We have covered the cream of the crop in the 2018 high school class plenty so far. Although Duke was without Tre Jones and Cameron Reddish during their Canadian tour, it was exciting to catch a glimpse of RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson sharing the court as teammates for the first time. We’ll continue to analyze these four über-talented recruits, and Kentucky’s trip to the Bahamas has provided plenty of film to watch for their incoming recruits. Meanwhile the North Carolina Tar Heels are preparing for their own Bahamas trip — Nassir Little’s rapid rise up draft boards over the past 16 months is the big draft story for UNC, covered in depth in Cole Zwicker’s phenomenal profile.

So I thought it would be appropriate to cover some of the incoming freshmen that haven’t gotten as much attention as the ones mentioned above. Whether they are simply underrated, have lacked publicity, or missed time due to injury, all of these guys deserve more attention than they’ve gotten so far. This is my attempt to increase the awareness around them and hopefully start their bandwagons before they fly up draft boards over the next year.

I. Simi Shittu

When Shittu went down with a torn ACL in late December 2017, he was largely considered a top five player in his class. However, as he missed the rest of his senior year and other prospects emerged, Shittu stumbled down the rankings and finished as the eleventh recruit in 247’s composite ranking. It would be silly to undermine something as serious as an ACL surgery — we’ve seen players like Harry Giles underwhelm during their freshmen seasons after suffering such ghastly knee injuries. However, while Giles suffered from chronic leg injuries, this is Shittu’s first injury, and players of his age frequently seem to regain the physical capabilities they displayed prior to their ACL surgeries. Despite the injury risk, Shittu’s upside makes him a worthy candidate for placement in my pre-season top 15 and perhaps even higher.

Shittu is easy to compare to Denver Nuggets draftee and former Kentucky Wildcat, Jarred Vanderbilt. Like any comparison it’s imperfect, but it’s not hard to see the broad similarities between the two. Despite sharing health concerns, Vanderbilt is a lesser prospect, even at full health. While his passing vision and handling fliudity is impressive at his size, Vanderbilt lacks Shittu’s strength, straight line quickness, and especially shooting touch.

Vanderbilt finished his freshman season with an abysmal 42.6 eFG% and wasn’t much better in EYBL, where he shot 48.7 eFG% as a rising senior. Furthermore, he shot 38.6% from the free throw line in the AAU circuit. Even when combined with his 38 attempts at Kentucky, he still shot only 46.3% from the line. Shittu meanwhile shot more than 55% on free throws as both a rising high school junior and senior in the EYBL, had an eFG% just above 58 in 2016 and over 61 in 2017. Where Vanderbilt averaged just 18.6 points per 40 minutes in his final AAU season, Shittu put up 24.9 points per 40 that year and over 30 the following season. This isn’t meant to bash Vanderbilt, but to show how talented Shittu is, and how effective and promising other aspects of his game are.

Shittu isn’t only an interior threat, though. He created many opportunities and shots out of face up situations. CIA Bounce, Shittu’s AAU team, loved running “Iverson cuts” to get Shittu to the elbow, where he’d be able to separate from the defender before catching the ball, and then would simply use his superior first step and powerful frame to bully and glide his way to the rim. Nearly every defender that Shittu went up against was either too slow or too weak to keep him in front.

While Vanderbilt’s biggest strength is his vision and playmaking creativity, Shittu isn’t at the same level. But he is a well above average passer, who is unselfish and capable of setting up others in both transition and half court. He hasn’t shown the ability to make complex reads off the dribble but he is very good anticipating help defenders when he gathers himself in the paint and can legit run fast breaks as the primary ball handler.

Similar to Vanderbilt, Shittu is a high intensity rebounder who did lots of damage on the offensive glass during his AAU career. He is high-wired in transition play and is quite a threat in open court situations, often beating big men up the court and physically dominating smaller players.

