Breaking down the Utah Jazz's 3 rookies from the 2023 NBA Draft
#8 Brice Sensabaugh | Wing
In his freshman year with Ohio State, Brice Sensabaugh showed the basketball world what he was made of. What is he made of, you ask? Well, by dropping 17 points per game on 50/41/81 shooting splits, the one they call "Baby Sensa" handed out the recipe for his favorite meal:
The Sensabaugh Special:
- 6 feet and 6 inches of a powerful frame
- A pinch of graceful maneuvering
- A basketful of scoring ability
- A dash of rebounding potential
- 1 egg (I'm not sure why, but eggs seem to be in everything)
Utah snagged Sensabaugh at the tail end of the first round, where good players can be hard to come by. After the first 20 picks, finding a player who can contribute meaningfully can be difficult. Sensabaugh provides a scoring punch and bucket-getting mentality that is unmatched by his peers, and a silky smooth offensive game to back it up.
Much like Taylor Hendricks, Sensabaugh may take a bit to acclimate to the NBA game. As he's learned this season, scoring against the world-class athletes of the NBA is a different challenge from scoring against the defenses in the world of college hoops. He's spent the first half of the season in the G-League fine-tuning his skills and developing the skillset necessary to contribute to winning basketball for the Utah Jazz. While still learning, Sensabaugh has NBA size and looks ready to contribute whenever he hits the floor. His ceiling is lower than his fellow Jazz rookies, but he should be a valuable piece of this team assuming he continues to iron out the wrinkles of his game.