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2018 NBA Draft Prospect Profiles: Is Trae Young a super star in the making?

By Rob DausterJun 18, 2018, 12:07 PM EST

STRENGTHS

I would make the argument that Trae Young is the single-most skilled player in this year’s NBA draft. He might very well be the best shooter available, and I think that it is inarguable he is the best passer in this draft class. The biggest reason his counting stats are so high is because of the absurd level of volume and freedom that Lon Kruger afforded him, but there’s also a reason he was given that freedom.

Let’s start with his shooting. Young’s range extends will beyond the NBA’s three-point line, but what makes him so dangerous isn’t his ability as a catch-and-shoot threat, it’s how well he is able to get to his shot off of the dribble. Young’s handle is elite, as is his footwork. He’s always on balance and he has a lightening quick release, one that he doesn’t need much space to get off. He also has a variety of different step-backs and pull-backs to create space, and he’s a very good shooter off of hang-dribbles (if there’s a switch) or if a defender goes under a ball-screen.

Young is not the quickest or most explosive guard you’ll find, but he understands how to use his change of pace and some deceptive ball-handling to get a defense off balance and create room for himself to get into the paint. He has an array of shots that he can make in the paint, although he does need to continue to get more consistent with his floaters and mid-range shots.

Part of the reason that Kyrie Irving and Steph are able to thrive as two of the best scorers in the NBA is because they are elite finishers at and around the rim despite the fact that they are smaller and less athletic than the players that will be guarding them. Young will need to get to that level, and it’s certainly doable.

The other side of Young’s game is his ability to pass the ball. His vision is sensational, both in transition and in the halfcourt, and it will only get more effective in the NBA, where the players he is passing to are better and the wider deeper three-point are creates more space. The thing that really stood out to me in watching Young was his ability to read a defense in ball-screen actions. His basketball IQ and his understanding of where the defense is moving and who is going to be open is already at an elite level.

WEAKNESSES

The biggest concern with Young as a prospect is on the defensive side of the ball. Physically, he was not quite ready to defend at the collegiate level last season, let alone at the NBA level. He’s actually a little taller than you may realize — he’s just a shade under 6-foot-2 — but he weighs just 178 pounds with a willowy frame and a wingspan that is just 6-foot-3. He’s not all that strong, he’s not all that physical and he’s not all that tough, and that’s before you question if he has the quickness to guard elite NBA point guards.

And then there is the issue of whether or not he actually wants to play defense. He was a mess guarding ball-screens as a freshman, often showing little-to-no effort to fight through and getting lost when he did. He got beaten off the dribble without providing much in the way of resistance far too many times. He almost looked disinterested on that end of the floor. Context might be important here, however. With the load that Young was carrying on the offensive end, it’s certainly reasonable that he was either A) saving his legs to be able to carrying the Sooners offensively or B) didn’t actually have enough energy to defend.

That doesn’t diminish the concerns with his physical tools, but defending is about want-to, and it will be on the teams that are drafting to figure out whether or not he actually wants to defend. As flawed as Steph is defensively, he tries hard enough that he’s not that much of a liability.

The other issue is how careless and inefficient Young was late in the year. Not only did he lead the nation in scoring and assists, but he led in turnovers as well. He also has a bad habit of taking terrible shots early in the shot clock, settling for 25-footers with a defender in his face, but again, context is important to the discussion here.

The degree of difficulty on the plays that Young tried to make this season was often insanely high, but the truth is that Oklahoma really didn’t have any other options to create offense. Young had to carry the load for this group to be a tournament team, and it worked well enough for long enough that the Sooners were still a tournament team despite a disastrous finish to the season.

Again, NBA GMs are going to have to figure out the answer to this question: Was Young inefficient late in the year because that’s who he is as a player, or was he driving into three defenders or forcing 26-foot shots or trying to make tough passes because that’s what his team needed him to do?

NBA COMPARISON

The obvious comparison that gets made by everyone is Stephen Curry, and in a best-case scenario, I don’t think that’s terrible. That said, I think that, given Young’s ability to pass the ball, Steve Nash makes a little more sense — and that is who Young has idolized — but either way, you know about what his ceiling. I’m not sure he has two-time MVP upside, and comparing him to two players of that caliber is probably unfair, but he has the potential to be very, very good in a league built around ball-screens, the three-ball and pace-and-space.

That said, the floor for Young is very low. If he can’t figure out how to defend and he never ends up being good enough to have an offense built around him, I think there’s a real chance that his second contract is with a team outside of the NBA.

OUTLOOK

As the NBA moves more and more towards small-ball, the skill-set that Young has is going to continue to get more valuable. Elite shooting is something that every team in the league needs, and Young has that ability to shoot. He’s excellent in ball-screens as well, and his ability as a passer when the kind of spacing he’ll see on an NBA court is something that absolutely should translate.