Defensively, Shittu is capable of switching onto some wings and shouldn’t have much trouble with lateral mobility and the stop-start agility required to successfully contain modern pick-n-rolls. He has shown some shot blocking acumen, with the ability to chase down guys for highlight swats and the anticipation to execute blocked shots at the release point of shot attempts. That said, Shittu is more inclined to stick with his guy and focus on man to man defense than to understand help defense principles. This is a common issue in AAU, where so few players make anything but the most basic help rotations. Nevertheless, Shittu needs to becomea true force as an interior team defender, not just an opportunistic shot blocker. He clearly has the athletic ability to be a force defensively and flashes natural feel and instincts. It’s notoriously tough to evaluate the defensive ability of prospects at this level, but at the very least, Shittu seems to be on the positive end of the spectrum.

At 6-foot-9 with a 6-foot-11 wingspan and only 6 three pointers made in 21 attempts in the 559 minutes he played in his final EYBL season, the biggest question for Shittu is whether he has the size to play center or the skill to play power forward at the highest levels. I tend to place less weight on ideal positional size, so I’m more optimistic about Shittu’s ability to play the five, especially as the NBA continues to downsize in the coming years. Still, a more reliable jump shot would do wonders for his stock. Otherwise, the biggest weakness in Shittu’s game is footwork and balance, especially in the paint with opponent defenders around. He lacks polish on his post moves and is mostly a straight line driver out of face ups. To this point in his career, he has either been stronger or faster than most of his opponents. As the quality of the competition continues to rise, he will need to add variety to his offensive arsenal. Even on cuts and putbacks, he tends to lose his footing in tight spaces and ends up having to get rid of the ball in a wild pass or shot attempt as he tumbles to the floor. This leads to many turnovers and lost scoring opportunities. As a shooting non-threat, defenders play Shittu for the drive, and his questionable balance ends many paint possessions in a negative manner. Shittu averaged more than 5 turnovers per 40 minutes in his final EYBL season with CIA Bounce and ended up with an assist to turnover ratio below one despite his impressive passing.

Even considering those deficiencies in his game, Shittu is underrated coming into the year– partly because the injury is overstated and partly because he was unable to appear in the all-star circuit and hasn’t played a single game of basketball in 2018. Short memories are all too common in prospect evaluation, as is a disproportionately emphasizing recent events. With this in mind, I am hopeful that Shittu will quickly regain his deserved position within the class once college play begins.

If you’d like to see some video examples, feel free to let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

II. Kevin Porter

While Porter isn’t as highly ranked as Shittu, he has gotten plenty of hype recently and is probably the least underrated among this group. He had a strong senior season at his decorated Seattle high school, Rainier Beach, and flew up the rankings during practices for the Nike Hoop Summit. Porter wasn’t officially part of the rosters for the event but with several US players going down with injuries, he participated in the practice scrimmages to fill out the teams. A few weeks later, he also appeared in the try outs for USA’s FIBA u18 squad and talent evaluators again came away impressed with his performance in the scrimmages.

Unfortunately, footage for those events is unavailable to the public and footage from Porter’s final season with his AAU team is also scarce, so I was left with mostly games from his senior season in high school. I also watched one of Porter’s games in the 2016 Peach Invitational. It was a good contrast to the current state of Porter’s basketball ability, a glimpse into how far he has come over the last few years. Mostly a streaky spot up shooter as a rising junior, Porter has come a long way with his handle, as his patented step back elbow jumper is much smoother and more compact in recent footage than it once was.

The most obvious difference between Porter’s most recent film and his 2016 film is the work he has done with his body. While he had a solid frame as a 16 year old, it looks like he has been in the weight room non-stop since. The muscle and strength he added has allowed him to be more coordinated and effortless in his movement on both ends and he has unlocked much of his athletic upside over the past year.

Porter’s highlight “mixtapes” are as impressive and mesmerizing as top prospect’s, and it’s easy to see why his physical ability is so highly regarded by scouts. He makes it look easy; he glides up and down the court and explodes off his feet with almost no hesitation or “load up”.

