Three Small Freshman Guards That Could Make a Big Splash
Small guards face have an uphill battle in pursuit of upward movement on draft boards in the modern NBA. Tahaad Pettiford, John Mobley Jr., and Christian Anderson could overcome the odds.
It’s a tough time to be a small guard with NBA aspirations.
It seems like every season we see how much NBA teams and scouts value the flexibility that players with plus positional size offer to a roster. This rings especially true the deeper that you get into the playoffs, as teams can game plan ways to take advantage of smaller players on the defensive side of the ball.
Take a look at the 2024 NBA Finals, and you’ll see that Kyrie Irving and Payton Pritchard were the only sub 6’3” guards to step onto the court.
That’s not to say that sub 6’3” guards should necessarily start hunting for prime real estate along the Spanish coast. Just a few short months ago, Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham were both taken inside the top ten of the 2024 NBA Draft despite measuring below 6’2”.
There are other examples.
Jalen Brunson has proven himself to be one of the league’s premier players, capable of performing deep into the playoffs without a drop-off. Even the aforementioned Payton Pritchard, has proven himself to be a valuable role player on the league’s best team despite his height and length deficiencies.
There are exceptions to every rule, but it’s definitely an uphill battle for smaller guards to play themselves into first round territory.
Seeing as the season hasn’t officially kicked off yet, there’s no better time to go out on a limb, so let’s talk three dudes who may have enough juice to overcome the end of Short King Summer.
Tahaad Pettiford | Auburn | 6’1” 175 lbs
Tahaad Pettiford is one of my favorite incoming freshman prospects. I’m not sure that there is another offensive scorer in his class who is as electric as Tahaad is when he has it going.
I had the opportunity to watch him in person for the first time during his junior season at the Hustle and Heart Classic, which took place at Roselle Catholic High School in New Jersey. Pettiford’s team of local prospects took on the YNG Dreamerz from the Overtime Elite. That OTE-branded squad was headlined by Alex Sarr, the number two pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, but was loaded with talent throughout the roster, as Sarr shared the court with the likes of Kanaan Carlyle, Izan Almansa, Bryson Warren, Jazian Gortman, Jaylen Martin, and Naas Cunningham.
Any guesses on who was the best player on the floor? That’s right: Tahaad Pettiford.
Pettiford was getting to any spot on the floor that he wanted. He was burying NBA range threes, running in transition, finishing at the hoop, making plays out of the pick and roll, and he threw one of the slickest alley-oops I’ve ever seen in person to Virginia’s Elijah Gertrude.
Tahaad stole the show.
Bruce Pearl has shown a penchant for getting the most out of smaller scoring guards, so I think there is some reason to believe that Pettiford could play an integral role in Auburn’s offense this season.
The NBA game is about more than just putting on a show, so let’s break down those pesky measurements for a minute here. Pettiford is listed at 6’1” on Auburn’s website, but he’s probably closer to 5’11” or 6’ flat. Regardless, his height has never stopped him from creating his own offense at a high level. A coach at the Hustle & Heart Classic told me “Tahaad might be 5’11”, but he plays like he’s the biggest guy on the floor.”
Watch Pettiford for a few minutes and you’ll know there's truth in that sentiment. Pettiford walks around with the confidence that he is the best player on the floor. He’s usually not wrong. From the elite self-creation to the shot-making to the elite athleticism, Pettiford shares many stylistic similarities with Rob Dillingham.
A major aspect of Pettiford’s dynamism lies in his athleticism. Tahaad has elite twitch, bounce, and speed. If he has a runway, not only will he throw it down, but he may even put you on a poster.
That type of talent sounds great in theory, but ultimately, height comes into focus most at the next levels on the defensive side of the ball. Pettiford is great at causing defensive events in the passing lanes, and he has the athleticism and fluidity to stay in front of his man on the ball. However, there will always be limitations at his height that will cause hesitancy within front offices. There just won’t be much he can do when the Celtics force a switch onto Jayson Tatum.