We’ve been over the issues that he has with inefficiency, decision-making and defending. All of those are concerns, but I do think that the situation that Young was in at Oklahoma exacerbated them to a degree.

In my mind, Young’s career is going to be determined by whether or not he ends up being good enough that to have an offense built around him. The way he wants to play is as a James Harden or a Russell Westbrook. Even Steve Nash had the ball in his hands the majority of the time. Being a ball-dominant lead guard that gets run through 20-30 ball-screens a night is not something everyone can do.

And if Young can’t do that, I have a tough time envisioning what his role will be in the NBA.

2018 NBA Draft Prospect Profile: Michael Porter Jr. is this year’s biggest mystery

Stacy Revere/Getty Images

By Rob DausterJun 14, 2018, 4:32 PM EST

STRENGTHS

On paper, Porter checks every single one of the boxes that teams are looking for frontcourt pieces for the modern NBA. He’s big, he’s athletic and he is a natural wing, far more comfortable playing on the perimeter than in and around the paint.

It’s all centered around his shooting ability and the physical tools that he’s been blessed with. Let’s start with the latter. At 6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-0.5 wingspan and a 9-foot-1 standing reach, he has the size to play the four at the next level with the potential to play the five in smaller lineups. He has dunk contest leaping ability and is mobile enough that he can grab defensive rebounds and go the length of the court. He’s always going to be a lob target, especially in transition, where he thrived as a prep player.

Porter can be a terrific shooter as well. He’s a catch-and-shoot threat that is more than comfortable getting to his shot in isolation and off of hang dribbles. He has the height to elevate over smaller defenders and range beyond the NBA three-point stripe. He can also be run off of screens or used in pick-and-pop actions, which gives him more value and versatility in terms of the kinds of offense that he can be successful in.

His ceiling is as a player that can get you 25 points a night in the NBA, and as a 6-foot-10 shooter, he’s not all that common.

WEAKNESSES

Without question, the biggest issue facing Porter in his basketball career is his health. Bad backs are not typically something that just go away with time, but we’ll get to that.

Here, we’re going to focus on the issues that he has on the court, and his biggest center around the fact that he plays ‘high’, but not in the J.R. Smith way. Porter has high hips and a high center of gravity, and that manifests itself in three ways: An inability to blow by defenders on the perimeter, issues staying in front of quicker ball-handlers and a lack of strength when it comes to holding his position in the paint.

For my money, his issues putting the ball on the floor and getting to the rim is the biggest concern. He lacks some of that initial burst to get his shoulders by a defender, and even when he does, his frame doesn’t have the strength or the balance to take the hit and play through. As it stands, Porter has a tendency to revert into a high-volume, low-efficiency jump-shooter, a player that survives too much on contested mid-range jumpers to get his points. That’s not a death sentence for his career — see: Anthony, Carmelo — but you have to be extremely good at what you do to make yourself a positive influence on a team that way, especially when you are not a natural playmaker; Porter is a score-first player, through and through.

And let me be clear: That is not necessarily a bad thing. Porter might just be good enough to be a star in the NBA as a scorer, and it’s not unheard of for someone that was a bit selfish in the high school ranks to develop the ability to pass as he learns more about the game. I wasn’t kidding when I said that he could end up averaging 25 points in the NBA, but that gets us to the other problem.

The defense.

Porter doesn’t always sit in a stance and move his feet, staying in front of quicker players. That is a problem if he wants to be a wing in the NBA. There is an incredible value in a player that has positional versatility and the ability to keep a man in front when put on an island. As we saw with the last two rounds of the playoffs, the modern NBA is becoming increasingly more about switching and isolation play, and there are valid concerns over whether or not Porter has the lateral quickness to thrive defensively.

The same can be said if you project him as a four. Can he handle the physicality of the paint in the NBA? Will he get knocked off his spot if one of the NBA’s best big wings tries to back him down? This concern is added by the fact that his frame is slender. He doesn’t have broad shoulder. Just how much more weight and muscle will be be able to add?

Superstardom comes for Porter if, given his scoring acumen, he is a versatile defender, and there are real questions about whether or not that will ever come to fruition.

NBA COMPARISON

Let’s say that Porter’s back really is completely healthy, he’s able to play 75 games a year and that he adds the strength and quickness necessary to become a plus-defender as a big wing in the NBA. If all of that happens, I can see Porter being something of a Paul George 2.0. That’s his ceiling.

His floor? Terrifyingly low given the injury concern. It took Joel Embiid until his fourth season to play more than 31 games and his third season to play, period, and even now, the entire city of Philadelphia goes full lemon booty every time he hits the floor. Imagine that, but instead of Embiid it’s the 2017-18 version of Andrew Wiggins.

Or Michael Beasley.

Knowing what they know now, do you think the Kings would still take Beasley over Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love?

OUTLOOK

The biggest thing with Porter at this point is the unknown.

