Purdue guard Jaden Ivey will hear his name called early on Thursday night. Get to know him, his game, and his professional basketball background.
Jaden Ivey is the best guard in this year’s NBA Draft, and at 20 years old, the Purdue product is already being compared to elite NBA talents such as Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Victor Oladipo. He has a basketball pedigree as well, as the son of Niele Ivey, who played for five years in the WNBA and is currently the head coach at Notre Dame.
Let’s get to know Ivey more and look at what he could bring to an NBA roster.
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Jaden Ivey Tale of the Tape
Age: 20
Height: 6’6”
Position: SG/SF
Projected draft position: No. 4 overall, via ESPN.
Previous team: Purdue Boilermakers.
Agents: Aaron Mintz/ CAA Sports
Career achievements: Consensus second-team All-American (2022), First-team All-Big Ten (2022), Big Ten All-Freshman Team (2021)
Deals and Perks
- Chipotle: His signature meal is available for purchase.
- iShares: This deal allows Jaden to set aside a portion of his iShares sponsorship earnings to go into an investment portfolio.
Player Evaluation
Offensively, Ivey has it all. He has a lethal triple threat, explosive first step, and every sidestep and step-back a player can include in their tool bag. He’s got significant bounce yet floats through the air with power like poetry in motion. Ivey is super fast, strong, and has fast-twitch muscles that welcome contact in the lane. Any team who selects him will instantly improve on offense.
Ivey still has work to do to get his three-point shooting up to the standards of the modern NBA game. Additionally, he will have to adjust to the speed of defenders, as he sometimes lost on-ball assignments at the college level. Nonetheless, all the flaws in Ivey’s game are easy fixes with his work ethic and apparent desire to master his craft.
Jaden Ivey College Stats
- Points per game: 17.3
- Assists per game: 3.1
- Rebounds per game: 4.9
- Field Goal %: 46
- 3-Point %: 36
Ivey has the potential to go in the top three of the draft, and if he does, he’ll be the only one of that opening trio who spent more than a year in college. During his freshman season, he shot just 39.9% from the field, but he upped his efficiency to 46.0% and scored nearly 20 points per game as a sophomore. He also improved his three-point percentage from 25.8% to 35.8%. Staying an additional year worked in his favor, allowing coaches to glimpse his progression into a complete offensive player.
Through hard work and focus, Ivey leaped in his second year, making him the eight-best scorer in the Big Ten. We’ll soon see how that translates as an NBA rookie.
The 2022 NBA Draft will take place Thursday, June 23, at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, beginning at 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN. See the entire draft order here.
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