Austin Rivers: Evaluating Duke SG's Chances to Become NBA Superstar

Austin Rivers is projected to go somewhere in the middle third of the 2012 NBA draft, but nobody truly knows where Doc Rivers' boy will land on Thursday night.

Since his destination is unknown, we'll evaluate his abilities and attempt to project his future rather than tie his game in with a particular team.

The former freshman standout is a bona fide scorer. There's really no other way to describe his game. He can put the ball in the hoop from well behind the arc, something we saw plenty of in his lone college season.

He shot just under 37 percent from three at Duke, but plenty of those came from NBA range, meaning there's not much of a reason to worry about that number decreasing once he reaches the pros. The 19-year-old prospect showed that he has the clutch gene in his DNA when he hit a game-winning three-pointer as time expired to beat North Carolina.

Rivers isn't just a perimeter shooter, he has the skill set to score from virtually anywhere on the court. Not only did he hit shots from the baseline, the wing and straight on, he also created for himself near the hoop.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Rivers has the best crossover in this draft. It's one of the fastest moves that we've seen from any of these prospects, and he isn't afraid to pull it out against anybody. It's reminiscent of Kobe Bryant's crossover in his earlier years.

That's not the only part of Rivers' game that reminds me of Bryant. Rivers has the unparalleled sense of self-confidence. He's not afraid to shoot and keep shooting. Kind of like Bryant in his younger years, especially his four air ball overtime during his rookie campaign.

Sometimes Rivers gets pegged as selfish, but that's the label every young, overconfident player is slapped with at this stage in the game.

Another striking similarity is his constant motion. Whenever you see Kobe on offense, he never stops moving, which is what makes him so impossible to guard. Rivers is the same way. He rocks his defender to sleep and breaks out the ankle-breaking crossover to create space for a shot or blow by to the hoop.

Most of all, he has the stone-cold killer look about him on the court. You know that look that Kobe gets in his eyes in the fourth quarter and you can just tell that he's going to go off? Rivers has that too.

I'm not predicting this kid to come into the league and win five NBA Finals trophies and an MVP before all is said and done. But just remember, nobody thought Bryant would do that either when he was drafted No. 13 overall in 1996.

While we'll have to wait for a final verdict, I believe that Rivers will pan out to be a player somewhere between Kobe Bryant and Monta Ellis, leaning more towards Ellis; not quite a superstar, but in the upper echelon of shooting guards.