2019 NBA Draft: Top 3 players for Golden State to select with 28th pick

3. Jontay Porter, 6-11 center, Missouri

Drafting the oft-injured Jontay Porter in the first round after he sustained a second ACL tear in the same knee — likely due to resuming physical/basketball activities too soon during the recovery process — is certainly a risky proposition. Tearing and re-tearing a crucial knee ligament is very, very serious, and such a string of unfortunate circumstances has only happened a handful of times in NBA history, with the injuries generally debilitating and derailing careers, leaving players far from who they were pre-injury.

This isn’t to say that Porter, the younger brother of oft-injured Michael Porter Jr. (yikes), is doomed. With recent advancements in sports science and medicine, athletes are recovering from torn ACL’s faster than ever and are coming back stronger than ever, too. Jontay Porter’s maligned knees shouldn’t be ignored, but with the 28th pick, drafting a player with such high risk and high reward is a worthy gamble, considering that a healthy Porter is perhaps a top-5 talent in the 2019 NBA Draft class.

In his lone season at Missouri (2017-18), Porter averaged 16.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.7 blocks per 40 minutes on an impressive 43.7-36.4-75 shooting split. The 19-year-old big man is incredibly skilled at his age (he doesn’t turn 20 until mid-November), with preternatural IQ on both offense and defense, with such a potent package of on-ball and off-ball skill that combine to make him an ideal modern-day center in the NBA.

He’s a gifted shooter with great touch, a great passer and ball-handler at his position with the ability to hit players out of the post and short-roll, has some physical upside (entered college doughy, and apparently has lost both weight and fat between the 2018 and 2019 Draft Combines), and is a solid defender because of acute awareness as a team defender. He’s not the most gifted athlete and his ACL injuries will likely sap him of more mobility, but he’s not outright bad; his length (7-0 wingspan) and IQ help make up for it for the most part, although one would certainly prefer if he were to get in better shape and improve his conditioning and mobility.

Essentially, Porter is a wing in a center’s body, an impressive combination that would be perfect for the Warriors roster. Steph Curry has yet to play with a legit NBA center with a viable jump shot, and playing with an adept screener and short-roll playmaker — the Curry-Draymond Green pick-and-roll combo is already one of the best in the NBA because of Greens’ short-roll creation and Curry’s lethal shooting ability — would only open up the Warriors’ offense even more.

Porter is a risky proposition with the 28th pick, and he is currently all over draft boards and mock drafts with so much uncertainty surrounding his health status. Until teams get a hold of his medicals, it’s impossible to peg where he could land on June 20th. For a savvy front office such as the Warriors’, they could be willing to pounce on a player with high upside, even if the downside is a draft selection being used on a player that doesn’t contribute whatsoever.

Personally, I’d bet on the talent, and hope that the training staff will do whatever it can to aid Porter with his recovery (there’s no telling whether he’d be ready to play sometime next season or not). If it weren’t for the injury concerns, Porter would be the Warriors’ top option here — that’s just how good he is.