Magic 8 Ballers: The Many Ways of Otega Oweh
Each year, Kentucky's Otega Oweh has found a new way to grow his game. What has Rowan Kent seen so far from the 2026 draft prospect and what does he need to see this year?
Gone are the good old days of scouting college basketball players like we used to. In its place is something different, just as exciting and thrilling, but quite distinct despite the same color schemes. If you’re holding your breath for the days of draft classes full of one-and-done players flanked by veterans who only wore one jersey for their career, I’ll make sure to put a pillow behind your head for when you pass out.
The way I approach scouting has changed over the past few years. Part of that is undoubtedly the massive shifts in college basketball, but equal pressure has come from the NBA side of the ball. It’s just as important to think about why fewer players are declaring for the draft after their freshman year, for example, from a professional perspective, as it is to consider their earnings in the college ranks.
To oversimplify, NBA teams have become more picky about what they look for in prospects and how quickly they expect them to get there. It’s harder to be a project at the NBA level, given the impatience of coaching staffs on an artificial clock from their perpetually hot-seated GMs. That’s left returning college players, more than any other subsection of prospects, as the ones with the most to lose if they return to college and can’t maintain a clear developmental trajectory.
That’s what makes a player like Kentucky’s Otega Oweh so interesting to consider from a draft context. He’s a clear star at the college level, but he took the long way to get there. Has he finally shown enough on his journey to break through to the next level? In my mind, he has, but he’s had to go through several distinct iterations to get there.
To properly evaluate Oweh’s game, I peered into my Magic 8 Ball and considered the many ways that Otega Oweh’s game has grown over the years and where it could still go from here!
Quick Shakes of the 8 Ball
If it seems like Otega Oweh has been in college for a while, you’re not wrong. Sure, it’s become much more common for players to stay in the collegiate rankings given their potential payouts. Still, Oweh has faced off against some current NBA stars in his career, spanning the then-Big 12 Oklahoma Sooners to the SEC Kentucky Wildcats.
Oweh’s path to college was a bit more demure than some of the prestigious high school careers, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t wildly successful there. Oweh starred at Blair Academy in New Jersey, earning himself four-star recruit status on the way to helping Team Final win the 2021 U17 Peach Jam title, alongside a star-studded squad including Jalen Duren and Dereck Lively II.
Oweh didn’t have as much buzz as his star teammates, but he attracted the eye of various college programs before choosing the Oklahoma Sooners. Under Porter Moser, Oweh started his career as a spot substitute for the team, only starting nine games as a freshman and having more flashes of his raw athletic potential as a two-way slashing wing than any sustained substance.
Instead of a slump, Otega Oweh had a sophomore surge that cemented his place on early draft radars. An improved scoring package, semblance of a jump shot, and a destructive steal rate all powered Oweh into a starring role for the Sooners. His combination of disruptive hands on defense, hard cuts to the rim on offense, and a premier physical profile for a wing meant that, once Oklahoma’s season ended, Oweh was a coveted transfer target.
With an offer to play at a basketball heritage site like Kentucky that was too good to pass up, Oweh transferred to the Wildcats and joined Mark Pope’s first team in blue and white. Despite being one of nine incoming transfers, Oweh paced the team in points and steals per game while taking on an outsized role. He took on a larger share of offensive possessions, hit clutch shots, and earned enough buzz to test his mettle at the NBA Draft Combine.
Instead of opting into the uncertainty of the back end of the draft, Oweh chose to return to a retooled Kentucky roster and try to win a championship. Given his pattern of growth, it’s fair to both look forward to where Oweh can take his game with another year in Lexington under his belt, but also to wonder what more he can show at the college level to convince NBA teams that he’s worthy of a first-round selection.
Occult Offense
While I’ve never followed this format in a Magic 8 Ballers column before, the most instructive way to break down Oweh’s game is to do a year-by-year approach. It hasn’t been linear, as there are still numerous places where Oweh can improve, but the leap from where he’s been to where he is now is worth breaking down step-by-step.
