the frame and wingspan to somewhat mitigate that disadvantage. Felder is a supreme athlete, fully capable of playing above the rim and has good enough speed and handles that he doesn’t have to worry about taller guards tracking him inside.
Felder’s a fearsome offensive player a la Isaiah Thomas, capable of absorbing contact due to his strong frame and burying teams from outside. Unlike Ulis (another smaller point guard counterpart), Felder has a lightning quick release. In short, everything this guy does is quick. If a defender falls asleep for even a second, Felder can and will turn that opportunity into two points.
Unfortunately, to make it as a point guard in the NBA you have to be able to do more than score. Felder showed the ability to make precision passes but it’s certainly not his first choice on offense (or even his third or fourth). When playing higher level competition, Felder showed a disappointing propensity toward over dribbling into a bad situation and would then get trapped.
The same questionable decision-making would pop up on the defensive end, where Felder would show lapses in concentration and occasionally stop playing defense altogether. It’s hard to say whether that’s an effort thing or simply fatigue from how much Oakland was asking him to do on offense but either way, it’s certainly eyebrow raising.
Honestly, it won’t shock me if Felder ends up being an explosive playmaker simply due to what he can do on offense. I fully expect to feel really stupid when reading over this article years from now and Felder is busy winning sixth man of the year. I’ll be honest though, I see much more J.J. Barea in his game than I do Isaiah Thomas.
And while Barea is a perfectly usable player, I don’t feel like that’s what Felder is going to be drafted as.
Next: No. 6