NBA Draft: Jazz Land Exum, Hood

All smiles, Dante Exum looks forward to getting to work in Utah. (Getty Images)

Twice in the first round of Thursday’s NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz were looking up at players they coveted and hoping for a good bounce or two. Both times, they got the bounces.

Australian guard Dante Exum (no. 5) and Duke product Rodney Hood (23) both made their way to Utah’s spots. The Jazz happily added both players to their growing arsenal of young, promising talent.

Exum, despite being somewhat unknown, was largely considered one of the top four prospects in the draft, so grabbing him at five¹ was an unexpected coup for the Jazz. Exum is lightning quick and explosive, and his real strength is that at 6-6 with legitimate point guard skills, he can be really disruptive at creating angles and exploiting his size and finishing ability. He thinks he’ll fit in Utah’s new culture, too.

“I spoke to coach (Quin Snyder) and he had a lot of positive things to say, and how he was a point guard and how he thinks he can help me, so it’s been good,” the Aussie phenom said. He mentioned specifically a desire to play an up-tempo game, something that Snyder has said he hopes to institute more, and later he told me about his comfort level in the pick-and-roll².

The Jazz made it clear going into this draft process that they were looking for potential franchise talent. “All-stars,” Walt Perrin panned on more than one occasion to Salt Lake media. With Exum unexpectedly slipping to the fifth pick, they might have a shot at just that. Exum, though, is prepared to put in the work and let time run its course.

“That’s the future,” Exum said in response to whether he’s a franchise player in the making. “You never know what’s going to happen in the future. I take it one day at a time. I’m trying to do what I can now so I can get to that caliber… But I’m just going to work hard every day and see what happens.”

There are those who would say Exum is being overly modest here, and ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla leads that club. Fraschilla famously compared Exum to a young Michael Jordan, about the highest praise you can dole out in basketball. I had a chance to catch up with Fraschilla on draft night and ask him what he saw that prompted that parallel.

“He’s got a unique skill set, because at 6-foot-6 he can play either guard spot,” Fraschilla told me. “He’s got a chance to be better and better because he’s going to physically mature.” The analyst expects some “real ups and downs” for Exum and the Jazz starting out, but adds that “over the long haul, I think Dante Exum has the skill level, athleticism, work ethic and character to be a perfect fit in a city that loves its team.”

For all those reasons, even the modest Exum didn’t think he’d be available at the fifth pick. He mentioned that as the reason he and his agent didn’t schedule a pre-draft visit to Utah. But at the same time, he was ready for anything.

“I knew I was the mystery in this draft and I could drop,” he said. “It’s been frustrated being that mystery and having that label, but I’m over it now. Hopefully I can get out in summer league and show them I’m not a mystery anymore.”

Hood’s availability at 23 caught the Jazz by surprise as well. His projected range started at the 13th pick, and Ford’s final mock had him going 18th. I had heard that the Jazz liked him enough to consider maneuvering to get him, but that wasn’t necessary after a couple of teams made unexpected picks³ leading up to the Jazz’s spot, allowing Hood to land right where fellow Duke product Snyder wanted him.

Now Hood will travel to Salt Lake City, a city he’s never been to, to learn more about a team that he says is “right on the verge” of success. The 6-8 swingman got emotional when talking about his road from rural Mississippi to the NBA.

“Man, it’s unbelievable,” he said, choking back tears. “You think of this little kid playing in the Boys and Girls Club, wanting to be like your big brother and getting a chance to walk across that stage and give some people hope from where I’m from. It means a lot.”

Hood is a left-handed shooter with good consistency in the midrange and all the way out the three point line. He shot 42% on threes at Duke, and his free throw percentage (80%) is an good indicator that statheads use to predict how a collegian’s shot will carry over to the NBA. According to multiple draft scouting sites, he’ll need to improve his defense and work on his body.

Despite the strong projections on how his shot will translate, Hood was not a favorite of several different’ predictive models, largely because of less-than-stunning rebounding numbers and steal rate. Both are important predictive indicators that have had success at projecting success in the NBA. For those reasons, ESPN analytics guru Kevin Pelton projects that his average Win Shares over five seasons will be just a shade under zero.

