Larry Drew

Walker Beeken

The North Carolina Tar Heels are coming off of a disappointing 20-17 season in 2009-2010, but they have high hopes to return to glory this season with a young, talented roster. At the point guard position, the Tar Heels return junior Larry Drew, who had an inconsistent sophomore season as the starter, averaging nearly 29 minutes per game. He'll have some competition this season if he plays poorly though, with freshman Kendall Marshall and sophomore combo guard Dexter Strickland both capable of picking up the slack.

Drew is a pass-first point guard who should be helped tremendously this season with the arrivals of freshmen Harrison Barnes and Reggie Bullock on the wings, as well as the development of big men John Henson and Tyler Zeller, all of whom should make Drew's job as a distributor much easier. Drew's ability to run the team and get his teammates involved was highlighted by the fact that he led all players in our database in assists per forty minutes last season, averaging an impressive 8.3. Though he had his fair share of turnovers and lapses in decision-making as well, he still managed to have a solid 1.83 to 1 assist to turnover ratio and 2.37 pure point rating. With the new additions likely giving the Tar Heels a more potent offense, Drew has the opportunity to really shine this season and demonstrate his court vision and abilities as floor general. He has good speed with the ball in his hands in the open court, and he does a nice job changing speeds and directions as a ball-handler.

As a shooter, Drew improved quite a bit from his freshman to sophomore season, but he still has quite a bit of work to do. He increased his free throw percentage from a miserable 41% as a freshman to 61% as a sophomore, which is still very poor for a point guard. The strides he made as a 3 point shooter were encouraging though, going from 23% as a freshman to 35% last season, while also increasing his attempts.

At this stage though, Drew doesn't appear to have much of a mid-range game at all, and his lack of elevation, size, and strength prevents him finishing at the rim with much effectiveness, as shown by the fact that he connected on only 43% of his field goal attempts in the basket area. Becoming more reliable on mid-range jumpers off the dribble and establishing a teardrop shot in the lane would really enhance Drew's game on the offensive end, as he was pretty inefficient last season for the most part.

Physically, Drew is fairly limited, as he's a bit on the small side at 6'0” with a slender build. He has good lateral quickness on the defensive end though, allowing him to pressure the ball keep his man in front of him, but his lack of size and strength prevents him from effectively challenging some jumpers and hurts him in the paint on dribble penetration against bigger guards.

Drew has shown that he can distribute the basketball and run a team, but with his physical limitations, he'll likely need to improve as a shooter and become more of a scoring threat in order to boost his draft stock. He has two more seasons at Chapel Hill, and running the point with the talent he has surrounding him should give him every opportunity to showcase his game for NBA scouts.

We watched North Carolina commit Larry Drew (#78 Scout, #76 Rivals) lead his team to the fifth place semifinals of the City of Palms, where they knocked off a pretty good Kinston team. In the process, their floor general Larry Drew did a good job showing off his strengths and weaknesses as a college prospect.

Slightly undersized at 6-0, with a skinny frame on top of that, Drew doesn’t wow you initially with his physical tools. He’s got solid quickness and nice ability to change speeds and get by defenders going either left or right, being a shifty guy who is pretty hard to stay in front of. He can also finish with either hand around the basket. His ball-handling skills are already outstanding, and he does a very solid job running his team’s offense and playing under control. You’ll often see him walking the ball up the floor (a welcome sign at this pace-frenzied level), calling a half-court set, controlling tempo, and looking especially good on the pick and roll, where he sees the floor and delivers crisp passes to his open shooters. He can also push the ball up the floor when the situation calls for it. That’s not to say that he isn’t prone to some mental breakdowns and the occasional turnover—far from it—but for a player his age, he seems to have a nice command of his offense and is already a pretty pure point guard.

Drew’s biggest issue at the moment seems to be his perimeter shooting, which looked very streaky from what we could tell. He took a number of them and wasn’t even really close on most, and didn’t really show much of a mid-range game to compensate for that. His scoring is pretty much limited to his drives from what we could tell. Defensively, Drew does a good job staying in front of his man. What he lacks in size and strength he seems to make up in fundamentals.

All in all, Drew seems to be a nice get for North Carolina, even if he’s ranked awfully low (76-78) by the recruiting services at the moment. He should be a solid backup initially for the Heels, and surely has starting potential down the road. If he improves his perimeter shooting skills to the point that he’s respectable from outside, he could even be a lot more than that. His intangibles look that good.

Larry Drew, Jr. is obviously an elite point guard prospect. ScoutHoops.com’s #20 junior and top uncommitted point guard prospect is the son of a former NBA star. The likes of Roy Williams and Ben Howland are both hot on his trail. He displays superb decision making and excellent court vision whenever he has the ball in his hands.