Tennessee Basketball: Josiah-Jordan James pops up in 2020 mock draft
Josiah-Jordan James has yet to play a game for Tennessee and is already appearing in 2020 NBA Mock Drafts which hints he could be in Knoxville for just one season.
It’s unusual for Tennessee basketball players to get the one-and-done treatment, but it looks like Josiah-Jordan James could be the first one-and-done player for Tennessee since Tobias Harris.
James is a 6-6 five-star combo guard out of Charleston, South Carolina. Ranked 21st in the country he was highly sought after and received offers from Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, Kentucky among others.
Coach Rick Barnes worked his recruiting magic to get James to Knoxville and kept him from going to a blue blood program which isn’t too common with a player as highly rated as James.
Tennessee doesn’t see a prospect like James come through Knoxville too often so to say people are excited to see what he can do on the court is an understatement.
But we might not see him in a Tennessee jersey for too long. James was ranked the 19th best player in the 2020 NBA Draft by Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo.
I don’t think we should’ve expected James to stay for more than one season but just seeing his name already being mentioned is kind of crazy.
We’ve all seen what Barnes can do when it comes to developing players over a few years. Barnes has been able to take low ranked players like Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield and turned them into two of the most beloved players in program history.
The question is, what can Barnes do with a player like James?
James is pretty much NBA ready, and Woo expressed that in his piece. He, of course, has a few pieces of his game that he needs to improve on but if he can fix his outside game and stay consistent throughout the season, he could be a first-round pick next year.
Tennessee is coming off an amazing NBA Draft, so Barnes is hoping to use that as a recruiting tool in the future to bring in guys like James.
Next. The Celtics won the draft with Grant Williams. dark
James could rise up to a lottery pick, which would be huge for Barnes and the program in recruiting. Athletic Director Phillip Fulmer said Barnes was going to do special things at Tennessee and it seems like we are at the forefront of that.