It’s hard to imagine Porter pulling off many of the moves from the clip playing in his periphery role next to Daejon Davis and Jaylen Nowell in 2016 EYBL. The maturation he went through physically, whether through work in the gym or natural progression, has made him one of the most dangerous slashers and open court players in this class.

While Porter has also made strides as a shooter, his mechanics still leave a lot to be desired. He releases the ball from around his neck and the top of his shoulder, in an unnatural motion that leads to some bad misses and a flat arc that takes away from his touch. He shot 24-70, 34.3%, on three pointers in 2017, a very solid percentage in AAU. Yet his 68% free throw shooting (66% in ’16) and the eye test cast doubt on his future as a jump shooter.

It is truly unfortunate that I was unable to find film from his final AAU season. While plenty of games from his senior season are available, he was easily the most talented player on his team and played a ridiculously voluminous offensive role, not likely to be indicative of his future at higher levels. From what I remember watching him live in AAU, he was played more off-ball and even spent some time as a small ball 4. Despite his 6-foot-5 height, his body and explosive vertical leap may allow him to continue playing the 4 in smaller lineups. Perhaps most importantly we have little context and stipulation for his future as a defensive player. Although Rotary spent most of their time in a zone, Porter was much more active and energetic on that end on the travel circuit than in high school.

It’s fair to attribute some of his poor defensive play to the high usage role he played on offense, not to mention that he deliberately kept himself out of some defensive sequences over foul trouble concerns. Still, Porter has always had a broadly lethargic approach and swagger in instances where he isn’t directly involved in the possession. He looks especially relaxed and lackadaisical in off-ball defensive possessions. Until we see him in the more intense and organized environment of D1 basketball, it’s hard to say whether this is a real issue that implies lack of motor or it’s simply his character and ambiance that gives off a false feel of comfort. Porter did make several high energy defensive efforts from my scouting of Rotary in 2017, after all.

Porter makes these plays seem easy, but the quickness and explosive power needed to complete it requires a lot of exertion and athleticism. The question is whether he has the natural anticipation and grasp of positioning needed to consistently utilize that athletic ability on the defensive end.

While the jury is still out defensively, the most outstanding shortcoming gleamed from his high school play is his shot selection, tendency to over dribble and general decision making offensively. Again, this is somewhat understandable considering his role and supporting cast but it is something that he had some issue with in the AAU games I watched also. The lack of feel is at times apparent, as Porter wasn’t able to discern driving lanes in half court sets and often attempted overly complicated handling exhibitions among a crowd of opponents. Combined with his penchant for falling in love with long twos, there are certainly reasons to be uneasy about his upside. Players with high level physical abilities that lack anticipation and a knack for quick effective decision making are often the ones that get overvalued in Porter’s age group. Still, at this point, I feel that Porter’s physical talent is special enough to overcome that predilection, especially since his feel is likely not as bad as the demanding role he played as a high school senior would suggest.

III. Coby White

White is as complete a scorer as there is in this class, including the likes of RJ Barrett and Romeo Langford. Barrett struggles to consistently create efficient looks in the half court and exhibits loose ballhandling, perhaps his biggest weaknesses at this point. Langford is longer than Coby but lacks some of the same balance on quick turns, changes of direction and twitchy changes of speed. Romeo may be the “smoothest” prospect of recent years, but his poor posture limits his balance and causes some awkward drives and missed opportunities. White has better shot selection than Langford and while he is worse at making difficult shots, he may be a better pure shooter. Whichever way you lean in that debate, I think it would be dishonest to say that White is not at least nearly the most complete scorer in the class.

At this point, his biggest weakness is considered to be his poor wingspan measurement. Despite a solid 6-foot-4 height, the lack of length limits him to the dimensions of an NBA point guard, and taller players can simply shoot over the top of White. While it would be foolish to dismiss that, White has shown enough willingness, positioning, and technique to not be projected as a defensive liability. Donovan Mitchell has a much longer wingspan than White but was severely under-drafted in 2017, in some part due to his height. We shouldn’t totally disregard measurements, but I do feel like mainstream consensus places too heavy an emphasis on ideal positional size.

