Duke Basketball: NBA Draft profile for sharpshooter Gary Trent Jr.

Strengths

Gary Trent Jr. should fit right into today’s NBA because of his size and ability to shoot from deep. With a 6’6″, 209-pound frame, Trent has ideal size to play on the wing at the next level. He can play either position on the wing and brings one of the most valuable skills any player can have in the NBA: shooting.

Every single team in the NBA is looking for more shooting. Elite marksmen are not easy to find and those players can be exceedingly valuable. If you look around the league, players like J.J. Redick, C.J. Miles, and Kyle Korver stick because of their elite skill of splashing from beyond the arc. While I am not saying that Trent will be able to shoot on the level of those three, he is a proven 3-point shooter with NBA range.

During his lone college basketball season, Trent made good on 40.2% of his 3-point attempts. More importantly, though, he dropped in 43.5% of those shots during conference play. What makes this clip so impressive is that he did on incredible volume. For the season, the freshman attempted 241 total threes, an average of 6.5 3-point attempts per game. His head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, put Trent’s game into perspective when he stated, “Gary was the best 3-point shooter in the ACC. At the NBA level, that’s what they’re looking for. He has the size of a two-guard who will be able to fit in the NBA.”

If positioned in a role as a leading bench scorer in the NBA, Trent will be able to showcase that he is more than just a shooter, though. He spent this past season as the best shooter on a team full of elite offensive players so his usage was somewhat limited. As a lead scorer, we will see more of Trent’s ability to attack the basket and use his body to finish through traffic.