An Updated Look At John Collins’ Draft Status

The short answer is no, nothing about John’s draft status has changed substantially.

Most mocks have had him drop a few positions, though, and that’s largely due to the Draft Combine.

Nothing was outright terrible for John; he came in at slightly under 6’10” with a 6’11” plus wingspan and an 8 foot 10.5 standing reach and a 225 pound weight.

His vertical leap was a positive, as well as his interviews, which many GMs noted him to be extemely engaging and a great interview.

Nothing about that is jarring one way or the other, but it does unfortunately confirm the question marks surrounding his measurable that do exist about John’s NBA future.

The best thing abour John is that he has consistently defied the expectations of him at every level, and we expect him to do that in the NBA as well.

He was not an outside shooter in college, but did show that he can in fact knock down open shots with consistency in workouts. His midrange game got better, but the fact is that John’s skill set is best equipped for being a small ball center, and his measurables aren’t necessarily ideal for that.

Measurables aren’t everything to say the least, though, and for all we know John will still thrive. No GM is going to spend a pick in the 10-20 range on a player that doesn’t have a decent shot at being a valuable piece.

On the other side, Harry Giles is as big as was advertised, and in another plus for him, he had the biggest hands of the entire combine. While the medical questions still plague Harry, and he’s almost certainly a more raw prospect than John, the combine side of things was kinder to Harry than it was to John, which may well have improved Giles’ stock a bit in the opposite way that John’s affected his.

The bottom line is John is still poised to go in the middle of the first round, and generally speaking, no mock draft is perfect.

That said, enough variables have fallen into place that you can take a composite of the mock drafts you can find (which have John going anywhere from #13 to #20) and it’s a pretty safe bet the chips will fall in that range.

The NBA Draft takes place on June 22 in Brooklyn.