Single Game Prospect Breakdown: Dillon Mitchell vs Baylor

Perhaps no college freshman has seen their draft stock take more of a hit than former No. 5 overall recruit Dillon Mitchell.

Mitchell is a hyper athletic, 6-foot-8 forward that played for Montverde Academy and seemed to be a prized recruit for the Texas Longhorns.

In the eight Montverde events tracked by Cerebro Sports Mitchell put up five gold C-RAM scores with his best performance being at the The La Porte Invitational: a score of 11.2.

Unfortunately for Mitchell, that production has simply not carried over to his freshman season, where he has an overall C-RAM score of just 7.0 and a very concerning point scoring prowess (PSP) of 48.

Mitchell, shooting 62% from the field on just 3.8 attempts per game, has not attempted double-digit shots in a game this season and does not have a game with more than three attempts since Jan. 11.

He has also not taken a single 3-point attempt this season and is just 46% from the free throw line on 1.2 attempts per game. And you can see where there are major questions about his offensive value in the NBA.

As our own Sr. NBA Draft Analyst at Draft Digest, Matt Babcock, explains it, “There are a lot of great qualities that Dillon brings to the table. However, he's not wired to be an offensive engine. And, considering that Texas features an offense built around guards Tyrese Hunter and Marcus Carr who are both assertive scorers, Dillon's role is pretty simple. He roams around the dunker spot, looking for dump-offs and lobs and crashing the glass for offensive rebounds and tip dunks. For the most part, his role requires the game to come to him, and subsequently, I think there have been times this year when he's gotten lost in the shuffle a bit and blended.”

Where Mitchell has been more impactful in his less than 20 minutes a night for the Longhorns is on the defensive end of the court. Cerebro Sports has him with a very good score of 82 on their defensive stats impact (DSI) metric.

Unfortunately, Mitchell only played 10 minutes in this game due to a tough fall at the start of the second half and ended with one field goal attempt and two rebounds.

Offense

In the minutes we did get from Mitchell we saw exactly what Babcock was speaking of, as he showcased some nice off-ball movement with cuts. You could see the vision of his impact in transition and the dunker spot.

It was also immediately apparent how aware Baylor was of him on the offensive boards to make sure they got a body on him for a box out.

The issue, as we have discussed, is that it just seems like very little of this actually turns into production for him or Texas.