Miles Kelly: The Gambit of the 2023 NBA Draft
Miles Kelly is one of the best shooter in the country, why aren't we talking about him more?
I like Miles Kelly, and I think a lot of NBA teams could use a player like him.
I wanted to start my piece today with a statement because it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that scouting really does come down to the simple question of whether or not we think a player can play in the NBA. A player’s draft range then comes down to how good we think they’ll be on the next level and how much potential we see in them to be good, great, or above average.
When I look at Miles Kelly, I look at a guy who I think can positively contribute to an NBA team. I want to preface my piece by saying I don’t think he’s a superstar; I don’t think he’ll be a perennial All-Star caliber player. I think he has a defined set of skills that are highly valued by NBA teams and should be highly valued by us as evaluators. It’s no secret that the NBA loves shooting; think of terminologies like pace and space, 3-and-D, and NBA range: all these terms exist because of the importance and value of shooting. Miles Kelly is an excellent shooter, and that’s what I want to talk about.
This won’t be a full breakdown of his game like I usually do because when you look at NBA teams in the playoffs, for all the talk of versatility and adaptability, not all ten players on the floor are going to be good at everything. Teams are looking for an amalgamation of skills, sizes, and shapes that coalesce into a cohesive unit that is better than the other unit they’re facing. There’s not a single team in the playoffs right now that can throw out five guys that are good at everything. You need guys with different strengths and weaknesses that combine to create sweet music. I want to focus on Kelly’s shooting because I think it’s a major weapon that will be a part of a beautiful unit one day.
Back in the 90s, I remember watching the X-Men cartoon on TV and being amazed by how cool all the characters were. They all had awesome outfits and ridiculous powers, and some incredible voice actors voiced them. They also had one of the best intro songs ever; see below. I’ll never forget the voice of Gambit and Wolverine; they both sounded so damn cool. Thinking back on it as an adult, the show really embedded the need for balance in a team and how your strengths can cover another’s weaknesses.
Watching characters like Gambit, who looked so cool, but once in a while needed some help from Rogue. Or watching someone like Jubilee, who I thought added almost no value with her fireworks, go and do something good once in a while that helped the whole team. Seeing someone like Wolverine, one of the most vital members of the team, get picked up and consoled by Jean Grey, there was an equilibrium that made sense, a balance that was beneficial to all, and a value to each character, regardless of their flaws. The X-Men were a team of imperfect people who came together to create a team strong enough to kill purple robots taller than buildings.
Watching the X-Men and characters like Jubilee or Gambit helps you to understand that not everyone on a team can be a star. You need your role players; you need people with specific skills that are additive to the squad’s goal. As I watched Miles Kelly’s game, I couldn’t help but see him as one of these characters. I hate to start a player breakdown with negativity, but Kelly has flaws; I don’t think he has a very good handle, struggles to shoot off the dribble, and isn’t a lockdown defender. I’d like to see him work on these areas of his game. But just because he has some flaws, that shouldn’t take our eyes away from what he can do and can do at a high level.
If you didn’t know, Miles Kelly is a 6’4” guard from Liburn, Georgia, who just wrapped up his sophomore season at Georgia Tech. Kelly was one of the most efficient shooters in the country. He averaged 14.4 PTS, 3.4 REB, and 1.3 AST per game in his sophomore season. He had shooting splits of 41.0/37.9/89.9 per game and took 7.1. 3PA per game. The first thing that has to jump out to you is the 37.9% from three on 7.1 attempts per game. That is some serious volume and a nice shooting percentage from outside. When you turn on the tape, it’s all there; Kelly has deep parking lot type of range, can do it off movement, and did almost all of his damage off the catch.
Watch the compilation of his shooting below; you’ll see that the shot profile isn’t crazy diverse. Now, the profile of shots may not have been diverse; however, they were NBA types of shots. Coming off of DHOs, spacing out in transition, spacing out in the half court, coming off of pin downs, lifting from the corner off of drives, spacing out to the corner, these are all types of shots he’ll be asked to take and make in the NBA. Kelly did all that in college, from NBA range, with excellent efficiency.
Sometimes, evaluating players is so hard because you have to go off of tape from a lower level of basketball against lower competition, and sometimes players don’t do things to a high level against lesser competition. One of the scariest things you can do is grab a guy with tremendous athletic tools who didn’t produce at a high level in college and looks pretty to the eye. As I mentioned earlier, Kelly isn’t of that mold. Kelly’s measurables won’t astound you, and he probably won’t be competing with Cam Whitmore and Amen Thompson in the vertical jump test, but he will be able to flash some truly beautiful shooting.
When you look at Kelly’s build, he looks much like Tyler Herro. He doesn’t have the biggest frame, is skinnier, and doesn’t look physically imposing. He may look like Tyler Herro, but his game isn’t a one-for-one comp. Herro showed off way more juice off the dribble during his time in Kentucky and continues to show that in the NBA. Kelly is a floor-spacer, a guy you know will reliably be a threat from the outside and help create more space for your heavy-volume, ball-dominant players to cook. This sounds basic, but that’s a huge asset to teams with heliocentric stars.
The mechanics of his shot are crispy. He shoots an easy ball, has awesome balance, and can get balanced even off the move. I love the range he can shoot it with, and as I mentioned before, he took a lot of shots that he’ll be asked to take on the next level. He was not great at shooting off the dribble, but if he can get to average and focus more on one dribble and two dribble pull-ups, that’ll be more than enough for him to be an effective scorer. I thought he showed flashes of cutting to the basket, but I didn’t think he did it enough; leveraging the jumper into attempts at the rim would be awesome and also lead to more shots at the free-throw line, where he was awesome last season shooting a hair under 90% on low volume. Considering the role he’d be playing, it makes sense that he didn’t take a ton of free throws, but that’s something he can grow in. I know I said he wasn’t a freak athlete like Cam Whitmore and Amen Thompson, but he does have some athleticism to his game and flashed some of it when attacking the rim.
Kelly even flashed some passing chops and had several opportunities to run some pick and roll. He made some nice pocket passes and showed some vision, but I don’t think he has a tight enough handle to run pick-and-roll at a high volume on the next level. If the handle gets tighter, he could develop into a secondary or tertiary creator one day, but I imagine that’s probably not a likely outcome for him.
Kelly was a pretty average defender last season, according to the various rankings from Synergy Sports, but I wouldn’t say that defense is his calling card. I think a good comparison for him on the next level would be Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Corey Kispert. Kelly is such an elite shooting threat that I think he will be a viable bench option for many teams and could be a guy worth grabbing with a second-round pick or even as an undrafted guy. Kelly, could easily end up being a contributor to a playoff team like KCP and offer a ton of floor spacing and average to above-average defense. Another example would be guys like Gabe Vincent or Max Strus for the Miami Heat. Both guys came into the league pretty unheralded but found roles and currently play major minutes for the Miami Heat in the playoffs due to their ability to shoot.
I know this was a shorter piece than usual, but I don’t think there’s all that much more to discuss when it comes to Kelly’s game, and I don’t mean that in a negative sense. Some guys will come into the league with many layers to their game; Kelly will walk into the league with a tighter arsenal of skills. Regardless of how expansive his skill set is, what’s important is that his best skill is precious to NBA teams, and I can’t imagine teams looking at Kelly’s game and not being intrigued.