darius acuff scout

To start, I think he’ll be a good player with a long career. Acuff is ridiculously poised, but i just have a lot of questions about how he’s gonna be in the NBA. he’ll grab and go in transition, and lay it up there. acuff’s 1.200 points per possession in transition ranks 42nd in the country amongst players with at least 85 possessions. He’s a fine finisher when he has space and not in traffic. He’s got touch with his right hand, some off foot finishes, a decent floater (on low volume) and has speed when he’s attacking the rim. In the half court, he combines simple dribble moves like BTL, behind the back, hesis, to get his defender sleeping then turn it on and touch the paint. He’s improved as a shooter mightly. He dosen’t shoot enough 3s right now for me to declare him an elite shooter despite his elite percentages, and he dosen’t shoot enough pull-up 3s right now. His form looks clean despite minimal elevation, he can hit one dribble pull ups, and generally he can punish drop coverage with simple walk in 3s. His shooting wrist flicks down, his fingers down, and his guide hand stays steady. He kind of leans to side a bit but it’s not a major issue; his shot looked worse last year. But acuff’s standout triat is his decision making. He dosent even turn it over AT ALL, which is amazing for a freshman guard with this kind of load. He dosen’t force much (more on that later though, hes suspectible) and he can hit every read in the book, bounce passes/lay downs to his bigs in the paint, he’ll throw it ahead in transition, has lookaways in the pick and roll, underrated lob thrower, and his velocity and reaction time on these passes are just elite. he’ll grab it, pass it back, get it again only to zip a pocket pass through a tight window to a roller. He keeps his dribble alive and probes through the paint. He has no problem jumping to get passes where they need to go. Underrated off ball mover who cuts and moves without the ball to get to his spots. He’s a solid catch and shoot guy, and he can get it and go. But my questions about acuff still remain. He’s not really an elite dribbler ala kyrie, garland, crawford, etc. He dosen’t touch the paint as much as his peers. just 79.5% (29th percentile) of his FG attempts come in the halfcourt, and his 2P% when he’s not in transition falls to just 46.8 percent. He’s not a good athlete compared to mikel and flemings, his left hand at the rim is suspect, and athletic defenders frequently alter his shots, because of his lack of explosiveness at the rim. He’s forced to live on tough layups, and shy away from contact on drives too often. While he does make shots and is a good shooter, Acuff is in the dangerous realm of not shooting enough 3s and not drawing enough FTs; He’s not ambidextrous at the cup and in the half court, his finishing is inconsistent. His defense is non existent, lost off the ball, gambles, gets cooked, prone to just being a traffic cone. Stronger guards go through him and he shows no fight on that end of the floor. He can settle too much for mid range jumpers in the halfcourt early in the clock, and he’s not good enough from that area to do so. He’s not a dynamic off the dribble shooter, can’t run him off actions and his live dribble package isn’t necessarily creative. Acuff is a good shooter and good dribbler, but he’s not elite at those things, and his steps don’t cover much ground. His prior shooting indicators are pale, and i worry that defenders can contest his low release point as a shooter. You don’t draft him to play off the ball; all guards who do that are a) elite athletes - b) elite defenders - or c) elite shooters. Acuff is neither of these. He’s heliocentric in the sense that he needs the ball to maximize his value. He shot 30% in high school on 900+ attempts, which isn’t that encouraging. He’ll likely level down to 36% in the NBA, which does hurt his offensive profile since he won’t be a good finisher in the league.