Jett Howard is a 'Bucket' and the Kind Of Prospect the Raptors' Offense Desperately Needs

There’s a feeling of inevitability when Jett Howard comes off a screen and has the ball whizzing his way.

The 6-foot-8 forward out of Michigan is not the most athletic prospect in this year’s NBA Draft class. There are questions about his defensive ability and defensive want-to. But when it comes to the offensive end, there are few who create the same kind of magic.

“He is a bucket, man. He is an absolute bucket,” Michigan reporter Brandon Brown said of Howard who is projected to go in the middle of the first round and has been tabbed as a potential draft pick for the Toronto Raptors. “He could pull it up from anywhere and you felt like he was it was gonna go in.”

Despite missing multiple games with an ankle injury, Howard, the son of former NBA All-Star and Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard, finished third in the Big Ten in three-pointers made, shooting 36.8% on 7.3 attempts per game. Though often assisted, Howard showed he’s comfortable snaking through opposing defenses, coming off screens, and letting it fly from virtually every distance. He nailed three-pointers from the logo, at times pulling up in transition or using a dribble or two to create separation from his defender.

But Howard’s 14.2 points per game on 41.4% also left Michigan wanting more. He was the kind of player who could seemingly score 20 or 30 points on any night, Brown said.

“And when he didn’t, that’s when you got frustrated,” Brown added. “I wish he would just come back for another year, be a little bit more consistent, show some of those fantastic offensive skills on an every single night basis. That just wasn’t there all the time as a freshman.”

Then there were his defensive issues which, Brown said, seemed only partially due to Howard’s physical limitations. He was often exposed on the perimeter by quicker players who took advantage of Howard’s heavy feet. While some of that may have been due to the ankle injuries, Brown acknowledged, Howard still left something to be desired on the defensive end.

“I do question just how bad he really wanted it,” Brown said. “Mentality and effort and aggression can make up for some of (those physical issues) a little bit. I don’t know. He might not be wired that way.”

These days, though, maybe those defensive questions don’t matter so much when you’re big, strong, and can seemingly score from anywhere. Nobody thought Michael Porter Jr., for example, was such a great defender but he’s proved talented enough to be the third option on a team two wins away from an NBA championship.

For the Raptors, Howard would be a very different kind of prospect from what they’ve gone after in recent history. Yes, his size fits with their wing-centric roster, but Toronto has rarely opted to draft players more refined on offense than defense. Only Malachi Flynn, selected with the 29th pick in 2020, was projected as a ready-made three-point shooter but he was still considered to be a valuable defensive player and the reigning Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year.

What’s clear, though, is Toronto is desperately in need of a shooter like Howard. The Raptors ranked 28th in the NBA in three-point shooting and were the second-worst pull-up shooting team in the league based on effective field goal percentage. Howard should fix that.

It may require the Raptors to deviate from their typical draft board, but if Scottie Barnes is the future for Toronto, pairing him with a shooter like Howard would do wonders for the Raptors’ offense.

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