The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okogie could be Tech's 1st first-round pick in 7 years
When Georgia Tech’s season came to an end in the first round of the ACC Tournament in New York, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Yellow Jackets guard Josh Okogie would come back for his junior season. After the game, he spoke of plans for summer workouts and the next season. His coaches, too, expected him to be back. That was March 6.
“I think he was planning to come back,” coach Josh Pastner
said this week. “He wanted to come back. But, look — it is what it is.”
It is now June, and it is a virtual certainty Okogie will be selected tonight in the NBA draft. It seems likely that he will be taken in the first round. In 3½ months, Okogie has rocketed from being a strong ACC player to a young man on the verge of achieving his dream of playing in the NBA.
The critical juncture was his par
ticipation at the NBA draft combine May 16-20. Okogie wowed with superior measurables. His 7’0 wingspan was fourth-longest of any guard. He tied for the highest max vertical leap (vertical with a running start) at 42 inches. He had the fastest three-quarter-court sprint at 3.04 seconds. But more noteworthy, said an NBA scout, was his play in scrimmages. “I think people had him on their radar, but, scrimmaging at the
combine, it just looked like he belonged,” said the scout, speak
ing on condition of anonymity. Another NBA scout, somewhat less enthused about Okogie, offered a confirming perspective. “The combine woke a lot of people up,” the second scout wrote in an email. “I don’t get it, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Okogie declared that he would stay in the draft shortly after the combine. He has worked out for a slew of teams, including with the Hawks May 7. Many mock drafts peg himgoing between the 24th (Portland) and 30th (Hawks) picks. It would make him Tech’s 19th first-round pick and first since Iman Shumpert in 2011.