With a body sculpted by the basketball gods, DeAndre Ayton is one of the most surefire prospects in recent memory. He is the clear-cut frontrunner by pundits far and wide to be selected #1 overall in the NBA Draft.
At 7’1” and 250 pounds with only 6 percent body fat, Ayton is ready to come into the league and dominate much like Anthony Davis and Karl-Anthony Towns before him – perhaps even more so.
Ayton certainly put his skills on display in college, though his defensive effort is still a question mark (but so is KAT’s, so no biggie). Also, many questioned whether Ben Simmons would be a good defender after an uninspiring defensive season in college and look how that turned out (hint: he’s awesome on defense).
Even though Ayton’s effort was questioned, he dominated the Pac-12 to the tune of 66 total blocks and 1.9 blocks per game, as well as 6.1 block percentage.
Ayton led the Pac-12 in offensive rating (130.3) and defensive rating (98.8), so clearly his team was much better with him out there (duh).
The overall stats for Ayton are outrageous, however, as he scored 20.1 points per game on an insane 65% true shooting percentage, which takes into account his 34.3 percent clip from downtown. Ayton averaged 11.6 rebounds per game and had a 32.6 Player Efficiency Rating, 7.6 win shares and a team-high 26.6 usage rate.
The Hawks need talent at every position and if they were to somehow win the lottery, the prize would likely be selecting this possibly transcendent player. The team currently holds a 13.7 percent chance at claiming the top pick, which is likely where they would have to be in order to get Ayton.
However, if the Grizzlies were to win the top pick, they might opt for Luka Doncic as they already have big man Marc Gasol entrenched at the center position.
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Either way, the Hawks would have a young and formidable frontcourt duo in Ayton and John Collins if the Arizona product were to somehow make it onto the Hawks. A man can dream at least.