NBA Draft 2022: Live scouting report of top Big Ten Basketball prospects

Pete Nance – Senior – Northwestern – 6’10, 225 lbs – February 2000

In his senior season, Nance has started to put together the pieces and has turned himself into a valuable contributor for the Wildcats and a legitimate NBA prospect.

Nance’s jumper is fascinating in the sense that it’s super wonky mechanically (the guide hand gets in front of the ball and the release is slow, like a catapult) but the results have been undeniably good. He’s up to 43.8% from three on the year and 78% from the line, so I don’t have concerns.

Nance shot terrific against Nebraska, going 8-11 from the field and 4-5 from deep. He operates a lot out of the mid-post, backing defenders down and finishing short jumpers and hook shots. While I’m not sure how scalable that will be at the next level, what impressed me was his ball skills. Nance seemed super comfortable initiating offense out of the high post through dribble-handoffs and as a facilitator off the pick-and-pop.

Physically and defensively are where I have some concerns with Nance. Despite being a senior and coming from NBA lineage, Nance isn’t a great run-and-jump athlete or overly strong. He should be able to hold up against most fives, but won’t provide great rim protection. He moves a little too upright for me and I’m not sure how switchable he’ll end up being on the perimeter.

The ball skills with his size and the fact that he comes from an NBA family, make me think Nance will get picked. Anywhere in the mid to late second round would be fair to me. There’s a cluster of bigs in that range, but Nance’s shooting makes him stand out a bit from others.