2018 NBA Mock Draft: Enter the madness
G. Cincinnati. Jacob Evans. 27. player. 18.
Evans and the Celtics are a perfect match, especially as Boston faces the potential of saying goodbye to Marcus Smart this summer.
Unfortunately, the parallels between Evans and Smart extend into the negative as well, evidenced by Evans’ 43 percent shooting from the field this season as a junior. He redeems some of that inefficiency by shooting well from deep, rarely turning the ball over and handling high usage on a frustrating offensive team, but the concerns are there as they were with Smart. It’s possible Evans could struggle to create offense at the next level.
However, it’s helpful to see Evans at Cincinnati because he would be asked to play a similar role in the NBA. The Bearcats boasted the best defense in the country this year and their offense mostly consisted of Evans and big man Kyle Washington trying to carve out space.
Boston has clearly latched onto an archetype of long, defensive players and they trust their coach to create offense with his system. Evans fits into that structure well.