Putting Faith in Brooklyn

Sean Kilpatrick scores. It’s what he does. He scored in college, he scored in the D-League; and now, in Brooklyn, he has found a place in the NBA where he can score some more.

Sean Kilpatrick was a four-year player at Cincinnati, where he scored, a lot. As a senior, the 6-4 guard carried the Bearcat offense, scoring 20.6 points per game en route to earning First Team All-AAC and Second Team All-American accolades.

Despite his collegiate accomplishments, Kilpatrick didn’t hear his named called in either round of the 2014 NBA Draft. Scoring ability aside, Kilpatrick was lacking several other important aspects.

First of all, he lacked youth. After spending five years at Cincinnati (since he redshirted as a freshman), Kilpatrick was already 23 when he entered the draft, a whole five years older than some of the other prospects in the draft.

He also wasn’t the most exciting physical prospect. At 6-4, Kilpatrick is a bit too short for the prototypical NBA wing, and he lacks the playmaking ability and ball handling skills to be an NBA point guard, falling somewhere in between, not a place an NBA hopeful wants to be.

The lack of size, athleticism, playmaking, and rebounding would prove to overwhelm his prolific scoring ability, and Kilpatrick was cast by the wayside.

After playing with the 76ers in Summer League and a short stint with the Warriors during preseason, he went to the D-League, splitting the season between time with the Santa Cruz Warriors and the Delaware 87ers. His first shot at the NBA came in March 2015, as the depleted Minnesota Timberwolves signed Kilpatrick to a 10-day contract. There he failed to make a substantial mark, averaging 5.5 points per game before returning back to the D-League after his contract was up.

This season, Kilpatrick’s second in the league, started about the same way his first did. Playing Summer League with one team, this time the Bucks, signing with a different team for preseason, this time the Pelicans, being waived, and then re-signing with the Delaware 87ers. He continued to succeed for Delaware, eventually earning a spot in the D-League All-Star game. But he also earned two 10-day contracts with the Denver Nuggets in January. Although Denver elected not to sign him for the remainder of the season, Kilpatrick continued to draw closer to finding a spot in the NBA.

In late February, the Brooklyn Nets signed Kilpatrick to a 10-day contract, and he didn’t disappoint. On a team lacking talent and punch off the bench, Kilpatrick was a breath of fresh air in his 10 days, highlighted by a 19-point performance on March 5th against the Timberwolves. His scoring earned him a second 10-day in Brooklyn and he continued to play well, routinely scoring in double digits, including back-to-back 19-point games, tying his career high from only a week before. Whereas the Nuggets didn’t offer Kilpatrick a new contract when his second 10-day expired, the Nets chose to sign him to a three-year deal, cementing him his first long-term shot at making it in the pros.

Kilpatrick continues to grow as an NBA player, and he set a new career high of 25 points only a few days after inking his new contract.

He hasn’t made a lasting impact anywhere but the scoreboard, averaging only 1.5 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game with Brooklyn. However, he doesn’t turn the ball over, and has shot lights out in the process.

Currently holding a 51/47/93 split, Kilpatrick’s shots don’t miss the hoop often. His sample size is surely small, but he is making shots at an elite level for the Nets.

Kilpatrick can get it done from anywhere on the court, as he possesses near-infinite range. He doesn’t get to the rim or the free-throw line too often, but he has converted 69.2 percent of his shots in the restricted area, and his 93 percent free throw shooting is obviously killer.

Shooting 50 percent from both corners, Kilpatrick thrives the most when he doesn’t have to create his own shot or even put the ball on the floor. 50 percent of his field-goal attempts have come after he has taken zero dribbles, and Kilpatrick has an eFG% of 66.9 on those shots. Even after taking one dribble, his eFG% drops dramatically to 50 percent.

62.8 percent of Kilpatrick’s shots have come with a touch-time range of under two seconds, where he has an eFG% of 62.3 percent. When he holds the ball for two to six seconds, that percentage drops to 54.7.

Already 26, the lack of ability to help a team beyond putting the ball in the hoop makes it difficult for him to find a successful role. He is quick over screens and deadly from beyond the arc, but he needs other players to put him in position to score.

Sean Kilpatrick will never have a huge market for his services in the NBA. Still, seven years after he stepped onto Cincinnati’s campus, the New York native has finally found a home in Brooklyn on the world’s biggest stage.