BREAKING: Utah Jazz Select Walter Clayton 18th Overall | NATIONAL CHAMP to Utah

BREAKING: Utah Jazz Select Walter Clayton 18th Overall | NATIONAL CHAMP to Utah

the pick is in the Utah Jazz have made another selection in the 2025 NBA draft i’m Doug Branson joined now by David Lock host of Locked on Jazz and the Utah Jazz have selected Walter Clayton Jr out of Florida with the 18th pick uh David what drove Utah to trade up from from number 21 to number 18 was it Clayton’s championship pedigree his shooting ability playmaking upside all the above i mean they wanted this guy that’s clear right when you trade up for 18 and if you go back to the draft and look at it there were a lot of guards on the board the guards had kind of slid the surprising pick from China by Portland and things of that nature so the draft the board was sliding for guards but they weren’t interested in any guard they wanted this one specifically in Walter Clayton Jr i think competitiveness i think the winning there’s I think that’s was is a real mantra that we’re hearing since Austin H has taken over the decision-making for the Utah Jazz and Austin H made an interesting similar pick a few years ago when with the Boston Celtics in one Peton Pritchard who was a four-year college player out of Oregon that’s turned out very well might have some similarities to Walter Clayton Jr what do you like about the pick and about Walter Clayton Jr.’s his game and how it fits in with what Utah uh needs uh to fill in terms of gaps and what they would like to do next season well I don’t think there’s any question that you you talk about Walter Clayton Jr the first things you’re going to talk about is the 30-point game against Texas Tech and the 34-point game of the national championship against Auburn they’re pretty awesome big- time moments the kid also won the uh high school state championship at Florida and was a very good football player had offers I believe from Nebraska Notre Dame as a defensive back return specialist and a quarterback so this is a big-time athlete started his career at Iona basketball-wise and then went to Florida i think that comes together his shooting’s elite he’s actually one of the it wasn’t talked about it much we talked about Khan Canipple and we talked about Trey Johnson but there’s some aspects of Walter Clayton Jr that are better than any other shooter this one’s remarkable to me Doug he took 245 jump shots last year off the dribble in college okay what is Give me reference point the next closest of anyone drafted tonight was Trey Johnson at 194 so he took 33% more shots off the bounce than the second most player and was in the 89th percentile doing it the best of any player in this first round of the draft so he’s in the 89th percentile he took an incredibly high volume then you look at his catch and shoot numbers he’s in the 80th percentile the only guys better Jace Richardson Khan Canipple were and Trey Johnson and you look at his spot up c uh his spot up shooting he’s in the 88th percentile and the only guy better Khan Canipple and Jace Richardson so this is not only a mature leader and a winner but this is one of the best shooters that was available in this draft 22 years old so a little older but if you look back at the last few years late first round draft picks marcus Sasser out of Houston Desmond Bane out of TCU Payton Pritchard out of Oregon Quinton Grimes I think by that time out of Houston from Kansas Christian Brown out of Kansas those guys who spent three and four years in college drafted late in the first round have been successful uh you mentioned his star play as a football player when you look back at some of those highlights he looks really tall for a football player and then when you look at the uh highlights from his time in Florida he doesn’t look so tall let’s talk about his size when it comes to his defensive upside how do you think he’s going to fare defensively versus bigger combo guards or wings in the league there are two reasons he was available right like let’s be honest we’re at the 18th pick of the draft there has to be some reasons that he’s available one or three reasons I think one was age two is his size both offensively and defensively he shot just 56% at the rim last year that’s where I think that size kicks in on the offensive side and then defensively he’s only a plus one wingspan he’s 6’3 with a 6’4 wingspan so yeah those are the that’s the drawback that’s why he was available with those shooting numbers with that pedigree with that national championship that’s why he was available at 18 uh when you zoom out and look at the the draft as a whole Ace Bailey at five now Walter Clayton Jr you combine that with all of the context of what you currently have on the roster in Utah and it says what about the status of the Jazz’s rebuild so let me ignore the whole roster for a second and just take the night i think a lot of people say this okay the Jazz would have liked Cooper flag like let’s be honest so the idea that we got everyone we wanted once the Jazz were fifth they probably wanted Dylan Harper then I think they probably wanted Ace Bailey like that’s the fact the way this thing looks from the conversations I had with people it was clear to me going into tonight that the goal of the night would be Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr that those were the two players and by trading up to 18 I think they proved that when when I first saw the report that Walter Clayton Jr came across 18 i was like “Dang it they didn’t get their guy.” Then obviously the next report was the Jazz traded up from 21 to get that they traded second round picks that I think second round picks are maybe the most overrated thing in the world now with the amount of kids that go back to college um so I think from a Jazz standpoint on the night they got what they want from the standpoint of where the rebuild is if you include Walker Kesler in the rebuild there’s one player that they know is a rotation bonafide NBA rotation player and that’s Walker Kesler but if we’re honest we don’t know yet on Keonte George or Bryce Sensah or Taylor Hendricks who was injured all year or Isaiah Collier or Cody Williams or Kyle Filiposki they have six young players they now have eight young players and they don’t necessarily know which of them are going to be NBA rotation players so I would say the rebuild is still in its infancy all right let’s h focus on Walter Clayton Jr for more on his game here’s Brendan Olsen of Locked on Gators the best shooter in the 2025 NBA draft Walter Clayton Jr has a new home i am Brandon Olsson with Locked on Gators walter Clayton Jr was the coldest shooter I’ve ever laid eyes on on a college basketball court no moment was too big for him in fact Walter Clayton Jr might have been too big for every single moment that was thrown in front of him as he led the Florida Gator to a national championship he carried the offense at times you look at the biggest moments the biggest games and even if he’s not playing a great game at that moment he goes out and gets the bucket when it’s needed we saw him facilitate the offense all season he’s been proven that he could be a playmaker and not just a bucket getter if he improves that defense just a bit you’re looking at a guy that’s gonna have a long career as a rotational player in the NBA love Walter Clayton Jr’s game i think he’s very modern basketball player and I think he’s going to have a lot of success at the next level for continued coverage of Walter Clayton Jr make sure you check out Locked on Jazz and David Lock on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day thank you David thank you duck

With the No. 18 Pick in the NBA Draft, the Utah Jazz select Walter Clayton Jr.. Doug Branson and Locked On Jazz host David Locke break down the selection. #walterclaytonjr #utahjazz #nbadraft

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