NBA Draft 2019: 3 major sleeper prospects with top 10 talent

Jontay Porter

The first prospect of this list is the younger brother of Michael Porter Jr. and he goes by Jontay Porter. Jontay is a 6’10, 240 lbs 19-year-old sophomore out of Coach Cuanzo Martin’s Missouri Tigers program where not only did his older brother and his two older sisters attend but it’s also where their dad is employed as an assistant coach.

Sports is in their blood line heavy, but so are the rigors of the athletic grind. Both of his sisters Bri and Cierra are now medically retired from sports with the latter of the two sisters having torn her ACL an unprecedented five times. Yes, you read that correctly. One definitely can’t call her a quitter by any standards but wow, talk about sacrifice.

Let’s move on to his high school phenom of an older brother who is often compared to Kevin Durant with the swagger of Kyrie Irving. He was the top-ranked recruit of his high school class and consensus first pick of his draft class coming out of high school. He’s 6’10 with elite shooting, shot creating and consistently high production skills. So how did he end up going bottom of the lottery to the already loaded Denver Nuggets?

You can thank a serious lower back injury that required microdiscectomy of his L3-L4 spinal discs. Some say it happened during his freshman season opener at Missouri but he complained about the injury bothering him in high school. Long story short he missed almost the entire freshman campaign as well as his 1st season as a paid athlete.

Well, that led to my discovery and infatuation of the talents of his younger brother who I compare in talent to none other than Marc Gasol. I’ve watched numerous occasions where he came off the bench behind seniors at Missouri only to immediately impact the game by sequences such as defending the rim, block a shot, rebound it, bring it up court under full-court press defense in a fast break to pull up at the three-point line and drain the long-range bomb.

Due to his young age he played behind seniors and appeared in 33 games, starting seven of them averaging virtually 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks in only 25 minutes per game. In other words, he did everything as a freshman including heavy playmaking. He also shot 36% from three-point land and 75% from the charity stripe. His read and react skills are very keen along with his vision ball skill and a knack for making the right plays.

His ability to put the ball on the floor, create in traffic, and stretch the floor doesn’t make things any easier. He’s also positive in most defensive metrics including defensive plus-minus, defensive rebounding, and steals. His offensive metrics are also eye-popping for a big as a positive count in assists usage, assists to turnover ratio, assists and his touch from long-range forces defenses to respect him at all times thus freeing up teammates.

In other words, he’s clearly got point big written all over him. Some scouts have even said he is actually more talented than his older high school phenom brother. Jontay was a lock for the 1st round and a possible lottery pick had he stayed in the 2018 draft but he chose to return to school to aim for a high lottery selection. Problem with him is not only his family’s brutal history with injuries but also the fact he torn his own ACL before the start of his sophomore season forcing him to miss it entirely.

As he was rehabbing the ACL he tore it again. Now he has become a major concern for injury and thus has slipped to 2nd round on most draft boards despite immense talent. If Memphis gets a 2nd round pick and he is available, this would be the luckiest draft we could ever imagine even if he has lost explosiveness being he relied more on skill and IQ anyway. Potential all-time draft day steal value pick if Jontay can just stay healthy.