The San Antonio Spurs are now fully locked in on the offseason with their first round exit in the playoffs. That means they’ll be researching and analyzing some college prospects — we hope anyway — like we’ve been doing all season. This week’s prospect is Cincinnati guard Jacob Evans.
Evans was originally seen as a potential first round pick going into the season, but thanks to the emergence of some other players and less-than-stellar junior season, he has been relegated to the second round for now. He is a 6-foot-6, 210-pound guard that could help the Spurs in a few different aspects.
Here are some of his stats:
- 13.0 PPG, 3.1 APG, 4.7 RPG, 1 BPG
- 42.7 FG%, 37.0 3P%, 75.4 FT%
- 116.5 ORtg, 88.3 DRtg
- Per-40 stats:
- 16.9 PPG, 4.1 APG, 6.1 RPG
- Per-40 stats:
While Evans’ numbers were not as great as most people would have hoped, he was an unquestionable leader for a team that earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and won the American Athletic Conference Tournament to end the season. He was the leading scorer on a team mostly known for its suffocating defense — they held teams to 57.5 points a game — and he was a solid defender himself. His defensive rating was superb for the season and it came from his strength as a guard and ability to keep other guards from getting to their spots.
His offense could use some work, but he is a decent shooter from all over the floor and is an alright shooter off the dribble. He can post up smaller guards, has the size to play out on the wings and is an average athlete at the NBA level. He is not great at any one thing, but is solid across the board, so if he’s willing to put in the work, then he could be a great asset to the Spurs in the future.
Evans has some work to do as a prospect, but he would be a good second round pick for the Spurs and could give them some depth at the guard position depending on what they do with potential free agents this offseason. He might lack an elite first step off the dribble, but he makes up for it with strong attributes elsewhere across the board.