The other question mark is how much of a focus Pettiford is willing to place on playmaking instead of straight scoring. Pettiford is capable of making slick reads on the court, but is definitely a shoot-first kind of prospect. Instant offense spark plug guys are valuable, but part of what made Dillingham so enticing early in last year’s draft cycle was his ability to balance his score-first mentality with sharp and efficient decisions as a passer.
Ultimately, if Tahaad is going to be a true one-and-done prospect, then his offense will have to prove dynamic enough that it makes up for whatever he gives up defensively. As we saw with Dillingham last year, that kind of scoring punch is valuable enough to get you drafted in the lottery. If Pettiford can score at a similar volume and combine that with elite efficiency, he may not just rise but explode up draft boards.
John Mobley Jr. | Ohio State | 6’1” 175 lbs
Every NBA organization is in perpetual pursuit of the next Steph Curry. While John Mobley Jr. surely won’t reach Top 10-to-15 all-time status, it's hard not to see Curry’s influence on how John “Juni” Mobley plays the game.
Mobley finished third overall in three-pointers made and first in threes attempted during his senior season in the Nike EYBL Scholastic league, pouring in 2.6 made threes a game.
Mobley isn’t just taking wide-open shots, either. The degree of difficulty in which he’s letting it fly bodes well for transitioning his game to the next levels. Mobley has deep NBA range, he can dance with the rock and create off the bounce, he’ll punish ball screens when defenders go under, and he can run off movement and shoot it off the catch. Mobley already provides a devastating amount of gravity, which warps the mapping of the court and makes guarding his team's offense exceedingly difficult.
In a league that values the long ball more and more each year, that kind of spacing at volume can be invaluable to an offense.
Mobley is also a really slick playmaker, patiently probing and taking advantage of how far beyond the three-point line the defense has to guard him to blow by his man and get into the teeth of the defense and force rotations where he’ll utilize quick drop-offs in the paint and sling cross-court passes to the weak side of the floor.
When I first watched Mobley, he was a string bean, but I’ve been impressed with how he has filled out his frame and added some weight. Mobley will have to continue to work on and tone his body as he needs to get to the point where he won’t be a defensive liability at the next level, as unlike Pettiford, Mobley doesn’t have the same athletic juice to become a defensive playmaker.
Still, Mobley’s shooting and shot creation may prove valuable enough to make teams throw some of the defensive concerns on the back burner.
Christian Anderson | Texas Tech | 6’2” 165 lbs
Texas Tech incoming freshman Christian Anderson Jr. exploded this summer during the U18s. Running the show for Germany and helping lead them to the Gold, Anderson was sensational, averaging 20 points, five assists, and two rebounds, and earning a spot on the All-Star Five team alongside Ben Saraf, Hannes Steinbach, Savo Drezgic, and Urban Krolific.
Offensively, Anderson is a bucket, and he plays with real wiggle. He can go deep into his bag to create a shot in isolation but is also a cerebral playmaker and shot-maker out of ball screens. The kid is not only a real-deal bucket, but also a real-deal shooter. He connected on a blistering 45.2% of his threes in Nike EYBL Scholastic play, many of which were tough shots off the bounce.
When you watch him operate with the ball in his hands, he just looks like he moves around the court the way NBA players are supposed to move.
The Oak Hill product is listed at a slight 6’2” and 165 pounds on the Red Raiders website. Those lb’s do give some cause for concern regarding his future NBA projection, as his weight in particular makes defending at the next level a pretty uphill battle. However, Anderson’s wingspan does look noticeably long, hopefully mitigating some of the long-term defensive issues. With those concerns in mind, Anderson is a pest on the defensive side of the ball. He finished sixth in steals per game at 1.8 in the Nike EYBL Scholastic league.
Any way you slice it, Anderson was an elite player in the EYBL Scholastic League during his senior season at Oak Hill, he was an elite player during FIBA play this summer, and he’ll have the opportunity to build on his strong amateur career to show he’s a high-level prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft Class this season.