French center Jonathan Jeanne has entered the 2017 NBA draft, agent Bouna Ndiaye tells Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com (Twitter link). According to Givony (via Twitter), Jeanne intends to stay in the draft and will be looking to make the jump to the NBA immediately — he doesn’t intend to accept draft-and-stash offers.
Jeanne, a 7’2″ center who will turn 20 in July, ranks 49th on Chad Ford’s big board at ESPN.com. Other draft experts are even more bullish on the young big man, who comes in at No. 35 on DraftExpress’ top-100 list and ranks 20th on Kevin O’Connor’s big board for The Ringer (Twitter link).
Still, while Jeanne has plenty of upside, he remains fairly raw, so it remains to be seen how NBA scouts will value him. NBA teams may have the opportunity to scout Jeanne in June, according to Givony, who reports (via Twitter) that the big man is willing to participate in five-on-five games at this year’s Adidas Eurocamp, assuming he gets an invite to the event.
Jeanne, currently on loan to SLUC Nancy Basket in France, is playing modest minutes for the team, with 3.1 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 16 contests (12.3 MPG).