NCAA Basketball: Analyzing 5-star Naas Cunningham’s final 5 options

In an era where athletic “3 and D” wings are loved by NCAA Basketball and NBA scouts, players such as Naas Cunningham have even more value. The 6’7 small forward from New Jersey has some of the highest potential in the entire 2024 recruiting class and is a consensus five-star and top-10 overall prospect.

Cunningham is a very capable scorer at all three levels and doesn’t need too much help or space to create his offense. What’s interesting about him is that he currently is playing in a professional-like environment, currently at Overtime Elite. It’s a new entity that allows high school prospects to essentially go pro early and get paid.

However, Cunningham set his situation up differently in order to maintain eligibility for NCAA Basketball if he so chooses. And he’s taken the next step in that process, now with a list of five finalists.

The question here is which of these teams will ultimately land Cunningham? Here’s a look at each of the respective stations to see who makes sense and who potentially doesn’t.

Duke Blue Devils

The first year in the Jon Scheyer era has had mixed results for the Blue Devils and its No. 1 freshmen class. The closest comparison for Cunningham is Dariq Whitehead but he’s been hurt too much throughout the year to tell. As a team, they’re going to make the NCAA Tournament but aren’t ranked or a major threat to win it all.

The concern here is that Coach K isn’t around. Is Scheyer the right guy to trust your NBA Draft stock with? It’s something to consider for Cunningham, as there are other coaches on this list with bigger resumes in the mix.