Will Lee Hyun-jung join NBA as the second S. Korean?

The NBA draft for new players is just one day away. Lee Hyun-jung of the Davidson Wildcats is waiting for his chance to lay in the NBA as the second South Korean in history, following Ha Seung-Jin in 2004.

A total of 58 players will be named in the draft. Thirty teams can nominate twice for two rounds. The Miami Heat and the Milwaukee Bucks violated the tempering prevention condition during the trade and free-agent recruitment process in the last season and are deprived of one option to nominate players for the second round.

Lee Hyun-jung who is in the third grade of Davidson College played for a total of 34 games in the 2012-2022 season and recorded an average of 15.8 points, six rebounds, and 1.9 assists. He played for 32.1 minutes on the average per game and recorded a successful shoot rate of 38.1 percent, leading the team’s outside attacks. Lee announced that he would play for the NBA and signed with the agent of Luka Doncic and worked out in the G league camp, which is a lower league of the NBA, to showcase his capabilities.

Lee’s height of 2.01 meters and shooting capabilities are likely to be effective in the NBA. The Athletic, a U.S.-based sports media, described Lee as a “shooter tall enough for moving shoots” on Friday. The website also gave a favorable review to Lee that he made 39.7 percent of three-pointers and 82.3 percent of free throws in college games. It added that he caught rebounds like a power forward in the Atlantic 10 conference of the NCAA.

There are many negative opinions that Lee will be nominated for the NBA. In the mock draft conducted in April, ESPN ranked Lee in the 96th position and Bleacher Report ranked him in the 88th position. The experts of The Athletic named Lee in the 64 and 66th position, which is the outside the range of the nomination. “There is no player who can shoot like this with this height,” an NBA draft expert named Sam Vecenie who works for The Athletic, said in a scouting report published on Tuesday. “His defense is a concern. His power and mobility lack, which would not work for the NBA.”

The NBA draft for new players will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday in Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com