{"id":114512,"date":"2025-06-21T14:24:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T14:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/114512\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T14:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T14:24:21","slug":"what-anonymous-sec-coaches-said-about-tennessees-chaz-lanier-ahead-of-the-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/114512\/","title":{"rendered":"What Anonymous SEC Coaches Said About Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier Ahead Of The NBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a>Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletic<\/p>\n

The 2025 NBA Draft is less than a week away and while there aren\u2019t a ton of former Tennessee players involved, shooting guard Chaz Lanier projects as a second round pick with some mock drafts having Lanier going off the board early in the second round.<\/p>\n

As part of its NBA Draft preview, The Athletic\u2019s CJ Moore and Brendan Marks<\/a> talked to college coaches across the country to get their opinions on draft prospects that they faced during the 2024-25 college season.<\/p>\n

What did SEC coaches anonymously say about Lanier, who The Athletic mocks at the No. 47 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft? Let\u2019s start with the negative.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis inconsistency on a night-to-night basis could hurt him. He doesn\u2019t handle the ball very well,\u201d an anonymous coach said.<\/a> \u201cLanier\u2019s not a great ball handler. He\u2019s a specialist. Somebody you have to identify and know where he is at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assessment is largely accurate. While Lanier\u2019s sharpshooting translated seamlessly from the A-SUN to the SEC, his ability to get to and score at the basket severely dropped off. After shooting 60% from two-point range in his senior season at North Florida, Lanier shot just 47% from two-point range in his super senior season at Tennessee.<\/p>\n

More From RTI: Tennessee Basketball\u2019s Opponent Reportedly Set For 2025-26 Season Opener<\/a><\/p>\n

But Lanier\u2019s shooting was truly elite which is what makes him a possible early second round pick. The Nashville native tied for fourth nationally with 123 made triples last season and did it at a super impressive 39.5% clip. Lanier is the best drill shooter<\/a> in Rick Barnes\u2019 tenure at Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout question, NBA range, size, can make a pull-up in the lane,\u201d the anonymous coach said. \u201cThe way they were running off screens was very reminiscent of how UConn and Detroit used Rip Hamilton all those years.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, I thought he made some strides this past year under (Tennessee coach Rick Barnes). But I think he\u2019d be more of like a 3-and-D guy in the NBA, more of a role player. Not that you\u2019re gonna put the ball in his hands and ask him to make plays. But physically, definitely checks off some boxes. And then obviously has a unique ability to make shots at a really high clip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lanier was a major piece of Tennessee\u2019s second straight Elite Eight team. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard led the Vols with 18 points per game while adding 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.<\/p>\n

For the second straight year, Barnes and his staff found gold in the portal with a player transferring up to the SEC. Lanier became the program\u2019s first ever Jerry West Award winner and also won SEC Newcomer of the Year. The AP voted Lanier as a First Team All-SEC selection while the league\u2019s coaches voted him a Second Team All-SEC selection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo By Andrew Ferguson\/Tennessee Athletic The 2025 NBA Draft is less than a week away and while there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[30,7,3523,6,12,1919,2486],"class_list":{"0":"post-114512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-2025-nba-draft","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chaz-lanier","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-draft","13":"tag-tennessee-basketball","14":"tag-the-athletic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114721814474763598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}