Milwaukee Bucks 2020 NBA Draft: Cassius Winston offers playmaking help

Milwaukee Bucks 2020 NBA Draft: Looking at Cassius Winston’s strengths

As he routinely showed over his time in East Lansing, Winston stands as an incredibly smooth operator with the ball in his hands, all while shouldering a heavy load of initiating a team’s offense.

Between his adept ball handling as well as his nice feel for the game/high IQ, Winston possesses the necessary skills and measured composure to take on lead ball handling reins from the jump in the NBA.

That was certainly seen in taking on such a significant usage over the last two years especially and Winston ended up compiling a 2.37 assist-to-turnover ratio on the collegiate level. The same goes for the fact that Winston’s assist numbers were incredibly prolific as he racked up the 16th-highest amount of total assists (890) in NCAA history.

The fact that Winston is as much of a consistent and lethal shooter off the bounce as well as off the ball only lifts the offensive value that he will provide at the next level, given the fact that he was a career 43 percent 3-point shooter while at Michigan State.

Winston’s combination of stable, shifty ball handling as well as high-level marksmanship makes Winston a tailor-made fit for any team that is need of shoring up their backcourt and bolstering their shot creation needs. And being able to provide as much juice both on and off the ball as Winston does opens more ways for him to see the floor entering the league.

For as much as Winston’s perimeter shot creation skills leads off the allure of what role he’ll occupy in the NBA, his paint penetration and his savvy ability to get into the heart of the opposing defense and finish at the basket is underrated, even with his size concerns. Averaging 4.9 free throw attempts per 40 minutes in college goes to show his willingness to attack the paint.

On the other side of the ball, Winston’s size and athleticism puts him at a big disadvantage, especially when a bad matchup comes up on the calendar. But the determination and grittiness he has in defending through screens as well as off the ball is something to lean on.