School: Kansas
Year: Sophomore
Height/Weight: 6’2, 185 lbs.
Strengths:
Devon Dotson shows spurts of what Dick Vitale would call a “diaper dandy”. The six foot two point guard is one of the toughest guards in the nation. Dotson has a knack for getting into the lane where he can either dish or finish with contact at the rim.
Keeping the Kansas offense at an uptempo pace is not an issue for the young guard at all who scores extremely well in transition. The freshman displayed that he would be a force the first game of the season scoring from deep and inside the arc with ease. There has not been a big game that the kid has not shown up in.
The Charlotte native lacks vertical size but plays with much intensity on both sides of the ball. Dotson’s lateral quickness allows him to pick up full court and cheat passing lanes as he leads the team in steals. The lightning quick guard is exciting in the open court whether dishing the ball off or rising up and finishing.
While playing on the Under Armor circuit under Carolina’s own Jeff McIniss, critics often claimed Dotson to be a bit loose with the ball at times, but he seems to be doing just fine as the starting point guard for Bill Self and the Jayhawk program.
Weaknesses:
The speed of Devon Dotson can be a blessing and a curse at times. He can be down the court in three seconds out running defenders and even teammates sometimes leading to wild passes when he’s not calm and patient. While playing at a fast pace, the young guard has a tendency to get too deep in the lane and sometimes throws up wild shots. When he’s forcing the issue and getting the ball up ahead a bit faster than you’d like, he can over dribble at times.
Although he has an aggressive approach to the game on both ends of the court, his size and frame might be an issue at the next level. He takes a bit of unnecessary contact at times that causes the young guard to hit the floor pretty hard. That won’t bode well for his durability.
Another thing he needs to do is improve on scoring off the dribble in isolation situations. If he can develop a jump-shot off the dribble to go along with his ability to change his speeds, he can become an elite offensive threat. He doesn’t often have to take a great deal of jump shots because his primary role is distributing, but when he does it needs to be a set one. Even when that set shot goes up it can be a bit streaky due to his inconsistent form.
Future Outlook:
Devon Dotson is such a fun guard to watch because of his toughness, as mentioned. This Jayhawks team doesn’t operate without Dotson’s leadership. He can do that for a team in the NBA too. Dotson’s size will have teams hesitate to select him early in the draft, but he’s too smart and skilled to fall too far in the 2020 NBA Draft.
For now, he’s a probable late first/early 2nd round pick if he decides to declare following this season. We’ll see who out of the bulk of the guards who decided to return for another year, including Tre Jones, declare this season.
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