New Orleans Pelicans NBA draft: 3 reasons impact players are overlooked

New Orleans Pelicans NBA Draft: The hunt for shooters

Shooting

NBA teams are obsessed with 3-point shooting at the moment, which has caused some of them to miss out in the draft.

While some teams like Miami have done well to find shooters like Kendrick Nunn and Duncan Robinson late in the draft, others have reached to grab shooting and in the process missed out on a star.

Take the 2017 draft as an example. The Detroit Pistons needed shooters to put around Andre Drummond, so they reached and selected Luke Kennard with the 12th pick.

The next two picks in the draft? Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo.

The knock on both was that they would never be able to shoot well enough to stay in the league. Well, how did that work out?

Kennard is an ok role player, and yes, a better shooter than Mitchell or Adebayo, but that’s the only way he’s better. Teams passed on Giannis Antetokounmpo partially because he’d never have a good enough shot. He now has two MVPs.

This overzealous lust for shooting causes teams to miss out on guys who are simply better, more impactful players, as the entire game is not played behind the 3-point line.

The player in this year’s draft who fits this profile is Michigan State Junior, Xavier Tillman.

Tillman is an elite defender who can guard multiple spots and is a disruptive force on that end. He can’t shoot, so is predicted to go in the late first round or even drop to the second.

This is a guy who knows how to play the game and fits the mold of what teams need out of a wing, but he will drop because he doesn’t shoot 3-pointers.

Someone is going to get lucky in this year’s draft and potentially get the best defender in the second round of the draft. Hopefully, that team will be the New Orleans Pelicans.