Suns Draft Candidate: Austin Rivers
Originally published: Jun 25, 2012 - 12:18 pm
Austin Rivers entered college basketball as one of the most-buzzed about prospects in the entire country.
After graduating from Winter Park High School in Florida, the five-star recruit, Naismith Prep Player of the Year and son of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, matriculated at Duke University. Rivers immediately became a starter for legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski and thrived in a Blue Devils uniform.
Rivers' most memorable college moment came February 8, when the freshman pumped in a career-high 29 points and hit a game- winning three at the buzzer in an 85-84 win over arch-rival North Carolina.
During his one season in Durham, Rivers became a first team All-ACC selection and was named the ACC Freshman of the Year.
Treloar's Take
Saw Austin. I did have a chance to see him back there in October in practice so I got a good head start on him. He falls into that combo guard category also. He and the Curry kid kind of played the guard positions kind of as a two-guard alignment for Duke. He's a scorer. He's got a lot of confidence in his ability to score the basketball. All basketball fans saw him the night when he beat North Carolina with a last second shot. He's been around the NBA game with his father being the coach of the Celtics. I think he'll step in and be able to play right away in the league.
Scouting Report Snippets
• Chad Ford of ESPN says Rivers is extremely confident, is a good shooter with deep range and a killer instinct. Ford does knock Rivers on his lack of an effective right hand, his questionable shot selection and occasional selfishness.
• SwishScout says Rivers has unlimited shooting range, and an explosive first step but lacks great distribution ability and defensive skills.
Austin Rivers Scouting Report Video
Rivers' College Statistics | Official Duke Profile Page
Other Suns Draft Candidates:
- Tim Kempton, Suns' Analyst - Wednesday June 19Suns' Analyst Tim Kempton joins Doug and Wolf to talk about the NBA Finals game six and if the Spurs
- Jared Dudley, Suns forward - Tuesday June 18Jared Dudley joins Doug and Wolf to talk NBA Finals.
- Jared Dudley, Suns' Forward - Tuesday June 11JD gives us his player's perspective on the NBA Finals.
- Brian Windhorst, NBA ESPN.com Writer - Friday June 7Brian Windhorst talks about Game 1 of the NBA Finals and what to expect from the rest of the series.
- Suns GM Ryan McDonough - Friday June 7The Suns GM talks about prospects Ben McLemore of Kansas and Victor Oladipo of Indiana.



































