Strengths: High character combo guard with excellent athletic ability ... Cerebral playmaker with strong leadership qualities ... Has combo skills with the ability to run the point guard position ... Explosive. Can get well above the rim for athletic finishes, attacks the basket hard ... A solid perimeter shooter with an improving 3 point shot ... Long arms allow him to play bigger than 6-3 ... Highly unselfish. A solid ball handler and passer ... Solid defensively. His ability to apply on ball pressure and play the passing lanes is a huge boost to the Duke backcourt ... Fits in well with the Duke program with his team first attitude and strong decision making ...

Weaknesses: Must further develop his point guard skills as he lacks the size to be a full time 2-guard on the NBA level ... Body is still a bit frail, needs to add overall body strength ...Could struggle some to stand out for his first few years at Duke platooning behind/alongside Greg Paulus ... Runs the risk of getting lost in the shuffle in the Duke program: some players thrive while others suffocate: never fully being able to develop/display their athletic abilities with such a meticulous/mistake free offensive approach ... Peaked early in his high school career to an extent: He was seen as a top 10 guy in his class early in his high school career but dipped into the top 25-50 range by his senior year ... Can at times be reluctant to take over games as he has always played alongside strong talent and has become accustomed to deferring to teammates at the end of games ... Must continue to develop and maintain his strong one on one abilities ...

Notes: Nolan has a tattoo in tribute of his late father Derek Smith who averaged over 12 ppg over a 9 year NBA career ... Played high school ball at Oak Hill Academy with Brandon Jennings and AAU ball for DC Assault alongside Michael Beasley and Austin Freeman ...