Dash Daniels Commits to NBL Next Star Deal With Melbourne United

Dash Daniels, the younger brother of NBA wing Dyson Daniels, has committed to an NBL Next Star deal with Melbourne United for the 2025-26 NBL season and will be eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft.

Dash Daniels / fiba.basketbal

Dash Daniels will be playing in the NBL next season with Melbourne United. The 16-year-old prospect is highly rated and is the younger brother of Atlanta Hawks wing Dyson Daniels. Dash is 6-foot-6 and primarily plays point guard, and also takes great pride in the defensive side of the ball. He’ll be hoping to follow in the steps of Josh Giddey, the Australian point guard who also made his way to the NBA via the Next Stars program. Dash will be draft eligible in 2026, even though he’ll be only 18 when selected and won’t turn 19 until December. 

The NBL will be thrilled to land Dash, giving the league two elite NBA draft prospects in their program next season with Karim Lopez likely to stay with the New Zealand Breakers. Dash, a point guard, is slightly smaller than Lopez and, by signing with Melbourne United, could potentially be learning from Matthew Deallavedova next season.

Tutelage from Dellavedova could work wonders for Dash. While he likes to handle the ball and take on point guard responsibilities, he hasn’t had many true pick-and-roll reps in FIBA youth tournaments. Australia spreads the ball around and gets a lot of transition points, particularly when playing within its region. Daniels is explosive, and his handle is solid. But he hasn’t exactly synced up those two abilities. He creates less separation than he should out of his crossovers. 

He struggles with explosiveness generally in the halfcourt, rarely getting to the rim to finish and instead opting for floaters. His floater is solid, but he goes to it in situations when simpler finishes seem to be available. The only time he ever seems to explode to the rim to finish is in transition, which is where he does most of his damage. 

Dash’s athleticism has enabled him to torch opponents when he gets transition opportunities. This skill set will likely translate to the next level, but of course, there will be far fewer transition opportunities for him to capitalize on. Dash flexes passing chops in the open court as well, and while the pick and roll repetitions have been low, there’s reason to believe in passing upside for him since he’s shown to be an impressive inbounder at youth levels, a good testament to pass timing and accuracy. 

The form on his three-pointer looks decent, and he’s shot 32 percent from deep on 57 attempts across recent FIBA youth competitions. Similar to his older brother, scouts are excited about Dash’s defensive upside. His size, speed, and elite wingspan make it likely he’ll be capable of guarding across the perimeter at the NBA level and even potentially offer weakside rim protection. Currently, it’s been hard to derive an honest assessment of Dash’s defensive skillset via tape. Australia plays against a lot of vastly inferior competition within their FIBA region, and there’s not much to take from their 50-plus point blowout victories in regard to individual defense. 

Dash will be tested on the defensive end in the NBL and across the board. His older brother made it to the NBA via the now-defunct G League Ignite, so he won’t quite be following his footsteps, but the parallels in their game could lead to similar trajectories for both of them.

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