His performances in college were quite unimpressive, and it is really, really difficult to get that out of your head. That said, it is important to do so, because it’s obvious to anyone that watched Porter play before college that he was nowhere near 100 percent in the SEC and NCAA tournaments.

It’s also important to remember that Porter is now effectively a year behind the rest of the players in this draft class. What I mean by that is that some of these issues Porter has as a prospect are things that can be coached out of him. Some of these issues can be resolved when he gets into an NBA strength and conditioning program that will add muscle to his lower body, strengthen his core and get him quicker and more explosive. Those red flags are no an uncommon problem for tall, skinny freshmen to have.

But unlike those other tall, skinny freshmen, Porter’s one season in college was spent rehabbing from back surgery instead of spending time in the weight room and on the practice court. That issue is compounded by the fact that he is old for his grade. Porter will turn 20 on June 29th, making him two months older that Kevin Huerter and Josh Okogie, likely first round picks that both spent two seasons in college before declaring for the draft.

That has to be considered by NBA teams as well.

As does the intel that has leaked out of Missouri regarding Porter as a teammate. A source close to the Missouri program called Porter entitled and arrogant, that he’s not the best teammate and may be more into the celebrity that comes with NBA stardom that the NBA itself. Other outlets have reported similar concerns about him, and that’s to say nothing of the reputation for being soft that he carried with him throughout his high school career.

The issue isn’t so much a character concern as it is a question of whether or not he will be willing to accept a role initially in the NBA and how he will handle the hazing that comes with being a rookie in the NBA. I think it’s important to note that Porter comes from a big family. He has seven brothers and sisters, all of whom are or were home-schooled through eighth grade. Porter was so shy, his father told NBC Sports, that he wouldn’t even be able to order food from a waiter at a restaurant. The family bought and ran a shaved ice stand in their hometown in an effort to get Porter to learn how to handle human interaction.

That’s a tough adjustment, something he might grow out of but still another thing for NBA teams to have to consider.

All in all, it’s caused Porter to slip. He’s a risk, one that is probably worth taking in the 6-8 range but not quite for teams picking in the top five.

That said, chew on this: The last time a one-and-done combo-forward from Missouri with concerns about efficiency, toughness, defense and a reliance on being an isolation scorer was drafted, he turned into Jayson Tatum.

And that pick looks pretty savvy today.

2018 NBA Draft Prospect Profile: Is Mo Bamba a unicorn, or is he the draft’s most likely bust?

Chris Covatta/Getty Images

By Rob DausterJun 14, 2018, 9:00 AM EST

9 Comments

The first time I ever saw Mo Bamba play in person I remember coming away fairly unimpressed.

He blocked a few shots and he had the presence in the paint of, as one high-major coach put it, “a dinosaur”, but I distinctly remember sitting next to a longtime scout in a gym during an EYBL event and telling them I was not impressed, that I didn’t get the Bamba hype.

“I want to see him against someone that isn’t a stiff,” I said.

“Rob. That’s Jaren Jackson he’s playing.”

And that was my introduction to Bamba-mania.

A 7-foot-0.5 center with a 7-foot-10 wingspan — which will be the longest in the NBA as soon as he steps onto an NBA court — Bamba’s ability as a game-changing defensive presence is at the core of what makes him such an appealing prospect. He finished with freshman season with a block rate of 13.2, averaging 4.9 blocks per 40 minutes and anchoring a Texas defense that finished the year ranked 12th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric. They were top five for the entire season before Texas Tech and Nevada shredded the Longhorns in the Big 12 and NCAA tournament, respectively.

That’s why the Harlem native is consistently compared to Rudy Gobert, but what sets Bamba apart from the lumbering Frenchman is that he seems to be a better fit for the modern NBA. He can move his feet defensively. He has the physical tools that should allow him to be able to hedge and switch ball-screens at the next level. He reportedly clocked in at a 3.04 3/4 court sprint, which would make him faster than Russell Westbrook, John Wall and Dwyane Wade. And while his three-point stroke was inconsistent during his freshman season at Texas — 14-for-51 (27.5%) — Bamba has spent the spring working out with Drew Hanlen, who helped the likes of Joel Embiid and Jayson Tatum stretch out their range and fix their shooting stroke.

That’s a hell of a prospect, right?

So why isn’t he going No. 1?

There are questions about his strength and his toughness and his love for the game. Does he play because he’s addicted to the game, or is it simply because he was blessed with the physical gifts that will makes NBA teams salivate and invest millions and millions of dollars into him in the hopes that he pays dividends as the NBA’s preeminent defensive anchor?

That is the questions that NBA GMs have to get to the bottom of before they invest a top five pick in Bamba.

HEIGHT: 7-foot-0.75
WEIGHT: 236 pounds
WINGSPAN: 7-foot-10
2017-18 STATS: 12.9 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 3.6 BPG, 54.1/27.5/68.1, 14 3PM
DRAFT RANGE: 3-6

STRENGTHS

Everything starts with the defensive side of the ball for Bamba.

