Collin Murray-Boyles: the good, the weird and the contextually intriguing
If major outlets are to be believed, South Carolina's sophomore sensation, Collin Murray-Boyles, has established himself as a potential lottery pick with a game that seems ill-fitting for the NBA.
After a freshman season that saw him finish second among his class in box plus-minus — higher than now NBA players who have held a share of the top spot in the Rookie of the Year ladder like Jared McCain, Stephon Castle, Yves Missi and others — South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles has done nothing but scale up as a sophomore.
Now, Murray-Boyles has started to solidify himself as a lottery pick in the 2025 draft class. About a week ago, Bleacher Report slotted him 12th in its full two-round mock draft. Personally, the blurb on Jonathan Wasserman wrote on Murray-Boyles is really intriguing.
“There are sure to be skeptics who question a 6-foot-7 ‘big’ who's not a shooter yet, but Murray-Boyles should have a case to succeed out of the box with how he uses his 245-pound frame, excellent hands and scoring instincts.”
Jonathan Wasserman, Bleacher Report
The NBA is taking more threes than ever. It’s the most commonly heard phrase of the season next to “this new era sucks.” Naturally, the skeptics Wasserman refers to are going to discredit Murray-Boyles, who has shot just 4-of-17 from three in his 42-game collegiate career.
As of January 6, 2025, Murray-Boyles is averaging 15.8 points per game on 64.7% true shooting, 9.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks. On the offensive end, those averages have come largely by way of post-ups, where Murray-Boyles wins at a rate of 1.128 points per possession despite being undersized in most instances.
The skeptics pose an interesting question. Murray-Boyles is, at least on the surface, behind the times. Post-ups are an effective form of offense in the NBA today, benefiting from the incredible spacing integral to the current era. However, the best practitioners are either around seven feet tall (Nikola Jokić, Nikola Vucevic, Alperen Şengün) or blend their post-ups with isolation scoring or utility from the perimeter (Pascal Siakam, DeMar DeRozan, Karl-Anthony Towns).
Murray-Boyles doesn’t have that same size and, at least in his current role, hasn’t displayed the perimeter skillset. Occasionally, players slip through the cracks with abnormal skill sets — Draymond Green is the one many associate with Murray-Boyles. So, if anything, what makes Murray-Boyles a guy that so many are convinced is a lottery talent despite the apparent limitations in his role?
RECENT
On top of the baseline production, the statistical impact has caught the eyes of many. Murray-Boyles’ sophomore box plus-minus of 8.1 ranks in the top 10 among underclassmen, just under solidified top picks like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and Kasparas Jakučionis.
He’s the focal point for a South Carolina team that is 10-4, despite losing its leading scorer, Meechie Johnson Jr., to the transfer portal in the summer. In the current season, he’s the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, ranking third in assists as well.
One of his biggest advocates in the NBA Draft space, Roshan Potluri (@PickAndRo) detailed what makes Murray-Boyles a special prospect in his eyes better than I could on his latest big board for Swish Theory, where Murray-Boyles ranks second (please read it).
“We have over 40 games of Murray-Boyles having outlier production as a rebounder, finisher, playmaker, and defender for a 6-foot-7 player (10+ OREB%, 20+ DREB%, 60+ TS%, 15+ AST%, 2+ BLK and STL%) … He has such a high margin for error because he produces at an outlier rate in so many areas of the game, but he truly shines on the defensive end.”
Roshan Potluri, Swish Theory
Murray-Boyles' calling card is the defensive end, where he’s one of the most versatile prospects in the 2025 class. His upper and lower body strength, length, hip and knee flexibility, and foot speed make him a difficult matchup for just about anybody at any position in any setting.
On the ball, he has the speed to match guards and the strength to wall them off entirely. He has the innate ability to keep his shoulders and chest square while turning his hips to guide ball-handlers into help or along the baseline. It’s baseless, but a rumor that Murray-Boyles has a 7-foot-2 wingspan helps in many regards.
Here, we see him navigate a screen and stay attached in a stance to make a good contest on a shot.
While not the ideal matchup down low with his size limitations, Murray-Boyles’ strength allows him to control space guarding bigs who will look to post him up. Occasionally, he can get caught off his feet with a solid pump fake, but even then, he avoids fouls well and makes more plays than mistakes around the rim then a lot of guys his size would be capable of.
In this clip, Murray-Boyles does an excellent job fronting the post-up attempt from Ian Schieffelin — a prospect with a similar frame to Murray-Boyles at 6-foot-8 and 240 lbs — controlling the catch point along the baseline, causing Schieffelin to go middle. On the offensive rebound, Murray-Boyles has the length to block the shot without leaving his feet.
