Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Rashad Phillips to discuss why the Arkansas point guard – who is also Phillips’s nephew – being the first overall pick in June is not farfetched. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Advertisement
Video Transcript
He does so much off-ball where it’s like, oh, you could plug him in with Jokic in the Jamal Murray role, and he would work out immediately, right?
Like he can do both on-ball and off-ball.
So he has more to his game than just being an on-ball guy.
I think that alleviates some of the size concerns people have.
So let me piggyback off that because everything you said was very accurate.
And I want to get back to what Sean, Coach Sean said about the number one pick thing.
There’s two things I want to address here.
And this is just me as an evaluator.
This is not me as his uncle or as manager.
Advertisement
This is just me as an evaluator.
This is something I’ve been doing for 40 plus years.
I’ve been evaluating talent.
Even when I was a player, I learned how to evaluate talent when I was a little kid.
So what Coach Sean is saying, when you talk about the number one pick and Perk talked about it as well.
When you talk about the number one pick, it really is about what team gets the number one pick and what they need.
The NBA over the last couple of years, maybe over the last decade or two, is that they have started to use a lot of 6’8″, 6’9″ guys as wing initiators.
And I think that’s kind of hurt the half court offense in the NBA.
Advertisement
It needs to get back to drafting quarterbacks, guys like Acuff.
So I feel like he is the leader of the new school of that new generation.
And if the right team has the number one pick, drafting Darius Acuff Jr., it will go well because if you look at the history of point guards going number one, there’s a track record of them being successful.
Derrick Rose, successful, MVP of the league.
Kyrie Irving, successful, NBA champion.
Magic Johnson, I mean, I’m not going to waste my time telling you who he was.
I mean, you look at it.
I mean, you can, people who classify Cade Cunningham as a point guard, look what he’s done.
Advertisement
Like these guys that go number one, John Wall, they go number one in these draft classes and they tend to hit.
So saying that Acuff Jr. should be the number one pick depending on the team, that’s not far-fetched.
And to piggyback off what you just said that I agree with, Kevin, I’m going to give you a little insight on why he’s so good at so many things.
He’s a student of the game.
His father taught him how to study film and he has the ability to morph his game and his style into different players depending on the situation.
He can morph.
So if he’s playing a team where he has to play off ball, he can morph into Damian Lillard and play Damian Lillard style.
Advertisement
If it’s a team that it requires him to be an engine, he can morph himself into Chris Paul and play that way.
If he needs to just score at will and be dynamic, he can morph his game into Trae Young.
Darius Acuff Jr. is a basketball chameleon.
He can morph his way into different play styles depending on the team that drafts him or the style of play that he has to go up against.
That’s what makes him special.