Asia Durr Is Going To Score… But That’s Not All She Is

This piece does not reflect the views of the Minnesota Lynx

Asia Durr: 5’10, SG, Louisville

College Stats in 2018-19 (as of Feb. 20, 2019): 

24 games, 31.7 MPG, 20.9 PPG, 3.3 APG, 3.6 RPG, 1.3 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 44.4 FG%, 34.8 3P%, 84.7 FT% 

Where she’ll go: 

Durr will be a first-round pick, likely top five.

The Rundown:  

Asia Durr is a scorer through and through. The clear-cut No. 1 option on one of the best college teams in the country, Durr is a player that will be able to come in and make an impact on the offensive end immediately. She is an aggressive, competitive and a cold-blooded scorer with an elite pull-up game.

Durr is averaging 20.9 points per game in her senior season on 34.8-percent shooting from the field. She is shooting 34.8 percent from three. That three-point percentage might be deceptively low, though. If Durr finishes her season at her current rate that would be a college career low for her. Durr shot over 40 percent from three her sophomore and junior seasons and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong or different with her shot this year, she’s just being defended better. As the Cardinals’ primary option, Durr is highlighted, bolded and circled on opposing teams’ scouting reports—it’s hard to get good looks with the kind of attention Durr receives on a nightly basis.

Despite opponents keying in on her, Durr is still a remarkably effective scorer and a very good shooter. Her step-back game is strong and her ability to pull up off the dribble from anywhere on the court is probably her biggest weapon. One knock on her game in the WNBA might be her size and athleticism—she’ll need to get stronger to be able to finish around the rim against top-tier WNBA defenders. If she can get to the rim and draw fouls at the next level Durr could be an even more deadly scorer—she is a very good free-throw shooter. Durr will also want to build upon her three-point numbers from this season, a task that seems very doable given that she is unlikely to be the primary offensive on a WNBA team immediately upon entering the league.

What is especially exciting about Durr is the way she has grown her playmaking ability over the course of her college career. She has more than doubled her assist numbers from her freshman year and boasts an impressive 21.5 percent assist rate this season. Durr is also extremely good at holding onto the rock. She only turns the ball over 1.9 times per game despite a 31.4 percent usage rate on her team.

While it’s unlikely that Durr would fall to the Lynx at No. 6, if they were to make a move up in the draft or somehow end up with Durr at that slot, she would add an instant scoring punch in the backcourt, likely as Minnesota’s sixth-woman scorer. Regardless of where she ends up, Durr is one to watch.

Check out the rest of our prospect profiles, plus more Lynx-related draft coverage at lynxbasketball.com’s Draft Central.