FanPost

Early draft watch



The season is young, but it's never too early to start noticing NBA prospects. Here's just a few early names to watch this college season. If the reception and interest for this type of post are good, I'll post some bits every month or so till the draft.

Marcus Smart, OKLA State, Combo Guard

Currently he is averaging 14.8 pts, 8 boards, 5 assists, 1.5 blocks, 3 steals. The rebound and block numbers would be good for a college PF....for a guard they are eye popping. Of course, we're only looking at 4 games so far. The blocks are an aberration, skewed by a 4 block game. I expect that to go down to below 1 per game. The steals are also skewed by two 4 steal games, but he had 2 in the other two games. So I project the 3 spg won't be sustainable, but I expect above 1.5 average. The rebounding doesn't have any great outliers- 7, 9,9,7 for an 8 average. I bet 6-7 will be his norm. Scoring I think can go up. The good news is he gets to the line a lot and shoots FTs at 84%. The bad news is he is awful at 3s (23.5%) and FGs (38.6%)

Definitely a name to look out for, but I'm betting he goes top 10, which I don't think we'll be drafting at.

Michigan Trio- Trey Burke (PG) Tim Hardaway Jr. (SG) and Glenn Robinson III (F)

All these guys are likely late 1sts to 2nd rounders.

Burke- 18.3 pt, 2.8 rb , 8 ast. 52.4%/43.8/66.7. He's small, 6 feet, 190.

Hardaway Jr. 17.3 pts, 7.7 rb, 3 ast 66.7%/72.7%/61.5%. A lot of these numbers aren't sustainable. He's a fair rebounder, but not to the tune of 8 boards long term. I find it hilarious that his free throw % is his lowest (the other two are obviously not sustainable) He's not his dad, but he may find his way onto a roster as bench depth.

Robinson III 13. 3 pts, 7.0 rbs, 1.7 ast. 65.2%/50%/70%. Another son who just isn't his father. But he could find a spot as a 10th-12th man. He is only a freshman, so he could and should get better.

These guys are intriguing for our second round pick. None of these guys are seniors though, so it's possible, probable even, that none of them declare. We'll see. Intriguing pro prospects, but don't expect stars.

Jordan Bachnyski, Center, Arizona State

7'2" (!), 250 lbs. 15.5 pts, 10 rebounds, 7.5 blocks. 70.6%/--/70%. That's only 2 games worth of stats. The block numbers were 6 and 9. I bet that goes down, but he can obviously swat. He is a junior, had underwhelming freshman and sophomore seasons, but he got better each season. He still isn't in the NBAdraft.net mock, but Wasserman talked about him on Twitter last night. If he continues playing like these he'll skyrocket up draft boards. Sustainability will be key to his stock though. Can he keep these numbers up? Guy to keep an eye on for sure, and if Al or Sap walk, or Kanter or Favors jettisoned, we'll be in the market for another big.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.