The Jett Howard Thread

[Optimus_Steel]

Magic board: We should draft a scorer. It is way easier to teach defense than to teach offensive skill.

Magic board after drafting a scorer/shooter: OMG he sucks at defense, what a terrible pick.

Isn't it hilarious? Never change Magic board.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using RealGM mobile app

Nobody’s complaining about the archetype. The pick was a reach.

A reach to who? The mocks? They are mocks, teams don't try to reveal what they are really thinking.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using RealGM mobile app

[fateis007]

I wanted Gradey because of his ability to create space, hit open shots, and cut off the ball.

We got a guy that had 4 successful cuts all season. Holy crap.

[DiplomaticMagic]

I just dont get what he does better than Gradey.

[dsg2021]

I liked him A LOT back in January and he's since fallen way off, but in order to salvage my sanity, I'm going to try to believe in him. Even if all he does is spot up and drain 3s. We desperately needed a floor spacer.

Fultz / Howard / Wagner / Banchero / Carter Jr
Black / Suggs / Okeke / Isaac / Bol

Bye Bye to Cole's minutes.

I heard he was battling injury in the second half or something.

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

[fendilim]

I just dont get what he does better than Gradey.

Better shot creation. Better isolation player than gradey

[swarlesbarkley]

Welcome Jett!

I like this pick better than Black because it seems like Jett might end up being a better pro than college player - especially if he was battling injury the second half of the year - and I think Jett fits into the current starting line-up unlike Black.

Dude's got great form and great footwork. There's a lot to build on when you don't have to worry about those things. And he's probably going to be a hard worker like his pops.

I think this probably means Cole is out since Howard is a more versatile (can play 2 or 3) and bigger version of Cole.

[dsg2021]

Read on Twitter

One dimensional stand still shooter?

He has such polish on his form and technique. Gives me flashes of Tatum, style wise.

I see a crafty player in a similar theme to Franz Wagner. Clever use of his handling ability and footwork, willing to drive unconventionally and do spins and fade aways. Except he prefers to bomb 3's much more than Franz, and Franz is more well-rounded and dangerous. Still, you have two very tall, craftier players like this, and it starts to look very dangerous when it's two you have to worry about instead of one. And with a Paolo Banchero anchoring the team's offense.

[dsg2021]

So why do I love the heck out of this pick?

It starts with the fact that the Magic FO don't show an inclination to draft for shooting at all. Not when the cap sheets are more flexible.

So the fact they even took a shooter means they didn't necessarily look at his shooting as much as we'd think. There was more to him they loved.

On top of that, once the draft passed this weird top 10 picks of extreme upside players who can't shoot, the draft opened up to a ton of sweet shooting wings. And the Magic were the first pick of them all. And something they saw on the tape, on the research, made them pick Jett Howard over this massive pool of 6-8 semi-similar players. And I am really excited at the thought of that.

It started with a Michigan player named Franz Wagner who started his career off a little hotter than a fellow Magic player picked earlier in the draft (Jalen Suggs). Will it repeat yet again with yet another Michigan player?

[thelead]

Just one of his games:

Watch on YouTube

[neuraldarwinism]

Watch on YouTube

[Rainwater]

Read on Twitter

One dimensional stand still shooter?

He has such polish on his form and technique. Gives me flashes of Tatum, style wise.

I really feel like many are going to be disappointed if this is what they expect, this small sample size is not a true account of his game. If you watch highlights most of his points comes off spotting up, catch and shoots, a few dribbles, or off the ball action. He is not a creator on the of level of Tatum.

Watch on YouTube

[fateis007]

The Magic entered the night with a clear need for shooting, and using the No. 6 pick on Anthony Black did little to address that. Clearly, that was the motivation behind this pick, but it could be the night's first big reach.

Howard has NBA pedigree as the son of longtime pro (and his college coach) Juwan Howard, plus the size, shooting and basketball IQ to carve out a lengthy career of his own. He is a lights-out shooter with his feet set and a potential sharpshooter on the move. He is comfortable (though not dynamic) with the ball in his hands, either side-stepping for threes or making the simple, smart pass to an open teammate.