White may also still develop into a point guard. He has played a score first role in every context I’ve seen him in, but he is much further along as a ball handler and slasher than Malik Monk was at the same stage, and basically as good playmaking for teammates as 2018 draft pick Collin Sexton. I expect White to play the 2 at North Carolina while his AAU teammate, Leaky Black, plays PG on O but matches up with wings defensively with his 6’7 height next to White. But next to a wing who can take on the primary creator role, such as James Harden or Kevin Durant or even a future version of Donovan Mitchell, I think White could handle a nominal PG role in the mold of George Hill or Patrick Beverley. White isn’t as good of a defender as those two but could easily develop into a more well-rounded offensive player.

Here are a few clips from a recent game of his.

White already has the handle and balance to execute some NBA level self-creation. His body needs work, but he appeared to have added some muscle at FIBA u18. His ability to make passing reads is also a work in progress but it should be expected to improve–it’s only a question of how much.

Finally, here are some clips of White knocking down jumper after jumper in a live play scrimmage leading up to this year’s McDonald’s All-American game.

IV. Mike Devoe

Upon a cursory look, it’s easy to see why DeVoe isn’t more highly regarded. He was the star on a Nike South Beach AAU team that was relatively devoid of other hyped names and made his mark with a steady, unspectacular style that lacks the athletic displays that help so many other high school prospects rise to prominence. His efficient production went mostly unnoticed in the EYBL and many talent evaluators noticed his game during his time as a senior at Monteverde.

Alongside RJ Barrett and company, DeVoe played more of a supporting, off-ball role, which led to his classification as a particular archetype. At 6-foot-3 in shoes with just average length, Devoe lacks the physical tools to be a full time off guard. He showed enough as a skilled, smart decision maker to see his name climb in recent recruiting rankings but is considered by many to not be dynamic enough to take on a larger role in high major basketball. However, this year’s Georgia Tech team badly lacks offensive talent and I expect Devoe’s shifty quickness to surprise a lot of people, similar to a smaller scale version of Trae Young’s high usage onslaught with the Sooners last year. With his quick, compact mechanics, Devoe is already known as a dangerous jump shooter, both off the catch and the dribble. The exposure provided by the ACC will allow him to show off his self-creation, passing vision, and mature decision making.

Questions about above the rim finishing and defensive consistency will remain and it would be imprudent to call him a surefire one and done. At the same time, there is some possibility of him reaching those heights. DeVoe should be able to show himself as more valuable than his current mainstream stock would suggest, while making his hopes for an NBA future a much more feasible proposition. Skilled, smart players who’ve shown the ability to contribute in multiple contexts and seem to almost always make the right play often surpass expectations. It’s a mold that fits so well for DeVoe and almost surely makes him underrated.

V. Josh LeBlanc

LeBlanc is currently ranked outside the top 100 according to 247 consensus and there are questions about him ever playing in the NBA at all, let alone being a one and done. However, LeBlanc’s statistical indicators at the Under Armour Association were some of the most impressive among this class and it is easy to see why. Around 6-foot-7 with a wingspan close to 7 feet and impeccable sense of anticipation and timing, LeBlanc is an energetic defensive menace who can successfully defend in a variety of situations. He makes the most impact as a rim protector but he has enough agility to contain many wings and runs the floor hard to deny guards transition lay-ups. He is also a smart, unselfish passer and, while his shooting volume and percentages aren’t particularly encouraging, he shot the ball confidently in the games that I watched, with a slow but fairly fluid release form.

At his height, he’ll need a lot of work on his shot in order to have a chance of playing at the highest level. Still, a player with a high motor and basketball IQ like LeBlanc is one that’s a good bet to eventually outplay his perceived value. As LeBlanc continues to develop his offensive skills over the next few seasons with a rebuilding Georgetown program, I wouldn’t be surprised to see his name emerge on the NBA’s radar and to eventually hear it called at the draft.