Texas Basketball: 3 best NBA Draft prospects on the current roster

3) Texas basketball players to watch for 2021 draft

This is maybe the most presumptuous name on the list of potential Longhorns making headway in the 2021 NBA Draft class. The former Longhorns highly coveted five-star Westlake High School center recruit and sophomore big man Will Baker has a ton of potential, but has yet to even come close to live up to that billing yet.

Hopefully all we need to do is be patient with Baker. His immense talent won’t necessarily always translate, especially given some of the more complicated concepts and schemes that Smart asks his bigs to run. The good news pertaining to Baker is that he did start to dramatically improve his play in a bigger role down the stretch.

The Longhorns did call upon Baker to assume a bigger role in the latter stages of Big 12 play last season when injuries started to pile up, namely to then junior center Jericho Sims. Baker finished off his freshman campaign averaging 2.1 points per game, 1.9 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.2 steals, and 0.1 blocks. And he shot a fairly poor 27.5 percent from the field, 15.4 percent from beyond the arc, and 33.3 percent from the free-throw line.

Any hype that Baker has looming for a future NBA Draft will solely rely on him coming closer to meeting his immense promise as a stretch big man in college. Baker came out of high school with a very impressive smooth shooting streak, creating ability, and fluid athleticism for a seven-footer. Those types of skills tend to be appealing to NBA scouts and translate well to the next level.