LAWRENCE — Johnny Furphy became the latest Kansas basketball player to be selected in the NBA draft Thursday, when the San Antonio Spurs picked him 35th overall in the second round and according to multiple reports sent him to the Indiana Pacers in a trade.

Furphy, who’s from Melbourne, Australia, didn’t come into what became his only season of college basketball as a favorite to be a draft prospect so soon. It took him time, even, to establish himself as a member of the starting lineup. But once he earned that role he held onto it, and his emergence helped a KU team that lacked depth for multiple reasons.

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Furphy’s size, athleticism and 3-point shooting ability make a trio of things that made him someone who would be intriguing for NBA organizations. Starting 19 of the 33 games he played in as a freshman for the Jayhawks, the guard ended up averaging 9.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and one assist per game. He also shot 46.6% from the field, 35.2% from behind the arc and 76.5% from the free-throw line, with his 3-point shooting performance this past season arguably being Kansas’ best because of the volume he took.

Furphy is, though, someone who has a lot of room for growth and could need some time, whether that be physically, defensively or otherwise, to develop into the level of talent an NBA organization would desire — which could be why he dropped out of the first round and into the second. That high degree of potential people talk about with Furphy is a positive, of course, but also something that indicates patience is important. Given that time, Furphy has the chance to develop into someone people could look back on and think should have been selected even higher.

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: NBA draft: San Antonio, Indiana, Kansas basketball, Johnny Furphy