Ranking the 10 best lockdown defensive prospects in the 2023 NBA Draft

Best Defensive Player #5: Anthony Black, Arkansas

One prospect’s misfortune is another’s lucky season. While Nick Smith Jr. didn’t get a chance to start and dominate for Arkansas, Anthony Black was a constant plus for Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks team and showed enough on both ends to make him a likely lottery pick.

Black isn’t a natural scorer and still has some parts of his game to iron out on that end, but as a defender, he’s a great specimen. He has awesome positional size as a big guard, has great fundamentals with his feet and positioning on defense, and has a preternatural sixth sense to snatch steals out of thin air:

In the NBA, teams will likely face a complex problem of how to keep Black from having an effect on their gameplans. His size and smarts are good enough that, with enough development, Black may one day develop into an all-defensive team member at the peak of his powers.