Jacob Evans has the tools of a modern day NBA wing

A 6-foot-6 junior wing, Jacob Evans, led an impressive Cincinnati team to an American Conference title this season. With a 6-foot-9 wingspan, defensive promise and shooting prowess from deep, the modern day NBA could easily fall in love with Jacob Evans.

Athletically, Evans is not transcendent but will be able to keep up with most opponents in the NBA laterally, as well as moving forwards and backwards. Vertically, Evans is not as gifted.

Evans caused other players fighting for the same draft board position to struggle mightily in head-to-head games, largely because of his help defense and his ability in that area shines as a major strength.

Here, Evans effectively tracks down a driving Jalen Hudson to strip him deep in the paint. Despite occasional over-commitment in help situations, Evans really understands the defensive end up of the floor with awareness of his teammates’ positioning and his ability to make educated choices on the best time to gamble. To drive home this point, he switches several times in the clip above and it is evident he clearly communicates through each one.

Evan’s potential defensive versatility is responsible for a major portion of his draft stock. He effectively guards players smaller than him. However, he struggles defending players larger than him in the post. This may be attributed to a lack of strength down low, making him susceptible to being rolled up underneath the basket when switching onto the big in pick-and-roll situations. The clip shows his lack of ability to box out, as well as a display of why there are questions surrounding his vertical athleticism. Overall, he is bullied down low. There is no reason to believe a player such as David West on a roll would not just push his way to the basket for an easy layup via pass over the top. An NBA system obviously improves a player’s strength but I question how much his body can physically strengthen before inadvertent side effects start to present themselves.

Guarding bigger players on the perimeter will be less of an issue due to his ability to use his length, stay in front, and pick his moment to strike. Evans will be able to push up on larger, slower players further away from the hoop allowing him to be effective in situations with bigger players on the perimeter. This will limit their ability to drive past him and encourage steal opportunities from the blind spot as players turn their back to either post up or pass it back out.

Off the ball on defense, Evans moves well and sees the entire floor. His help defense extends far beyond digging in the post or effectively discouraging the drive. The fruits of staying with his man and understanding his responsibility in a pressure situation at the buzzer are ever-present as he easily steals this ball in time for a buzzer 3.

The clip above shows him blowing up a play completely and forcing Memphis to take a shot they prefer not take. Evans ability to stay in front of his man off-ball simply takes passing options away and ultimately removes players from a play. Positive results yield from Evans’ nonstop movement on both ends of the floor.

As an on-ball pick-and-roll defender, Evans navigates over screens incredibly well. Many teams believe they can teach this skill to players but already possessing the skill never hurts.

One-on-one on-ball defense is less of a strength. A lack of discipline to stay down in his stance persists, but signs of improvement exist. Above is a display of his ability to stay in front of a smaller, faster Chris Chiozza. That being said, he is unable to press up on players such as Chiozza without the fear of getting blown by particularly on a larger NBA court with faster players. If a player can shoot, defending on the ball could be a challenge.

Here, Evans stays with his man but is neutralized after the bump. This is a pretty standard move for players driving downhill in the NBA. Once again, my question is not whether he can develop the ability to stay in the play but rather if he can develop the strength to not be forced out of the play.

Transition defense is the final defensive concern. Evans is constantly moving in the half court but he generally trots up the floor after the possession changes. As a result, it may be no concern at all and just a lack of hustle in transition. More times than not he loses the 50-50 ball. However, Cincinnati presses quiet a bit with Evans tasked with on-ball coverage. He may have difficulty cutting off faster players in transition in addition to keeping them from getting behind him.

Evans has an ability to find open players with the ball in his hands. While he lacks the ability to create off the dribble, he has a knack for finding guys on the floor and distributing the ball accordingly. Publicly, people criticize him for his inability to create but he actually sees the floor very well and consistently makes the correct pass.

While most of his passes are two-handed, he can occasionally thread a strong pass with his right hand. His left hand is not nearly as strong and remains an area to improve upon. He waits for the defender to step up towards the halo and zips a pass to his teammate in the white box for an easy basket. This is an incredibly effective job reading the defense.

The clip above displays that exact ability as he keeps his head up the entire time to locate the cross court pass as the double comes, a testament to his patience and vision.

He dribbles on top of himself restricting his ability to really extend the ball and have control of it from different angles. He has shown signs of being more aggressive and driving the ball to the basket but this is a weakness overall. Generally, he will take a maximum of two dribbles on a drive usually so he will end up about two average steps away from wherever he starts from. If he is barely making it to the edge of the paint from the wing this could be a problem in an NBA with more space. As he continues to work on it and the speed of the NBA slows down for him, he will start to improve in this aspect of his game.

The clip above shows short dribbles where Evans tries to turn his back due to defensive pressure. Fortunately, no defender was present so he could spin to the basket. Normally, he has a tendency to turn his back on defenders mid-drive which will likely get worse before it gets better at the next level.

Evans has the tendency to dribble too much as well. One of many potential examples above, it is completely unnecessary to put the ball down in the clip above. Improper footwork assisted the mistake but he could have reached the exact spot he shot the ball in without the extra dribble. This is an area that can be improved upon starting now and something I expect to get better in the NBA.

Evans’ sporadic shot raises legitimate cause for concern. From deep, he has improved by all measures since his freshman year where he was shooting 33 percent overall but a measly 27 percent against kenpom.com’s Tier A opponents. Continuing to analyze 3-point ability against Tier A, a dramatic improvement came during his 2016 season, where he shot 39 percent. However, this year he shot a lackluster 31 percent — an improvement from hid freshman year, but not by a ton, and a dramatic decline from last year. One major concern is how far he brings the ball down to wind into his shot. Beyond the fact it disrupts his shot, it takes longer. The defender will already be there if it takes a player that long to get it off in the NBA. His windup also contributes to him throwing the ball more and shooting it less.

The footwork on his shot is a major concern. This is blatantly clear in his inability to shoot on the left side of the court. Per Synergy, Evans shot a horrendous 28 percent from the left wing last year juxtaposed to his 38 percent from the opposite wing. Interestingly, he shot 49 percent from the top of the key on 37 attempts. Even though it is a small sample size, it makes sense because most of the passes at the top of the key are coming straight from the paint where he just needs to step straight. In fact, he shoots 54 percent from the top of the key in catch and shoot situations.

Jacob Evans will likely end up heading to a playoff contender, falling towards the end of the first round. His ability to effectively screen will become incredibly important in the amount of playing time he earns because his skill set provides the perfect opportunity for 1-3 screens or guard to guard screens that have been repeatedly implemented throughout these playoffs to hunt out desirable match-ups on both ends of the floor.

Next: The Step Back' 2018 NBA Draft Big Board: Pre-Combine Edition

Evans definitely has flaws and limitations to his game. That being said, he understands the game on both ends of the floor and does not turn the ball over. It remains to be seen how his shooting ability translates at the next level but many of his issues are fixable with some extra work in the gym. Lastly, his high energy play on both ends of the floor will make it difficult for teams to keep track of him off-ball on the offensive end and a pest to deal with on the defensive end.