I recruited Nelson Shepard for my DII Virginia Union team.  I would normally pass on this guy because his passing is low to start and is also low potential.  He definitely could not play point guard or shooting guard. 

I recruited him because his speed, defense, and perimeter are all high-high.  Is a 65 ath, 73 sp, 96 def small forward worth having if he cant rebound or pass?  I am very unsure if I like this guy, love this guy, or if I regret recruiting this guy.



edited because I forgot the link, oops

rule of thumb, you need players to have 2 clear, usable strengths to be a player worth having. in this case, that ath/spd/def gives him one clear strength in defensive ability (note that with that work ethic, and ALL the room he has to grow, hes not as good as those caps suggest). the question is, does he have a second strength? well, based on your info, the only option is offense. i think he could be a pretty good offensive player at the 3, hes got decent ath/spd, good ft% and bh, and 29 per high/high potential - which could be anything from 60 to 100. with his ft%, bh, and a little lp, i think he will be a pretty good scorer for you by the end of junior year, with lower HH per, and could be a really strong scorer with higher end HH per. 

so, i think his positives probably outweigh the negatives. hes not bad, minimally, but everything else is relative. if you are expecting to be the front runner to win a championship in 3-4 seasons, hes probably not the kind of guy to lead your team to victory. but i dont think hed really hold back a championship level squad, either. and for a 2nd round/s16, borderline top 25 type team, i think hes a solid to good pickup, with the potential to be a great pickup.

Personally, he would have been a borderline d2 recruit for me. When he maxes out, he could be pretty good, but that's at least 3 seasons away. I would like my players to be able to contribute by their so/jr season. 

what tianyi says is true also... by the end of his career, he should be pretty good, but hes going to struggle to contribute before jr year. i would try to redshirt him if i didnt have someone better to redshirt... and you do want to get him a lot of PT his freshman/soph year if you want him to be good by junior year. it really sort of depends on your situation, if you cant play him much, he just might never get that good.

Whats his potential for BH? If its enough were he could get up into the 60s he could play some SG.

Without question though he needs the redshirt season. Without that hes not going to be much of a contributor.