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Trayce Jackson-Davis announced his plans to enter the NBA draft while retaining college eligibility this week, per his twitter account. Jackson-Davis has two years of eligibility remaining, should he choose to come back before the June 1 deadline to remain in the draft.
In an interview with Peegs.com, Trayce went into a little more detail, explaining that he would like to get picked, “Probably around the first round or maybe a little later, around 33 to 35. If it’s pushing past 35, I’ll probably come back to school.”
Indiana would obviously love to have Jackson-Davis back, as some outlets have the Hoosiers in the preseason top-25 assuming he does return. And, as Andy pointed out, Trayce would have a shot and climbing up a couple of all-time lists should he use another year of his college eligibility.
So what are the experts (and people who pretend to be experts) saying about Jackson-Davis’ NBA stock? Does he need another year at Indiana to get to that early-second round status? Are there teams who could use his services immediately?
Let’s take a quick look at some mock drafts from across the sports internet:
ESPN
- Drafted: No
- Last Updated: 03/21/2022
- Notes: ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz did not have Trayce getting drafted, even in their most recent iteration that accounted for postseason play
CBS
- Drafted: No
- Last Updated: 03/10/2022
- Notes: Another list of top 60 NBA prospects that noticeably omits TJD, though this last update likely does not reflect his dominant performances against Michigan (on 3/10) or Illinois (on 3/11) in the Big Ten Tournament.
Sports Illustrated
- Drafted: No (ranked 74th best prospect)
- Last Updated: 02/24/2022
- Notes: While this mockup still doesn’t have Trayce being drafted, he is ranked as the 74th best player, which provides some context for how much he may need to improve. Notably, this was also last updated before the conference tournament.
Sporting News
- Drafted: No
- Last Updated: 04/07/2022
- Notes: Trayce left off of this list as well, which is one of the more updated prospect rankings available. Fellow Big Ten big, Kofi Cockburn is another notable omission here.
The Ringer
- Drafted: No
- Last Updated: 04/01/2022, 04/05/2022
- Notes: I looked at both the Big Board and Mock Draft articles, which only rank the top 31 and 30 prospects respectively. Trayce made neither list.
Bleacher Report
- Drafted: Yes, 46th overall
- Last Updated: 03/29/2022
- Notes: from the article, “From the Big Ten tournament to the NCAA tournament, Jackson-Davis scored 117 points over a five-game stretch. No shooting and limited handles are obviously a turnoff for today’s NBA, but Jackson-Davis may be skilled enough in the post to make money. His athleticism, touch and use of angles are outstanding.”
NBADraft.Net
- Drafted: Yes, 26th overall on Big Board, Projected 33rd pick
- Last Updated: 04/01/2022
- Notes: The gap between his status as the 26th best prospect but 33rd pick is likely a reflection of the fact that Trayce will need to find the perfect fit in the NBA because of his skillset; somewhere that needs his shot-blocking, rebounding, and interior scoring skills immediately.
USA Today
- Drafted: No, 68th best prospect
- Last Updated: 02/28/2022
- Notes: Another list that does not factor in some of Trayce’s best performances. Still, unlikely that his last four or five games are enough to get him 30 spots higher into his desired range.
Overall, Trayce will have some work to do if he wants to be picked in the 30-35 range in this year’s NBA Draft, per the experts cited above. Clearly, he helped himself towards the end of the season, though there’s still some lingering disagreement as to whether he’s a bona fide NBA prospect or not at this stage in his career.
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