Take notice of the point guard from Louisiana-Lafayette.
University of Louisiana-Lafayette point guard Elfrid Payton is everyone’s favorite “sleeper” PG in the 2014 draft. The young man is long, agile, quick and fairly athletic. Although a junior he’s very young for his draft class, just a few weeks older than many of the draft’s highly touted freshmen like Joel Embiid. When you share the same surname of one of the NBA’s greatest floor generals of all time, you’re going to need some game to back it up.
Indubitably, Payton has the game to conjure comparisons to the former Super Sonics legend. While Gary Payton earned the moniker, “The Glove” for his stifling on-ball defense, Elfrid appears well on his way to earning one of his own. Elf hangs his hat on defense and might be one of the best perimeter defenders in the draft, giving even scoring professor Doug McDermott trouble in a match-up with Creighton. He is adept at using his 6’8″ wingspan in tandem with his impressive lateral quickness to drown ballhandlers in a spicy gumbo. Payton is also well versed in fronting opponents and using his impressive 35″ vertical to deny/intercept passes. Basically, if you’re looking for a lock-down PG with the size to guard most 2’s then look no further than this mini-fro’d menace.
On offense Elfrid is a patient, selfless player that looks to set up teammates off drive and kicks. He’s able to break his man down fairly regularly with shifty crossovers and an upper-tier first step. His handles are adequate but he has a tendency to be nonchalant and leave himself open for pickpockets. Perhaps the best indicator of future NBA success is the already impressive physical frame Payton possesses, enabling him to absorb contact and finish in the lane remarkably well. The only downside to his slashing game is he can become reluctant to go to the rim strong against the trees and can be too reliant on floaters, though he shows flashes of being an aggressive dunker when he sees the opportunity.
The most common NBA comparison to Elfrid you’ll hear is Rajon Rondo. This is obvious because like Rondo, Elfrid’s jump shot is atrocious. Even his free throw shooting is a paltry 61 percent for his NCAA career. That makes Rick Barry want to punch kittens in the face (in fairness, Rick probably feels that way more often than not). The three ball is even worse, sitting at a career 27 percent. Strangely though, his form isn’t horrible (he does kind of just hoist the ball at the rim) and encouragingly it sounds like he’s shooting well in workouts (grain of salt, everyone shoots like Dirk Nowitzki in workouts). Poor free throw percentage is usually a good indicator of shooting hopelessness however, and why Elfrid will probably be a lot closer to Tony Wroten than Rajon Rondo. His shooting is so poor that instead of, “The Glove” his nickname might as well be, “The Oven Mitt” because it is very heat-resistant.
His inability to buy a jump shot will greatly limit him in the NBA unfortunately as teams play off him and go under on screens, pleading him to hoist a rim bender. Even in college this became an issue and limited his team’s effectiveness in half-court sets. The good news is Payton has shown steady improvement over three years in college, in other areas at least. Rebounds, steals, and assists are all trending in the positive direction and with his youth and work ethic it is very likely he’s just scratching the surface of his potential. He will probably never be a knockdown shooter but if he continues to grow as a floor general and improve his passing, floor vision, and find a way to contribute on offense in non-shooting ways, the late bloomer might flower yet into a different Oakland PG legend, Jason Kidd.
NBA Comparison: Tony Wroten, Eric Snow
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