Isaiah Todd – Forward – G-League
One of the biggest unknowns in terms of knowing where he will end up in this year’s draft is Isaiah Todd. Once rated as the 15th best recruit coming out of high school in ESPN’s Top 100 for the Class of 2020, Isaiah Todd elected to play in the G-League with other fellow recruits who skipped playing collegiate basketball in Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Daishen Nix.
The young forward played on the G-League Ignite team with the other young draft prospects and in 15 G-League games during the 2020-21 season, he was very decent. Todd averaged 12.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and shot 43.7% from the floor, 36.2% from three-point range.
Standing about 6’10” at the power-forward position, Isaiah Todd’s best attribute is the fact that he can spread the floor. Teams looking for a big man in the modern-day NBA are looking for bigs who can not only score in the low-post and in the paint, but can also shoot from the perimeter.
Shooting 17-47 (36.2%) from distance in the G-League is definitely intriguing for NBA teams and these numbers are not skewed either. The G-League uses the NBA three-point line, whereas other collegiate prospects’ shooting stats may be a little skewed since their three-point line is closer than the NBA line.
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Teams have been able to watch Isaiah Todd as if he was an NBA prospect already and see how his game would translate to the next level. I really do like a comparison of Chris Bosh for Isaiah Todd because of the fact that he can literally score at all three levels on the floor.
Whether it is in the paint, mid-range or three-point area, Todd always looks comfortable with his abilities to not only score, but get to the spots on the court that he wants to get to.
Chris Bosh is obviously a Hall-of-Fame player and Todd will have a lot of work to do in order to live up to this kind of expectation, but this is kind of the ceiling we are looking at for him in the NBA. He is not a big man who will dominate the glass, nor a guy who will rack up blocks like it is nothing, but Isaiah Todd is a “score-first” type of power-forward, which is why he has risen up draft boards over the last month.
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Originally thought to be a mid second-round pick, Todd has seemed to draw the attention of numerous teams picking in the first-round and last week, he cancelled all his workouts with teams picking outside of the lottery, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
He will most likely not be picked in the lottery of this year’s draft, but this just shows the kind of confidence this 19-year-old has in himself. Being very young and possessing a lot of upside as an NBA prospect, Isaiah Todd finds himself as a guy who may very well work his way into the end of the first-round and wind up being one of the “steals” of the draft.
