PROSPECT OF THE WEEK: Rokas Jokubaitis, SG, FC Barcelona, (rights owned by Knicks)
I’ll get to players from the 2022 draft in a bit, but this week I wanted to highlight the torrid start by the Lithuanian guard the Knicks drafted with the 34th pick in the 2021 draft.
At this point, European teams have already played several games, so we’re already getting an impression of who is off to a great start and who isn’t. The most notable outlier from the previous year’s performance might be Jokubaitis, who has exploded in the early going in his first season in Spain. Most notably, he’s been able to convert both frequently and efficiently inside the arc despite moving up to a more difficult league, hitting 20 of his 31 2-point attempts while drawing fouls at roughly double the rate of a year ago.
Some athletic limitations will always be there for Jokubaitis — he’s stuck on zero blocks for the season and has a grand total of nine in his six seasons of international basketball. But as a savvy midrange and paint scorer whose 3-pointer should be good enough, he looks like a really interesting rotation guard for next year and beyond. We’re still working in small-sample territory — he’s played 12 games — but his start is really encouraging sign for Knicks fans.
From John Hollinger
It was a mistake and we move on. I’m happy we have him for the long term.
