Jarnell Stokes' Breakout Season

        Stokes made the extremely rare mid-season transition from high school straight into the college ranks and excelled from the moment he stepped on the floor. At just 18 years of age, Stokes is an even rarer breed of physical power at 6'8", 250 pounds with a husky build, with a unique mix of a power game in the post and a finesse game from the perimeter. With his first full off-season of college-level drills, competition and conditioning, Stokes should make significant strides from an already productive half-a-freshman season.

        While he isn't as long or as tall as other power forward prospects, Stokes just turned 18 and is all over scouts' radars for his 9.6 points and 7.4 rebounds in 17 games last season. He scored 9 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench in his first collegiate game against Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones and the national champion Kentucky Wildcats. Just two games later, he earned the start against UConn and dominated Andre Drummond and Alex Oriakhi inside for a double-double. He can muscle his way around the paint, handle the ball a bit on the perimeter showing impressive quickness off the bounce for a player of his size and a soft pull-up jumper with 15-17 feet of range.

        What's really scary is that Stokes made an instant impact for the Vols despite being thrown into the fire right away. What's even scarier is his size 20 shoe suggests that Stokes will continue to grow and with an offseason conditioning program, Stokes should slim down a few pounds, while not giving up any muscle and only adding even more athleticism and explosiveness to his game. He's projecting to average a double-double with 15-16 points a night with some strong rebounding numbers as his offensive and defensive rebounding percentages were amongst the nation's best in his limited action.


By NBA-DRAFT.com Staff Writer - 5 - 31 - 12