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Pelicans NBA Draft Prospect Profile: St. John's F Dillon Mitchell
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- Pelicans NBA Draft Prospect Profile: St. John's F Dillon Mitchell
(© Denis Poroy-Imagn Images)
The New Orleans Pelicans have a great talent evaluator in Troy Weaver and an aggressive leader in Joe Dumars, so they should never be counted out to grab a player that they like.
They have a second-round pick from the Detroit Pistons to work with in this year's draft, but have not ruled out the possibility of going higher. Right now, though, the focus should be on the players who will be available in the second round, whom the Pelicans could consider.
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Continuing to go through second-round options, one player who makes sense is St. John's Red Storm forward Dillon Mitchell. Mitchell is someone that New Orleans could potentially wait and draft with the No. 58 pick if they want to risk waiting around.
Mitchell actually jumped around a couple of different schools. He signed with the Texas Longhorns and then went to the Cincinnati Bearcats before landing with the Red Storm over this past season.
The forward averaged 8.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 55.9/0.7/49.4 shooting splits. He does not have much to add to the offensive side of the ball, but he is certainly an active defender. That could be enough to catch the eye of this coaching staff, who badly want to fix the rebounding and defensive effort from last season.
Adding yet another non-spacing player to the Pelicans' front court could be disastrous. There is already so little shooting when Zion Williamson and Derik Queen are together that playing Mitchell alongside them could be impossible. Does New Orleans really want to go after a rookie that doesn't fit with two of their top players?
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At the same time, though, Mitchell does have some tools that project as a multi-year role player. At pick No. 58, there's no guarantee of getting an actual NBA player. There could be value in going for someone who can at least be rostered.
He is an elite athlete and seems to embody the values this Pelicans coaching staff holds dear. He also knows how to play winning basketball, as St. John's was a No. 5 seed and reached the Sweet 16 before falling to Duke. Mitchell's defense played a large role in them getting as far as they did.
