Little punishes the rim thunder.

Naseer Little, the physical specimen who entered the season as a potential top five pick thanks to his tools, defensive versatility, steady offensive improvement and approach to the game.

The former McDonald's All American and Jordan brand classic M v P.

Little was a man amongst boys on the All Star certain from a physical perspective, little closely resembles Boston Celtics standout Ginglen Brown, both standing around 66 with powerful £225 frames and plus athleticism.

Like little.

Brown also came into college with a lot of hype but struggled to produce efficiently, in part due to the circumstances he was dealt.

But Brown has developed into one of the Boston Celtics, most promising young pieces.

He showed out against Cam Reddish, R J.

Barrett and Zion Williamson at different showcases, and despite an underwhelming freshman season at North Carolina, still fits the profile teams are looking for in a modern combo forward this year.

Little is one of the drafts most explosive Lieber's when he's able to load up with Momenta, playing with his head at the rim in transition off of one or two feet, his eight foot nine.

Standing reach, combined with his powerful bounce, makes him a dynamic lobbed art in the half court as he shows outstanding extension around the rim out of a variety of different actions.

Little also has extremely long strides, allowing him to get to the front of the rim and Onley one dribble when he catches on the move with a head of steam.

Because of that stride length, Little should benefit from a more wide open and be a.

The rangy forward puts his tools to good use on the backboards as well, especially on the offensive end, as he snagged 3.5 offensive rebounds per 40 minutes last season put backs made up over 11% of his offenses of fresh.

While some of that is due to roll, he showed glimpses of a high motor, keeping plays alive, using his 71 wing span and leave inability to hammer home put back dunks.

He's a multiple effort rebounder on occasion as well, especially following his own mists, will get physical in a crowd and has the tools to be a high level defensive rebounder as well, which should allow him to function quite a bit more in small ball four situations where he's best suited offensive.

Little strong £225 frame allows him to shed contact on his way to the rim, maintaining balance and striding it out.

He generated 6.1 free throws per 40 minutes, in large part because of that physic out.

His powerful frame allows him to take Smalls onto the block as well as he continues to improve his fine ass around the rim.

He has the leading ability, length and strength to become a well above average finisher at the NBA's left.

Little holds far more scoring upside than your typical tools defensive oriented forward in his mold as he averaged 21.6 points per 40 minutes.

Despite an up and down season on that end of the floor, well, he doesn't think the game at a high level and struggled to shoot it from three.

Little isn't void of touch as he's a career 76% free throw shooter with workable mechanics from three.

He's more than capable with his feet set as the ball comes out cleanly with rotation and solid arc.

Despite some bad Mrs last season as he adjust to the N B A line.

Little has the touch and mechanics to eventually become a league average shooter with his feet.

Because of the nature of his release, he shows some potential on the move as well, with the ability to hop into D a chose or offscreen threes and elevate over the top of his defender.

Part of the reason Little was ranked so highly at a high school was due to the growth he showed with the ball in his hands even rising up off the bounce for pull ups on occasion.

While a rigid ball handler, he's capable of planting 12 for mid range pull ups going left or hopping and jumpers going to his right, Although in the 30th percentile on pull ups last season, the sample was smoke, and the fact that little even shows glimpses of step backs like you see here against Stanford tells you all you need to know.

In terms of his talentless inability to become more than just a wing defender in the MBA, where little can really add value offensively is as a straight line drive.

He's shown the ability to grab and go in transition on occasion, you're attacking a slow footed defender to his left, thanks to those long striped.

He's powerful attacking close outs and is a fairly quick step from a stance for a £225 forward here, roasting reddish after a rip so long as he's able to slide up place, UM, four.

Consistently, Little Xun have value as a mismatch driver, given his physical tools, especially if his jumper comes around where little really has a chance to make an impact early on.

His career is on the defense event, his motor fluctuates to off and a spatial awareness is pulled.

But when he's locked in, he has the tools to check upto four positions in the MBA.

Although not overly quick footed, he's ranging enough to keep wings in front.

As you can see here against Reddish, even getting a piece of his jumper on the closer, his stance and discipline could use work, but his length and frame or certainly a factor, making it tough to finish over on the paint even though he gets beat off the dribble more than he should.

That 71 wingspan and 89 reach, tell him you rate shots in the paint as he averaged 1.2 blocks per 40 minutes is a fresh maybe even more valuable than the perimeter potential is the fact that he stroke and long enough to slide up and check more traditional Biggs here, meeting six foot 11 Malik Williams with length and physical, his long arms air certainly a factor on post entry passes as well.

And he has the agility to compete with more modern oriented bigs like Zion Williams while still remaining fiscal and using that reach to challenge shots again.

His engagement needs to improve, but he has tremendous range in all the tools to chase shooters around screens as well.

Recovering to contest with length, those long arms have been poked the bubbly.

Even if he does allow a catch, he falls asleep too often.

But the fact that he can cover ground that quickly gives a glimpse of his sky high defensive potential off the ball.

The awareness is not there, re still capable of being disruptive in the passing lanes.

Should the game ever slow down for in his motor ramp up consistent, Little could be one of the league's more versatile defenders on and off the ball, even if he's away from maximizing his potential.

The stage, in addition to North Carolina's death little shaky feel for the game, is one of the reasons he logged on the 18 minutes a night under Roy Williams, too hungry to live up to his high school ranking.

Little rarely let the game come to him, forcing too many contested pull ups that didn't come within the flow of the offense.

