2018 NBA Mock Draft: Time for the Final Four

One thing that’s extremely important to me looking at players in the draft is fit — on their potential team, in the league more broadly, and as teammates overall. Some players’ massive talent or upside is negated somewhat by their inability to fit in different contexts, in the case of volume scorers like Michael Beasley or Derrick Williams. Others, like Russell Westbrook or LeBron James, are MVP-level talents that subsume the style of play of their teams in order to succeed.

I say all of this to explain why Jaren Jackson Jr. could be so valuable. It’s difficult to imagine a situation in which Jackson is not a valuable part of a good team. He has unicorn potential as a 3-point shooter and rim protector, but his floor outcome looks like an elite role player, one of the better defenders in the league and a smart offensive piece. In Atlanta, those guys are always seem to be more valuable than they would be elsewhere.

Jackson is also raw, so projections involving his ceiling or floor mean looking a few years out. His production could look a little closer to Marquese Chriss’ early on in his career with the foul concerns. Yet considering his ability to make smart plays and shoot, Mike Budenholzer would be happy to have him. It’s tough to imagine a better place for his development to occur.