Power Forward #5: Noah Clowney, Alabama
We’re now onto the draft prospects at power forward who realistically could be taken in the first round of the NBA draft. While Noah Clowney was overshadowed by the other prospects on his team, their spotlight also helped to highlight his game by default, which led to his emergence as a potential first-rounder.
Clowney didn’t have the best counting stats, as it wasn’t his role to score for the Crimson Tide. Instead, his job was to finish plays, shoot from deep, and devastate opposing drives to the rim. He was tied for ninth with all freshmen in blocked shots per game and while he didn’t stripe shots from deep, he showed enough touch to be a consistent threat:
Noah Clowney is so good pic.twitter.com/NAiAMPJeFJ
— Hunter Cruse (@HunterCruse14) December 10, 2022
Drafting Clowney in the late first or early second round is less about who he will be for the team today and what he might be for the team tomorrow. Clowney’s still young, raw, and talented, which makes him a great bet to one day develop into the modern prototypical power forward who can defend the rim and stretch the floor.