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Top prospect Emmanuel Mudiay finishes season in China

Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

Down 2-0 in the Chinese Basketball Association semi-finals, the Guangdong Southern Tigers called on 18-year-old point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, activating him for the first time in the best-of-five series.

Thanks to spotty performance late in the season and the presence of fellow guard Will Bynum, Mudiay was deemed redundant for the series' first two games. He was paramount in game three, scoring 24 points to help keep the Tigers alive.

On Monday, Mudiay and the Tigers dropped game four of the series in overtime to the Beijing Ducks, ending their season. Muiday had 15 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, capping off his CBA season with an incredibly strong two-game burst. He's now expected to return to the U.S. to begin preparing for the NBA Draft.

Once an SMU recruit, Mudiay eschewed the NCAA to make $1.2 million overseas this season, a plan that seemed tenuous when a mid-season injury struck but has been a success overall. Mudiay remains a top-five prospect, having averaged 18 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.9 assists over 12 CBA games, shooting 51.4 percent from the floor.

There remain concerns, specifically about his shot - he hit 34.2 percent on a small sample of threes and 57.4 percent at the line - and the quality of competition he faced in China. This is a league, after all, in which Stephon Marbury still averages 16.4 points and six assists at age 38.

Exactly how high Muiday goes on draft night could depend a great deal on whether his representatives allow him to work out against other top guards. Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell is the only guard really in the conversation with Mudiay in the top-10, and head-to-head workouts could help allay any concerns about the reliability of CBA performance compared to NCAA performance.

A 6-foot-5 point guard with a 6-foot-9 wingspan, Mudiay has the makings of a quality defender and a real terror when it comes to getting to the rim, but he remains somewhat raw as a point guard and doesn't possess a consistent jumper.

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