NBA Draft 2019 - Community Draft Board: Bol Bol Breaks the Big Man Mold at #17

[Insert requisite Thon Maker 2.0 joke here] Yes, in a move that somewhat surprised me, Bol Bol, the canopy-dwelling big man from Oregon entered our poll for the first time and immediately took the spot before him at 17. Perhaps I shouldn’t be given the fact upside always plays into these types of exercises, but the injury concerns made me think he may last a little further into this process. Let’s break down his game a bit.

The physical tools are obvious. Bol is massive, standing 7’2” with a 7’7” wingspan. That type of length means he could be an absolute terror at the rim, a leviathan of limbs deterring folks who try to finish over him. However, applying that athleticism is another question. At his weight, he’s prone to get bodied around by bigger guys, or beefier guards like Eric Bledsoe who can adeptly get their weight into a guy and finish over them. There is still plenty of potential to improve on that end by adding weight, although that has to be a balancing act for strength coaches given the injury to his navicular bone.

As the son of Manute Bol, his son is well acquainted with the reality of injuries to big men. Hopefully he’ll be able to bounce back from an issue that gave us just nine games at Oregon to draw information from. It doesn’t help that was only from the non conference portion of the schedule too. His defensive rebounding rate 29.2% was solid, but at his size, I’m not surprised given the lower level competition. I’ll be curious if he gets tossed around on the boards similar to how Thon was in his early going with the Bucks.

What will likely have front offices drooling is his offensive potential, particularly in a league where everyone’s trying to find their own stretch-5. Once again, we’re dealing with incredibly small sample sizes from his time at Oregon, but he shot 52% from deep (25 attempts) and 75.7% at the free throw line (37 attempts). A tall individual who can stroke it like that bears plenty of attention from teams looking to shore up their big rotation. Whether it’s going to translate when he has the pressure of an NBA defense bearing down on him will be an intriguing nugget to watch. His stroke looks pretty solid though in the few clips that I watched.

Perhaps more impressively, he also seemed to have a little bit of a dribble-drive, face-up game he could turn to at points. Certainly, he had the opportunity to bully shorter defenders in the post time and again, but he went off the bounce a few times against lesser competition and didn’t look too out of control. There’s probably some Summer League shine that makes that aspect of his game look better than it should (who could forget Thon Maker, shot-creator off the dribble at Summer League), but it at least shows some level of diversity to his offensive ability.

He moves pretty fluidly for a big man too, but the stress fracture to his navicular bone terrifies me. I know there are plenty of advancements in medical science that can assist his recovery, but I’m not a huge fan of messing around with big men who have iffy feet. If he fell to 30, I wouldn’t be opposed with Milwaukee taking a flier given their potential question marks at center going forward. However, there are apparently concerns about his work ethic, and for someone who would need to stay in peak athletic condition to eliminate further injuries to his frail frame, that feels like a quandary the Bucks may as well avoid. For now, let’s move on and see where the board falls next.

Brew Hoop Draft Board Rankings

1. Zion Williamson - PF, Duke
2. Ja Morant - PG, Murray State
3. Jarrett Culver - SG, Texas Tech
4. R.J. Barrett - SG, Duke
5. Darius Garland - PG, Vanderbilt
6. Coby White - SG, UNC
7. De’Andre Hunter - SF, Virginia
8. Cam Reddish - SF, Duke
9. Sekou Doumbouya - PF, Limoges CSP, France
10. Nassir Little - SF, UNC
11. Jaxson Hayes - C, Texas
12. Rui Hachimura - PF, Gonzaga
13. Brandon Clarke - PF, Gonzaga
14. Goga Bitadze - C, Mega Bemax, Adriatic Basketball Association
15. P.J. Washington - PF, Kentucky
16. Kevin Porter Jr. - SG, USC
17. Bol Bol - PF, Oregon