Emmanuel Mudiay is the first lottery pick to go from a high school in the United States to a professional league overseas since Brandon Jennings in 2009. Like with Jennings, Under Armour helped foot the bill and it was somewhat difficult to learn anything meaningful during the season.

The small sample size, while in China no less, makes constructing statistical comps extremely difficult. Mudiay only played 12 games and fewer than 400 minutes while in china. But Mudiay was very well scouted with all of the high level camps and high school All-Star events he participated in before going to China. 

The perimeter shot of Mudiay is not a current strength, as his metrics resemble that of Russell Westbrook’s while at UCLA. Mudiay shot just 57.4 percent on just 47 free throw attempts and 34.2 percent on 38 three-pointers. Mudiay’s shooting issues seem more mechanical than being flat out broken as he can be streaky if he finds his rhythm. His stroke has enough promise that getting into an NBA program will refine it to become a 75 percent shooter at the line and 35 percent on three-pointers. Westbrook has fortunately developed into an 80+ percent shooter at the line though he shoots too many three-pointers given he is typically close to 30 percent. Three-point shooting is always a sliding scale for point guards given how many they attempt off the dribble. Mudiay should be in that range and could get over 35 percent if his shot selection is reined in.

Mudiay’s size and athleticism while also playing a fairly pure point guard makes him a special prospect. Mudiay is extremely strong and resembles a rookie season Dwyane Wade that was primarily a point guard for the Heat. In both the halfcourt and transition, Mudiay puts his imprint on the game with his handle, intelligence and physicality.

Those same hesitation moves and unselfishness make him such a capable pick and roll player, though he has more than enough game to create his own offense off the dribble in isolations. Mudiay will force the defense to collapse with his dribble penetration and is as adept finishing in traffic as he is in finding an open spot-up shooter.

Defensively, Mudiay has great versatility given his size, strength and quickness. He can defend multiple positions and be a hound on the ball with his length and lateral abilities. Like most high-end prospects, Mudiay too often relies upon his athleticism on defense and is prone to give an inconsistent effort and has bad help defense fundamentals. John Wall has developed into a phenomenal defensive player using his speed and length, so that’s the upside potential of Mudiay on that end of the floor. Mudiay’s height and length is similar to Jrue Holiday, who is another very good on-ball defensive player.

Mudiay should ultimately become a physical approximation of Wade with a slightly better perimeter shot and the DNA of a point guard. That’s a high bar for the certainty of his combination of skill and athleticism, but the true question is whether he can sustain that level of play on a nightly basis to become a high efficiency 20, five and eight player.