2019 NBA Mock Draft: RJ Barrett moves back to No. 2
14. player. 18. . G. USC. Kevin Porter Jr.
Porter felt destined to become a top-five pick after a stellar start to the season. He was supposed to raise the collective ceiling of this class, the surprising star to potentially push RJ Barrett or Ja Morant for the leader of the non-Zion cluster. Instead, he’s fallen off because he just couldn’t seem to get along with his coaches at USC.
That could either be a blessing in disguise for Porter and his NBA team or a signal of further problems to come at the next level. It’s impossible to predict that right now. However, Porter’s game speaks for itself, and the star-level shot creation never went away even as his minutes dwindled.
As our own Trevor Magnotti wrote in mid-March on the highs and lows of Porter’s game:
"“It’s important to think of Porter as a project. He won’t be considered that way by many because of his advanced on-ball skills, but he’s nowhere close to developed enough to play rotation minutes right away. Porter is going to basically have to learn NBA defense from scratch, and he is going to need coaching help to understand situational offensive production outside of transition and spot-up chances. That’s going to take significant time, and it’s likely going to be important to keep him off the floor early on and keep expectations tepid.”"
As with many of Boston’s pick in this mock draft over the many weeks of the college season, the strategy is twofold. We saw it with Robert Williams III last year — if a talented, smart player falls to Boston, they’ll snatch him. The Celtics figure to be very adventurous on the free agent and trade market this summer, so they are happy to take a gifted player to sweeten trade packages.
They also happen to be one of the teams you’d trust most to turn a skilled athlete like Porter into a real player.