Boston Celtics draft: 3 reasons to trade up for Isaac Okoro

Finding the next Jaylen Brown

Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com made quite the NBA pro comparison for Okoro when he compared him to two premiere wings on the top two finishing teams in the Eastern Conference this past postseason:

"At various points during this process, sources have compared Okoro to Jaylen Brown and Andre Iguodala. In his lone season at Cal, Brown shot 43.1% from the field, 29.4% on 3s and 65.4% from the foul line. Those numbers look similar, don’t they? Brown has progressed nicely in the NBA. After a few years of development, he’s one of the best young two-way players in the Eastern Conference."

Would it not make sense for the team that has seen Brown blossom into a pro have interest in a player whom scouts say shares similar traits? Okoro could learn how to become the next Jaylen Brown by Jaylen Brown.

Like Brown when he first arrived in the NBA, Okoro’s issues lie on the offensive end:

"The questions come on offense. How much value will he have at the end? Okoro shot 51.4% from the field, 28.6% from 3-point range and less than 70% from the free throw line, leading some to wonder if those numbers can really improve over time. While his jumper remains a work in progress,"

Luckily Brown was able to blossom into a 20 point-per-game scorer this past season. Major improvement is possible in a culture like Boston.

With that said, Okoro is less of a risk if they know what his potential is. It’d be a justifiable move up in the draft to find the next Jaylen Brown or Andre Iguodala.