2025 NBA Draft: Breaking Down Arkansas Point Guard Boogie Fland

Arkansas has a potential top-ten pick on their hands with Boogie Fland. What does the elite talent do well?

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This past offseason, we had one of the wildest coaching changes in quite some time. Longtime Kentucky Wildcats coach John Calipari elected to move on and be the next head coach at the University of Arkansas. Leading the Wildcats since 2009 and earning a championship in 2012, he was ready for his next chapter.

Calipari brought a lot of his luggage with him, as players like DJ Wagner, Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Theiro followed him from last season with Kentucky to this season with Arkansas. The majority of his incoming recruits also flipped from Kentucky to Arkansas.

Boogie Fland is the top incoming prospect who brings a ton of electricity to a team and is a fun point guard prospect. Let’s dive into his game. He has an elite handle and is very fast with the ball in his hands. He has the ability to create space and separation from defenders with ease. There are not many players in this year’s upcoming draft that come close to Fland's ball-handling skills. Due to the burst, handle and shiftiness, he’s able to put a ton of pressure on the rim.

Fland isn’t an explosive above the rim finisher, but he’s creative and crafty with his layup attempts. He has a lot of go-to moves and a nice layup package that allows him to still be an effective finisher around the rim. The floater is very good which will be very effective on bigs camping the paint.

The potential lottery pick is more of a scorer than a playmaker at this stage, but he’s able to do both very effectively. He’s a tough shot-maker who can score at all three levels and will have nights throughout the season where he looks remotely unstoppable. At times his decision-making is a bit questionable but he shows promise as a playmaker. He has the ability to make advanced reads, throw accurate passes and he will be able to leverage his scoring gravity to create high-quality shots for open teammates.

One thing that tends to be forgotten when talking about Fland is his pesky point-of-attack defense. He is very quick and disruptive and has the ability to rack up steals or deflections. The 6-foot-2 lead guard lacks size which does limit his defensive ceiling and he won’t be switchable at the next level.

Fland has all the makings to be a star-caliber guard in the NBA. Coach Calipari has done a great job of not only getting guys to the NBA, but also developing them into elite players. From Derrick Rose back in Memphis to De’Aaron Fox at Kentucky, Fland is next in line as Calipari’s next great point guard.

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