NBA Draft prospect Vernon Carey Jr. could be a big sleeper
Since when is an All-American, All-ACC, 5-star freshman who leads his team to a 25-6 record not in the running to be a top 5 pick, let alone top 10, in the NBA Draft? This is the situation for Vernon Carey Jr.
Carey, who was one of the best college players in the nation this year, averaged 17.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game during his freshman season at Duke, but is being ranked as a low first-round pick. Why?
Vernon Carey Jr. is suffering from scouting departments and draft media members looking at two factors. Factor No. 1 is that Carey is a bruising bag-man who has shown a bit of a throwback game with his work in the post that doesn’t quite align with the modern small-ball NBA. The second factor is Carey getting unfair comparisons to past Duke big men in recent years, such as Jahlil Okafor and Marvin Bagley Jr. who haven’t exactly panned out at the NBA level.
That assessment isn’t quite fair to Carey though; Carey has shown a game that is still developing, and he is his own player. Just because Carey played at Duke, doesn’t mean he’s Okafor or Bagley. If that was the case, then why can’t we expect Tre Jones to come out this year and be Kyrie Irving? The NBA Draft just doesn’t work that way even if players do share similarities.
What Carey was asked to do at Duke was what was best for Duke to compete in the NCAA, in the NBA there’s a chance Carey gets asked to do other things and really expand on his game to be an impact player that some teams might regret missing out on.