NBA Mock Drafts List Center Jalen Smith in First Round
News emerged on Saturday that the NBA had set the date for the 2020 Draft for Friday, October 16 as eligible student-athletes have until October 6 to return to school. The certainty around the upcoming draft has led to more draft board speculation ahead of the August 25 draft lottery, which means more projected landing spots for former Maryland center Jalen Smith.
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports released their mock draft on Wednesday based solely on their projected success in the NBA, which gave Smith his highest projected landing spot. Rated as the fourth-best center, Norlander has Smith at 14 on his board to the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Might have some growing pains early, but Jalen Smith is a lean offensive weapon who is going to make a living hitting buckets from four and 24 feet from the rim. Needs to pack on some muscle, but the encouraging thing on Smith is his steady improvement -- almost in the form of a gradual growth curve -- from the start of his college career until this past March. He ranked fourth nationally in box plus/minus last season (+12.0). His stock is hard to pin down, but his ceiling as an offensive player is too high for me to place him any lower.”
Meanwhile, Gary Parrish of CBS Sports has Smith projected to land in Philadelphia with the 21, where his offensive touch could give the 76ers another offensive threat to relieve Joel Embiid down low.
“Not all prospects who return for their sophomore seasons actually help themselves from a draft-stock perspective, but Jalen Smith clearly did. He added strength, improved his field goal percentage by 4.6 points, his 3-point percentage by 8.0 points, and averaged more points (15.5), rebounds (10.5) and blocks (2.4) than he did the year. The result was Maryland winning a share of the Big Ten title and Smith solidifying himself as a real option in the first round who should be able to play both the 4 and the 5 in the NBA.”
Bleacher Report released their updated first-round mock draft on Wednesday and listed Smith among the final picks of the first round with the Jazz selecting with the 24 overall pick. Meanwhile, NBC Sports doesn’t see Boston passing on the value pick with their 26 overall selection.
“Boston would ideally like to use this for a stash-and-dash player, but passing on Smith at this point in the draft will be just too tempting for the Celtics. He can score as a face-up big and is one of the draft’s better rim-runners, providing Boston with another potential source of offense coming off the bench.”
Smith is coming off a sophomore campaign that showed his improved all-around game as was named First Team All-Big Ten and unanimous Third Team All-American. The Baltimore standout took advantage last season of the void left by former center Bruno Fernando as Smith led the Big Ten with 21 double-doubles, including 13 in his final 14 games. Smith still used his length to maintain his defensive presence as a strong rim protector as he finished second in the Big Ten in rebounds (10.5) and blocks (2.4) per game, while flashing his improved touch from three-point territory off the pick-and-rolls from guards Anthony Cowan and Eric Ayala. His raw skill and development from year one to year two helped showcase his potential in the NBA while serving as a catalyst for head coach Mark Turgeon and the Terps as they earned a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, the first in program history.
“From the minute we started recruiting Jalen, we knew the kind of quality player and person we would be getting and he lived up to it in every way,” Turgeon said at the time of Smith’s announcement to declare for the NBA. “As incredible of a player Jalen is on the court, he is that and more as an individual off the court.”
