December 4th

Rafael Castro’s strong combination of finishing, passing, defense, and rebounding has always made him very intriguing as one of college basketball’s most well-rounded big men. This has been the case whether he was a freshman at Providence or a junior at George Washington. As a senior in his second season for “GW George” this year, Castro has somehow improved in all of these categories. He’s increased his assist-to-turnover ratio, block rate, steal rate, and defensive rebound rate, all while continuing to finish a strong 64% of his two-point attempts. All of these statistics land Castro at or above the 85th percentile in each skill.

Castro has even improved on his one weakness before this year: free-throw shooting. While he got to the line many times thanks to his physicality, he converted an average 64% of his free-throw attempts last season. This year, he’s both increased his free-throw attempt rate to 101.4 and his free-throw percentage to 75%. Among bigs, those numbers rank in the 100th and 90th percentiles, respectively. Without a real hole in his game, Castro is one of the nation’s most impactful bigs and the NBA draft’s most underrated prospect.