A shade over 7-feet tall with an NBA-record 7-foot-10 wingspan, Bamba has the potential to be one of the greatest shot-blockers to ever step into an NBA arena. At the college level, he averaged 3.6 blocks (4.9 per 40 minutes) with a block-rate of 13.2, but more importantly, he acted as the anchor of what was one of the best defenses in college basketball for the majority of the season. It’s not just his length, either. He has the kind of shot-blocking instincts — he anticipates plays, he can make up ground at the rim or on jump-shooters in a hurry, he uses his left hand to challenge shots — that will make him a force around the basket.

What makes Bamba so intriguing as a defensive piece is that he has the tools to one day potentially be a switchable defender on the perimeter. He can get in a stance and move his feet –something that should improve as he adds lower-body strength and quickness in an NBA strength and conditioning program — and while he’s never going to be Gary Payton or Tony Allen, his length will allow him enough of a cushion to contest jumpers and shots at the rim.

It will take some time, but Bamba has a real chance to one day be the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Defensively, so long as Bamba adds some strength and some weight, I think that, barring injury, it is going to be hard for him to fail.

Offensively, however, is a different story.

WEAKNESSES

The offensive side of the ball is where things get really interesting, or worrisome, with Bamba.

Let’s start with the shooting. As it stands, Bamba has never proven himself to be more than a guy who, in theory, could space the floor. As a freshman, he made just 14 threes (14-for-51, 27.5%) and shot just 68.1 percent from the free throw line. His shooting stroke was long and slow, bringing the ball behind his head and firing off jumpers with something that looked like a catapult motion. That shooting stroke has changed, however. Bamba has been working out with Drew Hanlen, an NBA skills trainer that counts the likes of Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal and Joel Embiid as his clients, and now his stroke looks compact and downright good:

Mo Bamba is working out with @DrewHanlen in LA and appears to have made some adjustments to his shooting mechanics. Here he is knocking down 9 3-pointers in a row. Pretty impressive stuff from a 7-footer with a 7'9 wingspan. Can't wait to get out there and it in person. pic.twitter.com/JT88fZCxQC

— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 25, 2018

Bamba stretching his stroke out beyond the three-point line, combined with the potential he has to be able to switch ball-screens, makes him a tremendously valuable player, but his issues on the offensive end of the floor weren’t just limited to his shooting touch.

Bamba lacks a degree of feel on that end. He’s not a great passer (15 assists vs. 46 turnovers) and he struggles to read where double-teams are coming from in the post. He doesn’t have the physical strength to be able to overpower stronger defenders on the block, and some of that rubs off on the way he boxes out. His length allows him to get rebounds at a point where no one else on the floor can dream of getting them, and while his rebounding numbers are quite impressive, he does have a bad habit of not boxing out and getting pushed out of position defensively.

That’s not the only place on the floor that his body-type gives cause for concern. Bamba is not a great screen-setter and tends to settle for picking-and-popping instead of rolling hard to the rim. Context is important here — Texas had shoddy guard play after they lost Andrew Jones and a total lack of spacing — but there are valid concerns about Bamba’s potential as a roll-finisher. He’s not the kind of athlete that is going to elevate through defenders, a la DeAndre Jordan, to finish.

Perhaps the biggest concern that NBA decision makers have about Bamba, and it’s one that has seemed to plague him since his high school days: He has an air of nonchalance when he plays, almost a casual nature that makes it easy to question his love for basketball. There are often times he floats on the perimeter, or he’ll jog back on defense and get pushed out of position on the block. He doesn’t always cut hard or roll hard. He makes simple mistakes in ball-screen defenses. He can beat his defender down the floor every time, but doesn’t unless he’s locked in.

Combine that with his lack of physicality, his overall lack of intensity is a real red flag for someone that is projected to be the defensive anchor of an NBA organization.

NBA COMPARISON

There really isn’t one, because there are very few players that have the kind of length that Bamba has and none of them are able to do what Bamba should be capable of doing if he reaches his ceiling. Rudy Gobert is the name that you hear the most often and that has just about everything to do with the measureables that those two players have in common and almost nothing to do with what they can actually do on a basketball court. Clint Capela is another name that pops up, but Bamba’s potential as a rim protector is higher and, unlike both of those player, Bamba has the ability to, in theory, make threes.

This is where the intrigue in Bamba lies. The players that change the NBA are the ones that do something we haven’t seen done before, whether that’s Steph Curry, or LeBron, or Kevin Durant, or Shaq. Bamba has a long, long way to go before he belongs anywhere near that conversation, but I can certainly see how someone can look at Bamba and see a world where he develops into that kind of a player.

