NBA Draft 2021: Cade Cunningham clear No. 1 pick in way-too-early mock draft

There are no words that do Greg Brown III’s high-flying acrobatics justice. He’s a human pogo stick, an Olympic-caliber leaper, playing with a level of explosiveness that would make Michael Bay jealous.

He’s a killer in transition and on lobs, catching passes that most players wouldn’t dream of reaching, and has flashed real upside as a shooter, though there are serious issues that may not be ironed out.

The leg length discrepancy is a real concern and could raise some medical red flags depending on how NBA teams view his risk for overcompensation injuries — his left leg is noticeably longer than his right, which affects his movement patterns, both laterally and vertically — but if given the green light, a team could be getting a versatile athlete at 6’9 with the potential to defend across positions and shoot a decent clip from distance.

Carving out Euroleague minutes on a club as prestigious as Real Madrid is a difficult task. Doing so as a teenager is nearly impossible. Earning minutes and being one of the best defenders in the entire league is just unheard of, yet Spanish center Usman Garuba managed to do just that last year at the age of 17, displaying elite sensibilities and instincts as a rim protector and team defender.

The 6’8 teenager is still raw offensively, limited to lobs to dives to the basket, but the 18-year-old moves well for his size — he’s light on his feet and covers ground quicker than most bigs — and flashes real vision passing out of the short roll, a skill that bodes well for his offensive value at the next level.

Listed as the starting point guard — yes, you read that correctly — for Florida State, the 6’9 Barnes is a basketball chameleon. He passes like a guard, makes show-stopping rejections like a bigman, quarterbacks a defense like a true wing stopper, but shoots and finishes like Edward Scissorhands, lacking the requisite touch and polish on jumpers and layups alike.

Whether he can score at the next level will determine his ceiling as a prospect and draft pick, but he profiles as a real ceiling raiser as a power forward with defensive versatility and secondary playmaking equity (meaning, the Draymond Green role, as dangerous as such a label is).