His speed on defense is most apparent when covering the pick-and-roll. Whether he’s navigating a screen himself, switching on or off a ball handler, or shading and recovering to a popping roll man.
It’s hard to find a weakness in Murray-Boyles’ defense, and his ability to generate blocks and steals has barely been touched on to this point. One of the underrated aspects of Murray-Boyles’ defensive skill set is his ability to secure possessions. His 9.4 rebounds per game is the second-best mark in an absurd SEC, and his 26.5% defensive rebounding percentage would be tied with Nic Claxton for the 14th-highest mark in the NBA this season.
The defense is what is obviously good about Murray-Boyles. It will translate, and its the aspect — among a lot of weird (but immensely effective) on the offensive end — that scouts can be certain Murray-Boyles will be able to be a positive in. He’ll likely step into the league as a newly 20-year-old draftee as a plug-in defensive game-changer who provides some funky, line-up-dependant offensive traits.
BIG BOARD
Offensively, it’s best to start with Murray-Boyles’ post-ups, as that’s where he’s at his best. He can pass or score with incredible proficiency with his back to the basket and can use his tools to a great extent in the context.
It’s impossible to know how exactly it will translate to the next level, but the skill is there, and the ability to get to these moves in quicker, less-schemed fashions is something that likely will translate in a scaled-down role.
South Carolina coach Lamont Paris loves to get him posted up with an empty weakside on a smaller defender. This game plan gives room for actions to be made on the weak side, either freeing Murray-Boyles to make a move or finding a teammate. Or, alternatively, Paris will leave the strong side empty for Murray-Boyles, extending help defense as far as he can.
As a passer first, Murray-Boyles is a quick decision-maker with a deep arsenal of bullets, skips and lobs to best find his teammates. He’s not one to run a pick and roll or break down a defender on the perimeter, creating an advantage to find an assist, but rather, he’s excellent at operating within an offense, and allowing the ball to flow through him when he’s not acting as a primary scorer.
As a scorer in these situations, it all starts with the seal. Murray-Boyles’ strength and length allow him to essentially capture defenders — especially smaller defenders — under the basket in a variety of ways. Positioning his inside hand close to the basket makes for an automatic layup on a good entry pass. A more traditional seal with the defender between Murray-Boyles and the basket gives the forward the line of sight to survey and the space to make a more methodical move.
In post-up situations, including passes, Murray-Boyles contributes to a rate of 1.157 points per possession — good for the 83rd percentile nationally. His touch around the basket makes him an excellent scorer in close.
Other than post-ups, there’s really no other half-court play type centered around Murray-Boyles that he profiles super well in, but plenty of non-Murray-Boyles centered sets where he thrives.
He’s dynamic as a roll man, both in hand-off and screening situations, with obvious speed but the patience and coordination to stay in the right spots once he’s in them. He’s a genuinely good screener, utilizing his frame to wall off defenders and create an advantage or a mismatch. From that point, he can catch in the short roll and make a play or seal the closest defender off and get into his post work.
He’s a devastating cutter and reliable in transition, scoring at a combined rate of 1.489 points per possession. Contextually, the likelihood we see Murray-Boyles at the next level in his role with South Carolina is remarkably slim, especially early on.
That has led to people underestimating the caliber of player that he is. They look at the profile and say, “He’s really undersized for a ‘big’ and doesn’t provide shooting equity. I just don’t see how he fits in the NBA.” Ultimately, there’s no way to disprove the validity of that statement until we get to see Murray-Boyles in the NBA for at least a couple of seasons.
At this point, he’s a projected lottery pick, and for good reason.
He has incredible tools, regardless of position with a strong 6-foot-7 frame that doesn’t encapsulate just how quick and fast he is on the cover. His arms make him a surging whirlwind of limbs defensively with the ability to disrupt offense in a variety of ways and secure possessions on the glass. Those tools make him a dynamo in any setting that allows him to get in close to the basket — post-ups, cuts and rolls.
To inject some optimism into the shooting critique as well, he’s already taken nearly triple his attempts from beyond the arc from last season, going from 0-of-5 as a freshman to 4-of-12 as a sophomore in half the games. Additionally, he flashed a lot more in high school, even as a pull-up shooter, and his touch indicators — floaters, layups and hooks — suggest there’s some untapped potential to be dug up.
Regardless of if Murray-Boyles does become a shooter, however, he impacts the game in so many ways that it’s hard to imagine a team keeping him off the court. The scoring might not kick in for a year or two, but the defense, rebounding and threat to make a play from the moment the ball hits his hands will make him valuable to whatever team drafts him.