So, skill-by-skill, what are the many ways that Oweh has improved on offense? Well, from his freshman year to now, there has been a lot of room to grow. When he came to Oklahoma, the main draw of Oweh’s game was his athleticism. If you were building a wing player from the ground up, you’d probably start with a fluid leaper who can dunk with ease, glide from sideline-to-sideline, and one who stands at 6’4” with a 6’8.5” wingspan.
As a freshman, Oweh contributed to the Sooners through his athletic gifts. By the numbers, he was not a high-impact player for Oklahoma as a freshman. Sure, Oweh boasted a prolific 5.4% steals percentage, but had a ghastly 0.16 assist-to-turnover ratio, shot 1/5 on three-pointers, and made a measly 45.3% of his 64 layup attempts, per Synergy.
When I looked at Oweh’s offense as a freshman, I wasn’t impressed by much of anything. His issues finishing through contact were difficult to watch; he often drove into a sea of bodies to earn a charge, and the mechanics were one of the wonkier in recent memory. It’s not surprising that, despite his gifts, Oweh was nowhere near draft boards as a first-year college player.
It’s impressive, then, that over the course of an offseason, Otega Oweh got back to playing his game like he did for Team Final. As a sophomore, the story on Oweh was utterly different. He was no longer a non-threat on offense; instead, Oweh’s efficiency on both two-pointers and three-pointers increased, despite more than doubling his attempts in both categories. Alongside an improved A/TO ratio, Oweh ranked second in scoring for the Sooners in his sophomore season.
So, how did he do it? The first significant improvement came in his shooting. Yes, Oweh went from shooting just five total threes as a freshman to a still-small 53 attempts from deep, but simply the willingness to shoot more made him a more threatening offensive player. It didn’t hurt that, with a more fluid form, Oweh canned 37.7% of his long bombs. At this stage in his development, given the sample size and his still-unorthodox form, Oweh’s shooting was more of a find than a reliable tool.
Oweh’s release as a sophomore was much faster, but he still brought the ball too low and had a noticeable hitch in his release. That truthfully hasn’t changed much at Kentucky, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. In my mind, the stats didn’t tell the whole story of Oweh’s shooting jump, given that he hadn’t fixed enough outside of his footwork and release timing.
Honestly, as a finisher, I felt similarly unconvinced of Oweh’s growth from year one to two. I can’t act like it doesn’t matter that Oweh’s percentage on layups, per Synergy, jumped nine percentage points up to 54.3% while doubling his attempts. Yes, that growth is impressive and represents a step forward. Still, I’ve intentionally only included Oweh’s layup percentages over his overall rim numbers, given the confounding variable of his dunks.
It may seem counterintuitive to not include Oweh slamming 20-of-22 dunks as a sophomore, but the vast majority of those were transition opportunities where it was one-on-none. That’s a credit to Oweh’s disruptive hands-on defense, but, as a scout, it makes Oweh’s rim shooting percentage of 59.6% ring more hollow.
On tape, several of the same problems that Oweh had as a freshman were still present as a sophomore. He still had a good bit of trouble finishing through contact or over taller defenders, as he didn’t display a high degree of touch on his shots. Oweh also didn’t get much better as a driver, still throwing himself into situations where he was buried under bodies in the paint.
There were some more positive passing signs for Oweh, as he was able to bend defenses a bit more and hit some skip passes to corners or dumpoffs to bigs. However, he still boasted a troubling 0.54 assist-to-turnover percentage as a secondary ball-handler. If you’d asked me at this juncture whether I could ever see Oweh becoming a leading offensive weapon, I’d have said no.
That’s why Oweh’s play at Kentucky was encouraging for his overall versatility on offense and his potential in the pros. Oweh led the Wildcats in scoring in their Sweet Sixteen run, taking command over an entirely rebuilt offense. Beyond his simple scoring increase, a few key indicators made me more bullish on his potential.
