Juan Nunez Is A Top-Five Offensive Talent, w/ Nick Agar-Johnson

As the NBA trends toward larger and larger primary playmakers, some smaller guards are starting to feel the squeeze. Teams hope to get playmakers who can see over the defenses more easily, and in the process have started to emphasize passing skills across positions, but have made it all but a necessity for the smaller guards. The undersized Lou Williams-esque combo guard is less common in the NBA today than it was even a few years ago as well, making it all but a requirement for any guard under 6’6” to be able to run the offense–at least for small stretches. Still, even then, there are a select few passing talents who can more than make up for it. These superlative passers are in short supply in basketball anywhere in the world, so anyone who meets that threshold–regardless of their height–will have a solid spot in an NBA rotation.

Juan Nuñez is one of those passers.

Whatever the pass might be, Juan Nuñez can make it. It isn’t much of a surprise to those who have followed his career for a while–Nuñez got just about the best passing education that a young guard could get on his way up through the Real Madrid system. After playing a minimal role for the Spanish superteam in the ACB and Euroleague as a 17-year-old, Nuñez made his way to Ratiopharm Ulm for the 2022-23 season, where he showed exceptional maturity as the sixth man for a top-flight European team. Nuñez made the leap into the starting lineup this season, where he ran the show for Ulm with a maturity that was well beyond his teenage years.

Nuñez did the vast majority of his damage in the pick-and-roll, and that will be his bread and butter at the NBA level. He developed instant chemistry with new Ulm big man Trevion Williams when Williams signed with Ulm to start the 2023-24 season, and they instantly formed one of the best big man-guard passing duos anywhere in the world. Nuñez manipulates defenses from the pick-and-roll like a decade-long veteran. His ability to throw pinpoint passes with either hand both on the move and from a standstill allows him to lull defenses to sleep before he cuts them apart. 

It’s not just his ability to slice defenses to pieces when operating in standard sets, though. Part of the joy of Nuñez as a playmaker is the improvisation. He’s one of the rare prospects who can pass his teammates open, rather than just hitting the open window. Whether it be nailing the perfect hit-ahead pass in transition or a kickout to an open shooter just in time before the shot clock expires, Nuñez can make something out of nothing with his passes in a way that few other basketball players anywhere in the world can match.

Oftentimes, the kind of passing ambition that Juan Nuñez has comes with a drawback–namely, a high turnover rate. For Nuñez, though, that isn’t the case–his 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio isn’t quite at the elite level of some of the best caretaker point guards in the NBA, but it shows an astonishing ability to avoid mistakes for someone who, at the time of this writing, is still a teenager.

Nuñez has an excellent handle in addition to his scoring and passing gifts, which makes it even easier for him to pick and choose when to score and when to create for others. He changes speeds with the savvy of a veteran guard–which is a common element across the various different parts of his game. Even though he would certainly be at his best in a pick-and-roll heavy system, the versatility of his passing attack makes it easy to envision him in more motion-heavy, DHO-based offensive systems as well. Wherever Nuñez ends up, he will make life much easier for his teammates–just as he has for the Spanish national team and his professional clubs for the past four years. There might be better shooters and better athletes in the 2024 NBA Draft class, but none of them can pass nor create like Juan Nuñez.

While his scoring capabilities appear to lag behind his playmaking and shot creation, in my mind Nunez is still a top-ten-to-fifteen scorer in this class, with the potential to be the very best.

The Spanish prodigy is a supremely talented scorer off the drive. He regularly showcases his elite core strength en route to the rim, where he converts at a high efficiency. His strength allows him to finish through and around taller defenders, with an array of post moves and footwork. Furthermore, his strength also allow him the confidence to initiate contact for and-one opportunities. Should he be completely outmatched by the Victor Wembenyama’s and Rudy Gobert’s of the world, he has regularly displayed elite touch in the paint to score over them. His positional size and IQ make him a deadly weapon on the fastbreak, allowing him to finish on one-on-one’s with ease.

The only believed drawback to Nunez’s offensive game is his shooting from beyond the arc. I’m here to tell you not to worry. Sure, his splits aren’t great. But; his left-handed shot is smooth, and his release point is higher than most. He has shown the confidence to pull up off the dribble, which typically assures it’s something a prospect spends plenty of time and work on. He has also shown the ability to score off the catch, which is promising to teams that may already have a lead guard.

His renowned playmaking and vision also play into how effective a shooter he may be. In fact, we have a prime example of how valuable this can be to a point guards development.

Luka Doncic, another European prodigy, came into the league as a relatively poor shooter for his position, however his elite vision and IQ meant that teams were unable to cover him too tightly on the perimeter. I believe that it is largely due to this, that Doncic has fast become one of the best volume scorers from range in the NBA.

Whatever team selects Nunez will be surely surprised by what they find in the Spaniard. I firmly believe Nunez can reach the heights of an All-Star, All-NBA calibre guard, and one of the most exciting players in the league.