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Draft Preview: Malik Beasley, Jarrod Uthoff

(Editor’s note: The Pistons hold the No. 18 and No. 49 picks in the June 23 NBA draft. We’ll preview one candidate for each pick each Monday through Friday leading up to the draft. Players who are consensus lottery picks unavailable to the Pistons will not be profiled.)

First-Round Candidate: Malik Beasley

ID CARD: 6-foot-4½ shooting guard, Florida State freshman, 19 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 24th by DraftExpress.com; 18th by ESPN.com; No. 4 shooting guard by NBA.com.

SCOUTS LOVE: Any time a young player combines athleticism with a 3-point shooting stroke, the NBA is going to come sniffing. That’s the overwhelming attraction with Beasley, who averaged 15.6 points and shot 39 percent from the 3-point arc as a Florida State freshman despite lacking the McDonald’s All-American pedigree. He scored and did it efficiently against the toughest defensive teams on Florida State’s schedule. His athleticism helps Beasley as an effective finisher in the paint, too.

SCOUTS WONDER: Can Beasley develop the other areas of his game to become a legitimate NBA starter? He’ll need to put a lot of work into his ballhandling to become something more than a catch-and-shoot option, though Beasley did have impressive rebounding numbers. His athleticism gives him a chance to be at least an average defender, but Beasley doesn’t have great size or length to easily project as more than that.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 51.8 percent – Beasley’s shooting percentage. You won’t find many college guards making better than half their shots, let alone freshmen, who often struggle with shot selection as they adjust to the speed and size spike coming from high school basketball. With a premium on scorers, teams are going to look at every other aspect of Beasley’s game between now and the June 23 draft. If he can pass muster in areas beyond scoring, Beasley’s stock will take off.

MONEY QUOTE: “He was an outstanding player for our basketball team, is a young man of tremendous character and is an extremely hard worker. We are behind Malik and know he will be successful in everything he does because he is such a quality person both on and off the basketball court.” – Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton

PISTONS FIT: There’s a chance Beasley could be both the highest-rated player left on their draft board at 18 and still give them pause since shooting guard is the deepest position on the roster and it’s really Beasley’s only NBA position at this point since he doesn’t have the ballhandling skills to play point guard nor the size to guard small forwards. If the Pistons take Beasley, it’s because they think he’s clearly the best player on the board with an eye toward 2017-18 and beyond.

BOTTOM LINE: Beasley’s bio reads much like that of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s three years ago, right down to the fact they’re both Georgia natives. Shooting, athleticism, character and work ethic are all appealing qualities, though, and the modern NBA is proving a team can thrive using a variety of hybrid players simultaneously so long as they can stretch a defense by all representing scoring threats. With Caldwell-Pope and Stanley Johnson both emerging as elite defenders, someone like Beasley could be camouflaged until his defense catches up to his offense.

Second-Round Candidate: Jarrod Uthoff

Jarrod Uthoff

ID CARD: 6-foot-9¾ power forward, Iowa senior, 23 years old

DRAFT RANGE: Ranked 61st by DraftExpress.com; 31st by ESPN.com; outside the top 10 power forwards, among the next six listed as honorable mention by NBA.com

SCOUTS LOVE: Uthoff can shoot and he can defend, as evidenced by the fact he was a first-team All-Big Ten pick and made the All-Defensive first team, as well. Uthoff averaged 18.9 points for the Hawkeyes as a senior and shot 38.2 percent from the 3-point line after shooting 42.5 and 32.7 from the arc as a sophomore and junior; he’s done it for a while, in other words. He more easily projects as a stretch four, but Uthoff might even be able to play some small forward in the right matchups.

SCOUTS WONDER: How much room for growth does Uthoff have? He’s 23. He went to Wisconsin initially but didn’t play as a freshman, transferred after that season and had to sit out a year at Iowa. His scoring, other than the occasional transition dunk, was limited almost exclusively to catch-and-shoot jump shots. More than a third of his shots were 3-pointers.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 214 pounds. At 23 already, is there a reasonable expectation that Uthoff can bulk up enough to capably guard NBA power forwards? If not, then his NBA career depends on an uncertain ability to guard on the perimeter or be confined to a very limited specialist role.

MONEY QUOTE: “With Jarrod, it’s about the confidence. When he plays confidently, there’s a lot of things about his game that translate to the NBA. His size and length, his ability to defend, which is very underrated, and his ability to make deep shots. The fact that he’s an unsung, unselfish player helps him, but there’s also times when he’s got to be really, really aggressive. I think that’s a big thing.” – ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, as told to Scott Dochterman, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa).

PISTONS FIT: With Anthony Tolliver a pending free agent and Stan Van Gundy intent on signing or trading for a bigger power forward, perhaps one who can also play center behind Andre Drummond and Aron Baynes to save a roster spot on a No. 3 center, the Pistons will be on the lookout for someone who could grow into a stretch four. Uthoff’s proven ability to shoot from deep makes him a natural to be on the list to get a look from the Pistons.

BOTTOM LINE: In the bottom half of the second round, teams look for even one outstanding trait that can be used as the foundation upon which to build an NBA career. Uthoff has an especially coveted one, his shooting. That he’s also proven to be an outstanding Big Ten defender gives him added appeal. Uthoff has a wide draft range – from late first round to undrafted – but even if he somehow doesn’t get picked he’s going to get a chance to show he can stick in the NBA.