UNC’s Cole Anthony taken 15th overall in the NBA draft
Former North Carolina point guard Cole Anthony’s frustrating year is coming to fulfilling end after the Orlando Magic selected him 15th overall in the NBA draft Wednesday.
Anthony became the second straight one-and-done point guard for coach Roy Williams. The Chicago Bulls selected Coby White seventh overall in the 2019 draft after one season at UNC. Anthony is the 22nd first-rounder under Williams at Carolina.
“This is the best moment of my life right here,” Anthony told ESPN after fighting back tears. He was surrounded by his family and filmmaker Spike Lee. “There’s nothing compared to this moment right here — maybe birth — but this is the absolute best moment of my life.”
Anthony is not the highest pick in his family. His father, Greg, was taken 12th overall by the New York Knicks in the 1991 NBA draft. Anthony was considered a potential top-three pick — some even had him No. 1 overall — coming out of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy, but his season didn’t match the projections.
“This was probably one of the hardest years of my life,” Anthony said. “... when I had surgery it was heartbreaking. I broke down and started crying.”
He suffered a knee injury nine games into his freshman season at UNC. He came back after missing 11 games, but Carolina struggled as a team to a 14-19 record — the only losing season in Williams’ 32 seasons.
Anthony was a volume shooter on a Carolina squad that didn’t have many scoring options. In leading the team in scoring with 18.5 points per game, he logged the most shot attempts per game than any player of the Roy Williams era at UNC. Anthony, who shot just 38% from the field, averaged 15.7 shots per game. That was the most of any Carolina player since Joe Forte averaged 16.9 field goal attempts per game the 2000-01 season in which he averaged 20.9 points per game.
But he knows his role in the NBA won’t involve taking the most shots as a rookie. Anthony anticipates playing in lineups that use two lead guards and playing off the ball more than he did at Carolina.
“You’ve got to be able to do both, that’s just the reality of it,” he said during a pre-draft video call Friday. “The new approach for a lot of teams is these two guard fronts. You’ve seen it with Golden State, the (Houston) Rockets did it this past year. Even LeBron (James) had (Rajon) Rondo. The best teams are going to have two guard fronts , so you gotta be able to do both. I can do I think I excel in both.”
In addition to improving his shooting, Anthony knows he has to make better decisions with the ball. His average assists last season (4.0) were weighed down by 3.5 turnovers per game.
“That’s obviously where I probably struggled most this year,” he said. “At the end of the day, everything that I struggled with this year really went back to decision making. So I think that’s the biggest thing I think you will see a big change at the next level.”
That and his health. Anthony missed a month and a half after having surgery to repair torn meniscus in his knee. He played the final 13 games of the season, but was never at full strength. Had COVID-19 not shut down the NBA’s summer league, he may have still been playing hobbled then, too.
But Anthony expressed complete confidence in his knee thanks in part to the long, pandemic-forced layoff between his last competitive game and Wednesday’s draft.
“This is the best I’ve felt since pre-surgery,” Anthony said. “I feel really, really good. This time has really just been a blessing just to get back to full health and just to really polish my mind, polish my game.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 9:37 PM.