NBA Draft 2019 Prospect Watch: Eric Paschall

Weaknesses

When all is said and done, Paschall may be looked back on as a real sleeper prospect from the 2019 NBA Draft, or he could be a player who was rightly overlooked for the kind of evergreen concerns that damage prospects’ stock on an annual basis.

To be specific, the two most significant knocks against Paschall are likely his age and his size.

A senior, with a redshirt season under his belt thanks to his transfer from Fordham to Villanova, Paschall will turn 23 in November. That fact will undoubtedly raise major questions as to his upside, and his ability to improve at all beyond his current level.

In recent seasons, it’s certainly not been uncommon to see seasoned college veterans come into the NBA and prove they can make an impact, but there remains an understandable stigma toward such picks. More often than not, project picks on the other side of the age spectrum don’t work out, but they do at least afford more time for development and hope of a player turning out positively.

If Paschall was to be drafted, particularly in the first round, there’d already be pressure on him to prove some real utility in his first two seasons.

Away from age, Paschall also has the misfortune of carrying the age-old “tweener” label that gets afforded to so many prospects throughout the draft process.

At the Combine, Paschall measured in at just over 6’7″ in shoes, a whopping 254.4 lbs, and just under a 7’0″ wingspan. There was a time when that would have made Paschall close to a prototypical power forward, but that time is not the present.

Paschall possesses the kind of intelligence and skill that certainly opens up the potential for him to play multiple positions, but there’s still a major air of uncertainty as to how successful he’d be in that regard without having seen him match up with NBA competition.

If Paschall can expand upon some signs of promise from three-point range, it would certainly increase his chances of playing as a small forward, although that move may well open up concerns about his ability to stay in front of quicker opponents too. As a power forward, Paschall’s strength certainly stands as a positive, but his height could make it easy for taller, stretch fours to simply shoot over him.

There’s a lot to like about the way Paschall plays the game, but it’s the natural factors beyond his control that will still make him something of a risk for any team that considers drafting him.