Tyler Smith: NBA Draft Profile

College: Tennessee

Class: Junior

Position: SF

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 215lbs

Accolades: First Team All-SEC (08), Honorable Mention All-American - AP (08), Third Team All-Big Ten (07), Big Ten All-Freshman Team (07), Third Team Freshman All-American - CHN (07), Tennessee Mr. Basketball - high school (05).

Scouting Report: A jack-of-all-trades.

Strengths: Versatile - can play inside or out. Decent rebounder for a small forward. Great passer/playmaker for his position. Great at drawing fouls. Experienced - played three years of big minutes in major conferences. Very good athlete. Explosive leaper - gets way up and attacks the rim. Physically strong player. Can absorb contact and still score. Solid post up game. Hard worker. Battles on the court. Solid defender.

Weaknesses: Age - will be 23-years-old before the start of next season, limiting his upside. Needs to improve his outside shot - hits less than 30% of his three-point attempts for his career. Played a lot of power forward in college - too small in the NBA to do that. Needs to improve his ball handling. Tweener - too small for NBA power forward and doesn’t possess all the skills necessary to play on the wing.

Projected 2009 Draft Range: Late lottery to late first round pick.

Consensus: Tyler Smith’s toughness, versatility and athleticism certainly help his NBA chances. But to truly stick around he’ll have to improve his small forward skills (ball handling, shooting) to prove he isn’t stuck between position in the pros.