NBA Draft: Neemias Queta and four other second-round sleepers

2021 NBA Draft Second Round Sleepers: 4. Joel Ajayi, SG, Gonzaga

Even for players taken in the second round, most of the time an NBA team is looking at a player who was the best or second-best on their team and projecting them into a much smaller role in the NBA. With Joel Ajayi, the fourth option on an absolutely loaded Gonzaga team, they can see exactly how he fits around other stars.

The answer is remarkably well, as Ajayi is a good shooter who runs and cuts with energy and is especially good at scoring in transition. He doesn’t need a lot of touches to make an impact, rebounding well and moving without the ball. He isn’t a great athlete and needs to improve his shot creativity when creating for himself as a secondary or tertiary creator. He’s a solid if unspectacular defender.

An NBA team isn’t getting a shot at a star if they take Ajayi, but they are getting a very good chance at a rotation player, and a smaller chance at a long-term starter.

2021 NBA Draft Second Round Sleepers: 5. Matthew Hurt, PF, Duke

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We should start with the drawbacks. Matthew Hurt, a two-year player at Duke, is a bad passer, a bad defender and a mediocre athlete. Despite his effort, he has no lateral quickness and will get blown by again and again in the NBA. He can’t stay in front of anyone.

Why should a team take a flier on Hurt? Because he can absolutely shoot the lights out of the basketball. He is 6’9″ tall and hit 42.1 percent of his 3-pointers at Duke on a very high volume of attempts. His release point is very high so it’s hard to contest, and he doesn’t bring the ball back down off-the-catch so he can fire the ball lightning fast. In the post, he was one of the country’s most effective scorers, with a variety of moves reminiscent of Dirk Nowitzki.

Deploying him as a shooting specialist, a jumbo Duncan Robinson, would allow a team to maximize his strengths without allowing his weaknesses to pull back too much from the team’s success. A little defensive improvement and he could easily be a long-term rotation player in the league, along the lines of Doug McDermott.

None of these five players are surefire things, and they don’t have that tantalizing aroma of star-level upside. Yet each of them fits the modern NBA and can contribute to a winning team, and would be excellent picks in the second round of Thursday’s NBA Draft.