5 point guards to watch in 2021 NBA Draft: Jason Preston
Like Butler, Jason Preston just finished his third year of college, but unlike the Baylor point guard, Preston didn’t play a power five conference school. That doesn’t mean that the Ohio point guard shouldn’t be on the Philadelphia 76ers’ radar entering the draft.
While Kline didn’t have Preston in his first round mock draft, Tankathon had the 6-foot-4 playmaker being selected by 31st by the Milwaukee Bucks. Despite being 21 years old, Preston isn’t NBA ready as he’s only 187 pounds. He will need to bulk up before taking on any rotation role.
Despite his slim frame, he dominated his last two seasons in college. This past year, he averaged 15.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 3.0 turnovers. His shooting percentages were impressive as well as he converted 51.4 percent of his field goals and 39.0 percent of 3-pointers.
The only red flag in his game outside of his weight and turnovers is his free throw percentage which was 59.6 percent this past year. However, in his two previous seasons it was above 70.0 percent so this could have been just an outlier.
Preston has potential, but it’s hard to say what his upside will be on the NBA level with him being an older player and still having some holes in his game. The Sixers might want to wait to see if he will drop to them with the 50th pick.