Giannathan Jisaactetokounmpo,
a mouthful of upside.
Jonathan Isaac is the project with that special sauce to his game that even a player comparison to Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t sit well. The Orlando Magic selected JIsaac with the sixth overall pick in Thursday night’s draft; a choice that left many Magic fans with more questions than answers. Who is Jonathan Isaac? Why wasn’t he assertive at Florida State? Why would the Magic take another long-term project with a possibly transcendent scoring point guard in Dennis Smith Jr. still on the board? Why are we all yelling?
Giannathan Isaactetokounmpo is simply a project worth waiting for. Jonathan committed to the defensive-anchor role for a Florida State team where Isaac got the majority of his points off of fastbreaks, off-ball cuts and staying within the gameplan: A spread-iso attack around guards Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Dwayne Bacon driving and kicking. Take a look at the block party Jonathan hosted for Notre Dame back in January on his home floor, and watch Isaac deflect the credit for victory to his team’s depth in the post-game interview.
Could Jonathan have been more assertive scoring the ball? Sure, but with a rotation of twelve players in an offense where he’s at least the third option, half-court opportunities with the ball in Isaac’s hands were hard to come by. For all of the negative talking points about Jonathan’s lack of a “mamba mentality” and critics calling out Isaac for not having that “hates to lose more than he likes to win” edge, Isaac still had plenty of stat-sheet filling games where everything seemed to click. Inconsistency on the offensive side of the ball is Isaac’s biggest weakness, along with overall strength; to ever become a superstar, he’ll obviously have to work on both. Most players find their NBA bodies in years 3–5 after acclimation to the league’s speed, schedule, and intensity.
It should be noted that, although Jonathan is currently 6'10", Isaac had a late growth spurt that brought him up seven inches from the role of point guard his freshmen year in high school to a wing in college, with doctors saying he may still even be growing… let me repeat: SEVEN INCHES!?! Growth spurts of this magnitude are reminiscent of the positional changes Anthony Davis and Antetokounmpo went through as they saw their bodies grow while still developing ball-skills on the hardwood. Nowadays, true superstars like the two mentioned come out to play every night in the association; a franchise cornerstone is expected to not only show up, but to show out for all 82 games every year. Did Jonathan find a 5th gear in every game Florida State played this year? Not always on offense, but Isaac consistently impacted the game defensively when his shot wasn’t falling. That said, for every few games where JIsaac “only showed up” on defense, he’d have another highlight performance on the same level as any elite scorer. Watch Jonathan Isaac’s Florida State Seminoles beat down Dennis Smith Jr.’s NC State team by 24 points marked by a smooth fade-away before a monster put-back slam from JIsaac at the 1:00 minute mark:
While we’re here, enjoy Jonathan Isaac swat Jayson Tatum faster than a PC police account blocks someone from an offensive tweet made in a thread the PC police account wasn’t even a part of.
Ah, screw it. What else you got goin’ on? I mean, you’re still reading this article. Let’s just watch Giannathan Jisaactetokounmpo do a lot of cool stuff with a basketball for three minutes and fourty three seconds.
So, we know Jonathan Isaac is capable of scoring big. We know he has the length and quickness to switch onto all five positions on the basketball court and make an impact defensively with relative stability, at least now that behemoth low-post scorers are nearly extinct. He’ll need to get faster, stronger, and smarter, and in all likelihood that’s how he’ll spend his off-seasons. We know that on one end, Jonathan can force an offender into the paint, block his shot, push the break, hesitation dribble at the three point line, and finish with a smooth lay-in on the other end. So, who’s really the closest player comparison to Jonathan Isaac? In recent draft classes, a combination of Brandon Ingram, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jaylen Brown come to mind. Ingram’s length and fluid scoring ability, Kristaps’ knack for snuffing out shots at the rim with the ability to hit the trailing-three on the other end, and Jaylen’s defensive versatility would make up the “pros” side of a Jonathan Isaac pros and cons prospect list, if someone were to make such a thing.
In his one year at Florida State University, check out JIsaac’s notable stats:
| 24.6 PER | 61.4 TS % | 4.7 OBPM| 7.47 DBPM | 12 PPG | 7.8 RPG | 1.2 APG | 1.2 SPG |1.5 BPG | 51 FG% | 35 3pt% | 78FT%
What are the real knocks to Jonathan’s game? Like any player, it seems to be the right role, opportunity, and surrounding. Sure, Jonathan needs to continue putting on weight and work on consistency, but Isaac can already dribble, shoot, and pass; he protects the rim and can switch onto nearly any other player in the league. The moment JIsaac puts it all together and grows into a comfortable confidence, we could see a Most Improved PoTY break-out in Year Three to the tune of T-Mac or Antetokounmpo himself. Does having such an all-around game translate to truly becoming a superstar? Not necessarily, but a complete ball-skill-set while already being a force on defense could reveal a Shane Battier-esqueff floor as a versatile starting-caliber player who fits on any team, and if Isaac’s offense becomes consistent, who’s to say he can’t impact he game on both ends in similar fashion to a two-way dominant force like Giannis, or even the impact of Kawhi. So no matter how much or little Isaac develops, he should easily have a ten-plus year career as a defensive role player in the association. If he puts it all together, than maybe the Orlando Magic really did draft their own Giannathan Jisaactetokounmpo.
follow @BeyondTheRK on twitter for thoughts on The Magic and NBA storylines!
