Indiana Basketball: Aljami Durham’s path to the NBA

Current Draft Stock: Undrafted (Unanimous)

As of right now, Al Durham is nowhere even close to being on draft boards, and I think it is unlikely he gets drafted. However, this series is intended to discuss players on the roster who have a chance of going pro. Although that chance is slim at this point, he did enter his name into the draft process prior to the 2019-2020 season to get feedback from NBA scouts. Players who have no shot at an NBA career don’t get to go through that process.

Likelihood of being drafted: Extremely Low

Durham would need to have a phenomenal senior season to get drafted even in the late second round. I’m talking something like a 16/5/5 season average. While this likely won’t happen, I think Indiana would benefit tremendously by having Durham take the reins like this. For some reason, It’s not impossible for him to achieve a season with those types of numbers.

Need for improvement

Durham has a decent offensive game in place. He lacks nothing but excels at nothing in turn. He is an efficient scorer (49% 2pt% and 38% 3pt%) but needs to show he can keep those numbers up at higher shooting volumes since he only averaged 6.6 attempts per game last season. Durham should attempt 10-12 shots per game next season for the benefit of both his team and his draft stock.

Durham also needs to show more assertiveness on offense. Indiana has well-known guard problems, and while Durham didn’t do much to worsen those problems, he rarely did anything to help remedy them.

Becoming a more confident and assertive scorer and playmaker would go a long way for Durham. Adding a step back would be a nice compliment to his already solid mid-range game.

Defensively, Durham has the body and athleticism to become a solid defender at the college level and potentially the NBA level. He still has room to improve, however, and needs to shore up all concerns on that end to have a shot to sneak into the second round.