NBA Draft 2023: Top returning college prospects most likely to break out

Marcus Sasser – Houston – Guard – 6’3, 192 lbs – September 2000

An early-season injury ended Sasser’s junior season, but a strong showing at the G-League Elite Camp and NBA Draft Combine likely would have made him draftable in 2022. But Sasser opted to return for his senior year, making him the catalyst of a top-five team in the country and likely the best guard in the country this season.

Sasser is more score-first as a lead guard at this stage, as college defenders simply have trouble staying in front of him. He’s turned himself into a dangerous shooter, with the ability to pull from NBA range off the dribble. Play up on him, and he has the handle to shake defenders and get paint touches. Sasser doesn’t make the most complex reads and could use some better decisions when he gets in the paint. Sasser is a tad undersized for a primary initiator at the NBA level, and help-side defenders will only get bigger and smarter, so I’m hesitant that he can fulfill that archetype in the NBA.

It’s always an uphill battle for undersized guards to survive defensively in the NBA, which is why I’m typically less excited about that archetype, but at 6’3 with a 6’7 wingspan, Sasser has a better starting point than others in that mold. His motor runs high on that end and he consistently pressures the ball (some of that is Houston scheme related, but he’s shown he can do it).

I’m not sure Sasser can run a second unit successfully in the NBA, but the shooting pick-and-roll savvy has me confident he can survive as a secondary at least. An All-American caliber season will allow him to show his full arsenal and as long as he’s not consistently targeted/can be hidden a bit in an NBA defensive scheme, I think Sasser can carve out a role as an NBA player.