Justin Edwards 2024 NBA Draft Profile

Justin Edwards 2024 NBA Draft Profile

We are roughly 24 hours away from the 2024 NBA Draft. It’s almost here! With that said, today, we are continuing our draft profile series with Kentucky wing Justin Edwards , a former top player in the Kentucky class who had an even campaign. Without further ado, let’s dive into it!

Height: 6’6 (6’10 wingspan, 8’6.50″ standing reach)

Weight: 209.4 lbs

Draft Age: 20.5

Position: Wing

Edwards was the No. 3 recruit in the country–including the top forward–in the 2023 recruiting class, behind only Ron Holland and Isaiah Collier , according to 247Sports. The five-star recruit heralded out of Imhotep Institute in Philadelphia, Penn., where he averaged 17.9 points and 7.5 rebounds as a senior after help lead his team to a Class 5A State Title as a junior. He was a McDonald’s All-American and was the MaxPreps Pennsylvania Player of the Year in 2023.

He was Kentucky’s top recruit among the three top-6 and four top-25 names to sign with the Wildcats–others being Aaron Bradshaw , DJ Wagner and Rob Dillingham , a projected top-20 pick. Though it was an underwhelming season for Edwards after lofty expectations. He averaged just 8.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game, shooting 48.6 percent from the floor with a 58.2 true-shooting percentage.

Let’s dive into some of his strengths and weaknesses, shall we?

Strengths:

Edwards was a fairly low-usage wing (18.7 USG%) with Reed Sheppard , Dillingham and Antonio Reeves getting the primary ball-handling reps in Kentucky’s offense. While he didn’t provide a substantial impact–relative to the aforementioned trio–he stood out to me as a spot-up shooter. He made 36.5 percent of his 6.5 triples from 3-point range, including 46.8 percent from distance in his final 18 games.

His opportunity shrunk as the year went along, but he became a more viable 3-point threat on decent volume. He loved getting to the free-throw line area to rise up when he attacked closeouts. His mechanics and gather on his jump shoot were fluid and smooth with good balance.

To go along with that, Edwards did a decent job relocating off-ball and moving into open space for his playmakers to find him. He didn’t stand in just one area and wait; he looked engaged offensively without trying to compromise spacing, even though he didn’t have the ball in his hands a crazy amount. Given his high school pedigree, I respect him taking the backseat role.

Weaknesses:

Edwards is a one-dimensional ball-handler–he only went left. That’s going to be on the opposing team’s scouting reports by, say, the seventh game as a pro–whether he’s in the G-League or the NBA. That’s a red flag.

There were very few times he went to his right, and when he did, he would either immediately flow into a pull-up or do a combination of dribble moves to get back to his left. He had decent acceleration off the catch, but didn’t have any overwhelmingly great counters when he couldn’t go to his primary hand. He also didn’t have many on-ball reps, which may hurt his immediate offensive upside if he’s not a prolific spot-up threat.

Edwards improved his overall play throughout the season, but the flashes were still more inconsistent than what was expected in this context. He wasn’t a great rebounder for a player with his size and length, either, generating a 10.4 defensive rebounding percentage and an 8.6 total rebounding percentage.

Projection: Mid-Second Round

I have no idea what to think about Edwards, but what I will say is I wouldn’t take him in the first round. He’s got the upside and talent, but he was also a player I thought would have benefitted from an extra year in college. I think he’s best suited for a 3-and-D role with good upside. I want him to be in a good developmental system that will iron out his shortcomings.

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