Utah Jazz: J-Notes staff writers’ favorite players for pick No. 21

Isaac Bonga

Hayden Van de Maat

Isaac Bonga is as intriguing as any prospect you could find outside of a draft lottery. He stands 6-foot-9 with a seven-foot wingspan and played point guard growing up overseas. The German is largely unknown to NBA teams and scouts, which is why there is such great variance in his mock draft positioning.

Bonga is an elite passer and a tremendous ball-handler for his size with solid defensive instincts. He’ also shown flashes of becoming an elite rim finisher. The one major flaw in Bonga’s game is his 3-point shooting. His shot isn’t broken by any stretch, but he has a hitch in his stroke that prevents him from getting his shot up with a defender in his vicinity.

He also doesn’t get off the floor very quickly despite being a strong athlete. He moves in a very similar way to Kentucky’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with how he maneuvers his way through creases in the defense and, like Shai, he has outstanding body control to finish through contact.

Bonga is still quite raw and won’t turn 19 until November, so it would be quite a project for the Jazz development staff. However, Bonga’s upside is very enticing and his ceiling is hard to fathom because there just aren’t many 6-foot-9 fluid athletes that play as a pure point guard.