Marquese Chriss, Washington

Age: 18 years old     Size: 6’10, 233 pounds

Last Year’s Stats: 13.8 points; 5.4 rebounds; 0.8 assists per game

Percentages: 53.1% from the field; 35% from three-point% 68.5% from the free throw line

There is almost always at least one “All-Star or bust” type prospect in every draft class. Without a doubt, that player is Marquese Chriss in this year’s NBA Draft. Chriss is your perfect modern-day stretch-four. Combining epic leaping ability with a soft shooting touch out to the three-point line and the potential to guard out on the perimeter.

Adding Chriss would mean that the Nuggets are not looking to win right away. It will take Chriss a few years to develop the court awareness he so severely lacks. He has issues fouling too much, fouling out 15 of 34 games this past season, and turns into the anti-Christ of a heavy ball-movement type offense. When people throw around the term “black-hole,” you might as well slap a picture of Marquese Chriss with it. Over the course of Washington’s season Chriss accumulated 26 assists and 69 turnovers, one of the worst ratios in college basketball. Most of Chriss’s issues have to do with his inexperience playing basketball. He only has around four years of actual competitive basketball playing time. He needs reps more than anything, which means he will likely see the D-League on a few separate occasions.

When it comes to the positives of his game the story starts and ends with his upside.

Athletically, Chriss is among the top players in the nation. He is fast in transition and has hands so large that Kawhi Leonard would be jealous. He uses his monstrous hands to catch lobs on the break with both or just one hand. Chriss hit 35 percent of his three-point shots this year and showed a promising face-up post game as well. He has a decent first step and has the ability to drive in a straight line. While he did not shoot particularly well at the rim, he does not shy away from contact being that he is from a football background, which bodes well for his development as a power forward.

Chriss has a bountiful amount of upside to his game. He needs time, patience, and a wonderful coaching staff to get the most out of him. Maybe the passing of Mudiay and the versatility of Jokic can help bring out the best in Chriss while Malone ingrains his defensive principles on the highly malleable basketball mind of Marquese Chriss. The Nuggets have been looking to add more athletic ability to the roster, and with Kenneth Faried seemingly being squeezed out, the potential for the Nuggets to take a gamble on a high upside, floor-stretching power forward with unbelievable upside seems higher then ever before.