NEW YORK — The day is finally here. The 2022 NBA draft is 8 p.m. Thursday and, if they keep the pick, all signs point to the Magic selecting Auburn’s Jabari Smith at No. 1 overall.
Smith, a 6-foot-11 forward, played one season at Auburn and head coach Bruce Pearl knows exactly the kind of player the Magic are getting if they take him with the first pick.
“What makes him No. 1? For his size, he’s the best jump shooter I’ve seen in college in over 20 years,” Pearl told Yahoo Sports. “He’s about as ready, as far as a one-and-done, than I’ve ever seen and he is going to make Orlando win.”
Smith has been touted as the best shooting big in this draft with an impressive 42% mark from deep at Auburn. Orlando desperately needs help from beyond the perimeter, connecting on just 33% of their 3-point attempts last season.
“His approach to the game and his mentality is like nothing I’ve seen before,” Pearl told Yahoo Sports. “You can’t be that good of a jump shooter without the mental toughness to want the shot, to take the shot and believe it’s going in every time it leaves your hand. It’s the same ball flight, it’s the same rotation every single time. And that’s what the great ones have.”
Smith didn’t enter the season with the same NBA hype as Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero, but he was on scouts’ radar. Pearl knew Smith was talented and knew he had a great player, but it was after a double-overtime loss to UConn at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament when Pearl knew Smith could go No. 1 in the draft. Smith finished with 22 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
“That UConn game changed everything,” Pearl told Yahoo Sports, shaking his head. “That’s when I knew and really had to tell myself, ‘OK, this one is different.’ All he did was build on it from there. Throughout the entire season, I had the best player on the court every single night in Jabari Smith.”
If Smith does hear his name called first, he will be the first player to be the No. 1 pick in Auburn program history.
“Auburn was home for me and still is home so it would be a big deal to write my name in history forever,” Smith told Yahoo Sports.
“When you walk into our locker room, one of the first things you see on the wall is a sign that says, ‘Make history,'” Pearl told Yahoo Sports. “We put that up years ago because there has been great history tradition of Auburn basketball and I wanted guys to come to Auburn to try to add to that history. Making the Final…
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