After both Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter declared for the 2019 NBA Draft on Monday, their teammate and fellow national champion, Kyle Guy, made the same announcement on Tuesday.
As Guy posted on Twitter, he plans to hire an agent — like Jerome and Hunter, too. And while he plans to make a serious push for the draft, Guy did leave the door open for a possible return. Hunter is a lock for the draft lottery, and could easily land inside the top 10 picks in this year’s event; Jerome, on the other hand, is a fringy first-round talent, depending on who you ask. (I tend to believe his offensive game is enough to merit top 25-30 prospect status).
Beyond blessed. Very excited for this journey. 5 out ❤️ Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this!!! pic.twitter.com/EBSspocjcj
— Kyle J Guy (@kylejguy5) April 16, 2019
(An interesting note, too: all three of these guys — Hunter, Jerome and Guy — are a part of the same 2016 recruiting class. It feels like this could be a historical class for the coaching career of Tony Bennett. And let’s not forget, the fourth member of that group, Jay Huff, has stretch 5 NBA potential, too.)
Guy, however, is much further down the prospect ladder; he has until May 29 to withdraw from the draft if he so choses. That said, he’s still a really good player and he offers at least one elite skill: movement shooting.
The 6-foot-2 has played in 106 games during his three seasons at UVA; in that time, he’s collected 1,323 career points (12.5 per game, 55.2 eFG%). In the 2018-19 season, he averaged a career-high 15.4 points per game and shot 42.6 percent on 3-point attempts (8.4 3PA per 40 minutes).
Over his 106 career games, Guy has splashed 254 3-pointers (42.5 3P%). After leading the ACC with 194 off-screen points as a sophomore in 2017-18 (56 eFG%), per Synergy Sports, Guy took his game to another level.
According to Synergy, Guy scored 1.14 points per possession (58.4 eFG%) coming off of screens this season. In total, he finished with 190 off-screen points, which again led the ACC. And he did all of that while Virginia revamped its offense — straying from its vintage mover-blocker approach and going with more continuity ball screen and inside triangle looks.
Guy excels at moving without the basketball. It’s not just that he’s a good shooter, which he obviously is; the junior wing also knows all of the dark arts needed to set defenders up and come flying off screens. He needs only a small window to get that jumper off.
Overall this season, Guy posted a true shooting rate of 61 percent, which is really freaking good. He also ended with an effective shooting clip of 61 percent off half-court catch-and-shoots this season, too, per Synergy.