It’s time for another episode of the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast! In this episode, The Next’s Emily Adler and Lincoln Shafer go deep on Jonquel Jones‘ WNBA Draft outlook in 2016. Jones was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks at No. 6 overall before quickly being sent to Connecticut as part of a trade package for Chelsea Gray on draft night.
The co-hosts break down Jones’ game coming out of George Washington in the A-10, including her immense talent rebounding, protecting the paint and pairing it with an unusual passing and scoring skillset for a 6’6 forward.
Additionally, they discuss the challenges of evaluating the draft stock of players emerging from the mid-major ranks, given the added difficulty of being the sole focus of most opponents, which contrasts with the limited opportunities against the nation’s top talent.
Shafer on the takeaways he has when looking back at Jones’ time at George Washington:
Watching her play against other WNBA caliber players in college, she frequently just out plays them. She’s tremendously talented. She has some of the strongest hands I’ve ever seen, maybe the most dominant rebounder that we’ve scouted on the defensive end. Her size, positioning, verticality and incredibly strong hands mean that if there’s a contested rebound, there’s like an 80% chance that JJ is coming down with it. And she’s incredibly willing to just try things, which carries [into] her WNBA career.
Shafer on what stood out defensively beyond her rebounding:
[Jonquel is] probably the best perimeter defender over 6’5 that we’ve ever seen as a college prospect. … Over 6’5 there [are] not very many players, and most of them are plodding and paint bound … and Jonquel is none of those things. She’s an outlier athlete. She can chase smaller players around screens off the ball.
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