2020 NBA Draft - Brew Hoop Community Draft Board: Kira Lewis Jr. Speeds to 14

Kira Lewis Jr., the talented sophomore point guard out of Alabama, is the next selection in the Brew Hoop Community Draft Board. Lewis continues the trend of readers leaning guard heavy as we keep making up our big board, following Tyrell Terry and Cole Anthony as the previous selections.

One of the things that stands out immediately to me about Lewis Jr. is just how much the dude was on the freaking court for Alabama. Obviously I know most college teams overly rely on their star players, but Lewis Jr. averaged 37.6 minutes per game for his school during his sophomore campaign. He narrowly missed the top ten of all college players for minutes per game. That underscores just how much the Alabama offense relied on him as their primary scorer and playmaker.

Unlike Terry and Nesmith, who kicked off this exercise, Lewis isn’t quite a knockdown shooter. He’s at 36.2% from deep on 304 attempts in his college career, and there wasn’t a noticeable leap from his freshman to sophomore year, just .08% improvement. He is a 79.3% free throw shooter, so clearly there’s some shooting prowess there, but his percentages feel like they would fit right in among the mediocre long-range gunners that dot the Bucks roster.

One of the reasons that narrow improvement in shooting percentage might be a tad concerning is that almost all of his other figures took a leap forward from year one to two. Adjusted for per 40 minutes, here are the stat lines that improved:

• Points: 19.6 (up from 17)
• Assists: 5.6 (up from 3.6)
• Rebounds: 5.1 (up from 3.6)
• Steals: 1.9 (up from 1.0)

With a 27% assist percentage his second year, Lewis Jr. had a hand in one of out of every four buckets his teammates had while he was on the floor, which, as we covered earlier, was basically all the time. Here’s a great summary of his assist ability with highlights; and if you’re interested in an exhaustive deep dive on Lewis Jr., definitely check out Spencer’s breakdown on The Stepien.

One big takeaway I had from Spencer’s piece was the spot-up numbers, which had him at 43% shooting. I’m presuming most of those were triples, but still, those are the kinds of shots the Bucks would need Lewis Jr. to hit with consistency if he were to fall and be any sort of Bledsoe backup.

He’s also lightning fast on the court. You can see him get down the court with ease and push the pace. In the halfcourt, he’s certainly quick enough to get past his opponent for a finish at the rim. There’s little that college defenders could do to stay in front of him, even if he doesn’t look super smooth when confronted with contact at the rim.

Lewis Jr. is obviously off our big board far before he would ever fall to the Milwaukee Bucks, but he’s below this ranking in terms of ESPN’s best available. Maybe there’s a chance teams shy away from him if his shooting doesn’t translate quite as well to workouts. That type of questionable shooting ability would worry me if I were the Bucks, even if I have complete faith in Lewis Jr. ability to maximize Bud’s breakneck pace.

Let’s keep rolling onto the next prospect.

This poll will close at midnight, November 3.

Brew Hoop Draft Board Rankings

1. Anthony Edwards, SG, Georgia
2. LaMelo Ball, PG, Illawarra Hawks
3. James Wiseman, C, Memphis
4. Deni Avdija, SF, Israel
5. Isaac Okoro, SF, Auburn
6. Onyeka Okongwu, C, USC
7. Killian Hayes, PG, France
8. Obi Toppin, PF, Dayton
9. Devin Vassell, SG, Florida State
10. Tyrese Haliburton, PG, Iowa State
11. Aaron Nesmith, SF, Vanderbilt
12. Tyrell Terry, PG, Stanford
13. Cole Anthony, PG, North Carolina
14. Kira Lewis Jr., PG, Alabama