After a stellar sophomore season, Maryland forward Jalen Smith officially entered his name into the NBA Draft earlier this month.

Smith’s second season in College Park was incrementally better than his first. The Baltimore native averaged 15.5 points and 10.5 assists per game, leading the Big Ten and ranking 3rd nationally with 21 double-doubles. He was named First-Team All-Big Ten and was a consensus Third-Team All-American.

Smith’s decision seems like a fairly easy one. ESPN currently has him projected as the 30th pick overall, The Athletic has him going at No. 21 and Sports Illustrated’s Jeremy Woo has Smith going in the early second round at No. 34.

“I would put him in the 25-40 range is my rough guess,” Woo told TSR. “I don’t know how high (with) centers you generally want to go. I would guess that type of range is fair to say. Obviously he took a big step forward this year in terms of production. If you block shots and you can shoot a little bit, obviously that’s a prototype that’s useful.”

Smith spent his freshman season at the power forward spot next to Bruno Fernando. But in the offseason the skinny forward known as “Stix” bulked up to 225 pounds. He spent this past season playing center where he thrived, blocking a team-high 73 shots.

While ESPN and some others list Smith as a power forward at the next level, Woo thinks he projects best as a center.

“I think he’s definitely a five to me, because he’s gonna have to guard fives,” said Woo. “I don’t see any way he really defends fours. It’s going to be dependent on who he’s playing with, but very few teams are playing two bigs at a time now.”

Smith’s place in this year’s draft feels somewhat similar to that of Fernando’s last season. The latter was a projected first round pick and slipped to the early second round. This year’s class is filled with similar big men in Smith’s range like Washington’s Isaiah Stewart, Arizona’s Zeke Nnaji, Duke’s Vernon Carey, Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu and Michigan State’s Xavier Tillman.

Despite an extremely productive season, Woo believes Smith still has areas of his game that can improve at the next level, especially on the defensive end.

“What has concerned me is the movement stuff primarily. He’s a little stiff,” said Woo. “He obviously can block shots when a play is coming right at him, but in terms of rotating he’ll be in the right spots sometimes but there’s just some plays he’s slow to catch up on.”

And while his offensive numbers are impressive, Woo says he has room to grow there as well.

“He can shoot, but I am not sure how good of a shooter he is. I’m not sure he’s a legit stretch five,” said Woo. “I felt like a lot of the ways he scored is, he kind of has to get fed and then be able to finish. It’s not like he’s creating looks for himself consistently around the rim.”

The draft is still currently scheduled for June 25th, but amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, that date could be shifted to August. There will likely be no NBA Draft Combine and it’s unclear if teams will have the chance to work players out privately.

Woo believes Smith could really help himself in those private workouts by flashing his shooting touch for various teams to see up close and in person.

“These guys are all different,” said Woo. “This is one aspect where it would have been nice to go workout for people just because if you do shoot it really well, that can be helpful.

“Guys like Vernon Carey, Zeke Nnaji, those are all pretty good players but not perfect. Naturally, because not everyone needs bigs, there’s going to be someone who drafts because of that. It could help him if there’s a team that really values the shooting aspect.”

Even if they are unable to watch Smith workout in person, teams will have plenty of tape with which to evaluate Smith’s ability as a long-range shooter. He made 32 of his three-point attempts at a 36.8 percent clip this past season, by far the most makes and the second-highest percentage among the group of similar power forwards and centers projected in the same draft range. Only Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu came even close to as many makes, hitting 19 of his three-point attempts at a 36.5 percent clip, while Duke’s Vernon Carey Jr. shot 38.1 percent from beyond the arc but made just eight of 21 attempts.

Smith is looking to become the sixth Maryland player drafted by the NBA in the last five seasons and the second first-round pick in the past three seasons. Kevin Huerter was drafted 19th overall by the Atlanta Hawks in 2018. Smith is also looking to become the 61st player drafted to the NBA in Maryland history.