2019 NBA Mock Draft: Murray State’s Ja Morant is rising
player. 211. . G. Vanderbilt. Darius Garland. 7
If the Grizzlies are putrid enough to fall into the top eight and keep the pick they otherwise would owe Boston this summer, they have two priorities: Find someone ideally with the upside to be a top-two player on a championship team and who fits with Jaren Jackson Jr., last year’s fourth overall pick. Memphis needs to rebuild in a hurry to avoid losing the momentum of fandom they built during the glory days of the Grit n’ Grind era.
Jackson’s rookie year has to make Memphis feel good about their odds of competing again very soon, considering he is one of the youngest players in the entire NBA and already showing promise on both ends as a unicorn 3-and-D big man. But who to pair with him during his prime?
Enter Garland, a Nashville native who just turned 19 and looked every bit the part of a dazzling score-first lead playmaker during his five-game career in the NCAA. While Garland announced last week he will leave school to prepare for the NBA Draft, he surely left an imprint at Vanderbilt that NBA teams have to be drooling over. Garland averaged 23.3 points per 40 minutes on a 65.7 true shooting percentage in those five contests, scoring with polish and confidence from all three levels.
While Jackson is a mobile 7-footer who projects to be an excellent modern center on both ends, Garland would balance him on the other end of a two-man game that would become one of the league’s best and give Memphis’ offense life it hasn’t had since Mike Conley and Marc Gasol were in their primes.