This summer, former NBA player Austin Rivers recently made a bold claim, stating that 30 NBA players could potentially transition to the NFL. However, he expressed doubt about NFL players being able to successfully transition to the NBA. This assertion sparked debate among sports fans and analysts.
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua not only thinks Rivers is wrong, but he believes that he, Puka Nacua, could make the transition and make it in a timeframe shorter than the remaining NBA season.
Puka Nacua Believes He Can Make The NBA in 3-6 Months
Nacua joined his teammates, Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp, on their podcast Nine and Dime and claimed that he could become a professional basketball player in three to six months and would get playing time on a bad NBA team.
“In three to six months I truly believe that I could transition to play a point guard or shooting guard for one of the 32 teams that are in the NBA,” Nacua said.
Stafford followed up with where he saw himself in a rotation on an NBA team.
“To be honest, if we go to the Detroit Pistons, if that’s where I’m going, Coach, yeah, you’re going to play me 15 minutes. If I go to the Lakers is like, ‘No.’ I’m going to be the 15th man.”
Cooper Kupp isn’t So Sure
Kupp agreed that it would be more likely that a footballer could make the switch to basketball, but was skeptical about what level Nacua could reach in that time frame.
“I think that you specifically could do it not in three to six months, Kupp said. “But I do believe that you could, you know, one day make it happen…in Lithuania.”
Nacua has been described as a standout basketball player while playing for the Orem Tigers (Utah). As a senior, he averaged 12.1 points per game with a 44 shooting percentage, with an average of 5.2 rebounds and 4.9 assists. He also showed off his skills at the most recent, NBA All-Star Celebrity game. He led “Team Shannon” in assists in a winning effort and also had an impressive highlight snagging a pass over the middle and taking the ball from half court to dunk the ball.
The NFL Analytics team did a cursory study based on height and weight to find players that match the profiles of the corresponding sports.
Using a statistical classification model, they identified 57 NFL players with height and weight profiles closer to NBA players. There were only 18 NBA players with similar profiles to NFL players.
The NBA’s Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Marcus Smart, Luguentz Dort, and Donovan Mitchell have physical builds more common among NFL players.
NFL players Tariq Woolen, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, Jameson Williams, Christian Watson, and DeVonta Smith have height and weight more common among NBA players.
At just six feet two inches, Nacua would be among the shortest NBA players as there are currently only 49 players in the league at that height or shorter. A point that was brought up on the podcast. Nacua seemed to start to compare his game to that of fellow 6’2″‘er and four-time NBA Champion, Steph Curry, before being cut off by Kupp.
