Jawun Evans is in the midst of his first NBA season, but the rookie point guard has the potential to become the face of the LA Clippers in a matter of years.
Whoever said “number never lie” was lying a little bit.
If you were to look only at Jawun Evans’s numbers and nothing else, you’d probably assume that he was just some other rookie – which is absolutely fair. His scoring average doesn’t jump off the page at you, he’s not shooting a high percentage from the field, etc. He isn’t getting a lot of minutes, either, since he’s stuck deep in a system that is notorious for not playing rookies. His only real minutes have come because of injuries to players above him. And by “real minutes”, I mean minutes that don’t come in garbage time.
What’s special about Evans is that in those real minutes, he’s proven that he’s far more than a second-round afterthought. So much bigger and better than his 6’0″ frame lets on. He’s a man on a mission. A leader, in the purest sense of the word. That much is obvious from the moment he steps on the floor. And man oh man does he have moves.
As a pass-first point guard, Evans is more set on distributing and creating scores than scoring on his own. In that sense, it’s easy to say that Evans is similar to former Clipper and future Hall of Fame point guard, Chris Paul. If you think the similarities between the two stop there though, just listen.
The two both stand at 6’0″, and weigh in under 200 pounds. Their scouting reports are eerily similar, almost indistinguishable. It’s scary. Both are praised for their vision, use of size, deceiving strength, among countless other things. They have similar weaknesses as well, mainly revolving around size and guarding bigger players. Below is an excerpt from Evans’s report from Draft Express, followed by Paul’s from the same source.
"“Evans will likely always be at a disadvantage defensively because of his physical tools but he does bring some nice things to the table that could help him contribute on that end. He is tough minded defensively and won’t be pushed around easily with his strong frame. He works hard on the ball, moving his feet well to pressure his opponent and has quick hands and long arms (6’4 wingspan) to generate 2.3 steals per 40 minutes.”“With his quick hands and dominant lateral quickness, you would expect Paul to be a dominant defender. However, he is mediocre at best in this area. While he ends up with a lot of steals, he isn’t always an aggressive defender, and doesn’t eat up opposing ball handlers the way that he should.”"
Weird, right? He even reacts to contact the same way Paul does. Just watch this video from 3 Ball.
It’s clear just from watching the games this year that Evans is already a well-liked personality on the team as well, something Paul couldn’t always brag about. His makes and assists always get standing ovations from the bench. However, Evans never seems to notice. He’s too locked in. He’s too busy competing to hear the faint “MVP” chants that came his way late against Philadelphia.
MVP CHANTS FOR JAWUN EVANS IN THE STAPLES CENTER
— Collin Breen (@collinBREEN) November 14, 2017
In a few years, when Evans is say, 25, don’t be surprised if he has taken over the team. He and Blake Griffin together could be the next-best-thing to the Paul-Griffin duo, and there’s a very real chance that Evans could become an All-Star guard and the leader of the LA Clippers.