2016 Wake Forest Basketball Recruiting Breakdown: Point Guards

Fellow Deacon fans, as many of you may know, we are likely entering the biggest summer for Wake Forest basketball recruiting in a long, long time. We saw Danny Manning bring in some surprisingly positive pieces in his first makeshift recruiting class, having been given the reigns to the 2014 class very late in the process. We then witnessed the Deacs land one of their best classes since the Dino Gaudio days this past year, with three four star recruits committing to wear the black and gold in Bryant Crawford, Doral Moore, and John Collins.There’s no denying the fact that the 2016 class for Wake Forest basketball is absolutely vital to getting the program back to being nationally relevant once again; a relevance that is becoming scarily and woefully distant. And it’s not just vital just because a man named Harry Giles is from the Winston-Salem area and the Deacs have a legitimate chance at landing him. Over the course of the week, I will be going through our main targets at each position, and Wake's chances with each player. Today I will go over the point guards. On Friday I will be releasing my "ideal" recruiting class.

Brandon Childress is the only PG on the list with a "Medium" or "High" priority and he has already committed to the Deacs as of last fall. With Bryant Crawford and Mitchell Wilbekin both surely still with the program for 2 more years at the start of the 2016 season, there isn’t much need to land another PG for this class when there are other positions with more priority. Unless Wake can land a guy like Dennis Smith (Top 5 player nationally, but heavily leaning other schools at the moment) I don’t see it necessary to target another PG and the staff clearly feels this way as well based on a lack of recent offers for the position.

Brandon Childress (3*, 146 overall)- Childress committed to the Deacons back in November and is the first member of the 2016 class. He has a fantastic handle and feel for the game, and has range from deep as well as he has shown in recent AAU tournaments. The word I would use to describe little Childress is "Fearless." Although being relatively small for the PG position, that doesn’t deter him from driving hard to the basket and making plays at the rim. I think he has all the intangibles to be successful at the ACC level as long as he bulks up a little to give him a slightly bigger frame. While I think Childress is a great piece to the class by himself, it doesn’t hurt that two of his best friends are Wesleyan Christian Academy teammates Harry Giles and Kwe Parker, who also are high priority targets for the Deacs in the 2016 class. Even when the coaching staff can’t be pitching to these guys, Brandon can, and I am sure he has already talked to them significantly about the potential to continue their basketball careers together at the same University just down the road. Plus, the day Brandon Childress hits a 3 against UNC and the flashback videos from his dad in 1995 flood Twitter once again will truly be a marvelous moment worth waiting for.

Brandon Childress (@Agent__0) the future Wake Forest guard has made big improvements on his body & with his decisions. His 3pt is $

— Paul Biancardi (@PaulBiancardi) May 27, 2015

Dennis Smith (5*, 5 overall)- Let me be quite honest right off the bat: At the present moment, I see the odds the Deacs land Dennis Smith as a distant long shot. Smith is a 5* talent and widely considered a Top 5 player in the country by most scouting sites, and if there was a current NBA player that most resembles the NC product, it would be Russell Westbrook. Smith’s athleticism at the PG position is truly astonishing, and his dribbling and passing ability aren’t much further behind in impressiveness. Smith would come in and be an All-ACC caliber guard from Day 1, but I can only see him truly coming to Wake Forest if Giles commits first. There have been rumors that Smith and Giles have talked about a package deal before, though I’m sure these reports are somewhat overhyped and predominantly baseless. Smith has a number of excellent offers on the table and Wake hasn’t really been mentioned in his recent conversations about where he would like to play college ball, but if Giles commits to the Deacs and calls him up does that then change things? It’s fun to imagine and fantasize that’s for sure.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dennis Smith plays with so much poise/maturity. Unmatched skill set/athleticism that makes him so so special <a href="http://t.co/oJ4YBAoQPe">pic.twitter.com/oJ4YBAoQPe</a></p>&mdash; Rick Lewis (@Coach_Rick57) <a href="https://twitter.com/Coach_Rick57/status/607584850317611009">June 7, 2015</a></blockquote>

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For more frequent updates on Wake Forest recruiting, you can follow me on Twitter @DeacFan3. And of course, as always, Go Deacs!