2023 Orlando Magic Draft Day Thread (#6, #11): THE DAY IS HERE!

[basketballRob]

Think from a positive side guys we got two guards who are tall. 6’7 and 6’8

Howard is a guard?

I think so

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[AdamTH21]

I have no idea how a) we determined that Jett was a better selection that Dick and b) how we didn’t trade back after settling on Jett. Just baffling. There is absolutely no way we couldn’t have jumped back to grab him. Really disappointing evening.

[Max Power]

Anthony Black and Jett Howard. Ugh. I have more confidence in Howard. Not impressed with Black AT ALL. This draft lost my interest quick.

[yoyojw17]

Damn.... What happened to cam? Are the medicals that bad?

[Rainwater]

What drugs are you on?

Jett is a shooter but that is all he is.

They literally just showed a production highlighting his footwork to create shots.

Naw, he really only shoots. Showing a few clicks does not show what he is as a player.

[OrlandoSaban]

For some strange crazy reason a I wholeheartedly trust our FO in these picks. I do t know why but they had to have seen something in the workouts we haven’t.

Is this a good draft night for us? I honestly don’t know but I trust our FO to select the best picks for our current team

[Stormofreign]

Jett Howard would have been on the board at 18-19

Couldn’t they have traded back?

What team were you the GM of?


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[thelead]

This one feels different than Wagner, Wagner was still drafted within his range. I’m not sure a single person had Howard mocked over Whitmore, Dick, Bufkin, Hawkins. Hope he pans out though, he has good size and can definitely shoot

I've been saying it for a while... this draft was just going to be wild. Who had Bilal at 7? Jett at 11? Cam possibly falling out of the lotto?

[tiderulz]

Jett is a really tremendous shooter. That's not in question. I actually think he's a reasonably heady playmaker too.

I just don't think he's very good at anything else.

Seems like there were better players on the board, but he does fill a need.

sub 37% is NOT a tremendous shooter. just a horrible pick.

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

[Orlando Dawg]

Can we please trade for Gradey Dick?

[eyriq]

We go from the worst back court in the NBA to having a lot of promise in the back court now. Need to move Cole and Harris

[GatorbaitDD]

Anthony Black and Jett Howard. Ugh. I have more confidence in Howard. Not impressed with Black AT ALL. This draft lost my interest quick.

I feel the exact same. I can at least see the path where Howard excels. I don’t see it with Black and I watched a lot of SEC hoops this year.

[VFX]

So when does Weltman trade the second round pick, drink his glass of warm milk, and go to sleep?

[fateis007]

we took a guy projected in the mid 20's, at 11, with a guy falling from the top 5 to us.

you cant make this **** up.

[KillMonger]

So, who we got next year in the top 6? Cause lets be honest after this draft we gonna be at the bottom again BAYBAY!

bro are you trolling? anybody we got out of this draft would be playing a role no matter what....i mean seriously?

[neuraldarwinism]

