2025 Rookie Observation (16): Is it difficult to evaluate the future development of Georgia s inside swinger?

Asa Newell/Bahamas

Feet: University of Georgia (NCAA)

Date of birth: October 2005

Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Grade: Freshman

Position: Inside swingman

Bare feet: 205.7cm

Weight: 100kg

Wandspan: 211.5cm

Stand height: 273.1cm

Template: Enhanced version Kai Jones, Zeke Nnaji)

Expected market: Lotto area to the middle and late stages of the first round

National high school students rankings (2024): On3 ranked 11th (five stars), 247 ranked 19th (five stars), ESPN ranked 12th (five stars), Rivals ranked 12th (five stars)

Honors: 2025 SEC League Best Rookie Team

Note: Asa's brother Jaden Newell is also playing at the University of Georgia, but he appears on the team as a walk-on (who did not get a scholarship and play at his own expense).

Note 2: Newell lived in Athens, where the University of Georgia was located between the ages of 4 and 10, because his grandmother Jacqueline Mitchell was an administrative assistant in the Human Resources Department of the University of Georgia at that time. This season's data:

33 appearances, 29.1 minutes per game, 15.4 points, 6.9 rebounds (3.3 frontcourt rebounds), 0.9 assists, 1 steal and 1 block, and 1.1 turnovers and 2.4 fouls, shooting percentage of 54.3% (5.8/10.7), 29.2% (0.8/2.7), and 74.8% (3.1/4.1).

Advantages:

Newell is an inside swinger with excellent physical talent and athletic ability. He has a faster movement speed among players of the same position and body. He is also at a very good level in flexibility and agility.

Although he is only a first-year player, Newell is the scoring champion at the University of Georgia this season, and it is not easy to do this. Newell is able to provide stable output in most games, and his condition does not experience significant ups and downs or fluctuations. Newell's finishing ability at the basket is quite good. He can use the empty cut and pick-and-roll to complete the inside score, and his inside scoring efficiency is quite amazing. Newell also has certain shooting ability, his free throw shooting percentage is also OK, and the sample is relatively large. His shooting movements are not outrageous, and he also has the opportunity to practice shooting from outside. Newell's ability to control dribble is also good among players at the same position, and his skills are actually not that rough.

Newell is a player with active defensive coverage. He has excellent defensive position selection, a sound defensive awareness, and a very good defensive prediction ability. With his advantages in moving speed and flexibility, he has good defense switching capabilities and potential to defend the fourth and even the third positions, he can also provide support for assisting and supplementing defense.

Newell is still good at making mistakes. He can occasionally pass some good passes to his teammates, but the number is indeed relatively limited.

Disadvantages:

Newell's athletic ability is not bad, but it is not the top level. His figure is a bit thin and his ability to confront is also a bit worrying. He is a player who focuses on the No. 5 position in the NCAA field, and he can also play the role of the No. 4 position, but judging from his physical condition, he seems to lack sufficient confrontation ability in the No. 5 position, and he seems to lack speed and particularly excellent athletic ability in the No. 4 position, which looks like he is not up or down. Although Newell is tall, his low-post skills are limited and he lacks sufficient independent scoring ability. As a No. 5 player, his ability in this area is not ideal. Newell still lacks self-confidence in shooting, and his shooting percentage outside the three-point line is indeed not very satisfactory. If he wants to gain a foothold in the 4 position, his shooting stability is obviously a bit poor.

Newell has certain frame protection skills, but is not an excellent frame protection player. He doesn't seem to have the advantage in the competition with top low scorers. Newell seems to be more suitable to use assisted defense to support the team in terms of basket protection. If there are no excellent basket protection players around him, it is also a bit worrying whether he can support such a situation alone.

Newell's assists are indeed a little less. Although there are occasional wonderful passes, overall his role in this area is limited, and he has not shown particularly outstanding skills in this area.

Expected market:

Newell's draft market is still quite confusing and has a certain room for ups and downs. It looks like he has a chance to enter the lottery zone and be selected in the back of the lottery zone, and he may also be selected in the middle and back of the first round. Of course, Newell's overall performance this season is still relatively stable, and it has met or even exceeded everyone's expectations, but his uncertainty in some aspects may also affect everyone's assessment of his future development.

Personal prediction:

Newell is actually a player who is difficult to judge the market.. On the one hand, his performance this season is quite outstanding, and he has also proved his strength on both offense and defense; on the other hand, it is really hard to see how Newell should develop after entering the NBA arena and which direction should he develop. Newell lacks some technical and projection ability in the fourth position, but it seems that there is a chance to develop in this position; Newell lacks the ability to fight and frame protection in the fifth position, but his height and athletic ability are there. On the better side, Newell can be four or five, and has extremely high plasticity; on the worse side, Newell currently has some problems in both positions. If developed properly, Newell might become a very outstanding player. If developed properly, Newell could be completely indifferent to everyone.

Let's give a reference. Denver Nuggets' substitute inside swinger Najib, who is similar in height and weight to Newell. His performance and statistics in the NCAA arena in the freshman season are similar to Newell, who was drafted by the Nuggets at the 22nd pick in the first round in the 2019 NBA Draft. Newell may be slightly better than Najib in terms of talent and contribute slightly higher than Najib on the defensive end, so it should be very normal for Newell to be selected at the 12-20 pick. But everyone has seen Najib's development in the NBA. If the Nuggets hadn't given such an inexplicable contract, he would have been at the level of a basic salary player. Najib is the player I said before who can't be four or five, and he hasn't found his place at all.

Target teams:

Orlando Magic, Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors

Magic actually have a certain demand for players in this position, and their picks are also close to Newell's market; the Rockets can consider matching starting center Alperen Sengun with a player like Newell, which may have a good effect on the court; the Thunder need to supplement players in this position, and they can also easily get draft picks that meet Newell's market; the Bulls and the Raptors have high demand for inside players, but they should have better target candidates.