That is no guarantee, however, especially when talking about a player where motor, effort and love of the game are where the concerns lie. I don’t think it’s crazy to think that Bamba might become Wilie Cauley-Stein 2.0.

OUTLOOK

This may sound simplistic but I truly believe it: Bamba is going to be as good as he decides he’s going to be.

The tools are there. Whether or not he puts in the work to capitalize on each and every one of those tools is something that Bamba will dictate, and the early returns are promising. Bamba has been working out twice-a-day with Hanlen in addition to doing weight-lifting, yoga and everything else that he can do to put his body in a position to be worth nine figures in salary over the years.

Will that last? Is this just his effort to get paid and to ensure his future? That’s another concern that NBA teams have voiced. In addition to being one of the best skills trainers, Hanlen also understands how social media works. He understands what is going to go viral and how to capitalize on that. He knows that sending videos of Bamba making nine NBA threes in a row with a newly-reformed shooting stroke will catch the eye of everyone, and he knows that his reputation as a coach will impact the way Bamba is viewed.

Bamba is also exceedingly smart. As we detailed in a story two summers ago, Bamba paid his own way to travel from New York to Boston for the Sloan Analytics Conference. He could have gone to Harvard, and probably could have gotten into the school with the help of the basketball program. He’s a very, very well-rounded person, and that will sometimes scare front office folks, even if it’s a silly concern to have.

I think there are enough concerns with Bamba that he won’t end up being one of the top four picks, but the potential is there to make each and every one of those four teams that passed on him regret it.

2018 NBA Draft Prospect Profile: Is Jaren Jackson Jr. the future of the center position?

Rey Del Rio/Getty Images

By Rob DausterJun 11, 2018, 9:00 AM EST

2 Comments

Jaren Jackson Jr. isn’t going to be the first pick in the draft, and I’m not sure just how many mock drafts are going to have him slotted somewhere in the top two or three picks.

The hype, attention and production that comes with the likes of DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley III and Luka Doncic is hard to ignore, particularly in comparison with Jackson, who averaged just 10.9 points in one year at Michigan State and bowed out of the NCAA tournament after playing just 15 minutes in a second round loss to Syracuse.

Put another way, Jackson never really has moved the needle, which makes sense for a guy that was the fifth-option for his team in college.

But it doesn’t take all that much effort to find NBA decision-makers that think Jackson might end up being the most impactful NBA player to come out of this draft class.

The reason why is fairly straight-forward: He will fit seamlessly into the modern NBA given the combination of skills that he has while the other four players projected to go in the top five this year have more question marks. Ayton’s rim-protection, three-point shooting and questionable work ethic are red flags. Bagley cannot guard the position (five) that he is going to have to play offensively. Doncic’s relative lack of athleticism makes it unclear who he can guard at the next level. Mo Bamba’s offensive repertoire and toughness will be questioned.

Jackson?

He’s 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan. He shot 39.6 percent from three after shooting 43.8 percent from three on the EYBL circuit in 2016. He averaged 3.0 blocks despite playing just under 22 minutes a night as a freshman. He is as switchable as any big man in this class defensively because of his ability to move his feet. He won’t turn 19 years old until September 15th, making him 16 months younger than Bamba, 15 months younger than Michael Porter Jr., 14 months younger than Ayton and six months younger than Bagley, who reclassified to enroll at Duke a year early.

He’s everything that NBA teams are looking for as a defensive anchor in the era of small-ball fives switching pick-and-rolls.

Put another way, how much do you think Tristan Thompson (or Clint Capela) would be worth to the Cavs (or Rockets) if he could shoot 40 percent from three and 80 percent from the free throw line? What would Kevin Love‘s value be on the open market if he was a rim-protector and a better defender in space?

Jackson has a long was to go to get to that level, but when you imagine his ceiling, that’s the picture you get.

HEIGHT: 6-foot-11.25
WEIGHT: 236
WINGSPAN: 7-foot-5.25
2017-18 STATS: 10.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.0 bpg, 1.1 apg, 51.3/39.6/79.7, 38 3PM
DRAFT RANGE: Top four

STRENGTHS

When we talk about 3-and-D, typically what we’re referring to are wings, players like a Trevor Ariza or a Danny Green, but 3-and-D big men do exist. Jackson, who was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman, projects as the quintessential 3-and-D big, a perfect fit as a small-ball five in the modern NBA.

Let’s start with his ability to shoot the ball. Jackson knocked down 39.6 percent of his attempts from three in his one season at Michigan State, getting up nearly three threes per game. While that isn’t a massive sample size, Jackson shot 44 percent (28-for-64) from beyond the arc on Nike’s EYBL circuit prior to his senior season in high school and knocked down nearly 80 percent of his free throws this past season. His shooting stroke is awkward — he shoots a push shot with a low-release point that has a weird, sideways spin on it — but he has shot a high-percentage at every level he’s played at in his career. It’s not really a stretch to think that will continue onto the next level.

