It's been a few days since it was confirmed that the Utah Jazz would keep their pick. The next step is which pick will be awarded to them from the lottery. As it stands, they have the fourth-best lottery odds. If the lottery by chance plays out in terms of the best odds, they would get the fourth pick.
Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman projected that, should Utah get the No. 4 pick, they would draft North Carolina's Caleb Wilson. This isn't the first time Wilson has been floated as a Jazz draft target, but Wasserman compared Wilson to former NBA star Jermaine O'Neal.
He didn't elaborate on his O'Neal comparison, but highlighted Wilson's qualities. More specifically, how his qualities made him a better prospect than Cam Boozer.
"Certain scouts sound willing to bet on Wilson's open-floor ball-handling, shotmaking flashes and passing continuing to improve to complement the quickness, explosion and defensive range that Boozer lacks.
"Scouts on the fence will turn to workouts to get a better feel for Wilson's shooting stroke, which only connected on 7-of-27 threes (to Boozer's 54-of-138). Though No. 4 still seems like a safer projection, the predraft process should offer a favorable setting to sell his exciting athletic traits and shooting potential."
Wilson, of course, has his strengths as a player, but being compared to O'Neal should definitely intrigue Jazz fans, because when O'Neal was at his peak, he was one of the NBA's best players.
Making six All-Star teams, three All-NBA teams, and once finishing top-three in MVP voting, it's fair to say that O'Neal was him when he was at his peak. The fact that he was able to do that while Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Dirk Nowitzki were all in their All-Star primes speaks volumes for how good he was at the top of his game.
Not only that, but he was the best player on title-contending Pacers teams in the 2000s, which was ruined by the infamous Malice in the Palace. Unfortunately, O'Neal fell out of his prime pretty quickly, which got in the way of what would have made him a first ballot Hall of Famer. Because of that, he's not remembered as fondly as the other star big men who played in the same era as him.
However, with all that said, O'Neal was so talented that there's a strong case that he's the best NBA player not currently in the Hall of Fame.
If Utah takes Wilson, his career may start out like O'Neal's did
It's exciting to think about what the future would hold for Utah if they roll the dice with Wilson. However, drafting Wilson puts him in the same frontcourt as Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Walker Kessler.
O'Neal faced a similar problem when he started his career in Portland. They simply had too many bigs upon drafting him - Rasheed Wallace, Arvydas Sabonis, Brian Grant - for him to spread his wings, but that all changed once he got to Indiana.
There's no telling if Wilson will struggle like O'Neal did, but he might be too talented for Utah to pass on if given the chance, regardless of how many players would be ahead of him in the depth chart.
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