December 4th

The trait that initially attracted us to Dante Allen before the season was his outlier feel for the game, paired with a strong frame and a 6-foot-7 wingspan. The combination of these three traits allowed Allen to pull many things off on the basketball court, namely accruing many assists, steals, and rebounds. While these skills may not be as flashy as deep three-point makes or poster dunks, they are absolutely vital ancillary skills that superstar scorers can often lack, but every team needs. These skills are also less subject to in-season variance than shotmaking, as they are much more stable. Together, we believed that Allen’s passing, defense, and rebounding gave him a high floor for impact regardless of his whether his shots are going in or not.

Through eight games, Allen has proven us correct. Currently, Allen’s assist-to-turnover ratio ranks in the 93rd percentile, steal rate in the 92nd percentile, and rebound rate in the 80th percentile among guards. Additionally, he’s leveraged his length, strength, and touch to convert a strong 52% of his two-point attempts, which lands in the 72nd percentile. Together, Allen’s ancillary skills and interior scoring have landed him in the top 20% of Box Plus-Minus impact despite making his threes at a suboptimal 32% clip to start the season. Once he inevitably begins making them at a rate similar to high school, Allen will definitively be one of the most impactful guards in all of college basketball, and firmly place himself on NBA draft radars.