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Is Hunter the next Klay Thompson?

To help readers get to know top NBA draft prospects, Insider offers a 360-degree look at many of them in a concise and thorough scouting report featuring three expert perspectives: Kevin Pelton (analytics), Fran Fraschilla (scouting) and Chad Ford (NBA front offices). Here's a look at Georgia State' s R.J. Hunter.


WARP Projection: 2.6 (seventh among players in the top 100)
Comparables: Chris Johnson (94.4), Marcus Thornton (92.1), Damian Lillard (90.7), James Anderson (90.7)
Strengths: Shooting, Steal%, Block%, TO%, PF%
Weaknesses: None


The analytics perspective

The concern about Hunter will surely center on an alleged shooting specialist making just 30.5 percent of his 3-pointers during his final college season. However, there's plenty of reason to believe that mark isn't indicative of Hunter's actual shooting ability.

If you're looking to predict how well a player will shoot 3s in the NBA, it turns out college 3-point percentage isn't the best predictor. In fact, it barely even helps the prediction at all, which instead relies on free throw percentage and the percentage of a player's attempts that come from 3-point range. Hunter scores high on both of those measures; he has made 88 percent of his free throws the past two seasons and took more than half his shots from beyond the arc. Based on those facts, we'd guess he'll develop into a 39 percent career 3-point shooter in the NBA -- second to Florida's Michael Frazier II among players in Chad Ford's top 100.