athletic breakdown of him
Howard did not measure at the combine. But he has great size for what his role will be in the NBA. Will be in the 6-foot-6 to
6-foot-7 range or so without shoes. On top of that, Howard’s offensive game looks tailor made for the right NBA system that
knows how to use him. The shooting is the base skill the rest of his game is built around. Made 40 percent from 3 as a freshman
in high school, 37 percent as a sophomore, 43.9 percent as a junior and 41.7 percent as a senior (the last two years, according
to Synergy). It’s hard to find players this big with this kind of extensive track record of making shots at an elite level from that
young of an age.
From a scouting perspective, that lines up. Everything with Howard’s shot is pristine and pure. It’s a beautiful one-motion
jumper with perfect rhythm and weight transfer off the catch. Shot prep is perfect. He’s always lined up with his feet set and
ready to fire quickly off the catch. Has his base underneath him and can take them both off the hop or off the one-two step. Very
quick release. Gets them off in a rapid way that will be immediately translatable to NBA success. Balance is superb and has a
very high release point. Also is starting to develop the ability to not have to dip the ball before shooting, another critical skill
with how quickly NBA defenders close out. All of this makes him a very serious weapon coming off off-ball screening actions.
Michigan ran him in a ton of zoom dribble-handoff actions, flare screens and pindowns. He’s adept in all these situations. Flies
around and is excellent at getting his feet set quickly and firing with balance. Made 39 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s this past
season, per Synergy, a terrific number given the volume he took and the degree of difficulty on some of them.
Has real comfort with putting the ball on the ground and knocking down shots. If opposing teams run him off the line, he can
hit one-dribble pull-ups from the midrange or relocation one-dribble 3s. Will stop and pop from a variety of different footwork
– can plant first with his right then step in with his left or can just hop into a pull-up 3. Makes it hard for defenders to get his
timing down when trying to contest and allows him to get cleaner looks. Can also hit stepbacks going to both his right or his left
off a quick move. More importantly, Howard has become a legitimate weapon out of ball screens and dribble handoffs as a selfcreating
shooter. Legitimate multi-level scorer from 3 and from the midrange. If you go under his ball screen or catch him flying
up for a dribble handoff, it’s curtains. He’ll rise and fire. Michigan did a great job of getting him the ball going downhill toward
his right off those zoom actions. The Wolverines optimized his strengths and minimized his weaknesses in that way. Even if
he doesn’t get separation, he still has that release point to shoot over the top often. Can also realign his body in midair off spin
moves or fadeaways. Has a burgeoning little runner/floater game and a real variety of ways to rise both from the midrange and
from 3. Overall, made 52.9 percent of his midrange pull-ups this past season, per Synergy, which is a ridiculous number given
how many of them were contested.
He’s also a solid passer. Not great but solid. Sees the court extremely well in ball screen and dribble-handoff actions. Really good
at getting downhill, drawing the big defender or help defender toward him and finding the roll man or the man in the dunker
spot. Will occasionally look outward and find kickouts. Draws the weakside defender and can hit the chest pass kickout. Finds
that corner man regularly by getting to the middle of the floor. It’s also worth noting that he’s good at understanding how the
attention he gets as a shooter opens things for his teammates. Makes quick reads that way too. He processes the game super well
and makes the right play.

