Is potential Detroit Pistons player Thon Maker the next KG?

Is Thon Maker the next Kevin Garnett? Many readers will quickly scoff at the notion, but an in-depth look at the two players might change your mind.

In Piston Powered’s mock draft 2.0, the Detroit Pistons landed power forward Thon Maker. Now seems as good of a time as any to break down Maker’s game and how he compares to a similar player who made the jump from high school hoops to the NBA, Kevin Garnett.

Maker is the first player eligible to enter the draft from high school since 2006. This is in part due to the NBA’s rules set to virtually eliminate players from making the jump from high school to the NBA.

But Thon Maker found a loophole—and one I expect future ballers to exploit as they look to avoid college altogether.

The NBA’s rules state that players may not entire the draft until the age of 19 and must be a year removed from high school. Maker graduated from high school in 2015. He then played a post-graduate year at the Athlete Institute in Ontario. That put Maker at 19 years old and a year out of high school, thus making him eligible according to the NBA’s ruling.

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With Maker being draft eligible—and the first high school player entering the draft in years—there are a lot of questions regarding whether or not he will be able to contribute early and what he can develop into long-term.

Maker is a lot like Kristaps Porzingis a year ago—or other international players for that matter—there is film of these players playing basketball, but the level of competition they are playing is a giant question mark.

That question mark is bolded in Maker’s case, playing against the weakest level of competitive basketball.

While seeing a player succeed against other talented players is a huge aspect of scouting, the other big piece to the puzzle is evaluating potential based on size, skill sets, injury history, age, and athleticism. It’s for this very reason, guys who dominated college basketball like Denzel Valentine of Michigan State and Buddy Hield from Oklahoma aren’t going number one overall—or in Valentine’s case, possibly not even in the top 14.

Maker is 7’1” with a 7’3” inch wingspan and a 9’3” standing reach. He’s also got a 36.5 inch vertical. In the shuttle run and three-quarters sprint drills, Maker clocked 3.09 seconds and 3.33 seconds. That puts him on par with guard Malik Newman in the draft, along with several other guards.

Maker checks off the size and athleticism boxes. At just 19 years old, he also checks off the age/room to growth box.

While he hasn’t played against significant competition, he does exhibit traits coaches are looking for in today’s big men—mobility, athleticism, rebounding, rim protection, and shooting and offensive ability.

One often overlooked trait is what goes on inside the player. He’s young, but Maker exudes maturity and has expressed a desire to be great—coaches can work with that, particularly if the potential is there.

That said Maker is far from perfect which is one of the reasons he isn’t being mentioned in the top five.

He’s thin (just 216 lbs) and his overall offensive game needs refining. Because of his lack of weight, scouts will question his ability to hold position on defense and on the boards. Being so thin also will lead scouts to wonder about his durability.

Let’s recap and see if Maker sounds like anyone from a previous draft:

Shooting, athleticism, defense, rim protection, potential, competitiveness/drive, needs to put on weight, high school to pros player—that profile fits Kevin Garnett perfectly.

While those adjectives are broad and their specialties lean slightly in opposite directions (Maker’s towards offense and Garnett’s towards defense), the early comparisons at this stage in their careers is eerily similar.

Shoot, even their size is ridiculously similar. Garnett was 6’11” and 217 lbs while Maker is 7’1” and 216 lbs.

Do the comparisons to Garnett mean Maker will be an all-time great? No, but they are just projections and projections are far from certainty.

What projections do help us with is assessing risk/reward. At 18, if the Detroit Pistons do indeed draft Maker, the reward definitely out ways the risk.

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