Arnett Moultrie as a lottery pick?
As things stand right now, Mississippi State junior Arnett Moultrie may be this draft's most underrated player. We have Moultrie as a potential lottery pick on our latest Big Board due to his size (6'11") and length, great athleticism and bounce and his drastic improvements on both ends of the floor.
During his two seasons with UTEP, Moultrie shied away from contact early and often. He seemed afraid to bang down low to get positioning against less-talented and smaller C-USA defenders and he certainly didn't show the same drive and desire in crashing the glass as he did this season. His defensive rebounding percentage of 21.6 was second-best in the SEC and he grabbed 12.1 percent of his team's misses, sixth best in the conference. He even led the conference in total rebounds, 12th best in the nation with 10.5 per game.
And offensively, Moultrie spent plenty of hours refining his game and it showed the drastic improvement- he set career-highs with shooting percentages across the board: 54.9 percent field-goal mark, 44.4 percent from 3-point range and nearly 80 percent from the foul line. He was much more comfortable handling the ball on the perimeter to set-up his jumper or take the ball into the lane and seek out contact or simply exploding up to the rim in one swift motion. Moultrie was getting to the foul line over five times per game which equated to nearly one foul shot for every two field-goal attempts.
Moultrie's new-found aggressiveness and refined skill-set is not going unnoticed. He figures to be a mid-first-round pick on Draft night with the potential to raise even higher as we move forward in the process. With intangibles and skills like his, there is no way Moultrie does not impress front office personnel during his individual workouts in the Draft process.
By President Corey Ruff - 4 - 15 - 12
