He ain’t done yet! Leaky Black is staying in the great state of North Carolina, at least in the short term. After going undrafted in Thursday night’s 2023 NBA Draft, Black signed a two-way contract with the Charlotte Hornets.
Black’s Tar Heel Career
Black had a standout career in Chapel Hill. Despite never averaging more than 7.3 points per game in a single season, Black started 129 of the 132 games he played in his final four years at North Carolina. While the Tar Heels struggled for much of his time on the team (they did not win a tournament game in three of the four seasons he was a primary starter), Black was a cog in the 2021-2022 team that made a surprise run to the National Championship game.
What Could Black Bring?
Black is one of the most talented defenders to come out of college in recent memory. We’ve seen guards with elite defensive pedigrees (Davion Mitchell comes to mind), but Black is a 6’9 wing who can guard any position on the floor. He has the quickness to stay in front of speedy guards while simultaneously possessing the athleticism and length to protect the rim.
Offensively, Black’s ceiling is that of a role player. I don’t believe he’ll ever handle the ball well enough to inspire teams to want to put it in his hands. With that being said, he is an adept cutter with good instincts around the rim. How impactful he is on that side of the ball will almost entirely depend on the development of his 3-point efficiency. He shot just 29.6% in his college career.
Why Was He Undrafted?
Black represents how North Carolina has failed at developing prospects recently, and why prospects seem to be more hesitant to make Chapel Hill their home. A player with Black’s physical profile and defensive acumen has no business going undrafted. In today’s NBA playing defense requires more movement than ever. A player off-the-ball is required to dig into the paint and show on a big man’s rolls to the basket, before recovering to the perimeter. Black profiles perfectly as a versatile defender in today’s league.
But Tar Heels’ coaching (Roy Williams for two years followed by Hubert Davis the last two) did very little to prepare him for the role he would potentially play as a professional. Black was never going to be a good enough shooter to be a tenable small forward in the NBA. His true position was always going to be at power forward. It would have been in his, and probably the team’s, best interest to pair Black and dominant center Armando Bacot with three shooters at least some percentage of the time.
Instead, almost the entirety of Black’s career was spent at small forward where he looked like a fish out of water. Once opposing scouts realized Black could almost be ignored on the perimeter, they forced the Tar Heels to almost play 4v5. In today’s game, this is a completely untenable proposition if the player being ignored is your small forward. Unsurprisingly, the only stretch where the Tar Heels found success was with Brady Manek, a sharpshooter big-man who stretched the floor, at power forward. This created a sort of positional role reversal between Manek and Black.
And while the Tar Heels did succeed that season, coming within twenty minutes of winning a national championship, it was more of a band-aid for a fracture regarding Black’s NBA prospects. As a non-superstar prospect, teams aren’t going to go out of their way to masquerade your weaknesses. You have to be ready to swim in the deep end. But Black enters the NBA as prepared to space the floor or play power forward as he was the day he stepped foot in Chapel Hill.
Can He Succeed?
Absolutely! If Black proved one thing at Chapel Hill it’s that he’s as hard a worker as you’ll find. And he now joins a franchise whose sole incentive is to make him the best player he can be. Every resource will be at his disposal to improve as a shooter. If he does, watch out. We could look back and laugh at the fact that this 24-year-old defensive stalwart went undrafted.
The NBA Summer League starts July 3, 2023. Leaky Black is expected to make his NBA debut for the Charlotte Hornets’ Summer League team.
