Maybe if you have a team situation where he only has to defend PGs. Doesn't have the physical tools to defend NBA wings though. Small wings like him are a tough sell unless they're outlier athletes or have some other super-elite skill. He doesn't check either of those boxes. Why not draft Jared Butler, who's a year younger and arguably a better player?
The concern definitely is he does sometimes get physically overwhelmed by taller players. As a defender, Alexander is a good perimeter defender against like sized players, as he does have length that is bothersome but that length seems to get mitigated by a lack of strength. I think that can be remedied to some degree but lacking a bit of defensive versatility on the wing will hurt him for sure.
With that said, I do think his elite skill is his shooting projection.........Alexander has seen rather significant year over year increases in most categories
Per 100:
Frosh: 3.9 FTA, 9 3PA, .333 3PT%, .707 FT%
Soph: 5.5 FTA, 13.7 3PA, .365 3PT%, .794 FT%
Junior: 7.2 FTA, 10.8 3PA, .399 3PT%, .860 FT%
It would be tough to find a player with similar shooting graphs.....and he couples that with rock solid shooting mechanics. Elevation, high entry, high release and it all looks very effortless......he just seems like a slam dunk 40% shooter at the NBA level.....and if he's able to guard 1's or 2's, you can certainly envision him being a plus player.
Looking at his advanced offensive metrics, it again is just a near perfect curve.
Frosh: 0.5 OWS, 0.7 OBPM, 1.9 BPM
Soph: 2.2 OWS, 3.4 OBPM, 4.5 BPM
Junior: 3.4 OWS, 5.8 OBPM, 7.7 BPM
A vast majority of metrics have continually been improving year over year.....and this past season he was a near 60% TS as a guard. That is pretty tough to do at volume. I agree his defense is the concern....but a 2 DBPM player in college should probably be able to tread water at the NBA level....and if he does that, he's become such a knockdown shooter, that I would bet on him having the chance to stick long term.
When speaking specifically about Butler, Alexander is a far more efficient scorer. He's also far better at producing defensive stats without fouling. I would imagine Butler will foul his way off the court often. That is also one of the reasons why Butlers none scoring impact is negative....whereas Alexander is a plus non scoring player with his shooting gravity, rebounding and AST/TO ratio. Alexander I think isn't being given credit for being a solid athlete, where things like his rebounding rate, steal rate and foul rate would tend to intimate he's possibly underrated. It's tough for non athletes to produce a good REB+STL/PF figure and Alexander does. I'm curious to see what his athletic testing is.