NBA Comparison: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander/Dennis Schröder

Strengths: Long, quick, athletic point guard with good scoring ability … Speed kills. Lewis is extremely quick and makes it difficult for opposing guards to keep him in front of them … Has a smoothness to his game … Pushes the ball well, utilizing good ball handling and great speed and fluidity … Has a lightning quick first step and shows very good ability to drive the ball … Great body control allows him to finish plays at the rim, as well as weave through traffic … Shows good ability to shoot the ball from deep, particularly in spot up situations … Developing a nice mid-range game … Shows an adept ability to incorporate floaters when he can’t get all the way to the rim … Has great experience for his age and is very young having turned 19 in April, with two college seasons under his belt … A good outside shooter with a solid, efficient from … Has a quick release and really does a good job of catching, squaring up and releasing quickly, and has shown that he can get shots off effectively even without much space to work with … Has great quickness, length and anticipation allowing him to jump passing lanes and produce a lot of breakaways … A fairly explosive athlete … Shows a great deal of potential as a defender due to his length and quickness … Great length. Measured with a 6’5 wingspan two years ago (at the 2018 USA Select minicamp) and there’s a chance he’s gotten an inch or two longer since … A very good athlete who routinely finishes breakaways with dunks … While he increased his scoring from his freshman year, his big jump in productivity came as a playmaker as he upped his assists from 2.9 to 5.2 … Efficient shooter/scorer from all three levels. Hit 36% from three in both of his seasons, shoots 80% from the line and connects at a solid rate from inside the arch … Very solid rebounder considering his lack of strength at 4.8 per game, showing his tenacity and hustle, surely giving his analytics projections a lift … Does an excellent job of driving and dishing … Has the ability to force the defense to react and collapse and finds open teammates well on the move … Shows the ability to extend drives with the Eurostep … A steady performer. Scored in double digits in all but 2 games …

Weaknesses:  Can improve in his ability to score from the perimeter in ISO situations … Most of his success from the perimeter comes from catch and shoot … Lacks polish in pick and roll game … His all around point guard play can improve as far as learning the nuances and controlling the tempo, which will allow him to become a better facilitator, granted he’s got a good deal of polish considering his age … Needs to add bulk to his frame at just 167 lbs, though point guards have proven to be successful with slight frames like Darren Collison … Lack of strength limits his ability to finish plays after contact as well as giving him less ability to play defense when the game gets physical … Despite his great physical make up, his defense still has a ways to go … He shows a great deal of upside as a defender, but still needs to learn to devote the same level of focus on that end of the floor … Will need to become better at limiting turnovers as he averaged 3.5 per game, though his a/to ratio was decent at 5.2 to 3.5 (a rate of 1.48) … Can get sloppy with the ball on drives, exposing the ball, and allowing it to be stripped … A solid playmaker for others but not someone that passes his teammates open or who sees plays a few steps ahead or regularly elevates teammates scoring ability …

Overall: Still appears to have a lot of potential left to develop, especially when considering his age … Has the potential to develop into a quality NBA starting point guard … While a solid athlete, as far as his upside goes, is a couple levels below the NBA’s most dynamic point guard athletes like Ja Morant or Russell Westbrook … Should get looks in the mid-late lottery and figures to be drafter somewhere in the mid-first round …

Notes: Measured 6’3, 165 lbs, with a 6’5 wingspan and an 8’5 standing reach at the Team USA U-18 Training Camp (in 2018) … Native of Meridianville, AL … Led Alabama to a 16-15 record as a sophomore averaging 18.5 ppg, and 4.8 rpg and 5.2 assists per game …

Aran Smith 6/3/20