Terquavion Smith is a sophomore Shooting Guard from Greenville, North Carolina, coming out of Farmville Central High School. He was one of if not the best player on the team in each of his two seasons as a member of the NC State Wolfpack. He is a really intriguing prospect that could be excellent value for the team that drafts him next week.
Terquavion Smith 2023 NBA Draft Profile
College Career
Smith had a pretty good two years in college for the Wolfpack. He was their main scorer on their NCAA tournament team this season and led the team in both points and assists. As a freshman, he was an ACC All-Freshman team member, and this year as a sophomore he earned All-Conference honors as well as making the ACC All-Tournament team.
Strengths
Smith has a ton of offensive talent. He is clearly a great scorer. He averaged 17.9 points per game this season as a sophomore, up from 16.3 the year before. He can make space and both create and make shots from all over the floor. Those can be all kinds of shots too. From midrange pull-up jumpers to shots in transition, to three-pointers.
Smith is a pretty good ballhandler and didn’t commit very many turnovers during his two collegiate seasons. He also has good footwork and controls his body well. In addition to that, he got better as a passer this season. His assists per game average almost doubled, going up from 2.1 to 4.1 per game. He did a better job and missed fewer open shooters than he did as a freshman. He can also get you steals on the defensive end. A lot of that comes from his athleticism.
Weaknesses
One of Smith’s biggest weaknesses is his lack of strength. While he does have average physicality, he needs to improve his strength. He has not added much to his lean frame. Smith does not have enough of the strength that he needs as a combo guard in the NBA right now. At only 165 lbs. he would be one of the lightest players in the league. He really isn’t a point guard and is a bit undersized to play shooting guard. If he puts on some muscle that would really help him.
Perhaps his biggest weakness is his shot selection, which needs a lot of improvement. Way too often he settles for bad shots or forces ones up that he doesn’t need to. He shot 33.6% from three-point range this year, and his shooting percentages fell across the board this year as a sophomore. There were 10 games this year in which he shot 30% or lower from the field. His tendency to be a streaky shooter and to settle too much has hurt him, not only with his shooting percentages but also hurt his draft stock a bit.
NBA Player Comparison
Bones Hyland. Hyland is an undersized combo guard with similar traits to Terquavion Smith and who has had a solid start to his NBA career. The difference though is that I think of Bones as more of a point guard than a shooting guard, which is the opposite of Smith. Another comparison that I like is Immanuel Quickley. Quckily is also a combo guard who is a little undersized but is a good scorer like Smith is.
NBA Draft Projection
At this time a year ago he was a potential lottery pick. But now it seems more likely that he goes mid-to-late first round. He could fall to the early second round, but I don’t expect that to happen.
