Kentucky small forward James Young is drawing comparisons to Bradley Beal and a young Ray Allen from the ESPN guys at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
The left-hander measured out at 6-foot-6 3/4 with a 7-foot wingspan. ESPN’s Chad Ford has him ranked as the third small forward in the draft behind Jabari Parker and Doug McDermott.
DraftExpress.com has him projected as the No. 15 pick to the Atlanta Hawks.
Young is not competing in the drills in Chicago and is only doing interviews.
“It’s definitely tough just out here watching everybody go to work,” Young told ESPN’s Andy Katz on ESPNU on Friday. “Just having a great time with it, but I’m out here to have fun.”
Young is known as a shooter, but he shot 41 percent from the field and 35 percent from beyond the arc en route to 14.3 points per game for the NCAA finalists.
“There was a lot of pressure on him to be the primary perimeter shooter on this team,” Ford said. “Kentucky, if they had a weakness this year, it’s that they didn’t really have great perimeter shooters on this team, which forced him to take a lot of shots that weren’t ideal shots or within rhythm.
“He won’t have to do that at the next level at the NBA. So when you combine size with what most scouts see in that form and see a guy who can be a 40 percent or higher 3-point shooter at the next level. Good athlete, not elite athletic, but good athlete.”
Fran Fraschilla pointed out that Young is the third-youngest player in the draft , “was very erratic” this past season and “has to tighten up some things.”
“He’s a good guy to have because of what he’s got that translates to the NBA,” he said.
While Ford and Fraschilla compared him to Beal, Jay Williams compared Young to a young Ray Allen.
Young has drawn criticism for his ball-handling and defense, and said he wants to show NBA executives he can excel in those areas.
“Just show that I can dribble with both hands and I’ve been doing a lot of ball-handling with two balls and stuff like that, so really a lot of ball-handling,” he said.
Young also said he believes he can be an “effective” wing defender with his long reach.
“Very effective, I have a long reach,” he said.
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
