2017 NBA Mock Draft: The 76ers lock up a point guard

This is not an ideal position for the Minnesota Timberwolves with Florida State’s Jonathan Isaac coming off the board just one pick ahead of them. Staying at No. 7 would leave Minnesota with several options here and all of them have their downsides. Kentucky’s Malik Monk would give the Wolves some much needed shooting, but his skill set is largely duplicated by Zach LaVine. Lauri Markkanen provides that same shooting, but it’s not clear that a frontcourt featuring he and Karl-Anthony Towns would be good enough defensively. So, the next best option here is Duke’s Jayson Tatum.

Tatum has his own problems as well. He’s not a ball stopper necessarily, but he is heavily reliant on isolation touches to put points on the board. That’s a problem that already features in Minnesota with Andrew Wiggins and pairing the two up at the forward spots could get dicey. If the ball moves, the two could co-exist. If it doesn’t, the offense will sputter.

As they say in Philadelphia, the best option is to trust the process. Tatum is a tremendous scorer who should improve from the 3-point line in time and can create a bit of offense for himself. He should be a switchable defender in the league who can play quite a bit of time at the power forward spot as it downsizes and his frame fills out. This fit isn’t as ideal as Isaac, but sometimes teams have to make due with what falls to them and here, that’s Tatum.

Learn more about Jayson Tatum at The Step Back.