Strengths
Right-handed… The former high school all-american has drastically improved his game during his stint with the Blue Devils thus far and still has more room to grow. He has put on weight and strength in the weight room and is just starting to show some of his skills that made him a high-level recruit… Kelly is a versatile scorer, an excellent shooter with a finesse post game and is continuing to work on his ability to put the ball on the floor for a dribble or two with a quick pull-up. He has these long strides that make it difficult to stay in front of if he wants to take it to the rim, but these drives are somewhat rare… Kelly moves well within the flow of the offense that has never really given "big men" lots of scoring opportunities. His court vision is good as is his spacing on offense and moving without the ball in his hands… Despite being known as a stretch-the-floor 4 man, Kelly has adequate toughness on the defensive end and is not afraid to mix it up on the glass or in the post. He has a high blocked shot rate, which should continue to grow as Kelly's body continues to develop.
Weaknesses
Kelly is a bit of a tweener; he doesn't have the physicality, nor the mentality or the strength to battle inside on either end of the floor, making him pretty much a perimeter-oriented 4-man. While he has continued to show nice development in terms of his frame, his game is still very much at the finesse level in the low-post, almost always favoring a turn-and-face approach because he gets pushed off the blocks… He has always been a solid role player, relinquishing the spot-light to a variety of Duke guards, and while the focal point of the Blue Devils' offense is rarely on the big men, scouts wonder if he can take the next step as a skilled prospect and be the inside-outside threat that demands the ball as an aggressive scorer… He needs to develop more confidence with his handle to be able to put the ball on the floor; this would make him a much more dangerous threat and assist in the creating space to get shots off… Kelly is a weak link on the defensive end; he lacks the lateral quickness and athleticism to play most 3s and gets outmatched with physical 4s.
