Before the 2025NBA Draft, we’ll take an in-depth look at different prospects here at Liberty Ballers and try to figure out which players would be the best fit for theSixers at Nos. 3 and 35. Next up in this series is South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles.
You’ve probably heard it plenty of times now about Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Rutgers did not make the NCAA Tournament. But they’re not the only two NCAA prospects projected to go in the lottery who did not participate in March Madness. South Carolina had an abysmal 2024-25 yet its best player seems certain to be a lottery pick. We should also mention while we’re on this subject that Texas was a questionable decision at best from the selection committee otherwise Tre Johnson’s college team would have been excluded as well.
But we’re writing today to tell you about Collin Murray-Boyles. The sophomore forward feels like a bit of a tweener. He’s probably not mobile enough to consistently play the small forward spot in the NBA, but feels shorter than most NBA power forwards. However, he does enough things well to seem safely cemented in the first half of the first round so let’s get into what those things are.
Profile:
2024-25 Stats: 32 games, 30.6 minutes, 16.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.3 blocks, 58.6 FG%, 26.5 3P%, 70.7 FT%
Team: South Carolina
Year: Sophomore
Position: F
Height and Weight: 6’7.0” (in shoes) and 239 lbs
Born: June 10, 2005 (20 years old in two weeks)
Hometown: Columbia, SC
Strengths
Before we get into his specific attributes and those that stand out in particular, we should acknowledge Murray-Boyles is a gamer. He appeared in all 32 games that South Carolina played in 2024-25 and played about 31 minutes a night. Remember, in college basketball regulation is only 40 minutes long so Murray-Boyles was an ironman for a cellar-dwelling Gamecocks team this past season. He ended up being selected to the All-SEC second team which is a pretty good accomplishment considering it was a historic season for the SEC last year and South Carolina only won two conference games.
Naturally, one of Murray-Boyles’ strongest qualities is his motor and ability to finish through contact. He never wore down for South Carolina and shot 63% on field goal attempts inside the arc. He used his near 240-pound frame to his advantage as he graded out well in isolation sets and found ways to power through opposing defenders pretty frequently on the way to the basket.
Murray-Boyles is also an exceptional defender who is very versatile on that end of the floor as evidenced by the fact that he averaged 1.3 blocks and 1.5 steals per game last season. Perhaps this is the kind of skill that allows him to stick around in the NBA for a long while as he can be used in a lot of different ways on defense. Regardless of where he’s deployed, he’s going to rebound, which is another indicator of how hard he plays. To average over eight rebounds a game at his height in what was undoubtedly the best conference in the country last season is pretty impressive.
Lastly, as the focal point of South Carolina’s attack, Murray-Boyles saw plenty of double teams. He handled them well however and showed a nice level of comfort in passing out of these double teams which has him already decently advanced as a passer relative to other players his size.
Weaknesses
There are some pretty clear red flags with Murray-Boyles’ game that do not translate to today’s NBA. First off, he’s not an elite athlete. This presents hindrances on both sides of the floor. Offensively, if you can’t confidently play vertically, someone like Murray-Boyles who thrived a lot on overpowering college players to get his points, might not be able to do the same against NBA forwards which would cap his offensive ceiling. On the defensive end of the floor, his foot speed may not hold up against quicker wings which might make him harder to play at the 3.
The lack of athleticism is compounded on the offensive end of the floor by the absence of a jump shot. He only attempted one three-pointer per game in college and was simply reluctant to take jumpers outside of 15-20 feet from the basket unless he was left all alone. So that begs the question, how much of his college scoring is going to translate to the next level?
On a broader level, irrespective of what any team in the lottery currently has on its roster, it’s fair to wonder if some of these drawbacks might be non-starters for lottery teams. Would a team that has several good athletes and outside shooters already on its roster be willing to live with Murray-Boyles’ deficiencies or is he simply below the prerequisite standards in those departments for some teams to spend a lottery pick on him?
His prototype makes him a throwback prospect which complicates his fit in today’s NBA. If he’s not quick enough to play the 3, you have to play him at the 4, but how many modern power forwards who aren’t very athletic also can’t stretch the floor with an adequate jump shot? Also, at 6-foot-7 for as good of a defender as he may be, he’d be an undersized power forward. Frankly, had he decided to go back to college for one more year, cut some weight and improve his jump shot, we might be having a different conversation one year from now. He might be more playable as a small forward in the NBA at that point and that’s probably something the team that drafts him is going to have to work on.
