Getting to know the Go-Go: Taylor Funk

Funk is a 6-8 shooter who provides the Go-Go with valuable floor spacing.

Continuing our series of the noteworthy members of the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards’ G League affiliate, we arrive at 6-8 stretch forward Taylor Funk. Funk spent parts of five seasons at Saint Joseph’s (one was a redshirt season after only seven games) before finishing his college career at Utah State in 2022-2023.

Funk went undrafted after his final college season which saw him average 13.4 points, 5.5 points, and 1.7 assists. He connected on 37% of his 6.4 3-point attempts per game. Despite only hitting 35.7% of his 3-pointers in college, Funk developed a reputation as a shooter, and teams guarded him as such.

That carried over to the G League last season where in 50 games between Maine and Capital City, Funk averaged 8.7 points and hit 35.3% of his 5.7 three-point attempts. Even though he only hit 35%, the threat of his shooting forced teams to guard him closely, which created space for his teammates.

Through eight games this season, all of which he has started, Funk is averaging 13.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.1 steals. Almost across the board, his production is up except for in the shooting-efficiency column. So far, Funk is only making 25.4% of his threes and he’s shooting 8.4 of them per game.

If the 27-year-old, ever wants to have a chance of latching on with an NBA team, he likely needs to hit 40% of his threes. Being around 25% on high volume is not going to get it done, even if he has improved other areas of his game. His NBA role is as a shooting specialist and teams generally prefer when those players are hitting shots.

Fortunately for Funk, it’s still a relatively small sample size and he’ll have another 40 games to bring those numbers up. He’s also had a couple of extremely hot shooting nights that provide glimpses into the type of impact he can have when he’s on his game. In back-to-back games this season, he hit 4+ threes in the first half alone. He’s done it six total times over the last two seasons.

Jared Butler and Kira Lewis Jr. have yet to contribute much to the Go-Go this season as Butler has mostly been on assignment with the Wizards and Lewis Jr. has been injured. Having either in the lineup to provide an additional ball-handler and shot-creator would likely benefit Funk.

Photo by Richard Prepetit/NBAE via Getty Images

His shooting stroke is pure and at his size, only so many players can contest his shot, so it seems likely he’ll be able to turn things around. That floor-spacing is invaluable for the rest of the Go-Go players to reach their full potential as well.