It’s becoming increasingly important in the NBA to be a good shooter. No longer is the role of sniping from deep and creating shots reserved for the nominal shooting guard in the lineup; these days, point guards, small forwards, and even centers are liable to bomb from all spots on the floor.
Even with the flattening of positional identities, having a great shooting guard is still a valuable asset for NBA teams. Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, and Anthony Edwards are key examples of stars who are capable of carrying a heavy scoring load while leading their respective teams to the NBA playoffs.
That makes it all the more interesting that, as far as positions go, the shooting guard spot is one of the deeper areas in the 2023 draft. There are not only a handful of young studs with star potential, but many veteran college players who could go later in the draft but play meaningful roles for their selectors.
They do not include the top tier of prospects like Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson, and Brandon Miller. However, there are enough players at every other tier in the draft that, looking back in a few years, it may have been an important class that reset the baseline for the prominent shooting guards of the next generation.
Here are the top ten rankings for the best 2023 draft shooting guard prospects. Players like Ausar Thompson, Gradey Dick, Dariq Whitehead, and Marcus Sasser belong to different positional groups, which represents their omission from this list. But let’s dive in!