The first one was the continued improvement of Oweh’s shooting outlook. It may seem odd to list that, given Oweh’s percentages dipped to 35.5% on his threes, but it speaks more to his consistency: he took more shots, shooting a relatively similar percentage on deep looks. Instead of his sophomore season at Oklahoma seeming like a fluke, it gave credence to the idea that Oweh has improved his shooting, even if his form leaves something to be desired.
I’m not ready to crown Oweh a full floor-spacer, but he’s shown the type of development that makes me willing to believe he can get there one day. There have been a handful of great NBA wing athletes who have seen their careers stall without a consistent shot, which will be Oweh’s most significant hurdle to clear. Luckily, it looks like he’s put in the work and has already seen fruit, as he improved his free-throw percentage to 77.6% at Kentucky as well.
It wasn’t just his shooting, however, that caught my eye. Oweh posted a positive A/TO ratio for the first time in his college career. Outside of that, Oweh’s low 9.8% turnover percentage, coupled with team-leading 26.7% usage percentage, indicated that Oweh had evolved into a positive decision maker with the ball in his hands.
On tape, it’s easy to see where the change in stats has come from. No longer does Oweh drive blindly into a waiting defense; instead, he’s much more likely to keep the ball moving quickly or make a quicker decision after starting his drive. Oweh ran pick-and-rolls for the Wildcats, which is something that would’ve seemed more far-fetched while he was at Oklahoma, but it's a major testament to his growth that he was able to bend defenses in this manner.
With a semi-reliable shot and a positive passing game, the scouting report on Otega Oweh is much more rosy. He can fly in transition or off of cuts, can hit shots from deep, and has expanded his game as a passer and driver to the point that opposing teams can’t take advantage of him. All of that rolled together sounds like the making of a future NBA wing.
Maybe I’m a skeptic, then, because I still worry about Otega Oweh’s finishing. At Kentucky, he shot 60.5% at the rim, but once again, his percentages were built upon dunks. He slammed down 47 jams, which is a ridiculous number, plus there were more in the half-court off of cuts, lobs, and handoffs than ever before. Thus, I’m not going to entirely discount Oweh’s slams as a legitimate way to generate easy rim looks for him anymore.
Instead, I remain worried about Oweh’s shooting on layups. For a guy with great vertical pop and horizontal burst, Oweh still struggles to finish over rim anchors and help defenders. He doesn’t have good touch at the basket, whether it’s in his floating attempts over players or his double-pumped lay-ins.
That’s the last frontier for Oweh for me as an evaluator and what I’ve primarily been looking at in his early goings-on as a senior. Sure, if his shooting percentages were to tank or his A/TO once again finished under 1.00 over the season, I’d be worried, but the last place that Oweh needs to improve to capture a drafted future is his finishing.
It’s hard to take much from playing Valparaiso and Nicholls State, even though Oweh’s turnover problems are creeping up, and his shooting has been dead-on from deep. Still, his middling performance versus Louisville speaks more to the consistency that Oweh still needs to demonstrate on offense before I can confidently claim he’s that type of player.
If he were to right the ship and stay the same player, I’d feel just confident enough to endorse Oweh as a future NBA player based on his offense. He’s got the athleticism needed to stand out on the wing at the highest level, has improved as a shooter enough to keep defenses honest, and can no longer be exploited as a ball-handler. I’d still like to see another season of positive turnover play from Oweh before I call him a positive playmaker, however. The finishing will be the ceiling capper for Oweh, as defenses could force him off the line more often, but even without it, he still has enough to warrant some NBA minutes for a wing-needy franchise.
Inside Scoring Package: Cannot Predict Now
Outside Scoring Package: Outlook Good
Passing/Ball-Handling Package: Reply Hazy, Try Again
Defensive Divination
Despite Otega Oweh being a better defender than an offensive player in my eyes, this section will be a bit shorter than my deep dive into his four-year offensive growth. Why, you may ask? Well, in honesty, there are fewer questions to answer for Oweh on this end. Defense was the first thing that got Oweh on the floor at Oklahoma, and it’ll be what gets him onto an NBA court once he makes his way there.
