Although Duke is out of the March Madness tournament, Cameron Boozer is still expected to be a highly touted prospect in the 2026 NBA Draft. He has consistently been mentioned as one of the three best talents in this draft alongside Kansas's Darryn Peterson and BYU's AJ Dybantsa.
But, The Ringer's Bill Simmons still isn't sold on Boozer and spoke about it on the latest episode of his namesake podcast. A huge portion of Simmons's criticism is Boozer's go-to move: a jump hook in the paint after maneuvering and muscling his opponents. Simmons doesn't believe that this will translate to the NBA.
“I watched a lot of Duke the last five weeks. His big go-to move is basically he bullies you, and his does these spin moves, and he ends up with the same jump hook or little turn around, and his goal is to get as close to the basket as possible,” Simmons said. “Which you could do in high school, and you could even do in college, and I don’t know if he can do it in the pros in the same way as comfortably. And what he never really seemed to shoot was that little, 12-to-13-footer as Koa Peat on Arizona has.”
Boozer is a smaller frontcourt player, clocking in at 6-foot-9 and 250 pounds. He certainly has a lot of skills that will translate to the NBA, but his size has been something that has been brought up amongst doubters of how his talent will translate to the next level.
