UVA point guard Reece Beekman may have played his way into an NBA job with his solid showing at this week’s NBA Draft Combine.
Beekman, widely considered going into the combine to be on the fringe of being a late second-round pick or going undrafted next month, impressed, as you would expect, with his defense, but his line score in Thursday’s scrimmage showed that he has offensive game that could make him worthy of a look at the next level.
Beekman, playing for Team Bailey, scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 1-of-1 from three, 2-of-2 at the line, with five rebounds, four assists, one steal and two turnovers in 22:54 of floor time off the bench in the 90-81 loss to Team Richman on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Beekman had eight points on 2-of-8 shooting, 1-of-2 from three, 3-of-4 at the line, with one rebound, five assists, three steals and two turnovers in 21:19 of floor time in a 107-88 win over Team Bradds.
Even on Wednesday, on a rough shooting day, Beekman demonstrated a nice floor game with the five assists and three steals.
Thursday, according to Jamie Shaw, writing for On3, was a “good day” for Beekman’s draft prospects.
Shaw, in his analysis, called Beekman a “steady factor” who “showed he can score in the half court, but also that he can distribute and set up teammates.”
“The positional aspect was his big question mark coming into the NBA Draft Combine; can he be a point full time? He played the position well in this one,” Shaw wrote.
Shaw’s question there is a fair one. Beekman never did supplant Kihei Clark as the starter at point guard at Virginia, where Tony Bennett used both in the starting lineup, with Clark as the primary ball-handler and initiator.
His counting numbers this past season, Beekman’s third at Virginia, were pedestrian – 9.5 points per game, 40.5 percent shooting, 42.8 percent on two-points shots and 35.1 percent from three.
Beekman did average 5.3 assists per game, with a 3.3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
A deep dive into his offensive profile shows the issues. Beekman, for all his explosive athleticism, is just average in transition (1.021 points per shot, 53.1% FG, 54.7% effective field goal percentage, according to SynergySports data), and actually below average finishing at the rim (1.030 points per shot, 51.3% FG and EFG).
These are not good numbers for a guy who is just an average jump shooter (0.820 points per shot, 30.4% FG, 41.2% EFG), who only shot 30.6 percent on unguarded jumpers (11-of-36) in 2022-2023.
One revelation from the combine is that Beekman is not the 6’3” that the official Virginia team roster has him listed at, but rather 6’1.5”, though, good news, with a 6’7” wingspan, a helpful measure for a top defender.
Beekman’s standing vertical leap (30.5”), tied for 23rd among the 57 combine participants who submitted to the measurements process; his 38” vertical leap ranked ninth.
Beekman ran the lane agility drill in 10.99 seconds, ranking 20th overall, and his three-quarter-court sprint time of 3.14 seconds ranked an impressive second overall.
The final analysis of his three days in Chicago, from the measurements to the performances in scrimmages, per Shaw: “He is going to have to make a decision, staying in or coming back.”
Beekman, in an interview with 247Sports’ Isaac Trotter, addressed the upcoming decision-making process.
Beekman has until May 31 to make a final call on whether to stay in the draft or return to school. He told Trotter that he has a couple of individual team workouts scheduled after the combine.
“I’ll value those and kinda go from there,” he said.
“Just taking in a lot of information and kinda going with it. Just trying to find the right fit and try to get the right information to make the right decision,” Beekman said. “I’ve been working out a lot, so just focused on that and the combine stuff. But just trying to hear the information needed to make the right decision.”
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Chris Graham
