2019 NBA Draft: Full Mock Draft 1.0, Atlanta Hawks Take Two Stars
By Chris Guest
#25. Portland Trail Blazers – Nickeil Alexander-Walker
The Virginia Tech Hokies were a terrific team this season and they made it to back-to-back Sweet 16s under the leadership of head coach Buzz Williams, who promptly bolted to his home state of Texas to serve as Texas A&M’s head coach.
VT played hard and tough, and they were among the toughest teams in the ACC all year – giving Duke all they could handle in multiple matchups before finally falling to the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 (in painful fashion):
One VT player who came into the year high on many pundits’ draft boards was Nickeil Alexander-Walker, the cousin of the LA Clippers’ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Walker started the year hot but cooled off considerably in conference play. Still though, NAW showed plenty of flashes of two-way upside with an impressive 3.4 percent steal rate (which ranked top 70 in the country per KenPom) and his length and speed allowed to get to the rim consistently.
Though the Blazers drafted two guards in the 2018 NBA Draft (Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr.), Alexander-Walker projects to have more defensive panache, and he can also switch a bit more than those two can.
Beyond that, obtaining NAW with the 26th pick in the draft would be a huge steal, considering how high his stock has been for much of the college season.