Tristan da Silva 2024 NBA Draft Profile
We are nearly three weeks away from the 2024 NBA Draft. Today, we are going over Colorado forward Tristan da Silva, an all-around prospect who seems to be flying up radars as we approach June 26. Let’s hop into it!
Height: 6’8.25″ (6’10.25″ wingspan, 8’8.50″ standing reach)
Weight: 216.8 lbs
Age: 23.1
Position: Wing
Tristan da Silva was a four-year college player for the University of Colorado, and improved practically every season into an all-around specimen, which we will eventually dive into.
da Silva was an unranked prospect from Germany who grew up playing soccer and didn’t start really pursuing basketball until he was 16-years-old. Based on the available public information, he wasn’t highly recruited before entering the States.
But what we do know is he’s a highly skilled 6-foot-9 wing who could potentially be a plug-and-play player at the next level. Now let’s dive into some of his strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
da Silva is a modern-day forward who’s one of the best floor spacers in this class.
His 3-point rate superseded 30 percent in three of his four collegiate seasons–the only other being his freshman season, when only 29.4 percent of his attempts came from deep–including elevating to 40.5 percent as a senior. Though his 3-point efficiency improved each season, from 26.7 percent (small sample; 15 total attempts) to 39.5 percent as a senior, finishing in the top-15 in the Pac-12 in total long-range makes in each of his final two seasons.
da Silva has a very smooth, quick shooting motion with clean and consistent footwork off the catch. Though he can also come off curls and dribble hand-offs and rise up with great efficiency.
He has great feel and knows when to make the right cuts; he played with an NBA-caliber point guard in KJ Simpson (who I like a lot, too), which made life easier for him.
da Silva is a very good defender. He can guard multiple positions and has a very strong understanding of timing and angles on- and off-ball. Even when he got beat, he would do a good job of cutting off cutters/ball-handlers before they generated too much of an advantage.
I think he’s a very good connective passer and can read the court very well. When watching him, there weren’t many plays where I questioned his decision-making or thought he second-guessed incorrectly. He can put the ball on the deck and initiate offense if need be or space the floor to open up the floor for the other four players.
Weaknesses:
It’s hard to pinpoint anything that da Silva doesn’t do well on a basketball court.
He doesn’t corral rebounds at an exceptionally high level, pulling down 6.6 per 75 possessions over his last two collegiate seasons and 6.2 per 75 for his career. But I don’t think that should be labeled a knock because of his positional versatility.
da Silva also may not be the most explosive athlete, posting a 28.5″ standing vertical and a 35.5″ max vertical at the NBA Draft combine. His functional athleticism on the court, given his size and skill, outweighs his vertical explosiveness; plus, he graded in the top-6 out of 33 forwards who tested in lane agility time and shuttle run with the 10th-best three-quarter sprint. He’s not unathletic.
He may need to improve his handle at the next level, because it wasn’t always super tight. However, I don’t foresee him in a role where he’s going to be tasked with creating on-ball a ton right away.
Projection: Lottery Pick
I have a top-10 grade on da Silva, but it’s unclear whether or not he will go in that range. I’m a fan. He’s an incredibly smart and skilled basketball player who can be a plug-and-play wing right away. As for teams I’d watch for: Portland, San Antonio–he’s such a Popovich player, isn’t he?–Utah, Miami, Chicago and Oklahoma City, among others.
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