He’s also a capable driver — mostly to his left — when it comes to attacking closeouts, showing flashes of handle and the ability to beat bigger, and smaller, defenders off the bounce.

Jaren Jackson, are you kidding me??? pic.twitter.com/0SGGPEKRVA

— Rob Dauster (@RobDauster) January 23, 2018

The defensive end of the floor is where the real intrigue lies with Jackson.

Offensively, he has a chance to be effective, a floor-spacer that can create some mismatches and beat a close-out, but I’d be pretty surprised if he ever ended up averaging more than 15-17 points in the NBA.

Where Jackson can really make his mark is on the defensive end of the floor, and I don’t think it’s crazy to say that winning a Defensive Player of the Year award in the NBA is within his range of outcomes.

Let’s start with the shot-blocking. On the season, Jackson averaged 3.0 blocks per night despite playing just under 22 minutes; he averaged 5.8 blocks per-40 minutes. Jackson’s block-rate is even more impressive, coming in fourth-nationally at 14.3. There hasn’t been a player drafted in the first round to post a better block rate in the year they were drafted since at least 2004; both Hasheem Thabeet and Larry Sanders, who were drafted after their junior seasons, bettered that block rate in limited roles as freshmen while Hassan Whiteside, who was a second-round pick, had the best block-rate of the bunch.

In fact, Jackson’s block-rate is better than just about every dominant big man that has been picked at the top of the lottery in recent years, including Anthony Davis, and that was despite the fact that he spent the majority of his minutes this season playing the four:

There’s more.

Since 2009-10, there have been just eight players — including Jackson — that have posted a block rate higher than 14 and a true-shooting percentage above 64. Jackson made 38 threes this past season. The other seven players on that list attempted one three combined.

I say all that to say this: The ability to block shots at the rate that Jackson blocks shots is a unique skill, one that is not often combined with a player that has the ability to shoot from distance that Jackson has.

Jackson, however, is more than just a shot-blocker on the defensive end. He can move his feet. He can defend guards on the perimeter when he’s forced to switch. He spent this past season covering college basketball’s small-ball fours. He got experience defending on an island and moving his feet against quicker ball-handlers.

Switchable rim-protectors that space the floor offensively don’t come around that often, and he still doesn’t turn 19 for another two months.

WEAKNESSES

Much of what ails Jackson has to do with his age.

He checked in at 236 pounds at the NBA Draft Combine, but he could still stand to add some size and muscle to his frame. His lower body strength needs work as well, as he has something of a high center of gravity. He’ll get bullied early on in his career. Jackson could also stand to improve his explosiveness and lateral quickness. At this point, he’s mobile and he’s long but he’s not an above-average athlete, particularly from an NBA perspective. That should improve as he gets into an NBA weight training program and continues to grow into his body. Remember, he was just 6-foot-2 as a freshman in high school.

Jackson needs to get most confidence in his ability to drive right and his awkward shooting stroke means he’ll probably never be a great pull-up jump-shooter, but that’s not likely to be something that he’ll be asked to do all that often.

Maturity and decision-making may be the biggest issue that he’ll face.

Let’s start with the fouls. He committed a LOT of them. Part of the reason that he only averaged 22 minutes was that he also averaged 3.2 fouls per game, or roughly 6.0 fouls per 40 minutes. Some of that is a result of Jackson still learning how to play and where to be positionally — freshman bigs are always going to be foul prone, especially when they’re being asked to defend on the perimeter more. Part of that is he is a little slow to react when defending on the perimeter. Sometimes that’s because he reads the play late, something that should change as he spends more time playing. Sometimes it’s because he’s too upright defensively, which will be helped as he develops his lower-body. Sometimes it’s because he’s over-aggressive, whether that manifests itself as a reach-in foul or getting whistled for over-the-back on a rebound he never really had a chance to get.

In theory, those are things that can be coached out. What’s a little more concerning is that Jackson is somewhat naïve and tends to have a long memory during games. He can get hung up on a referee blowing a call or him missing a shot.

But again, it’s hard to know whether that’s who he is or simply a result of an 18-year old being 18.

NBA COMPARISON

I’m not sure there really is a perfect comparison for Jackson because I’m not sure how many players have the combination of skills that he has. I think his floor is somewhere between a Serge Ibaka and a Robert Covington, depending on just how good of a shooter he develops into and where his development defensively takes him, which is part of the reason that he is steadily climbing draftboards. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t become a useful rotation player on a team that can play the way you need to play to compete with Golden State.

Jackson’s ceiling will be determined by what he becomes on the offensive end of the floor. Let’s say that his three-point shooting doesn’t take a dip when moving back to the NBA line and that he continues to add to his face-up game, I don’t think it’s out of the question that he could turn into Kristaps Porzingis-lite, but even that is far from perfect and probably an unfair expectation to put on an 18-year old.