But he isn't a great athlete by NBA standards, and that could limit his utility as a defender. It's hard to project which players Orlando will even ask him to defend, since he's had trouble against both quickness and strength.

If the Magic were fine with a shooting specialist, why not Gradey Dick or Jordan Hawkins instead? If they wanted shooting and more, why not stop Cam Whitmore's skid here? This one is a puzzler.

Grade: D

[SOUL]

^From this dude:

[Knightro]

I get people are screaming this was too early for Howard, but you have to look at that statement in the right context.

Howard almost assuredly wasn’t going to be there when the Magic picked at 36, and there were no other pick-for-pick trade downs made between picks 10 and 25.

So what were they supposed to do? If Howard was their guy and no one wanted to move up, you just take the guy you want. Trading back is great… if someone wants to come up. No one moved up.

[SOUL]

Also draft grades are futile but what it mainly grades is "How far did they pick away from consensus groupthink mocks?"

"Oh? It's different? It's a bad pick"

The thing is, I would be critical of a mega reach if it was one.. but I've been following the mocks.. Jett was mocked around here before Bufkin started in the last month and change.

January - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10061849-2023-nba-mock-draft-updated-full-2-round-projections - 10th
April - https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/4/23668426/nba-mock-draft-2023-updated-first-round-projection-after-march-madness - 13th
March - https://www.nba.com/news/bleacher-report-mock-draft-march-2023 - 15th
March - https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-mock-draft-2023-march-madness-stock-prospects/mb0arfpidbsxa1wyiaw7q939 - 15th

He was all over the 10-17 range from basically the end of the season until April, then for some reason him, Hawkins, even some other guys starting getting mocked low to mid 20s.

[KillMonger]

Can do other things that just shooting

Read on Twitter

Can score in a variety of ways than just standing in a spot

Read on Twitter

He has his weaknesses but no one in our ranges was without a weakness...clearly this guy can help us....if he works hard he can be a contributor for us earlier than we think

[pepe1991]

Eh. Feels like fifth attemp for Middelton 2.
First it was Iwundu. Than Frazier. Than Okeke. Than Houstan.

All same arhytype "6'8 can shoot". Except fact nobody so far worked at all.

Jett is reach at 11. You can spin it all day long, but drafting at 11 player who mocks had going 25-30 is reach. It's not like he is some ultra raw, ultra high ceiling prospect. Guy couldn't guard space even at college and struggled mightly when it comes to any sort of rim attacks/ finishing on set defense/foul drawing because he is below average athlete. Those problems spilled into his poor rebounding as well.

Why we drafted him? Well because his daddy is ex player and he played on Michigan and for whatever reason that's so important to Weltman.

Objectivlly, his ceiling is 3 and D without defense , his floor is bench player. One of most baffling picks by Weltman since Okeke

Even makes less sense to draft him if you have two of your best players playing his position, just being 6000 times better.

[Audi]

Also draft grades are futile but what it mainly grades is "How far did they pick away from consensus groupthink mocks?"

"Oh? It's different? It's a bad pick"

The thing is, I would be critical of a mega reach if it was one.. but I've been following the mocks.. Jett was mocked around here before Bufkin started in the last month and change.

January - https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10061849-2023-nba-mock-draft-updated-full-2-round-projections - 10th
April - https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2023/4/4/23668426/nba-mock-draft-2023-updated-first-round-projection-after-march-madness - 13th
March - https://www.nba.com/news/bleacher-report-mock-draft-march-2023 - 15th
March - https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-mock-draft-2023-march-madness-stock-prospects/mb0arfpidbsxa1wyiaw7q939 - 15th

He was all over the 10-17 range from basically the end of the season until April, then for some reason him, Hawkins, even some other guys starting getting mocked low to mid 20s.

+1. Draft grades are clearly just an extension of the mock consensus and all of it is made for click bait.

[KillMonger]

time will tell how these picks will look....can't even use summer league really cause franz looked like excrement in summer league and i remember some of the overreactions then.....it's funny how time can change things....but it's the way of all things, everybody has a first impression i guess