Position: PG (Alabama)
Age: 19
Height: 6 ft 3
Weight: 170 lbs
Wingspan: 6 ft 6

The Sales Pitch: Kira Lewis is a 6-foot-4 point guard with wild north-south speed and blow-by ability off the dribble, coupled with a pure off-the-dribble stroke. The ability to get by your defender and the ability to make pull-up threes are the single two most important skills a guard needs in today’s NBA. Kira is also a good, improving passer — by his second year, he was throwing frozen ropes left handed after bending defenses with his speed. He is a solid (if inconsistent) defender too (for a skinny kid) with good length, who still has upside on that end. Kira came to Alabama as an incredibly young freshman and showed clear improvement from year one to two, and he’s still younger than most of the lottery now: there is significant upside left. In this class he is the only point guard with the combo of pull-up shooting, blow-by athleticism, and willing passing that you see out of almost every star guard in the NBA.

Check out The Strickland’s 2020 NBA Draft Big Board here!

Elite Traits/Skills: North-south top speed with the ball both over long distances and short ones (i.e. both in open court and short bursts), catch-and-shoot 3-point shooting.

The Devil’s Advocate Argument: Mans is like 170 pounds (and not a strong 170) and is gonna get bodied by his fellow point guards regularly, not to mention every other position in a switch-heavy NBA. He offers up space when he’s defending face-ups and post-ups preemptively for no reason, and his technique over screens resembles Elfrid Payton or DSJ at their worst. If you watch his reactions, you would think every screen was a Jason Maxiell hockey check. These same strength issues show up in his drives and finishes — for someone who is lightning fast, he doesn’t get to the line at all and avoids contact. Those few wide open straight line drive jaunts that he created and feasted on at Alabama are gonna be less common in the NBA. He’s also not the most intuitive game manager, despite having some passing flashes: he passes primarily out of his gravity, not because he has good vision. Do you want to use a lottery pick on a point guard who is, at best, destined to be good but not great and potentially a gigantic mismatch target in the playoffs forever?

The Misconceptions: Not much here, but I’ve heard some people compare him to the last full-court laser point guard in the draft, De’Aaron Fox, and it’s worth noting that while they both definitely can beat NBA players down the court with the ball, Fox is also explosive vertically and is pretty strong, where KLJ is not an above-the-rim finisher at all.

Important numbers:

• 44%: His 3P% over the last 11 games of the season before the pandemic hit.

• 89th percentile: Spot-up shooting rank

• 79th percentile: Off-the-dribble shooting rank

• 57%: 3P% from the corners

• 31%: 3P% above the break

• 47%: His ghastly FG% near the rim

• 93rd percentile: Transition scoring rank

Knicks Fit: Would slot in as a well-fitting potential lead guard, though I don’t think he is so good right now that there wouldn’t be a competition for the starting PG spot between him and Frank (or another free agent acquisition). Shooting would let him play off of another PG too, though. Either way, he’d bring sorely-needed lead guard playmaking and athleticism.

Educate yourself on some other potential Knicks: Killian Hayes, LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Onyeka Okongwu, Devin Vassell, Isaac Okoro, Patrick Williams, Grant Riller, Obi Toppin, Aleksej Pokusevski, Deni Avdija