The best way to think of Jackson’s ceiling: Clint Capela, except he adds Kevin Love’s perimeter repertoire in a role similar to the one Draymond Green plays — more on that in a second. That is an extremely useful and valuable player to have.

OUTLOOK

I have a very hard time seeing Jackson end up as a bust.

It will take some time for him to get there, but his tools defensively combined with his ability to make shots means that there will be a role for him in the NBA for a long time to come.

At the same time, I think Jackson’s upside offensively is limited to a point. Put another way, I don’t see him being the go-to guy on a team that is making runs in the playoff.

Which leads me to Draymond.

Green and Jackson are very, very different players. One is 6-foot-6 and the other is 6-foot-11. One is a terrific playmaker that ran some point in college and the other finished his college career with 39 assists and 62 turnovers. One is certifiably insane and the other is not.

But what Green does for Golden State is a pretty good template for what I think Jackson will be able to provide for an NBA franchise down the road, operating at the piece that brings everything together defensively while doing enough on the offensive end of the floor to keep defenders honest and help create space for his teammates.

Jackson will do it in a different way than Draymond does, but the effect he’ll have on the way a team can play will be similar.

2018 NBA Draft Prospect Profile: Marvin Bagley III is tweener of modern NBA

Steve Dykes/Getty Images

By Rob DausterJun 1, 2018, 10:58 AM EST

1 Comment

The difference between Marvin Bagley III and DeAndre Ayton in terms of production was marginal.

Bagley shot better from three. Ayton was a better rim protector. Both scored at will, overwhelmed opponents in the paint and on the glass and needed to be graded on a learning curve as passers and positional defenders, particularly against pick-and-rolls.

The difference in what they can be projected doing at the next level, however, is fairly significant, and it’s the reason why you are seeing all the hype for Ayton as a potential No. 1 pick and none of it for Bagley.

That’s because Bagley is the perfect example of a tweener in the modern NBA.

Offensively, he’s everything that you want from a small-ball five. He can dominate in the paint, he can space the floor and he is aggressive and productive on the glass. He was a walking double-double in college and it’s not hard to project him being the same in the NBA.

The problem is that he is not a five on the defensive end of the floor. He’s not a rim protector by any means, and his relatively short wingspan coupled with the fact that his skinny frame makes it easy to overpower him in the paint makes it hard to figure how he can defend that position at the next level.

As the saying goes, you are the position you can guard, so what should NBA teams do with a top four pick that plays the five but will have to guard fours?

HEIGHT: 6-foot-11
WEIGHT: 234
WINGSPAN: 7-foot-0.5 (measured two years ago)
2017-18 STATS: 21.0 ppg, 11.1 rpg, 1.5 apg, 61.4/39.7/62.7
DRAFT RANGE: Top four

STRENGTHS

We can’t talk about Bagley without first talking about the level of athleticism that he has. He’s at the upper-echelon, even when weighted by NBA standards, and that is integral into the player that he is and what he can be at the NBA level. Bagley is an explosive leaper with a terrific second-jump, which is part of what makes him such an effective rebounder, particularly on the offensive end of the floor. Rebounding translates as well as any ability between levels, and it’s hard to imagine a world where Bagley isn’t able to get on the glass in the league.

Bagley is not just a rebounder, however. He’s a big-time scorer that was utterly dominant for long stretches of his freshman season, and the list of things that he’s able to do on that end of the floor is impressive and versatile. He’s at his best around the bucket — his PPP is 96th percentile nationally scoring at the rim — and while he was very left-hand dominant in the post while at Duke, some of that could simply be the result of opponents being unable to keep him from getting to his right shoulder.

More importantly, Bagley showed the ability to be able to stretch the floor. He shot 39.7 percent from three, and while that was a small sample size (58 attempts) and his free throw shooting was not great (62.7 percent) his stroke makes it possible to project him as a capable three-point shooter from the NBA strip. He can attack a closeout and his handle and mobility make him a threat to go coast-to-coast should he grab a defensive rebound. Throw in his ability in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop actions, and he covers all the bases for what is asked of small-ball fives on the offensive end of the floor. He’s developing enough as a passer that it he is projectable as functional in that area at the next level.

While most everyone agrees that Bagley is a fit offensively for the way the NBA is headed, the defensive side of the ball is a different story.

WEAKNESSES

The crux of the issue for Bagley is that he simply is not built to defend fives at the next level.

He, quite frankly, is not a rim protector. The physical tools back that up. He’s 6-foot-11 but he has just a 7-foot-0.5 wingspan — for comparison’s sake, Ayton’s wingspan is 7-foot-5 — and he weighs at least 25 pounds less than the elite modern fives. He’s not built to block shots and he’s not built to bang.

