Over the years, North Carolina has been host to a lot of impressive basketball prospects and has gradually built a reputation as one of the more talented areas for athletics. There have been 132 NBA/ABA players who were born in North Carolina, which firmly places the Hoopstate in the top fifth of all states. Upon looking deeper and only highlighting active players, we are right amongst the top group. So, why is this information relevant to the current day' Well, in the last five years this state is almost guaranteed to send at least one player per class to the NBA.
Just going back to 2015, Brandon Ingram, Luke Maye, Chris Clemons, Jerome Robinson, Dennis Smith, Harry Giles, Bam Adebayo, Grant Williams, Kyran Bowman, Coby White, and Jaylen Hoard have already made it with guys like Jay Huff, Devon Dotson, Trey Murphy, Trey Wertz, Aaron Wiggins, Patrick Williams, Isaiah Todd, and Josh Hall preparing to make the leap. Some of these guys were obvious NBA talents in high school while others were not, and identifying someone as a professional prospect at this stage (whether correct or not) is a surefire way to make others distraught.
However, it shouldn't be outlandish to identity greatness'even at the high school stage of someone's career. Regardless of outside opinion, Jaden Bradley already epitomizes what it means to be a special player and should already be considered part of the aforementioned second group of players who are basically in the application stage of making it to the NBA. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Bradley has the chance to be as impactful as anyone on that list. Coming off his sophomore season, he's already considerably better than majority of those players at the same stage.
The floor general is arguably the smartest, most complete point guard to come through our state in recent memory. Guys like Smith and White are tremendously talented, but they were both touted for their unbelievable scoring prowess. Bradley is an elite passer and game manager with incredibly high instincts for running a team. Not only has he shown poise and playmaking skills, but he's a terrific scorer with the ability to consistently create something out of nothing. Bradley possesses great positional size, defensive principles, and truly makes all surrounding players noticeably better. It might seem easy to say a Team USA darling has NBA potential but folks appear shy about stating this type of opinion in an open forum. Is it a guarantee' Certainly not, but one would be foolish to think that Bradley isn't already building his resume and taking the necessary steps to be successful upon arriving.