Former VMI center Jake Stephens won’t hear his name called in next month’s NBA Draft, but I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get an invite to the Summer League, and a chance from there to earn a two-way NBA deal in the fall.
Stephens, a 7’0” center, had a nice run in last month’s Portsmouth Invitational, averaging 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots per game in matchups with fellow NBA aspirants.
The super big – in addition to being seven feet, Stephens also has a 7’10” wingspan – had a big season at Chattanooga in 2022-2023 as a grad transfer, averaging 22.0 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
Stephens followed Dan Earl, his coach at VMI, to Chattanooga when Earl was hired there last spring, and continued to build on what he’d done in developing his game while on the post.
Earl ran his offense through Stephens as a sort of Nikola Jokic-type point center, taking advantage of Stephens’ elite passing skills and his unique ability as a seven-footer to hit the three.
As a senior at VMI in 2021-2022, Stephens shot 49.0 percent from three, and last season at Chattanooga, he shot 40.8 percent, on high volume – 5.0 three-point attempts per game in his last season at VMI, and 5.2 threes per game in his year at Chattanooga.
He’s also a beast in the paint. According to SynergySports data, Stephens made 70.6 percent of his shots at the rim, and he was a 58.6 percent shooter on post-ups, ranking 18th in D1.
The limitation for Stephens is on the defensive end.
Yes, he averaged 2.2 blocks per game last season, and opponents shot 40.4 percent against him on shots at the rim, so, he’s a solid rim protector.
The issue is mobility, or lack thereof, which Stephens conceded in an interview with the “No Ceilings NBA Draft” podcast back in March.
“I think the obvious thing is the athleticism,” Stephens said. “I wanna be as bouncy, as quick-twitch, as I can possibly be. … I feel like I can show some signs of is improvement. … I don’t want to be the guy they look at and say, He hasn’t done much since his season ended back in March.”
Earl uses a matchup zone as his primary scheme, and his point of emphasis to Stephens was to stay out of foul trouble, so Stephens wasn’t asked to do much with pick-and-rolls, which he will see a lot of at the next level.
“I think a lot of the hesitation with me is obviously, drop coverage or different ball screen coverage, but there’s a give-and-take,” Stephens said. “I was playing 38 minutes, I couldn’t foul, most of the time we’re running a match-up zone defense, so communicating everything out. So, at the next level, obviously, I want to play 38 to 40 minutes, but my role will be different.
“In there for 5-10 minutes at a time, I think I’ll be even more comfortable. I feel comfortable with it now, and that’s with having to play every single minute of the game, basically.”
A seven-footer with a 7’10” wingspan who is a good passer and a knockdown three-point shooter has to be worth a two-way deal that will get him a chance to develop on the defensive end in the G League as a starting point.
Stephens, in the here and now, is a space-eater in the lane on defense, so if he can become even just decent defending the pick-and-roll, he could give somebody (maybe the Denver Nuggets, backing up Jokic) minutes as a second-team center.
At the least, he goes overseas and makes good money and gets to see the world.
But I’m still thinking NBA for him, maybe not right away, but not that far down the road.
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Chris Graham