That could be meaningful, but the analytics component is just one element of player evaluation. Watch his tape. This guy is a legitimate outside threat on nearly every play — the type of guy defenses have to pay attention to even off the ball. And beyond that, he just gets how to play. He’s smart, court-aware, and generally looks to make the right play. I think he will likely outperform the spreadsheets.

Interestingly, the Jazz had options at 23. Kyle Anderson, Clint Capela and several other talented prospects were still on the board, and Andy Katz reports that the Jazz also had the option to trade down to 26 with Miami, who coveted Shabazz Napier. Evidently, they had Hood ranked highly enough that they couldn’t leave him sitting there and risk him going 24th or 25th. So instead, the Jazz made their play and brought Hood to the organization.

“I’m just happy to land in a really good spot,” said Hood.

The Jazz also owned the 35th pick, but they made the pick for Memphis in exchange for a 2016 2nd round pick. Jarnell Stokes was the selection, and it appears as though the Jazz received no additional compensation.

Odds & Ends – Other notes from the draft:

• In talking to and about Exum and Hood, I was reminded about the Gregg Popovich line about the Spurs drafting players “who have gotten over themselves.” Both come across as very humble, hard-working, unassuming types. An Australian journalist feels the same way about Exum.
• Have you watched this yet?
• What about this?
• Hood grew up in Meridian, MS, about 100 miles from Al Jefferson’s hometown of Prentiss. Hood mentioned Jefferson when asked about players he admired from Mississippi.
• The most heart-warming moment was when Adam Silver invited Baylor’s Isaiah Austin to the stage for a ceremonial NBA draft pick. Austin, a projected first rounder, had to withdraw from the draft after receiving a diagnosis that he has Marfan Syndrome, but Silver’s gesture justly garnered high marks, and Austin was cheered loudly and given a long standing ovation by the Brooklyn crowd. “It just shows how much class that man has,” Austin said. “When he did it, my head just dropped because, you know, it was almost too much for me to handle. Thankfully, he did it, and I’m thankful for it.” It was a really great moment. Austin has already received multiple job offers, including from Silver, who wants to hire him after he finishes his degree in business at Baylor.
• Of all people, actor and musician Steve Martin probably won NBA Draft Twitter. Go figure.
• I have said all along that I think the Jazz will make multiple moves this summer, and it sounds like they were plenty engaged tonight in a number of different scenarios. They ultimately got who they wanted without needing to deal, but they still have a depth charts that looks to be screaming out for some experience. Here is the current look at the depth chart, including players for whom the Jazz have rights of refusal/draft rights (*) and players who are unguaranteed or have a team option (**). It’s at 16 already, and extremely young and green. So I wouldn’t be altogether surprised if the Jazz started treating some of their young players like assets to put the right kind of role players around the ones that they consider their true core.
  • C: Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert
  • PF: Enes Kanter, Jeremy Evans, Ante Tomic*, Malcolm Thomas**, Erik Murphy**
  • SF: Gordon Hayward*, Hood*
  • SG: Alec Burks, Ian Clark**
  • PG: Trey Burke, Exum*, Raul Neto*, John Lucas III**, Diante Garrett**
• Having said that, I don’t believe for a second that the Hood selection makes Utah less likely to match an offer to Hayward. Hood could be a nice piece, but he’s rated by the GMs in Ford’s draft tier survey as a tier 4, or a guy who projects to be a rotation player or fringe starter. Hayward, as Ken Clayton and I discussed before the draft, is probably widely viewed as a  tier 2: a potential All-Star. He’ll be back.
• While we’re on the topic, and for whatever it’s worth… Exum rated as a tier 2 also, but with several votes in tier 1 (surefire All-star/potential franchise player). I heard there are several teams that had him top 3 on their boards, and even a couple that had him in their top two at some points during the pre-draft process.
• Having Exum-Favors-Hayward at your core might be a better start than having Jabari Parker and Hayward at your core but with no Favors. Might be. It will be interesting to see how ready Exum is. But I’m glad the Jazz got one of their top targets without having to mortgage the farm.

Click below for the above-mentioned private interview clip with Exum.

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