2017 NBA Mock Draft 3.0
. SF. Duke. Jayson Tatum. 4. player. 93
Tatum’s stellar ACC tournament run has upped his stock significantly in recent weeks. As he has adjusted to the college game, his improvements have been wide-ranging. Rather than purely inconsistent bouts of scoring, he’s establishing his aptness as a passer off the drive, while showing far more comfort handling the ball and finishing around the basket on a consistent basis.
The Sixers’ best fit in this year’s class is relatively obvious — Malik Monk. But, with the way his stock is trending, they could easily find Tatum too good to pass up on come draft night. He’s the most polished wing scorer in this year’s class, and gives Philadelphia some solid defensive potential in the frontcourt alongside a much-needed scoring punch outside of Joel Embiid.
Tatum’s ability to get to the rim and either score around the basket or hit the open cutter fits extremely well inside Philadelphia’s dribble-handoff heavy offense, while his shooting touch — albeit shaky for most of the season at 34.8 percent from deep – should be strong enough to work off of Simmons at a high level on the perimeter.
It’s rare to find offensive players with Tatum’s polish offensively, and that type of quality scoring is something the Sixers most certainly need to put into the rotation alongside Ben Simmons’ playmaking at the four spot. Philadelphia might be sending Dario Saric to bench with this move, but is could be well worth it.