Nolan Smith, Jacob Pullen, Kemba Walker:
Five most underrated players in the NBA draft 2011 (Part-2)
Nolan Smith
One of the best point guards of the Three-time defending ACC champions Duke Blue Devils’ Nolan Smith is surprisingly one of the most underrated player in this year’s draft. After the unexpected injury of the influential freshman
Kyrie Irving, Smith kept the ship of the Duke’s floating with his influential presence on the court.
During his last season with the Blue Devils, Nolan spearheaded the team for the third successive ACC championship with an average of 20.6 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds. Smith also averages 1.2 steal per game. The 22-year-old
Smith is truly a versatile player who carries all the abilities to be the next NBA star.
Despite of an outstanding record, Nolan is ranked as the 36th best prospect which is quite surprising. Smith has everything under his belt which takes to become the face of any team. With the height of 6 feet and 3 inch,
Smith might not be that tall; however his height does not restricts him from providing fireworks all over the court. A splendid collage career with the Duke Blue Devils is a proof of his brilliance.
Jacob Pullen
The 21 year old point guard Jacob Pullen of Kansas State University Wildcats is another outstanding player whose potential and talent received very less attention. Pullen’s 6 ft height might be the reason of his underestimation
however he played much bigger at the college level than his physical size.
Undoubtedly, Jacob was not only the best payer of Kansas State University; he was also playing a role of the leader with the team. From the point guard position, Pullen dominated the opposition with an average of 20.2 points, 3.7
assists and 2.9 rebounds per game for the Wildcats.
Jacob is major scoring threat who knows how to run the offensive system against any defence. His agility and versatility enables him to play either as a shooting guard or point guard in NBA. Pullen can excel from both the position
and will be a big asset for the team that selects him.
Considering the kind of strength and talent Jacob carries, he is way underrated in this year’s draft with the rank of 87th best prospect.
Taking into consideration his rank, Jacob will be drafted after the first two rounds. However he has the potential to be one of those players who transforms themselves into an NBA star from the underrated position.
Kemba Walker
Although the University of Connecticut Huskies’ versatile point guard Kemba Walker is ranked at the eighth spot the board however the 21 year old Walker can easily be among the top five prospects in this year’s draft.
Kemba’s dominating average of 23.4 points, 5.2 boards, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals during the 2010-2011 season with the Huskies shows his extra special strength to marshal the team with his resourceful game-play. He is not only
a prolific scorer; Walker also creates a number of opportunities for his teammates to keep the control over the opposition. Many college players who played against him know what Kemba can do for a team.
Brigham Young University’s top prospect Jimmer Fredette said after playing against Walker in and workout session, "It was great to be able to go against him. That's what you want. You want to play against the best, at least I do.
I want to go out there and compete against the best players."
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