NBA Power Rankings: Ranking All 30 Starting Point Guards
By Shane Young
25. Emmanuel Mudiay — Denver Nuggets
Passer Rating: N/A
China Basketball Association: 12 games, 31.5 minutes, 18 points, 5.9 assists, 6.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 3.3 turnovers per game. 47.8% field goals, 34.2% 3-pointers, 57.4% free throws.
True Shooting Percentage: 52.8%
Player Efficiency Rating: 18.9
Usage Rating: 29.1%
Assist Percentage: 31.8%
* Last four categories are based off his CBA play, and I didn’t include rankings because it wasn’t against NBA athletes.
You must be on top of your game to receive acclaim from a top 10 coach in NBA history. But, that’s exactly what Emmanuel Mudiay has done, without playing a single game on the NBA level … or even on the college level.
SMU Head Coach Larry Brown was planning on guiding Mudiay through his freshman season before his recruit elected to sign with Guangdong in China. Brown spent a considerable amount of time with Mudiay during the recruiting process, and kept close tabs on his rookie season overseas. It was enough for Brown to acknowledge what type of talent was heading to the NBA:
“I watch John Wall a lot,’ Brown told Paul Klee of the Colorado Springs Gazette. “Emmanuel is maybe not as quite as explosive as John. It’s close. But at this stage of this career, he’s more advanced as a point guard. And I think John Wall is now one of the elite guards in the league, and I think Emmanuel can be that (in the future).”
Brown continued on how Mudiay brings more advanced skills to the table than Wall did as a rookie in 2010-11. The comparison makes a lot of sense on certain fronts, especially in the areas of distributing, floor vision, and strength on defense. At the very least, Mudiay will be a couple notches under Wall whenever this 19-year-old kid becomes a 25-year-old man. But for starters, he’s already blessed with a even bigger body build than Wall. He’s a tad bit taller, and noticeably stronger in the upper body.
The similarities can keep piling up, since Mudiay doesn’t have a polished outside shooting touch. Neither did Wall. And you know what? Neither do a lot of incoming rookies. That gets a bit overstated with these kids, as we all expect them to come in as 40% shooters from 20+ feet.
Combining his appearances in the China, the NBA Summer League, and Preseason, Mudiay has played 20 games. That’s it. Only 20.
In those 20, he has shot 21-of-67 from beyond the 3-point arc (31.3%). Taking into account that he’s made out to be this deplorable shooter, 31.3% is higher than most would assume.
With the Nuggets during their four preseason games, Mudiay has shown everyone exactly the type of player he wants to be. He wants to attack the paint and be a large component of their offense from the start, but he also wants to work together and make things easier for his teammates. In 115 total minutes thus far, Mudiay has dished 24 assists and coughed up 19 turnovers — giving him a scary 5.9 turnovers per 36 minutes.
Mistakes and bad decision-making will be the biggest hurdle for him as a rookie. But, that’s perfectly fine. It only becomes an organizational concern if he hasn’t matured as a point guard by his third year. Players as young as Mudiay and D’Angelo Russell, drafted in the diabolical Western Conference, should be given a soft grace period.
He’s already in solid hands with an underrated head coach, Mike Malone. I’d even argue this path for Mudiay is better than Russell’s, as the No. 2 overall pick will have Byron Scott running the show and making decisions.
Mudiay’s middling impressions in pre-draft workouts and the lack of game tape against “tougher competition” may have been the factors for Philadelphia to pass on him at No. 3. They’ll regret it extremely soon, however, when Mudiay proves to be the best guard of this draft class. It should take time, but he has the physical tools and two-way excellence to pass Russell after a couple months.
Next: A Showtime Return?