Kris Dunn
Los Angeles Clippers

Player Facts

Height: 6'3"
Weight: 205lbs.

Wingspan: 6'9.5"

Date of Birth: Mar. 18, 1994
College Experience: Providence (4 years)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 9
Physical Strength: 7
Positional Size: 7
Positional Wingspan: 9
Paint Scoring: 7
Midrange Scoring: 3
Three-Point Scoring: 4
Dribbling: 7
Passing: 6
Perimeter Defense: 10
Interior Defense: 5
Rebounding: 5

Embed from Getty Images

JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> First Domino

> When He Scores

> Uniquely Creating Offense

> Ball-Hound

> Rounding Out

> Not A Classic Guard

> Limited Off-Ball

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of ZH Highlights (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Kris Dunn is a defensive hound against opposing guards. At a strong, legitimate 6-foot-3 with a 6'9.5" reach, the Providence product has clawed his way back into the league with elite perimeter defense. On offense, he moves the ball, can initiate some actions, and finishes well in the paint.

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First Domino

It is important to remember that strong junior and senior college seasons helped vault Kris into being a top-5 draft pick. Even back then, some of the concerns about him can ring true as areas that have held him back from explosive growth at the NBA level. Still, he is a point guard who can capably initiate secondary actions while being able to manage some second units.

The modern-day iteration of Dunn has his skills deployed as both the ball-screen user and screen-setter respectively. He helps to be a half-court offensive connector through some dribble drives and a leaning on that point guard vision here. Kris has grown from his younger days in that he is embracing a less glamorous offensive role – freeing him up to use his energy as a defensive star.

Dunn gives you steady AST/TO ratios as a backup combo guard who can and has, started in a pinch. He finished with a lovely 3.22 assist-to-turnover ratio during his 66-game 2023-2024 NBA season.

Rather than being a high-gravity player who unlocks east looks for others, he is instead someone who can sure-handedly start team sets and maintain advantages his star running mates provide.

He is a good athlete with some power in his frame. This serves him and the offense in numerous ways – finishing inside on cuts, absorbing contact to stay in control on straight-line drives, and the setting of solid screens to force switches for the likes of James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Norman Powell.

When He Scores

Scoring is not what may come to mind when thinking about the player that is 6'3" guard Kris Dunn. With that being said, he makes the most of his opportunities here. Year after year, he seems to be getting better at committing to his role and not venturing too far outside what the team needs from him.

True-shooting+ (TS+) measures your overall shooting efficiency, weighted accordingly, relative to league-average. Dunn has been right around league average by this statistic since beginning to pierce back into the NBA earnestly in 2022-2023.

By zone, Dunn does his best work in the lane. He even has a little wiggle to him to attack slower-footed bigs on switches. His general touch is pretty soft in and around the paint.

2023-2024 and 2024-2025 have seen his conversion rates at the basket be 65%+. A more unique piece of his game is that he can short-roll or otherwise dribble into floaters and flip shots a little further out as a foil. The Connecticut native hit 45% or better on non-restricted area paint shots across those same seasons.

Uniquely Creating Offense

Offensive creation is usually defined through the lens of isolation, post-up, and/or pick-and-roll scoring ability. The former Friar is usually good for a couple of easy baskets per night by way of forcing turnovers. His defensive events-creation is perhaps his brightest star trait.

2023-2024 and 2024-2025 have been years where Kris has put up magnificent steals and deflections rates. 2023-2024's 4.2 deflections per-36 minutes put him just behind Tari Eason and in line with De'Anthony Melton. Dunn gets in the mix here in both man defense and off-ball situations.

The result regardless of where or how the defensively versatile Kris Dunn forces a cough-up will often end in transition offense for his team. He keeps his head up and is happy to kick it ahead to teammates running down the floor. Dunn always plays hard and is happy to be the outlet target himself too.

Ball-Hound

Dunn is stellar across all the defensive micro-skill zones as a 21st-century NBA guard. A couple of the most notable areas will be delved into further. Underscoring it all is his super-high motor and drive to make opponents have an off-night.

Kris possesses both screen-navigation packages. He can use his dense 205-pound body to match physicality with physicality and get through in more of a rugged way. Dunn's ability to get skinny and dance over screens against pull-up threats is also very impressive.

2023-2024 saw him hold DHO recipients he guarded to the same amount of points-per-night as defensive studs Matisse Thybulle, Amen Thompson, and Derrick Jones Jr. Switching actions like this is not a perfect solution either. Dunn fights and has just enough size to be obtrusive against taller players.

Generally, that point-of-attack defense is some of the best-in-class. He likes to take on the challenge of guarding star guards when he is out there, picking them up full-court too. He tends to be stronger and/or longer than most PG's so he leans on these attributes for on-ball steals and even the odd block.

Rounding Out

Dunn puts the finishing touches on his strengths profile via plus positional rebounding on both ends. He is willing to crash consistently and has the length and athleticism to help his effort often not for naught. He'll often pull down 5+ boards per-36.

Kris' high level of defensive awareness allows him to help out on dribble drives too. He is at times the low man, guarding the opposite corner shooter, so he can be the last line of defense. His rim defense is somewhat surprisingly pretty good given his stature and positional norms.

WEAKNESSES

Not A Classic Guard

The main reason that Dunn essentially fell out of the league for a spell is that his offense was not up to snuff with what the average NBA guard is capable of doing. That is still the case by and large. For one, he does not pressure the rim much from a volume perspective – limiting that high-value shot-creation ceiling.

Dunn is also not going to do much in the midrange for you. That and the fact that he is not creating many opportunities for teammates means that he tends to be one of the last options in the 5-man unit on offense. His FT-rate is also very weak.

Limited Off-Ball

A player of Dunn's archetype will often make up for on-ball mediocrity with knockdown spot-up shooting, elite cutting, or nifty connective passing. Kris does not however particularly excel in any of these areas.

In fact, he is actively a harmful player from a spacing perspective. He is neglected from deep – an issue that may really limit his playoff minutes moving forward. All seasons besides an anomalous 2023-2024 point to him being a rough outside shooter (~ low 30's%).

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bacon
Beacon Bacon

The 5th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft virtually fell out of the league for a couple of years, but fought his way back in 2023-2024 with the Jazz