MANILA, Philippines — G League-bound Fil-Am sensation Jalen Green has been projected as the No. 2 overall pick in the early leader board for the 2021 NBA Draft Class.
An explosive high school guard from Fresno, the 6-foot-5 Green ranks just behind do-it-all Oklahoma State star Cade Cunningham among frontrunners for next year’s NBA draft mock proceedings, according to draft expert Jeremy Woo of Sports Illustrated.
The 18-year-old Green, whose mom is of Filipina descent, has also been the top-ranked player in ESPN Top 100 Class of 2020. He anchored Team USA to dominant title runs in the last FIBA U-17 and U-19 World Championships.
Woo considered Green’s shooting and quick-twitch acumen as his big edges as a potential No. 1 scoring option in his class.
His fellow top high school prospect Daishen Nix is at No. 6 after St. Patrick’s Jonathan Kuminga, USC rookie big man Evan Mobley and Texas forward Greg Brown.
Filipino teen tower wunderkind Kai Sotto, who became the first international signee of the G League pro pathway program, is yet to crack the Top 30 rankings of SI ahead of this year’s NBA draft set in September.
Green, Nix and the 7-foot-2 Sotto, with their fellow HS prodigy Isaiah Todd, recently made history after foregoing collegiate basketball stints to pursue an exclusive G League route to the NBA.
They will join forces in a team set to be introduced by the G League for the 2020-2021 season.