Jett Howard: 2023 NBA Draft Scouting Report
Jett Howard: 2023 NBA Draft Scouting Report
After an early-season explosion, Howard cooled off significantly over the final month. Will that also dampen his once-hot draft stock?
Some people are labeled a ‘guy’s guy’, meaning that other guys are supposed to love them more than anyone else.
If that’s the case, then I’m a ‘shooter’s scout’.
I love 3-point shooters. The value they bring is immeasurable thanks to the floor spacing it provides for others. Any superstar needs space to operate, guys who can knock down shots when they kick the ball out, and guys who move off screens to create gravity for easy looks elsewhere. Shooting has been at the center of the offensive boom the last 15 years, and all the best and championship-caliber teams over that time have efficient 3-point shooting. As far as I’m concerned, there is no secret: you need long-range gunners to win.
The trick in scouting shooting is to find versatility. Shooters need to be good while spotting up in the corners or on the wings. They need to have a quick release with good footwork and a repeatable stroke. They need a counter-move (side-step, one dribble pull-up) if they’re chased off the line. They also need to be good off screens or handoffs — and bonus points to those who can take a bounce or two off those actions and get into the lane to make the right play.
Jett Howard checks all those boxes. He’s 6’8”, spaces the floor well next to other stars, shoots on the move, and knows how to create for others. He’s the ideal fourth option on a good team while having enough one-on-one flashes to give confidence that he’ll someday be able to create his own.
Yet Jett hasn’t captured my heart yet as a prospect, even as a self-proclaimed shooter’s scout. It almost has nothing to do with the boxes above, but the fact that he doesn’t seem to check very many other boxes. What I’ve learned about shooters is that, in order to stay on the floor in crunch time and be trusted by their teammates, they need to work themselves into being competent on the defensive end.
Howard is a very unathletic 6’8”. His length is pretty mundane and his vertical burst is nonexistent (he has three dunks on the season, only one of which came through half-court offense). He gets targeted endlessly on the defensive end, where the lack of bend, physicality, and quick footwork can doom him at times.
We saw the push-pull dynamic between the positives and negatives at work throughout the season. His 34-point outburst — on 7-13 shooting from deep — at Iowa was one of the better prospect games of the entire season. He roared out of the gates with a 63.7% true shooting percentage over his first 9 games. He also had four single-digit scoring games over the final six weeks of the season, didn’t take a free throw attempt in 5 of his final 11 contests, and struggled immensely in the Big Ten Tournament against Rutgers.
Based on his early-season reputation, Howard has coasted his way toward being one of the premiere off-ball players in this draft and has gotten attention as a potential lottery pick. As the season went on, I saw numerous performances that have given me pause for selecting Howard that high.
The highlights and the strengths section of that video could easily point to Howard being a top-ten pick in the modern NBA. It’s incumbent on scouts to be more measured, to look at the improvement areas with a nuanced eye, and figure out if they prevent Howard from making a consistent impact with his signature skill.