The numbers back that up. His collegiate block rate, when compared to some other elite big men that have been drafted in recent years, is laughable. It doesn’t even compare with players like Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor, who have proven to be defensive liabilities in the NBA:

Okafor is a dinosaur, a relic of a past area whose skill-set simply does not fit in the modern NBA and is not all that comparable with that of Bagley. He’s probably not worth using in this discussion. Kaminsky is nowhere near the athlete that Bagley is, but he’s super-skilled offensively, which has allowed him to be an effective NBA rotation player.

Which leads me to my next point: Bagley can shoot but he hardly proved himself to be a great shooter. That 39.7 percent he shot looks great from the college line, but free throw shooting has been proven to be a better indicator of potential as an NBA three-point shooter and Bagley, even dating back to his high school days, has been a low-to-mid-60s free throw shooter. He might end up being a good three-point shooter, but that is anything-but a guarantee.

Athletically, Bagley has the tools to defend on the perimeter and in space. Duke was a disaster defending pick-and-rolls this past season. It’s the major reason they were forced to play zone exclusively. As one Duke staff member told NBC Sports, “we tried a lot of different things in man […] and none of it worked,” but that is something that has to be taken in context.

There were a lot of bad individual defenders on Duke’s team, and they all were freshmen — Trevon Duval, Gary Trent Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., Bagley.
Bagley himself only played three seasons of high school ball and was allowed to do whatever he wanted at every level. His AAU program was run by his father and he never participated in any USA Basketball events. Has he ever truly been coached defensively?

Bagley’s issue on that end of the floor isn’t because he can’t defender but because he doesn’t know how to be a good defender. Ball-screen coverages can be taught, particularly when a player can move the way Bagley moves. Defensive rotations can be taught. His instincts are never going to be great on that end, but there’s no reason that Bagley cannot at the least be an average defender at the NBA level …

… as a four.

In an era where fours in the NBA are just bigger wings — where P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza are squaring off with Kevin Durant and Draymond Green in one conference final while LeBron and is battling with Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown at the four, assuming that those defenses aren’t switching everything — is Bagley really skilled enough to play that role?

I’ll leave you with these facts and figures to chew on:

Ben Simmons was the only player 6-foot-10 or taller in the NBA this past season to average at least 15 points without averaging more than 1.0 blocks or 1.0 made threes. Bagley averaged 0.9 blocks and 0.7 threes in college.
Since 1996, there have been just five big men selected in the lottery that have averaged less than 1.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per 40 minutes: Lauri Markkanen, Trey Lyles, Domas Sabonis, Julius Randle and Derrick Williams.

NBA COMPARISON

Earlier on in the season, the comparison that I liked the most was John Collins, the Atlanta Hawks rookie that put together an impressive first season after a super-productive sophomore year at Wake Forest that was plagued by defensive issues. As the season went on, Domas Sabonis started to look like a better comparison as he grew into a contributor for the Pacers. I think Julius Randle and the role that he plays for the Lakers — something of a back-up five — makes a lot of sense now.

Bagley is a better prospect, and athlete, than all three of those players; we can use that as his floor. His ceiling? There’s an element of Amare Stoudamire in his game as well, and I don’t think it’s crazy to think that he could post numbers similar to what Stoudamire put up in his prime; his best season came in 2007 when he averaged 25.2 points, 9.1 boards and 2.1 blocks.

OUTLOOK

I think Bagley is going to end up being a very good NBA player. I think he’ll make some all-star teams, depending on which conference he ends up playing it. I think that he’ll post numbers that will make him a popular fantasy asset.

But I don’t think that he’s ever going to be the cornerstone of a franchise, not without quite a bit of help.

Let’s compare him to Deandre Ayton, because it’s easy and relevant and the two of them are dueling for a spot at the top of this year’s draft. Ayton has a defined skill-set and a defined position on both ends of the floor, one that should allow him to thrive in the modern world of the NBA where bigs are asked to protect the rim, switch onto guards, catch jobs and make threes. You take Ayton and figure the rest out because there are no requirements for who you need to put around him.

With Bagley, that’s not the case.

At the NBA level, for a team that he is featured on to win, he’s going to have to play alongside someone that can protect the rim and that can stretch the floor. If he falls to Memphis at No. 4, that might be a perfect situation for him. Marc Gasol is aging, but he’s still a guy that makes threes, can pass the ball and protects the rim. Bagley is freed up to do what he does best: Overpower people in the paint, use his athleticism to defend those smaller players on the perimeter and catch lobs at the rim. The same thing goes if he ends up on the same team as Kristaps Porzingis. Or Giannis. Or Draymond Green or DeMarcus Cousins or any of those other elite big men. Just about anyone can fit alongside players that can do what they do. That’s what makes them so good and so valuable.

Bagley will thrive if he finds a team with players that he fits alongside.

But he’s a piece to the puzzle, not the anchor you build around.

And there is a difference.

STRENGTHS

WEAKNESSES

NBA COMPARISON

OUTLOOK

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