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Pick: Rasheed Sulaimon Likely To Play For Greensboro Swarm

After a solid senior season with the Maryland Terrapins, Rasheed Sulaimon seems to be on his way to the NBA D-League.

By Dakota Schmidt
Kansas v Maryland Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

On Sunday night, European basketball insider David Pick reported that former Duke and Maryland forward Rasheed Sulaimon signed a training camp deal with the Charlotte Hornets. That deal would seem to intend on him playing with the Greensboro Swarm, the Hornets new D-League affiliate.

Over the course of his college career with Duke and Maryland, Sulaimon averaged 10.3 points, 3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game on 43% from the field and 40% from beyond the arc.

Although he had plenty of success with the Blue Devils, his best season came when he joined Maryland for the 2015-16 season. With Maryland, Sulaimon stood out as a very efficient player as he put up 11.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists on 46% from the field and 42% from beyond the arc.

That efficient shooting should allow Sulaimon to be a perfect fit for the D-League, which is basically dominated by perimeter shooting. Just last year, four NBADL teams (Reno, Maine, Los Angeles and RGV) averaged more than 30 perimeter attempts per game. That’s more than double the NBA, which only had two teams in Golden State and the Houston Rockets.

While we’re still three months away from the season, it looks like the Greensboro Swarm might join that list of teams in 2016-17. That’s due to both Sulaimon and Washington alum Andrew Andrews being potential parts of the Swarm. Like Sulaimon, Andrews was an effective perimeter shooter during his senior season, as he shot 40% from beyond the arc.

Just with that duo alone, the Greensboro Swarm have the makings to be an enjoyable D-League team. That anticipation should only continue to grow over the next three months, as the Swarm continues to build their roster through the upcoming expansion and NBADL Draft combined with any other affiliate players that the team will bring in.

Despite there being three months until the start of the 2016-17 NBADL season, folks in Greensboro should already start to get excited about their incoming D-League squad.