Juwan Staten: Phoenix Suns 2015 NBA Draft Profile

Weaknesses

If you just read the next paragraph and nothing else, it’d be pretty easy to see why Juwan Staten isn’t a first-round prospect, and pretty easy to see why he could go undrafted:

Staten is 23 years old. He doesn’t have outstanding size or length. He doesn’t have an above-average jumper. He’s dealt with a knee injury. He regressed (statistically) in his senior year. He’s the 82nd ranked prospect on Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects list. He’s not ranked in the top 100 on DraftExpress’ list.

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Now, to be honest, I think a lot of the rankings stuff comes from the fact that he did have a knee injury, in addition to not being much of a three-point shooter, but I do think he’s being overlooked.

I think you could do a lot worse than Staten as a ~10 minutes per game, plug-in player, especially if you could get him with one of the last few picks of the draft, or as a free agent, but I also get why he is in the position that he’s in.

Staten is really small, and he could be bullied around by pretty much any NBA guard. Best-case scenario, Staten could turn into a variation of Isaiah Thomas, with a little better slashing and a little worse shooting potential, and that isn’t exactly exciting. And then you consider that conditioning could be one of his biggest strengths, and he’ll probably never get to exhibit it, and it doesn’t look like an ideal situation for anyone.

But then again, the guy was a top-three candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year as a junior. He made the All-Big 12 First Team twice, and the All-Big 12 Defensive Team once. And even in his “down” senior season, he had his fair share of big moments.

I think he’s at least deserving of a shot on an NBA team, but only time will tell.

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