Howard does not have a ton of length. Can play a bit smaller than his listed height. Also, Howard is going to be a below-averageathlete by NBA standards. Not all that explosive. Does not have a great first step or average lateral quickness for the wing
position. Not all that vertical as a leaper. Extremely poor rebounder for his size. Does not seem to be willing to get into the tough
areas of the court often enough. Michigan was better without Howard on the court this past season – and it wasn’t by a little. Per
Pivot Analysis, Michigan beat its opponents by about 3.3 points per 100 possessions when he was on the court but beat them by
10.4 points per 100 when he was off it. In large part, that was due to his poor defensive play.
Where Howard’s athletic concerns come up most is on defense. Don’t think he’s a good on-ball defender right now and is in
no way a disruptive player. Gets blown by going to the rim more often than you’d like to see. Guys with a solid first step can
drive him. Doesn’t use his frame all that physically, and I think his mechanics are generally poor. Struggles to cut off angles
and doesn’t get his chest in front of his man. He plays high, and I think he has a bit of a higher center of gravity, which allows
opposing wings and guards to get better leverage than him. Playing high also creates issues in ball screen coverages when he’s
defending a guard. If he gets clipped on a screen, it’s hard for him to get his momentum going again and hard to play through
that contact. He was something of a magnet for opposing teams looking for parts of Michigan to attack this past season,
particularly in ball screens with Hunter Dickinson. Think Howard needs to do a much better job of getting stronger and playing
stronger through his lower half. Needs to play lower and sit in a defensive stance more often.
There is also something of a switchability concern right now for someone who is his size. While you might think you can just
hide Howard on bigger guys as opposed to playing on smaller players, Howard also doesn’t seem to do all that well on even
bigger wings. Got taken down onto the block a bit more often than you would expect for someone who is this size because he
doesn’t seem to have a ton of strength through his core or lower half. Doesn’t really hold his ground all that well. Guys who can
get lower than him can move him. Doesn’t play all that physically. Because he can’t get around screens, can’t stay in front of
quicker players and struggles to body up against bigger players, I’m just not sure who he guards effectively right now.
I also don’t think his off-ball defense is all that impactful. He sinks too far in, then when his man gets a kickout pass behind the
3-point line, he closes out very upright and allows himself to be driven by with ease. He’s not impactful using any sort of length
in passing lanes and doesn’t really rotate around and protect the weak side of the rim impactfully. He doesn’t “miss” rotations,
but he also doesn’t really bother opponents with his presence either. He also has a tendency in his rotations to be a bit hoppy. He
takes a hop step into his movements on that end instead of strides, and defenders recognize it and play off them when he’s inbetween
steps – particularly on his closeouts. In general, his defensive movements and mechanics need an overhaul.
That lack of burst also impacts him offensively. Michigan did a superb job of accentuating Howard’s strengths in this regard
while minimizing his weaknesses, particularly on offense by getting him the ball on the move more often to allow him to get into
the paint, as opposed to asking him to do so from a standstill. Juwan Howard is a terrific offensive coach and figured out how
to optimize Jett’s skill set. If Jett doesn’t get on the move before starting his initial action, it’s hard for him to separate from his
man. This is why he generally does not put much pressure on the rim in half-court settings. Only took one shot at the rim out of
half-court actions per game, per Synergy, an extremely low number. He took only 2.6 free throws per game and did not get all
the way to the rim. This is where we see the lack of lower body strength and the fact that he doesn’t play with a ton of bend rear
its head again. Gets knocked off his line way too easily, and it completely stops his momentum as a driver. Howard only made
31.8 percent of his 3-point attempts from 25 feet or farther this past season, per Synergy, meaning there might be a touch of an
adjustment for him to the NBA line.
SUMMARY
Howard’s evaluation comes down to how much improvement you think you can make in his defensive mechanics and what
kind of scheme you plan on running. If you don’t believe he can improve in either respect, he has the potential to be more of
a rotation player who spaces the floor at a high level but struggles to find anyone to guard and doesn’t impact the box score
outside of scoring. If you do believe in his defense improving, he has a real chance to be an impactful starter. His versatile
shooting off movement and off pull-ups gives him an extremely high ceiling as an offensive player, especially when mixed with
the fact that he can pass and playmake a bit on the move. More than anything, scheme will be tremendously important for
Howard. If you put him into a scheme with a lot of high ball screens for a heliocentric offensive player where his teammates
stand around spacing the floor, he’s probably not going to get the most out of his game. If you play more of a ball movement,
off-ball movement, dribble handoff style with creative offensive actions, he has potential to be useful because of his ability toshoot on the move, handle the ball once he gets it going downhill and make solid passing reads. The idea here is that he can be
an impactful player in the vein of a Kevin Huerter, someone who has turned into an extremely valuable piece for the Kings. But
to reach that level, he must improve defensively. I think I’m just a little bit lower on him than consensus because of that.

[Audi]

As someone too lazy to research draft prospects the overreacting on this board on every single draft night are always hilarious to me.

100%. Haven’t watched a single second of NBA basketball from any of these kids yet, so I just scratch my beard and grin as this place throws a tantrum.

[Bensational]

Lively doesn’t feel like a reach but man, what happened to Whitmore?! Toronto don’t really need Whitmore. They might go for a PG over Dick too.

Sliiiiiiiiiiding!

[Ralof]

Think from a positive side guys we got two guards who are tall. 6’7 and 6’8

Howard is a guard?

he is not gonna play guard in nba,i can bet my money on that.

gonna be franz replacement from the bench(if he can play few minutes at all in nba at some point)