2015 GBB Community Mock Draft: Utah Jazz Pick #12

Pick #12

Utah Jazz

GM: Tblythe

And with the 12th pick in the draft, the Utah Jazz and Tblythe select:

11) Myles Turner, Center from Texas

Photo credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports

From GM Tblythe:

As the fictional GM of the Utah Jazz (not to be confused with Dennis Lindsey), I was tempted to go the typical, unathletic white guy route, but was intrigued with the options available beyond the quintessential, Matt Harpring clone. The immediate options were Myles Turner, Devon Booker, Kelly Oubre, Sam Dekker and Trey Lyles who all fit the Jazz perfectly. I didn't want to waste the pick on underperforming wings (sorry Dekker but you can't hold Heyward's jockstrap), so I decided to roll the dice on a young, analytically gifted big man in Myles Turner. With Enes Kanter in OKC now, I had a difficult time deciding between Lyles and Turner, but I realized that Turner had greater, long-term potential. His game scares me like Christian Wood's game scares teams in the 20's, but he could turn into Channing Frye, which wouldn't be the end of the world.

That being said, Myles Turner registered a 2.4 in the WARP Projection statistical measure provided by ESPN.com. This was 11th among the players in the top 100. Some of his relative, statistical comparisons coming out of college were Kosta Koufos, Chris Bosh and Derrick Favors. I'm leaning towards the Koufos comparison when it comes to future, on-court production, but Chris Bosh would be an amazing ceiling for a player like Turner. The main concerns with Turner are his inability to perform against higher levels of competition, which was especially apparent during Big 12 conference games. The best player available strategy combined with filling one our needs is a rare opportunity and we can capitalize on that in this situation. With his combination of shot-blocking ability and advanced shooting for a big man, he would be a perfect fit for our frontcourt rotation.

With the Stiefel Tower, Derrick Favors, Trevor Booker and Grant Jerrett as your big man rotation, it is a steal to add a sweet-shooting center at this point. If he can block shots off the bench at a rate close to Gobert, then our pick could offer the biggest reward of the draft. He also carries a heavy, risk though. His two point percentage of 51% in college wasn't terrible, but could improve. He only shot 27% from three point land as well, which also causes concern for him as a possible floor spacer. Next, he struggles rebounding in space and runs awkwardly. Apparently, he has worked hard on his conditioning leading up to the draft though.

Hopefully, he can silence the doubters with his physical nature in question. His body type will remind people of Arnett Moultrie, but his talent level is on par with the top five picks in the draft (Towns, Okafor and Porzingis). We think Turner is great value at this point in the draft and believe he can improve his conditioning going forward.

Tomorrow we've got the last two picks of the lottery portion of the draft with Matty B at #13 with the Pistons and ljjung GMing the Oklahoma City Thunder at #14 who, if you'll remember, traded Kevin Durant and Nick Collison for DeMar DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Patrick Patterson and the 20th pick.