He turned down rhythm threes for contested long tubes, really looking sped up in the process.

He struggled to play, read and react, basketball, seeming to panic, kill his dribble and hoist up in off balance.

Unorthodox jumper when his first move was taken away.

Little's low shop quality was the main reason for his 55.5 true shooting percentage.

As you relied too much on off balance follow ways and was extremely predictable, forcing the issue with spins back to his left or right hand.

Little simply doesn't see the floor natural, regularly missing shooters and finishing with 23 assists, toe 48 turnovers in a 480.48 assist to turnover ratio.

He has tunnel vision with the ball in his hands and struggled to make even the most basic.

One more pass on the perimeter, As you can see here, with Kenny Williams wide open and Kobe White not pleased about the lack of execution, a late riser who hadn't played in an extremely high level of competition early on in his career, Little's catching hold style didn't translate well to the collegiate level and made it difficult for Roy Williams to stick with him for long stretches, especially with veterans slotted ahead.

When little does see the past, he struggles to execute.

U.

N C spacing wasn't always ideal, but he simply wasn't very sure handed with the ball, too often coughing it up against pressure, Little will need to do a much better job of valuing the rock in the N B A as the shot creation possessions he'll see should be few and far between.

Early on in his M B.

A career on top of his feel little shooting consistency is one of the bigger question marks he needs to improve his shot preparation.

But even when he does catch with his hands and feet ready, Little struggled mightily, knocking down only 26.9% of his threes and ranking in the 20th percentile on catching shoot jumper efficiency.

While his mechanics are workable, Little fired up all types of Mrs as a freshman.

Short, long left, right, all glass.

His mechanics break down a bit when heavily contested, and he gets caught between a set in a jump shot, at times shooting on the way down in metering spots while a shooting figures to improve, he still has quite a bit of work to do with the ball in his hands.

He committed far too many live ball turnovers going right or left.

He's too loose with the ball and hasn't yet proven that he's worthy of the shot creation opportunities that he hunted so often at North Carolina, even Mawr than live ball turnovers.

It was clear just how much the ball slowed him down on his way to the rim, especially on his left hand, which he prefers to go to.

Although more than willing, he looked unnatural attacking to his left hand and just doesn't have a wide variety of moves in his arsenal, regularly going right in trying to spin back left in clunky fashion.

Whether it's from the perimeter or the mid post.

Little won't be able to fully take advantage of his athletic gifts until he can shore up his hands.

Lastly, he wasn't the finisher that his tools suggested either, converting a good, not great 56% of his shots at the rim in the half court.

While gifted with length and athleticism, his touch and finesse around the rim can stand toe improve.

He would also benefit from adding changing direction.

Moves like a euro step rather than just trying barrel his way through the help defense for little them maximize his sky high defense of potential.

He needs to remain engaged.

As you can see here against Cam Reddish, he's too often caught up right, especially when there's a ball screen involved.

As he loses focus easily in remains flatfoot.

His anticipation as an on ball defender needs work as well.

He doesn't have a great feel for how his opponent is going to attack, either.

Biting wildly on fakes are struggling to react to a countermove if he takes away the initial drive.

As you can see here, he works the body up Zion Williamson but is giving him his patented drop step and finish over his right shoulder.

His go to move.

He's too upright guarding the post also, which hurts his ability to recover quickly.

Little needs more reps against high level offensive players to start learning opponents tendencies and how we can stop off the ball.

Little is regularly spun around defensive losing complete site of his man.

You can see here against Jack White.

He's in no man's land after giving help on Barrett, which should have been a fairly basic recover.

Then, this time defending Jordan gold wire.

He's completely lost in space as gold wire sprints along the baseline for an open look.

He doesn't get burned, but you can see that deer in the headlights look and lack of spacial awareness.

He was prone to missing weak side tags and pick and roll.

As you can see here against Duke, he needs to take Javan Deloria at the rim.

Even though he's somewhat in position, he doesn't react to the past or make an attempt to use his freakish length at the rim.

Then against Louisville, Loop May calls for the switch on to believe Williams, but little doesn't register, and Williams eventually finishes at the rim.

On this possession, you can see just how hugged up he is against this man here.

Now, this isn't his direct rotation, but he's certainly not helping North Carolina on the weak side when he is fully engaged in playing with the motor little tents over help to consistently leaving shooters even when the ball is fairly contained, he gave sharpshooters like Jordan Worrell open looks consistently because of his lack of conceptual understanding.

Little lacked urgency on the offensive end of the floor for the better part of the season, walking up and down the floor rather than staying active and making himself available.

He was too often out of position as UNC tried to get into its offense and really sprinted into screens with a sense of purpose.

The fact that Kobe White was still developing as a point guard didn't help but the lack of urgency he showed getting to his spots screening, cutting and keeping the ball moving was certainly a turn off Tombo.

Scouts catch that little isn't short on question marks.

Will he ever be ableto think the game at a high enough level to be more than just a wing defender does he have the consistent motor to impact the game, like his tools suggests on the defensive end?

Even with that in mind, it's hard to find 66 wings with the 71 wingspan, strong frame defense, versatility and the potential to at least develop into a league average shooter with impressive intangibles and a good head on his shoulders.

Little is a type of prospect.

A smart team will target betting on this development, despite an up and down freshman season that North Carolina Little's game is much more suited for the spacious MBA.

And whoever selects him in the lottery on June 20th could eventually be nabbing a steel as his value may never be this low again.

So I got to do the dirty work and kind of make a good impression on the sky.