Clipperholics 2019 NBA Mock Draft: Vol. 1
By Ethan Smith
Portland has surprised everyone making the conference finals despite Jusef Nurkic going down with injury. The Blazers will likely lose to Golden State and one issue the Blazers have is a lack of backcourt depth and they fix it here with Ty Jerome from Virginia.
The Blazers backcourt consists of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Seth Curry. That’s about it.
Jerome would be able to fill in for stretches of time for those three so they can take much needed rest in games instead of playing 45 of 48 minutes a night. Jerome has a knack for catching the open guy and would help Portland in a big way moving forward.
The Spurs have another first round pick from the Raptors trade involving Kawhi Leonard and get a young forward in KZ Okpala from Stanford.
Okpala is a young forward who started playing basketball late in his teens but made the right decision to play at Stanford and develop well. Okpala is a great slasher and gets to the basket pretty well and understands when to shoot and when to dish the ball out to the perimeter.
Learning behind DeMar DeRozan and the impending free agency for Rudy Gay could place Okpala as the primary backup forward for the Spurs.
The Warriors will need depth at the guard position with Shaun Livingston, Klay Thompson and Quinn Cook all hitting free agency this summer.
The rotation will be slim in the backcourt and Dort could learn from the best in Stephen Curry while playing about 5-15 minutes per game.
He plays solid perimeter defense and wouldn’t be asked to do more than that with Golden State which makes sense here for the Warriors.
Milwaukee may love Brook Lopez but they need a long term option at the center position.
Fernando would be a solid pick here for the Bucks as he possesses the tools to work well in a backup role and eventually turn into the starter for Budenholzer.
He turns the ball over too much but he can learn from Lopez and others and he will turn into a nice defensive presence for Milwaukee.