New Man on Campus: Liam McNeeley

Liam McNeeley is one of the best off-ball weapons in the 2025 NBA Draft and projects to be a perfect fit with UConnm.

Being an elite shooter in high school can be tricky. On one hand, it immediately sets players apart from their peers because they’re already demonstrating a mandatory skill that severely exceeds the mean. On the other hand, it also sets expectations at a level where anything less than what we’ve already seen starts to raise red flags, especially if there aren’t ancillary skills being shown. In the 2025 NBA Draft class, few players fit this conundrum more than UConn’s incoming sharpshooter Liam McNeeley.

McNeeley had a bit of a turbulent recruiting process after de-committing from Indiana and eventually choosing UConn. This isn’t meant as a dig at Indiana at all, but thank God this happened—because it’s tough to envision a better fit than McNeeley in UConn’s offense, which relies on a ton of ball and player movement. McNeeley isn’t a perfect prospect, but his combination of shooting, passing, and off-ball movement at 6’7” and 210 pounds should result in him being an easy first rounder, if not much higher, in the 2025 NBA Draft.

This is the time of the year when we need to get excited about prospects. We’ll dive into some of the improvement areas later, but not focusing on the fun stuff to start feels wrong. What better place to start than with McNeeley’s shooting?

Last year, McNeeley played with the Florida Rebels and Montverde and clearly emerged as one of, if not the, best shooters in the country. With the Florida Rebels, McNeeley scored 1.007 points per possession (PPP) overall (90th percentile), 0.933 PPP spotting up (73rd percentile), 0.91 PPP on all jumpers (75th percentile), and 1.00 PPP shooting off the catch (74th percentile), per Synergy. With Montverde, where McNeeley played more exclusively as an off-ball scorer, all of those numbers improved as he scored 1.205 PPP overall (94th percentile), 1.487 PPP spotting up (96th percentile), 1.35 PPP on all jumpers (93rd percentile), and 1.49 PPP shooting off the catch (92nd percentile). Elite shit.

McNeeley has effortless NBA range, a quick trigger, supreme confidence, and an innate sense of finding open pockets on the perimeter. UConn has produced a handful of elite off-ball shooters in recent years, but none of them have been just standstill shooters. Thankfully, neither is McNeeley.

Just to be clear, McNeeley isn’t the type of off-ball shooter who sprints off screens and knocks down ridiculous movement attempts. He’s shown flashes of competence, and his combination of off-ball movement and shooting off the catch suggests he can/will certainly improve, but we have yet to see that type of shooting from him. Just to further illustrate this, with the Florida Rebels, McNeeley took 13 threes when running off screens compared to 33 when spotting up. With Montverde, he took 13 and 68, respectively. As we can see below, there’s some really fun upside with this aspect of McNeeley’s game, but we have yet to see it at a meaningful volume.

If you’re expecting or hoping for McNeeley to have a Jordan Hawkins-type role on this team, I think you’ll be disappointed. Instead, think more of the Cam Spencer mold, where he’s a lethal spot-up shooter who can also use his off-ball movement to create playmaking opportunities. While McNeeley has yet to prove to be a consistent movement shooter, his sample size of creating for himself and for others in an off-ball role is plentiful.

With Montverde, McNeeley scored 1.000 PPP on handoffs (72nd percentile) while shooting 66.7% from two and scored 1.167 PPP on cuts (63rd percentile) while drawing a foul 16.7% of the time. When we include assists with McNeeley’s possessions, he generated 1.404 PPP (93rd percentile). While on lower volume, he also proved that he could occasionally operate as a second-side creator out of the pick-and-roll as he scored 1.313 PPP (98th percentile) and 1.316 PPP (96th percentile) when we include his assists. Even though McNeeley may not be the traditional movement shooter, his off-ball movement, floor mapping, passing vision, and awareness make him a deadly off-ball creator.

Having this already established set of ancillary skills is crucial for a few reasons. First, being a lethal standstill shooter alone isn’t good enough anymore. The game is too complicated, and there are too many moving parts to be a one-trick pony. Second, UConn’s offensive system is stunning to watch because of the read-and-react style that has a myriad of moving parts. To succeed in it, players have to know where everyone is on the court at all times and how they can properly exploit open areas. McNeeley has consistently displayed that he is more than competent at this. At his size, McNeeley is a good screener, lethal shooter, elusive mover, and fantastic decision-maker, which makes him and UConn a match made in heaven. Finally, NBA wings who consistently get minutes have to do at least two of shooting, dribbling, passing, and/or defending at a very high level. McNeeley has at least the shooting and passing down already. He’s also a very solid rebounder.

McNeeley’s offense is overwhelmingly fun, but there are two main areas where he is really limited. First, McNeeley can’t really create on his own. He has a mediocre handle and a lack of burst that makes him relatively easy to defend in isolation. Without a screen, McNeeley is relatively ineffective. With the Florida Rebels, McNeeley scored 0.88 PPP in isolation, which ranked in the 67th percentile. On the surface this is fun, but in these situations, he shot just 29.4% but drew a foul 32% of the time. With Montverde, McNeeley recorded only eight isolation possessions (not enough to qualify for percentile rankings) and scored 0.5 PPP.

The other area that could be a concern for McNeeley is the lack of a midrange scoring game. With the Florida Rebels, McNeeley shot 17.6% on 17 midrange jumpers compared to 33.7% on 89 three-point attempts. With Montverde, he was even more specialized as he shot 28.6% on just seven midrange jumpers compared to 46.4% on 140 three-point attempts. That is a wild disparity in shot distribution but not totally shocking, given the evolution of off-ball scorer’s shot attempts.

Those two areas are the biggest holes in McNeeley’s game, and they probably won’t matter all that much. Given his proficiency as an off-ball shooter and overall off-ball creation, McNeeley projects to be an ideal off-ball wing. There aren’t many situations where he’ll ever be given the ball and asked to create something. If McNeeley develops a great midrange game, it’d be fantastic but not necessarily mandatory. When defenders run him off the line, he doesn’t lose his effectiveness. Instead of pulling up from midrange, he either kicks it to an open teammate or attacks the rim. Last year, McNeeley shot 53.3% at the rim on 107 attempts with the Florida Rebels and 61% on 82 attempts with Montverde. McNeeley’s current lack of a midrange game is less worrisome, given his at-rim finishing and passing.

The only other area of concern with McNeeley’s game potentially comes on the defensive end. I’m anticipating that McNeeley will face criticisms for his defense all year, and I think they’ll almost certainly be overblown. The biggest concern is McNeeley’s lack of explosiveness and foot speed. There will be certain matchups that he just can’t keep up with and will get exposed. However, I came away pleasantly surprised with most of McNeeley’s defense. There were lapses, as there are with all high schoolers, but most of it was really good. McNeeley is a good defensive rebounder (3.2 per game with Montverde and 3.8 in AAU), has really good footwork, and is timely with rotations and switches. McNeeley likely won’t be a defensive stopper, but it’d be surprising if he couldn’t hold his own, especially as a team defender.

The key to McNeeley’s evaluation throughout this season is to evaluate him for who he is and not what we wish he could be. McNeeley likely won’t be a defensive force or an on-ball creator. That’s fine. Instead, Liam McNeeley projects to be a solid team defender, a good rebounder, and an elite off-ball offensive creator. In UConn’s system, McNeeley should thrive as a three-point outlet who can also attack closeouts, get to the rim, create for others, and make the right decision. Few players in this incoming freshman class showed as consistently high of a feel as McNeeley did throughout his senior year. At 6’7”, McNeeley projects as one of the best shooters and off-ball creators in the 2025 NBA Draft.