2018 Draft: 5 Possible Top-5 Picks for the Atlanta Hawks
By Chris Guest
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Triple J’s stock has risen considerably this season, as the Michigan State University Spartans have steamrolled to a 27-3 record in the Big Ten and an AP No. 2 ranking in the most recent poll.
A lot of that success is down to the incredible play of Jaren Jackson Jr., who has been tearing it up in the Big Ten.
Jackson is scoring 11.4 points and nabbing 5.8 rebounds per game in a very limited sample size, as he only plays 22 minutes per game through 30 games this season.
Jackson’s 6’11”, 242-lb frame offers immense length and bulk, and he clearly looks NBA-ready.
Mo Bamba out of Texas (who we’ll get to later) gets all the defensive plaudits, as he is more raw and thus has slightly more potential, but Jackson is breathing down his neck with 100 total blocks this season, 3.3 blocks per game and a mammoth 15.1 percent block rate – which is actually higher than Bamba’s 13.7 percent.
Jackson also projects out to be a better scorer, as evidenced by his stunning shooting numbers. Jackson’s three-point rate is 41.9 percent, which is extremely high for a center, but it’s Jackson’s gorgeous shooting stroke that is more impressive, as it delivers a 43.4 percent clip from downtown on 2.8 attempts per game.
Those attempts would go way up in Coach Bud’s offensive system if the Hawks were able to land Jackson, who (broken record alert) would slide in beautifully playing alongside John Collins.
Jackson might, in fact, be the best pairing with Collins, as Jackson could space the floor for Collins to feast inside and bang around for offensive and defensive rebounds, or they could play side-by-side and use their supreme physical gifts and nose for the ball to vacuum up every rebound and 50-50 ball inside.
Defensively, pairing Collins and Jackson would be a terror for opposing teams, who would have a hard time getting anything going inside with those two long, athletic bigs patrolling the paint.