3 Players In Contention For First Overall Selection In 2022 NBA Draft

Now that the NBA season has trucked along through the playoffs and the NBA Draft Lottery has been officially set, fans await the 2022 NBA Draft. There are a couple of players that could potentially hear their name get called with the top pick, but three stand out above the rest.

Chet Holmgren

Chet Holmgren at the moment is considered the favorite to be selected with the top overall pick this year. The seven-foot center out of Gonzaga is definitely one of the best-known names coming out of college this year. He may have a very lanky frame but there are few players with the type of game style that he has on the court. Plus, it’s hard to ignore a guy that averaged 3.66 blocks per game during his singular season with the Bulldogs. That number ranked him fourth in the NCAA for further perspective. When it comes to his full stat averages last season, they were 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game to couple with those blocks. Holmgren is the name to look out for here.

Paolo Banchero

One of the best indicators that expectations are high for Paolo Banchero is that he drew comparisons to a number of talented NBA players. Among those comparisons were Blake Griffin and Julius Randle. This forward out of Duke can pretty much do it all with his size and skill set. He is able to post up smaller defenders, get the job done in isolation and even act as a facilitator even though he isn’t the most athletic guy on the court most times. These skills helped him net a stat line of 17.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for his team. Not to mention that the Blue Devils marched all the way into the NCAA Final Four against North Carolina. While they lost that game, Banchero was a major factor in them getting there in the first place.

Jabari Smith Jr.

Jabari Smith Jr is one of those players that everybody has been moving up their draft boards throughout the most recent college season. He was excellent as a stretch four and can contribute tremendously on the defensive end. There are a lot of people that note his defensive abilities when talking about his top qualities, but his offensive talents often get overshadowed. He averaged 16.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists along with one block and one steal per game. It definitely helped that he shot a whopping 42 percent from the three point line last year, along with a very high 79.9 percent shooting rate from the free throw line, something those big men aren’t always good at. Smith Jr is going to be towards the top of peoples lists, it is just a matter of determining which of the three listed big men they are going to want to roll with. After all, they are all above the six-foot, 10-inch mark.