Keegan Murray is a sophomore combo forward who played for Iowa University. He was born on August ,19th of 2000, which will make him twenty-two years old by the time his first NBA season start. He is listed at 6 foot 8 (2m03) 225 lbs (102kg) with a 6 foot 11 wingspan (2m11). He is the son of Kenyon Murray who played himself at forward for Iowa from 1992 to 1996 and the twin brother of Kris Murray, who also plays for the Hawkeyes. Not only Keegan comes from a basketball family, but he's also from a proud college sports tradition. Mostly unexploited on offense last year because of the presence of Joe Wieskamp and Luke Garza, he's established himself as one of the best scorers in this year's draft and has gotten NBA Draft Twitter excited quite a bit. 

This one is really a puzzle because there is definitely an NBA player in there, but it's difficult to project what he'll look like. Because he's been utilized a little bit like a center this year at Iowa. Guards were giving him ball deep on entry passes and let him work his magic on the low post. In college, he was stronger than wings and considerably quicker and more mobile than centers, so he was a little bit of cheat code. That explains his insanely high numbers: 23,5 pgg in only 31 minutes a game. This type of usage has both merits and flaws. Getting such high reps in a precise context helped him develop a wide array of productive moves which won't go to waste: spins, hooks, fade-aways, up-and-unders. Murray developed a touch around the basket that I believe will help him be productive in the NBA. But he's never going to be as physically dominant in the NBA as he is now.

As it's often the case with high-potential prospect, the name of the game will be: can he shoot at the next level? The stats make you think he will: 55% from the floor. 39,8% from outside on 4.7 attempts a game and 75% from the line on 5.4 attempts a game. He's got high rep efficiency, but something about the eye test doesn't quite add up. He misses often from the back of the rim, which indicates he's shooting too hard. Is he compensating for a lack of lower body explosiveness by simply torquing it as hard as he can? The entire motion is not super smooth, which leads me to believe he's going to need an adjusting period in the NBA. Will he be able to knock down the open three? Probably? Is he a shot maker in any way, shape or form? No and thinking of him this way will only harm his career.

A lot has been said about Keegan Murray's lack of foot and hip speed on defense, but I think the problem has been overdone. He's not a lockdown option and I don't think he's the kind of athlete that can become one, but he's smart and educated about the game enough to provide value as a help defender and I think he can become that quickly in the NBA. He's not extremely switchable, but he's got enough length to guard twos and enough girth to stifle skinner three and fours who are not lightning quick. Give him help missions at the start of his career and he's going to grow into somewhat of a swiss-army-knife guy on defense. I'm a lot less worried about this aspect of his game than others. He's not going to be a negative under any scenario that I can think of. 

The question remains: what position do you play him? I believe he's a small ball four at the start of his career and depending on how he adapts physically to the NBA transition, he could be a run-and-gun 5. I don't think he can ever be a consistant quality small forward because of the insane quality of defenders at this position. He will get abused if he plays there. Overall, I believe Keegan Murray will be a tremendous floor raiser for any team in the NBA. He's a good (not great) athlete. He's an efficient scorer, a fantastic rebounder with clean technique and he's lenghty and educated enough on defense to provide value in almost every scenario. He's a player who knows how to get points on the board. I would personally draft him anywhere between 11 and 18. Evaluations placing him top 5 are f*cking insane. It won't be good for his career if he's drafted that high.