Philon's handle is tighter than I remember, and it gives me more confidence he can play PG at some point. His ast/to ratio is the best of any of the Freshman pgs and although he isn't the most creative passer, he's still very good and potentially held back a little by playing with who he did.
His defense will be good enough to keep him on the floor and offensively he has a floater and can catch and shoot well enough to allow him time on the floor to expand his game.
He's 100% the player type that I like, so he'll be much higher on my board than he might deserve, but I think he's a good enough bet to improve over time that I'm comfortable with it.
The thing that keeps me from getting super hyped about Philon isn't his offense, it's actually his defense. He just doesn't have the length or bulk for me to project him as a top level defender in the NBA.
- He's probably the best pickpocket in the draft and has takeaways from a lot of the best guards in this draft class (Harper, Kas, Tre, Pettiford, Fears, Clayton, Chaz)
- But sometimes as he gambles for picks he gets beat off the dribble.
- He works extremely hard on/off ball and is good at anticipating where to be on defense.
- He isn't strong enough to adsorb contact and so he can't get his chest in to guys as they drive and gets thrown way off track by hard picks (although he is pretty good in general at anticipating picks and avoiding them).
- He's not afraid to mix it up inside, but he's not really strong enough/long enough to be effective at switches on to bigs.
I think he'll be a very good defender once he adds some bulk/strength, but I'm guessing it's going to be a few years until he gets to that level.