Ben Rubin, 11.1.17

NBA Role: Secondary Offense, 3-D and little P

Strengths: Basketball Intelligence. Understands concept of team and how his individual skills can fit within on both sides of the ball. Height-length-combo. Very good college defender at both team and individual level. Defends without fouling. Positional Versatility on defense. Role versatility on offense as Milton can dribble, pass (5.6 assists per 40 pace adjusted) and shoot from three. (42.4% career three-point shooter with 134 made threes through two years of school.) Excellent decision maker. Rarely makes mistakes (2.5-to-1 Assist-to-Turnover ratio.) Solid enough in between game. (38% on Two-Point Jumpers on 150 career attempts.) Rare combination of skills at size.

Weaknesses: Not a sudden athlete. Lacks first step athleticism. Doesn’t get all the way to the rim. (Just 23 unassisted makes at the rim last year, not including putbacks, less than one per game.) This explains why Milton shot less than 50% from Two-Point Range last year. Can get beat individually on defense.

A Further Note: It’s very rare for players to be 6’6” or 6’7” with Milton’s combination of dribbling-passing-shooting skills. Though the profile is somewhat hit-and-miss for players without a top notch NBA first step. Brent Barry, Khris Middleton, late career Shaun Livingston (not the shooter, but similar size as a guy who can see the floor), Nick Calathes, Denzel Valentine, Reece Gaines, Caris LeVert, Royce O’Neale are some lower volume comparables. Steve Smith, Sean Elliot, and Klay Thompson are the volume scoring versions of this type of player. So volume and success are something to look for this year in gauging ultimate potential and likelihood of Milton reaching that level. Two things to note in comparison with these players. Firstly, that Milton by far the best of any of these players at avoiding mistakes while still making things happen on offense at the college level. Secondly, that Milton projects to be a better defender than all of them besides perhaps Barry, Middleton, Calathes, Livingston and Thompson. It’s the combination of defense, off-the catch shooting, decision making and understanding of team that should give Milton a fairly high NBA baseline.