NBA Draft: Dash Daniels Proving NBL Readiness for Melbourne United

On Sunday, Melbourne United guard Dash Daniels saw his best pro outing to date.

A 6-foot-5 guard — the brother of current Hawks’ star Dyson Daniels — he couldn’t have asked for a much better start from a confidence perspective. Against the New Zealand Breakers, he scored 14 points on efficient shooting, fitting in plenty of other areas too.

At just 17, few were expecting such an impactful game from him so early in his NBL career, despite him being tagged as a potential 2026 NBA Draft selectee.

But with Melbourne having throttled NZB, draft experts wondered how replicable his performance would be moving forward in NBL26. He scored just two points in eight minutes in his debut following questions about how big his role would truly be.

In a Thursday bout, however, Daniels doubled down on his winning ways.

In a 20-point rout of the South East Melbourne Phoenix, Daniels scored nine points on 3-for-5 shooting, adding five rebounds, three assists and two steals. He hit his only 3-point try in finishing with a +10 plus-minus. He again attacked the rim with confidence, and used his glidey, smooth movement skills to hound on defense.

The game wasn’t near as flashy as his 14-point outing, but he again proved that he could very well be ready to play major minutes for his squad, adding impact in a variety of areas.

It wasn’t a given that Daniels would earn time coming into the season, but all signs are pointing toward him being more ready than anticipated. At this point in the season, simply finding more on-court opportunity is vastly more important than what he actually does with it.

Ultimately, Dash projects to be of a similar archetype to Dyson in the NBA — a gluey combo guard who can score in multiple ways, defend on the perimeter and connect offense with ball-moving and play-making. There’s of course difference in the two’s game — Dash projects to shoot better from beyond the arc, where Dyson is lengthier and potentially more sound defensively — but it certainly doesn’t help Dash’s stock to have a successful blueprint in the NBA.