After enjoying an immense half in a nationwide championship run, UConn freshman guard Stephon Fort is getting into the 2024 NBA draft, he advised ESPN on Friday.
Fort — No. 9 on ESPN’s record of High 100 prospects — is among the fastest-rising gamers on NBA draft boards and is predicted to push towards the highest of the lottery with the momentum of a dominant efficiency within the Huskies’ NCAA title season.
Fort has chosen brokers Joe Smith and Thad Foucher of Wasserman for his participant illustration, he mentioned.
Fort averaged 18 factors within the Huskies’ Closing 4 victories over Alabama and Purdue and had a mixed 10 rebounds, 5 assists and a pair of steals. For the season, Fort — a McDonald’s All American out of Covington, Georgia — averaged 11.1 factors, 4.7 rebounds and a pair of.9 assists per sport.
At first look, Fort’s attract to the NBA is instantly obvious. He possesses an elite bodily profile at 6-foot-6, lengthy arms and a chiseled 215-pound body.
Fort is an enormous guard who performs with distinctive tempo. He operates at alternating speeds and flashes intriguing court docket imaginative and prescient and creativity together with his passing off the dribble. He developed into probably the greatest defenders in faculty basketball, ordinarily tasked with slowing down the opposing staff’s finest participant. Fort used his size, body and quickness to hound opponents with intense ball strain throughout the Huskies’ run via March Insanity.
Amongst NBA executives, Fort earned discover for his willingness to embrace his function as a fifth possibility on probably the greatest groups in latest faculty basketball historical past, delivering high-level phenomenal protection, facilitating from static conditions within the half-court offense and bringing noticeable toughness on the offensive and defensive boards. He ought to be capable to compete for enjoying time virtually instantly within the NBA, largely due to his protection and well-schooled secondary playmaking prowess.
ESPN NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony contributed to this report.