Potential Fit with the Sixers
If you’re a believer in the 2025-26 Sixers and are envisioning a return to the postseason, you’re probably going to be more interested in Murray-Boyles. Outside of Ace Bailey, a lot of the common targets we’re seeing get mocked to the Sixers are shorter than Murray-Boyles and are either guards or undersized small forwards in the NBA. If Murray-Boyles ended up in Philadelphia, he would not be eating into the playing time of Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain or Quentin Grimes the way some of the other prospects in the lottery would be.
Maxey, McCain and Grimes are all good outside shooters. Despite a down season last year, Paul George is still a 38.3% shooter from beyond the arc in his career and we know a healthy Joel Embiid can stretch the floor. So if you’re getting plenty of three-pointers from other sources, the primary concern about Murray-Boyles’ offensive game is lessened with the Sixers. Now envision the menacing defensive presence he could be on the wing with George. If you had both of those guys lock things down against opposing 3s and 4s and a healthy Embiid protecting the rim, you’d probably be a pretty solid defensive team if you could just defend the three-point line at a league-average clip.
Effort and motor aren’t the flashiest things to sell when promoting draft prospects, but they’re good attributes for a prospect who gets drafted by the Sixers to have. I think even the most optimistic Sixers fan would sign up for 50 games from both Embiid and George next regular season if I said that both were going to be performing at a high level when they were on the floor. If we’re willing to accept what feels like at least a somewhat optimistic projection for the performance of those two veterans, we’re still left with 32 games in which they’re not available next season. That’s almost half the season in which the team’s younger players, new additions, and cheaper salaries are going to have to play well enough in order for Philly to win enough games to get a good playoff seed and feel good about its championship chances.
That’s where Murray-Boyles’ mental toughness and availability could become an additional asset for Philadelphia. If you’re getting 110% from him every night to go with elite defense, it’s going to give the Sixers an increased chance of winning those second legs of back-to-backs in the dog days of January. This kind of behavior could become infectious and between Murray-Boyles, Grimes, McCain, Maxey, Adem Bona, Justin Edwards, and perhaps Guerschon Yabusele if he returns, there could be a nice cohesive group of young Sixers that plays hard every night and builds good chemistry.
A strong argument can be made that regardless of how well Murray-Boyles might fit with the current version of the Sixers, drafting him for this reason would be an over-reliance on the current roster and result in drafting a lesser prospect. It’s important to note that Murray-Boyles probably only ends up in Philadelphia in a trade down scenario and is highly unlikely to be selected third overall.
Proponents of selecting Murray-Boyles would point to how well he fits with the current Sixers roster and whatever the team would be receiving in a trade back towards the end of the top 10 and be excited. Opponents of selecting the South Carolina forward would cite the need to take the best player available with the highest ceiling with how uncertain the short-term future of the franchise is. Many of Murray-Boyles’ detractors simply might not care how well he fits with the Sixers and be turned off enough by his poor athleticism and jump shooting to not be interested even if Philadelphia does move back in the first round.
Draft Projection
SB Nation Mock Draft: No. 11, Portland Trail Blazers
Considering how athletic Shaedon Sharpe is, this feels like a good fit for Murray-Boyles as Sharpe would likely make up for what Murray-Boyles lacks athletically. Given the Trail Blazers drafted Donovan Clingan in the lottery last year, it would also stand to reason that Clingan would do the majority of the interior defending for Portland so the pacific northwest is certainly a good landing spot for Murray-Boyles.
If Portland were to want to move up to No. 3 with the Sixers, Deni Avdija might be a player off Portland’s roster that Daryl Morey would covet. Avdija is still in his mid 20s and appeared in 72 games for the Trail Blazers last year and started 54 of them. He has three years remaining on his current contract. He’s a solid 3-point shooter finishing at 36.5% last year with the Trail Blazers and 37.4% in 2023-24 with Washington so in theory Avdija and Murray-Boyles getting the bulk of the minutes on the wings on nights Paul George didn’t play would make some sense. If Kelly Oubre returns next season, between Oubre, George, Edwards Avdija and Murray-Boyles, Philadelphia’s wing depth would round out well.