2018 NBA Mock Draft: What if Memphis wins the lottery?

Looking back on the college season that was, I realize more each week that Milton is someone we were all too low on after he got injured early in conference play. But the junior played at least 30 games during each of his first two college seasons, and will do some impressive things for a team like the Nets that selects him.

With a better team around him, Milton was actually more productive and valuable from a statistical standpoint as a sophomore than as a junior. That SMU team was stacked on the wing, with Milton, Jarrey Foster (a second-round prospect this year), Sterling Brown and Semi Ojeleye (both second-rounders last year) providing dogged defense and solid shooting. Yet it was Milton who stood out most, with the best individual defensive rating of any of those guys by over a point per 100 possessions. He finished just behind Brown in steal percentage, was the team’s primary distributor, and could have probably gotten drafted near Ojeleye and Brown had he come out last summer.

Between his own injury and Foster’s, Milton lost out on an opportunity this season to show his value on a less loaded roster. He would be entering a similar situation in Brooklyn, able to lock down secondary scorers and co-run the offense with other creators around him. The Nets run a system similarly focused, like SMU’s, around analytically sound shots on both sides of the ball. Milton is a player tailor-made to make that type of system successful.