Let’s start back at the athleticism for Oweh, because it’s the crux of his impact on defense. There have been many draft prospects of wild athleticism who don’t leverage their wingspan and tools to make an impact on the less glamorous end of the floor. That’s far from the truth for Oweh, who has always had a dogged attitude as a perimeter defender. He’s willing to take on the most challenging assignments, harries ball-handlers with his length and positioning, and is often the first player to the floor for a loose ball.
The biggest weapon that Oweh can deploy as a defender is his ability to rob opponents blind. He had a standout 5.4% steal percentage as a freshman, but has followed it up with a pair of still-respectable 3.4% and 3.1% seasons. I give Oweh a pass for the steals percentage going down, given his increased offensive load, though I’d hope it can go back up in the pros once he has the ball in his hands less.
What makes Oweh dangerous to be around for opposing players is how many different ways he can blow up a perimeter play. Oweh jumps the passing lanes with the speed of a dragster, earning him a lot of highlight run-out dunks, but he doesn’t excessively gamble on these plays. He’s just as content to slide his feet and use his chiseled frame to wall off drives before jarring the ball loose with his off hand. Oweh also has excellent timing on reaching in on a double team, making him a threat to generate a steal whether he’s on the ball or not.
Steals percentage is one of the more consistent indicators at the college level for how good a player will be in the pros, which is the first feather in Oweh’s crown. To look deeper is to enjoy a menagerie of positive plays over several years, as Oweh has remained consistent in his defensive effort and approach throughout his career.
At Oklahoma, Oweh was still the primary defender for the Sooners despite his offensive emergence. He helped to slow down Isaiah Collier in an early season, harried Keyonte George, gave Elliot Cadeau against UNC, and also swatted Kevin McCullar Jr., to name a few of the victims of his defense. It speaks well to Oweh’s work on that end that he had to face NBA talent every night in the Big 12 and still earned his keep as a recovery shot blocker.
At Oklahoma, per Synergy, Oweh held opponents to a 40.7% shooting percentage at the rim on 25 attempts and earned a “Very Good” ranking for his defense on catch-and-shoot attempts. It’s rare to find Oweh out of position on defense, as he knows the schemes well, has quick reflexes, and uses his size to bump players off their intended paths.
At Kentucky, where the offensive load has only gotten heavier, I’m still impressed by how hard Oweh works on defense. He’s still the perimeter stopper for the Wildcats, which makes me less worried about opponents finishing better in the paint against him. That’s not where he’s going to be making his impact.
Instead, it’s the fact that Oweh upped his block percentage to 2.1% and held opponents, per Synergy, to another “Very Good” rated 28.3% on jump shots, that moved the needle further for his defense. It comes a bit less frequently given what he does on offense, but Oweh is still as uniquely primed to be a terror on defense as he was for the Sooners.
It may sound like I’m giving him a pass, but I’m not going to write off Oweh’s defense as a senior if it starts to dip below its level in the past. Three years of strong evidence with proper context will hold up better than a potential down year, if one even happens. Oweh hasn’t lost a step on that end, so this olive branch is purely hypothetical.
More likely is that Otega Oweh will keep kicking butt as a perimeter defender and earn himself a calling card as a stopper for pro scouts. He’s already going to be one of the higher-ranked defenders on the wing for me in this draft class, which will give him a specific niche that teams could explore, especially given that Oweh doesn’t give up as much on the other end of the court to ballast his stellar defense.
Perimeter Defense: It is Decidedly So
Interior Defense: Cannot Predict Now
Team Tasseography
Evaluating Otega Oweh’s career from a collegiate context is a tale of two successful cities. He grew up into a prospect under Porter Moser at Oklahoma, but also chose to spread his wings and soar for the Wildcats at Kentucky. While his leap from freshman to sophomore year was key to his development, Mark Pope’s help in Lexington has arguably been more critical for Oweh’s career prospects.
