13) Josh Green (Australia) – Arizona
Josh Green completes the high-flying three-headed monster of Arizona freshman that has the potential to produce three first-round 2020 NBA draft picks. What I’ve seen of Green during his freshman season screams out smooth. Green defends well and can really elevate, but most of all he seems to glide with the basketball the way a basketball wing player should.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that both of Green’s parents played professional basketball in Australia so basketball is in the genes. Green has shown his huge ceiling this freshman season. He dropped 22 points in the Wildcats’ blowout win vs. Illinois and looked terrific in two 18 point performances against USC and Oregon State. Four of Arizona’s Pac-12 losses have been by a combined 6 points. So the Wildcats may be flying a bit under the radar, but Arizona could be a dangerous team with Green being perhaps their most lethal weapon.
12) Chris Duarte (Dominican Republic) – Oregon
Let’s stay in the Pac-12. Coach Dana Altman has a way of finding tall guards with the ability to drain the three, and the former junior college player of the year certainly fits the bill. Duarte is a tough matchup at 6′ 6″ and has ample opportunity to shine alongside Payton Pritchard and other sharpshooters Will Richardson and Anthony Mathis. Although he’s had a tad of cold spell shooting the basketball, Duarte has proven he can explode offensively at any time.
Duarte is second on the Ducks in scoring (12.9 PPG) and rebounding (5.6 RPG) and he put up 30 points in a double OT victory over USC and followed it up with 24 over UCLA. Some of the recent successful Oregon teams have been great defensively, especially on the interior (shout out to Kenny Wooten and Jordan Bell). But the 2019-20 Ducks are dangerous offensively on the perimeter, and Duarte deserves a solid piece of the credit for how lethal Oregon can be.