Jason Preston
Profile:
Position: Point Guard
Role: Pure Playmaker
Age: 21
Nation: USA
Year: Junior
College: Ohio
Height: 6’4
Wingspan: 6’9
Weight: 181 lbs
Stats:
Positives:
- Crafty finisher. He gets to the rim well and can finish on either side. He is good at navigating contests and when he is denied an opportunity right at the rim, he has a reliable floater he can go to.
- Solid handler. He moves well with the ball and can beat defenders off the dribble. He is very good at using hesitations and change of pace plays to freeze opponents and get past them. He is a pro at trapping opponents on his back and holding them hostage while he navigates the inside.
- Excellent playmaker. He has fantastic vision and can make high-level reads. His passes are crisp and accurate. He is an immensely talented passer capable of making live dribble passes, skip passes, mid-air passes, and even no-look passes. He uses his hostage dribble to keep opponents on his back and slows down, surveys the field, and hits the open man if the opportunity is there. He makes excellent deep outlet passes in transition.
- Very good shooter off the catch. He has smooth form with a fairly quick release and converts on a high number of catch-and-shoot 3s. His range off the catch extends deep beyond the 3-point line.
- Shooting upside off the dribble. He has shown an ability to knock down shots off the bounce. He can pull up from incredibly deep range and can punish teams from going under on screens.
Negatives:
- Not an explosive athlete. He lacks the burst to reliably beat opponents on drives. He doesn’t have a great vertical and can struggle when finishing against NBA-level defenders despite his solid size.
- Inconsistent shooter off the dribble. He is comfortable taking a high volume of 3s off the dribble but struggles to convert on them. His lack of burst prevents him from creating separation reliably and some of his misses are way off.
- Not a great on-ball defender. His lateral quickness isn’t the best and opponents are able to blow by him without much trouble. When he closes out, he is often unbalanced and not in a great stance, allowing handlers to attack the closeout.
Upside:
- LaMelo Ball
- Mike Conley
- Ricky Rubio
Notes:
Jason Preston is talented in multiple areas, but his one signature skill is by far his playmaking. He is an incredibly talented passer who makes excellent reads and is one of only a handful of players in the draft who with the potential to legitimately run an offense as a lead handler and playmaker. His ability to score comes primarily from his crafty finishing on the inside and his stellar shooting off the catch.
The biggest knocks against Preston are shot creation and athleticism. He isn’t the best shooter off the dribble, which could limit his playmaking upside if teams don’t respect his scoring ability. He also isn’t very athletic, which limits his defensive effectiveness against quicker players and makes him incredibly reliant on craftiness on offense. While the defense is currently an issue, Preston is 6’4 with a 6’9 wingspan and he certainly has the size and length to become a good defender if he can improve his quickness and discipline.
The flaws are certainly real with Jason Preston and are probably enough to keep from being selected in the first round. With that said, the upside is just as real and teams in need of playmaking could find themselves with a very tantalizing prospect in the second round.