That’s why his role this year on the Wildcats is worthy of further consideration. Just like last season, when the Kentucky team flipped its entire rotation, Oweh is once again set up to be a lead dog in a pack of hungry newcomers. Denzel Aberdeen, Jaland Lowe, Kam Williams, and Mouhamed Dioubate will all play featured roles, while Jayden Quaintance will likely do the same and more once he’s back from his knee injury.
That’s not even counting the freshmen and international players like Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno, and Andrija Jelavic, all of whom project to be solid college players in their careers. More so than last season, where Oweh played with Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Kerr Kriisa, and Koby Brea on the perimeter, the offense will likely lean on Oweh to create shots for himself and others.
That’s a tall task, as Brea and Robinson’s joint gravity certainly opened up the floor for the Wildcats last season. That, alongside Amari Williams’s high-post passing, powered Kentucky to rank seventh in points scored per game in Pope’s first season. I don’t know if that same offensive output is in the cards, given the roster turmoil, but it’s not going to be for a lack of total talent.
Instead, with a retooled roster, I see a different vision for Kentucky and Otega Oweh this season. We’ve already seen a more egalitarian approach on offense early, as the team has seven players in double-digit scoring alongside Lowe and Jelavic chipping in about six points a game each, too. That’s not counting Kam Williams, who has yet to heat up after scoring 9.3 points per game for Tulane on 41.2% from deep, nor is it including Quaintance, even though his impact is more pronounced on defense.
Defense in particular may be more of a focus for Mark Pope’s squad this year, as the team, per BartTorvik, ranked 42nd in adjusted defensive efficiency last season. That’s a fine number, but it's a bit outside the usual territory of a title contender in college. One can see in the transfers chosen —Quaintance to Williams to Diabate— that Pope is leaning more toward defense this season.
Otega Oweh, alongside his backcourt mate Collin Chandler, fit perfectly into that mindset, and it may even be a blessing in disguise for Oweh to lean back into his defense the year before he tries to go to the NBA. It’s more typical for him at the next level to not be the center of offensive attention, which will give him more time to lock in and lock down on the defensive end.
Thus, I’m going to be looking less for major statistical improvements for Oweh at this juncture in his career and more at the context. This Kentucky team doesn’t need Oweh to score, which frees him up to have some off nights while also being the perimeter demon he is on defense. It would be a significant boon for his stock if he becomes a two-way terror with a loaded roster around him, but I instead think Otega Oweh will look more like his NBA future this year than like a college star.
The Final Shake
So what might that future be? It’s mainly in the eyes of the beholder when considering his role. If he were to step onto an NBA floor tomorrow, Otega Oweh could certainly play some minutes. He’d play rugged defense on the perimeter, run the floor faster than most, and out-leap opposing players for rebounds and dunks. With his improved shooting stroke, he may even hit a shot or two.
Unlike with other players, where I opine about their ceilings and what they could be, I’m not sure Oweh has any untapped potential left. With three seasons in the books, I think we’re seeing who Oweh can be at his peak, despite continued growth in college. There isn’t enough evidence to say that he can grow into a high-volume sharpshooter, a slippery driver to the rim who finishes at a high clip, or a playmaker who can bend a defense to his will with his handle and passing chops.
Instead, Oweh profiles as a clear role player at the NBA level for many of his median outcomes. That’s no slight to him, as he could have a similar role to players like Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Christian Braun, or Josh Okogie. All of these players signed free-agent deals that reflect the value of their archetype, as NBA teams will always need reliable perimeter defenders who can hold their own on offense.
My personal favorite comparison for Oweh’s career would be Kris Dunn, who took a much more winding route to becoming a perimeter stopper for the Clippers. It took some stints in the G-League, an acceptance of his offensive woes, and an improvement to his outside shot for Dunn to become the player he is today, but who he is now is who I could see Oweh being early in his career.
With multiple eight-figure deals under his belt and consistent playing time for a winning team, Dunn’s future would be a positive outcome for Otega Oweh. He won’t be the same star he is for the Wildcats once he makes it to the NBA, but he’s already shown he has many ways to be successful. That speaks well to this being the year Oweh takes and makes the leap into the NBA, where he can play an early role suited to his many talents.