In today's Three-Point-Play, national analyst Eric Bossi can’t stop raving about five-star center N’Faly Dante’s live period performance. Also, why Purdue’s early additions put them ahead of the game and some notes from the NBA’s Global Academy Games.
UAA FINALS: Bossi's All-Tournament team
2020 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position
2021 Rankings: Rivals150
1. NOBODY OUTPLAYED DANTE OR MOKAN ELITE DURING THE LIVE PERIOD
The first and only fully open live period of July where prospects can play with their summer teams has come and gone and nobody played better than five-star center N’Faly Dante. Not only was the near seven-foot big man great, but his MoKan Elite squad has to get the nod for team of the live period after their thrilling overtime win in the championship game of Nike’s Peach Jam over SoCal based Team WhyNot? In a grassroots classic.
It’s taken some time for Dante to build up to this point. The Bel Aire (Kan.) Sunrise Christian product who currently ranks No. 9 in the class of 2020 has truly put it all together. He was dominant protecting the rim, dominant cleaning the glass and dominant scoring on the interior. Most likely, Dante is going to end up enrolling for the 2019-20 season and he sure looks ready to help right away if that ends up being the case. If he doesn’t elect to make his way to either LSU, Kentucky or Oregon, then he’s made a pretty strong case to be moved into the top five nationally in 2020.
As for his MoKan Elite team, they went 7-1 overall at the Peach Jam with their only loss (by one point) coming to an AOT team featuring a five-star backcourt of Sharife Cooper and B.J. Boston. Other than that slip-up, they were dominant from beginning to end. Already ranked No. 28 in the class of 2021, point guard Kennedy Chandler made a strong case for five-star status while looking like a baby Chris Paul and his co-pilot in the backcourt, Rivals150 point guard Dajuan Harris, made a strong case to be moved into the top 100 nationally. Their other Rivals150 members Luke Kasubke and Davion Bradford each had strong moments and top to bottom every man played their role and came up big when called upon.
2. PURDUE’S EARLY WORK MADE THINGS EASIER
Give a lot of credit to Matt Painter and his staff. Actually, we already have. Both Corey Evans and I have written plenty this spring and summer about how much we like the fit and potential to produce down the road of committed four-star guards Ethan Morton and Jaden Ivey. Nothing we saw last week will make us change our tune there.
But, in a summer where coaches have far fewer opportunities to evaluate and chase talent than ever before, that early work is crucial. Basically, the Boilermakers only need one more guy in the class of 2020. Purdue has that scholarship earmarked for top-30 big man Hunter Dickinson and Painter was able to spend significantly more time chasing him than he could have in a year where they didn’t have anybody committed.
Not only that, but it allowed Painter and his staff much more time than many others to go out and watch 2021 and 2022 talent. In 2021, they are only figuring to have two scholarships, so they were able to spend way more time watching prime targets like five-stars Chet Holmgren and Max Christie along with four-stars Caleb Furst, Harrison Ingram and Khristian Lander than they might have been able to otherwise.
Can they capitalize and get ahead for 2022? Time will tell, but few other major programs had the luxury of looking ahead over the last week as much as Painter and Co.
3. NBA ACADEMY GAMES WERE A TWIST TO THE LIVE PERIOD
I decided to end my live period by doing something different, evaluating foreign players at the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta. For those who don’t know, the NBA is now operating academies all over the world and they brought in many of their players to play in front of college coaches – TCU’s Jamie Dixon, Texas’ Shaka Smart and Miami’s Jim Larrañaga were a few of the major head coaches I spotted – scouts and even some NBA personnel.
More and more teams are going the International route to find talent and the Academy Games were a great chance to see some of the names that could be popping up down the road. I’m not going to go into a long-winded scouting report here, but there were definitely some guys that caught my eye as potential high-major players.
Notably, I thought that Georgia native Saba Gigiberia cemented his standing as a four-star prospect in the 2020 Rivals150. He’s got a great frame to build on, moves reasonably well and is pushing seven feet. He’s a plus rebounder who told me he has offers from TCU, USC, UNLV, Georgia Tech and Illinois to name a few.
Players who don’t play high school ball in the States that caught my eye were shooting guard Mojave King and small forward Joshua Giddey from Australia, point guard Santiago Vescovi from Uruguay and baby-faced wing Yannick Kraag from the Netherlands.
If he were in the States, King would likely be at least a top 50-75 ranked prospect. He’s got pretty good size at 6-foot-4, is a good athlete and can score from deep or off the dribble. If he decides to go the college route, he’ll have his pick of scholarship offers. I also think the same could happen for Vescovi. I really liked the way he led his team, played with maturity and had several different gears he could get while scoring and creating. Giddey impressed me as a potential high-major wing with good size, a nice-looking shot and some athleticism to do damage off the dribble.
Finally, not many were talking about Kraag, but I love the 6-foot-6 wing’s long term potential. Even though he’s listed in the class of 2020, he doesn’t turn 17 until October and has a baby face. I’d like to see what happens if he did a year of prep and prepared as a 2021 prospect. He’s fluid, has some feel and looks like a late-blooming high-major wing.
