Kasparas Jakucionis Continues His Dominant Offensive Output

The Illinois freshman is climbing draft boards.

Dec 6, 2024; Evanston, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats guard Brooks Barnhizer (13) defends Illinois Fighting Illini guard Kasparas Jakucionis (32) during the first half at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images / David Banks-Imagn Images

Kasparas Jakucionis continued his college basketball dominance yesterday with 24 points and five assists on 71% true shooting in an upset win over No. 20 Wisconsin. He’s now averaging 15.4 points per game on the season with a 33.4 assist rate and 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio, and is shooting 65% at the rim, 36% on non-rim twos, and 44% on eight threes per 100 possessions. While there are quite a few great prospects at the top of this class, Jakucionis is making his case as the top offensive player of the 2025 draft with his shooting and playmaking.

His shooting projects as truly elite in the NBA. Along with the aforementioned perimeter numbers, he’s shooting 88.4% from the line and 35%-plus on a difficult diet of self-created non-rim twos. None of those shots have been assisted thus far, according to Bart Torvik, which is absurd. Given his current output and history of elite touch in international youth play, Jakucionis should be in top-five shooting conversations all throughout the draft cycle. The only thing holding him back would be sub-elite midrange efficiency (40%-plus) and sub-elite volume (10 three-point attempts per 100 possessions).

His feel for the game is also incredible and is apparent in other areas besides just passing. He’s posting a 2.5 steal rate, 4.2 offensive rebound rate, and a crazy-high 51.8 free throw rate despite athletic and physical limitations, indicative of his high feel.

Jakucionis’ main struggle offensively has been turnovers. He has a 26.3 turnover rate, which is nearing historical levels of high if it continues for six more games. The good news is that those who succeed despite high turnover rates are prospects who shouldered high usage at a young age and still put out high assist rates. All descriptions match Jakucionis.

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.