Kobe Bufkin: 2023 NBA Draft Scouting Report
Bufkin was sensational over the final month of the season. Is his well-rounded game enough to land him in the top-20 on draft night?
Every draft cycle there’s that one guy. That one dude who is a high-major prospect sort of hiding in plain sight.
Thanks to an explosive final five weeks of the season, Kobe Bufkin is no longer hiding. He broke out as a true draft candidate half-way through his sophomore season. From February 1st onward, he averaged 17.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on 52-45-89 splits.
Now, Bufkin is firmly involved in first-round discussions and might even be the best prospect on the Michigan team. He helps his team in so many different ways, both in terms of usage and impact. For a 6’4” combo guard, he was impactful across the board and in any metric you’d use to measure him.
So how high can Bufkin really soar? Can he sneak into the lottery as a do-it-all guard despite the multitude of scoring combos available in that lottery range? Can he become the best pro of the group and keep that upward trajectory up from the end of the season? Can he find a signature skill to hang his hat on as a scorer?
Right now, Bufkin is more of the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ guard. He’s got good size and athletic traits, a really projectable shot off the bounce or the catch, efficient finishing with both hands, and the quick hands and instincts to be a plus defender. Even while he’s been statistically impactful and flashed all those skills as positives, he doesn’t really have a signature skill or area where he impacts the game.
He’s not a proven high-volume creator for himself or others. He’s great around the rim, but the role he plays to get him there consistently isn’t defined. He’s shown good defense on most possessions but doesn’t scream ‘lockdown guy’.
More than anything, Bufkin is just a damn good basketball player. He’s a young sophomore who has played different roles in college and adapted well to them all. As he came into his own with the Wolverines over the final six weeks of the season, we saw a great deal of potential for who Bufkin can become if he consistently puts all those traits together. And that version of him is pretty damn good at basketball.