Ryan Dunn 2024 NBA Draft Profile
We are nearly two weeks away from the 2024 NBA Draft. Today, we continue our draft profile series with Virginia wing Ryan Dunn, who’s one of the best defensive prospects in the class. Without further ado, let’s hop into it!
Height: 6’6.25″ (7’1.5″ wingspan, 8’7″ standing reach)
Weight: 213.6 lbs
Draft age: 21.9
Position: Wing
Dunn, a three-star prospect from Perkiomen School in St. Pennsburgh, Penn., was a top-150 prospect in the 2022 class, according to 247sports. He was the fourth-ranked prospect in Pennsylvania, choosing Virginia over offers from South Carolina, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Texas A&M and Marquette, among others.
His role was pretty minimal as a freshman, though he still played in 31 games off the bench behind Jayden Gardner and Ben Vander Plas. As a sophomore, Dunn blossomed as a nightmare for opposing wings on the defensive end despite struggling offensively, averaging just 8.1 points on 56.4 percent true shooting.
Let’s dive into a few of his strengths and weaknesses, shall we?
Strengths:
Dunn is one of the top defensive playmakers in this class; there were multiple times when it felt like he was in three different places at once.
He leveraged his above-average athleticism–he had a 32.0″ standing vertical and a 38.5″ max vertical, both top-3 marks amongst power forwards–in addition to his plus-7 wingspan to average 3.6 stocks (steals + blocks) per game with a rebounding percentage north of 15 percent as a sophomore.
Dunn led the ACC in both blocks per game (2.3) and block rate (10.4), the latter placing in the top-10 in the country. He oftentimes defended the opponents’ best player, but was versatile schematically and could switch, drop or hedge.
His recovery speed defensively was excellent and his timing as a shot-blocker was sensational. He never gave up. Even against bigger wings or centers, he held his own down low and always provided a strong contest; Dunn wasn’t afraid to be physical and push players off their position.
His best trait offensively was getting out in transition and finishing above the rim. Dunn was an above-the-rim explosive finisher. He showed he could attack closeouts in the halfcourt with a good first step and was good at finishing around the rim, where he attempted nearly 70 percent of his shot attempts last year.
Weaknesses:
Dunn was the perfect Virginia player: Excellent defense … but incredibly limited offensively.
Dunn’s shooting form wasn’t even that poor, but only shot 52.5 percent from the free-throw line and 23.5 percent from 3-point range for his career. As a non-spacer, I didn’t love how little head coach Tony Bennett utilized him as a roller or hand-off initiator.
He could get to the rim and finish with the best of them, but he’ll have to tap into his shooting touch far more at the NBA level relative to his Virginia career. NBA teams are smart enough to play off you and hide defenders if you can’t shoot; Dunn projects to be one of those players at the start of his NBA career.
Before he transferred to Perkiomen School, he played two seasons at Long Island Lutheran where he shot 44 percent from 3-point range. Can he tap into that type of shooting prowess again? We’ll see…
Projection: Early Second Round
We’ve seen one-way NBA players be successful–but it becomes that much harder if you’re limited offensively than the inverse. There’s a world where Dunn carves out an NBA role as a defensive specialist–heck, he can make a case for being the best defensive player in this class, all things considered.
But we’ve also seen how some teams have to play 4 v. 5 offensively because of the one non-shooter making a limited impact on that end (especially late in games). You can develop shooting, but I wonder what his ceiling is as a shooter–which could make or break his long-term prospects as a rotation player.
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