Auburn Tigers freshman wing Isaac Okoro will reportedly test the waters and declare for the 2020 NBA Draft, pending feedback from teams.
Okoro is nineteen years old and averaged 12.9 points with 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game during his freshman campaign in the SEC. He also averaged 1.01 points per possession on offense, per Synergy, which finished 86th percentile among all NCAA players. His offensive rating (112.8) ranked second-best among all of the freshmen in his conference.
He was named Second-Team All-SEC as well as All-Freshman Team and All-Defensive Team. The accolades may help improve his draft stock despite the shortened season.
Bruce Pearl says Isaac Okoro is making himself eligible for the NBA draft. If Okoro is able to go through the process and is told he's a lottery pick, Pearl will advise him to leave Auburn.
— Nathan King (@byNathanKing) March 20, 2020
Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl told reporters on Friday evening that if Okoro learns he is projected as one of the first fourteen names selected in the upcoming NBA Draft, he should keep his name in consideration (via Rivals):
“Pearl and Auburn were told by NBA scouts for most of the 2019-20 season that Okoro will be a lottery pick. The defensive specialist who also averaged 13 points per game with the Tigers was at one point — and still is, in a few mock drafts — considered a top-5 pick. Pearl said if Okoro receives that same feedback whenever and however the draft process is carried out, the coach will tell him he should take advantage of it and become an NBA player.”
Okoro had developed a reputation for winning, as his high school team went undefeated en route to a state title when he was a senior. As mentioned by Pearl, after winning all fifteen of their first games to start the season, Okoro began gaining momentum as one of the top prospects in the upcoming draft class.
The former Top-40 recruit saw his first college basketball season end on a sour note, unfortunately, with Auburn dropping two of the final games that Okoro played before the abrupt conclusion.
Even though he is one of the most impressive athletes in this class, aspects of his game that require more work and attention were exposed for concern. For example, the prospect connected on approximately six field goals per game. However, only 19.2 percent of those attempts were from beyond five feet of the basket.
It is worth noting that when Okoro had been given the opportunity to score as the ballhandler in transition or when cutting to the basket, he was remarkably efficient. For example, his two-point percentage (60.2 percent) ranked sixth-best among all freshmen who recorded as many attempts in 2019-20. But just 16.0 percent of those attempts were jumpers, per Hoop-Math.com,
That makes sense as the freshman averaged just 0.73 points per possession when shooting off the catch in a set offense, per Synergy, which ranked 19th percentile. He was just 11-for-45 (24.4 percent) on these looks, showcasing a lack of touch as a shooter.
That being said, there are plenty of other prospects who did not have much of a jump shot coming out of college who turned out to be productive players in the NBA.
By the way, Auburn SF Isaac Okoro’s top player comparison on KenPom now is… a freshman Kawhi Leonard.
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) March 8, 2020
Kawhi Leonard, who has shot 38.1 percent from three-point range during his career, connected on just 20.5 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc as a freshman.
More recently, Charlotte Hornets forward PJ Washington has proven another example of someone who drastically improved his jumper. Washington made just 23.8 percent of his field goals from downtown as a freshman in the SEC for the Kentucky Wildcats. But as an NBA rookie, he is now shooting 37.4 percent from three.
Most mock drafts and big boards have Okoro falling somewhere between No. 3 overall and No. 17 overall. Our latest big board at Rookie Wire projects his stock at No. 9 overall.
There are going to be a handful of front offices who will be eager to select Okoro and pair him with a shooting coach the way the San Antonio Spurs once did with Leonard and Chip Engelland. One of those teams will likely have a lottery pick and it will be hard to convince them that there are more enticing prospects than Okoro.
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