Prior to the June 26 NBA Draft in 2024, a long variety of teams have expressed interest in former University of Colorado Boulder standout Tristan Da Silva. Among them is the Miami Heat.
“Jeremy Woo wrote that Da Silva was a surprising absence from the NBA’s initial green-room roster, but he could still be invited, as he has a strong desire to be among the top 20.” “His services are being pursued by a number of playoff-caliber teams, such as the Sacramento Kings, Heat, Sixers (Philadelphia 76ers), and Los Angeles Lakers. His interest level is as high as Memphis at No. 9 but he will probably fall into the next range.”
At 23 years old and having played four seasons of college basketball at Colorado, Da Silva is among the more seasoned players in his draft class.
However, the German did not start off as a star in college. He played in 24 games and had zero starts during his rookie season with the Buffaloes in 2020–21, averaging just 2.7 points and 1.0 rebounds per game.
In his sophomore year the following year, Da Silva made an impression as a versatile role player for the Buffaloes, averaging 9.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.6 steals per game. He didn’t, however, fully establish himself as one of the best two-way players in the country until his junior year.
Da Silva scored the ball at a very effective rate as a junior, and his scoring average shot to 15.9 points per game. In 33 of the 35 games he played in with the Buffaloes during the 2022–2023 season, he started and shot 49.6 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from three points.
In his penultimate season of collegiate basketball, Da Silva not only scored a lot of points but also averaged 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
Finally, he had an excellent last game with the Buffaloes, however it’s debatable if he made any statistical progress at all or how much better he was than in his junior season. At 16.0 points per game, his senior year scoring average was almost exactly the same as the year before. His shooting percentages were also strikingly comparable, as he shot 39.5 percent from outside the arc and 49.3 percent from the floor.
Da Silva’s playmaking was the one area where, statistically speaking, he excelled as a senior. His final season with the Buffaloes saw him increase from his junior season average of 1.3 assists per game to 2.4 assists per game.
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