Versatile Daniels Charting Unique Path to NBA

In under two weeks, Dyson Daniels is going to live out his childhood fantasy. The 19-year-old guard from Australia, who worked out for the Pacers on Friday at the Ascension St. Vincent Center, is a likely lottery pick in the June 23 NBA Draft.

"Ever since I was four or five years old, I've dreamed of getting my name called," Daniels said Friday. "I've watched the draft every year that I can remember. To hear my name called, would just be an honor."

The question for Daniels is not if he will hear his name called, but which team will pick him. The Pacers have the sixth overall pick in this year's draft and the 6-7 Daniels could potentially be in play at that spot. For what it's worth, ESPN's latest draft board ranks Daniels as the sixth-best prospect in this year's class.

Daniels was the beneficiary of multiple developmental programs the NBA has rolled out internationally and domestically over the past few years.

At the age of 16, he left his home in Bendigo, Australia to move to Canberra to attend the NBA Global Academy, which opened in 2017 with the hope of helping develop high-school-age prospects from across the world. Fellow Australian Josh Giddey, the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, was the first Global Academy alum to be drafted.

After spending time at the NBA Global Academy and playing for Australian youth national teams in FIBA competition, Daniels elected to take advantage of another new NBA program, signing with G League Ignite for the 2021-22 season.

G League Ignite is an alternative to college basketball that allows prospects to join a professional team designed to help prepare them for the NBA Draft. Ignite's roster features both prospects and veteran mentors and plays an exhibition schedule against other G League teams throughout the season. Ignite's first season was 2020-21 and produced two lottery picks -- Jalen Green, the second overall pick in 2021, and Jonathan Kuminga, the seventh overall selection.

Daniels is hoping to be the latest lottery pick to come from the newly created pathway. He got plenty of playing time and got to learn from NBA veteran teammates, including 14-year pro Amir Johnson and former Pacer C.J. Miles.

"G League Ignite was really good for me, just the development I got on and off the court," he said. "The people that were there to help me develop (were) really good. I learned a lot there.

"And it's a pro league, so you're going up against really good players and you're getting better every day. So me choosing to go to the G League was definitely the right choice and I really enjoyed my time there."

Versatility is the most coveted skill in the modern NBA and Daniels possesses plenty of it on both sides of the ball. He considers himself a defender first and foremost, with the ability to guard multiple positions and use his length (a nearly 6-11 wingspan) and athleticism (he had the fastest time at the NBA Draft Combine in the shuttle run at 2.81 seconds) to pester opponents and create deflections and steals.

Offensively, Daniels projects as capable of playing several positions. He was deployed primarily as a point guard with G League Ignite, averaging 11.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.8 assist over 29 games, but also can play off the ball. Daniels said he feels comfortable playing either wing position or even sliding to a small-ball power forward role on occasion.

Daniels has carried some momentum from the G League season into the pre-draft process. He admitted he got off to a slower start as he adjusted to a new environment and the NBA style of play, which is faster-paced than the preferred style in Australia. But he came on strong as the season progressed and his confidence grew.

"As the season went on, I started to get better and better," Daniels said. "Coach (Jason Hart) put the ball in my hand, wanted me to play. I showed a little bit of everything, what I can do with the ball in my hand, without the ball."

Because he was with G League Ignite, Daniels got the opportunity to take part in the Rising Stars event at All-Star Weekend in Cleveland. He was teammates with Cade Cunningham, the top pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and played against Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, earning invaluable experience competing with some of the league's brightest young talent.

Daniels has spent the past couple weeks traveling the country for pre-draft workouts. The Pacers were the sixth of eight teams he's scheduled to visit. When he's done, he will have visited all of the franchises scheduled to pick fourth through 11th in the draft, which gives some indication of his potential range on draft night.

"It is tough, but I enjoy the game," Daniels said of the pre-draft process. "I like coming in here, I like competing. It's tough on your body, all the flying, all the playing, stuff like that. But the stakes are high and at the end of the day, hopefully it pays off."

The biggest thing teams will want to see from Daniels is improvement with his shot. He knocked down just 30 percent of his 3-point attempts and 53.3 percent of his free throws on limited attempts in the G League, but has been working hard on that aspect of his game and said he's "come a long way."

If he were to end up on the Pacers, Daniels said he feels like his versatility would allow him to fit in alongside Haliburton and Chris Duarte in the Indiana backcourt.

"I feel like whatever the team may need, whether it be play like a secondary ballhandler, primary ballhandler, the main defensive role on the team, I feel like I can fit into those different kind of roles and kind of like patch some holes and be like a glue guy," he said.

Daniels has actually often heard himself compared to Haliburton, another tall guard capable of playing on or off the ball. The idea of potentially playing alongside a player with similar gifts definitely intrigued him.

"I think me and Tyrese, we play the game with good IQs," Daniels said. "We come off ball screens and find the open guy very well. I feel like we really play well, same size, same position. I think playing with him would be really good, just being able to learn off him and play with each other.

"(I could) give him a break off the ball a bit and I can play off the ball with him as well. I think we'd fit well together."

Wherever Daniels ends up, he will continue to forge new paths for future prospects, just like Giddey, Green, and Kuminga did for him. As the NBA continues to grow the game both globally and also create alternative pipelines domestically, many more prospects are likely to follow in Daniels' footsteps.

Growing up in Australia, Daniels used to watch the NBA Draft every year. On June 23, he'll be there in person, living out his dream.

Friday's workout was supposed to feature six players, but Daniels was only joined by two other prospects - Villanova forward Jermaine Samuels and University of Miami guard Kameron McGusty - due to travel problems.

Flight issues prevented Baylor forward Jeremy Sochan (another potential lottery pick) and European prospects Ziga Samar and Pavel Savkov from making it to Indianapolis in time for Friday's workout.

Samuels enters the draft after an accomplished five-year tenure at Villanova. Like his teammate Collin Gillespie, who worked out for Indiana on Wednesday, Samuels was a role player as a freshman for the Wildcats team that captured a national championship in 2018.

He was a starter for the next four years (playing five years in college thanks to the NCAA hardship waiver for athletes impacted by COVID-19) and a vital contributor to Villanova's return to the Final Four this spring.

Samuels was named the Most Outstanding Player in the South Regional. He had 17 points, eight rebounds, and two steals in a second-round win over Ohio State, followed that up with a 22-point, seven-board, two-block, two-steal outing in the Sweet Sixteen against Michigan, then recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds in an Elite Eight win over Houston.

The 6-7, 220-pound Samuels may not have one standout skill, but he can do a little bit of everything. He said he will embrace "any role any team wants me to do" at the next level, drawing inspiration from hard-nosed role players like Jae Crowder and P.J. Tucker.

"I bring toughness," Samuels said. "I bring energy. I make the right play. I'm unselfish. I'll do whatever it takes to win. I'm just trying to help guys win, trying to make everybody's lives easier."

Villanova produced many NBA players under head coach Jay Wright, who retired in the weeks after this year's Final Four run. Samuels is hoping to add at least one more name to the list of pros Wright has helped develop.

Coming from that program, Samuels knows what it takes to make it in the NBA. He shares many similar qualities with the many Wildcats in the NBA, highlighted by his will to win, which could make him an intriguing option in the second round of the draft, where the Pacers hold both the 31st and 58th overall selections.

"I think it prepared me as soon as I walked into Villanova," Samuels said. "Seeing Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson, all those guys putting in the work, how much time it took them and where they are now, I think it gave me some inspiration."

Like Samuels, McGusty had a memorable finish to his college career, helping lead 10th-seeded Miami on a surprise run to the Elite Eight.

The 6-5 guard was a major catalyst in the Hurricanes' success. He had 20 points, six rebounds, four assists, and four steals as Miami blew out second-seeded Auburn and possible top overall pick Jabari Smith in the second round. McGusty followed that up with 27 points on 10-of-18 shooting (4-of-7 from 3-point range), six boards, and four steals in a Sweet Sixteen victory over Iowa State.

"It meant everything," McGusty said of the magical run. "Being able to not only have a great season, but go out with a legendary season. Being the furthest that Miami has been in school history, all the records we set, individual accolades, just everything, the whole nine yards.

"It was just a crazy year, a blessing. Not too many people get to experience that."

That was the culmination of six years in college for McGusty, who began his career at Oklahoma in 2017. He played for the Sooners for two years before transferring to Miami, sitting out the 2018-19 season and then playing three seasons for head coach Jim Larranaga.

McGusty averaged 17.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.8 steals per game last season and was named first-team All-ACC.

Because of the amount of time he spent in college, McGusty is one of the oldest prospects in this year's draft class. He will turn 25 in September, before he would play in his first NBA game.

But while being older can be viewed negatively in the draft process, McGusty has a positive spin on it, maintaining that his experience has him ready to help a team right away.

"I feel like my game is NBA-ready," he said. "I've got the size, the body, the mental capacity, and just the skillset to be plugged into an NBA team and help them right away. Whether it's five minutes a game, whether it's not even getting in the game, just being able to cheer - that's when the maturity kicks in."

McGusty finished high school at Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas, the same alma mater as current Pacer Buddy Hield. He enrolled at Oklahoma the year after Hield graduated and used to travel up from Kansas to Norman regularly to watch Hield play in his final season with the Sooners. Hield, of course, was the National Player of the Year, leading Oklahoma to the Final Four in 2016, what McGusty called "one of the greatest seasons in college basketball history."

"Definitely a guy I looked up to and watched all their games," McGusty said. "He was one of the guys that I first saw hand-to-hand and witnessed with my own two eyes just put in the work. He didn't get to where he is now just because he was talented. He was talented, but his work ethic and his talent came together and that's the biggest thing that propelled him to get to this level."

Another projected lottery pick frequently linked to the Pacers worked out in Indiana on Friday. Arizona guard Bennedict Mathurin took part in a private individual workout at the Ascension St. Vincent Center in the afternoon.

A Montreal native, Mathurin flirted with the draft a year ago, but elected to return to Arizona. It proved to be the right decision, as he had a breakout year as a sophomore in Tucson, averaging 17.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists while winning the Pac-12 Player of the Year award and being named a consensus All-American.

The 6-6, 205-pound wing is an explosive athlete capable of throwing down ferocious dunks on the break or in the halfcourt. He also is a strong outside shooter, knocking down 41.8 percent of his 3-point attempts as a freshman and then 36.9 percent on a much higher volume as a sophomore.

Mathurin has frequently been linked to the Pacers in many mock drafts and would make for another potential long-term running mate alongside Haliburton as Indiana looks to build its young core. Mathurin is one of the youngest sophomores in this year's draft class (he turns 20 the week of the draft), and with continued development could turn into an All-Star caliber talent.