Thunder Rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl Set To Become Villanova’s Next Impactful NBA Player

Oklahoma City's second round pick Jeremiah Robinson-Earl could be Villanova's next great professional.

Nick Crain | Aug 5, 2021

With a long history of producing solid NBA players, Thunder rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is ready to impact the game at the next level.

In terms of schools that product quality NBA talent, Villanova is among the best.

Just in the past few years, we’ve seen guys like Saddiq Bey, Mills Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo and Eric Paschall enter the league and make immediate impacts on their respective teams.

“I think it just gives a lot of credit to Jay Wright and how he how he develops his players and kind of ingrained with that mindset of playing hard for 40 minutes getting doing all the little details getting yourselves off your team that lead to team success,” said Robinson-Earl in an introductory press conference. “I think Coach Wright for the two years I was there did a great job of developing me as a person off the court which is most important, but then also being the best player I possibly can be for the team.”

The next player from Villanova who could do the same is Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, who was recently drafted by the Thunder. In fact, Oklahoma City was so high on Robinson-Earl that they packaged their No. 34 and No. 36 picks to move up and take him at No. 32 overall.

An athletic forward, he’ll be able to play multiple positions at the next level. Whether it’s one of the forward positions, or even small ball center in some lineups, Robinson-Earl is NBA ready.

With an extremely polished game, he feels like a guy that lacks the superstar ceiling, but has a high floor. At minimum, Robinson-Earl projects to be a hard-working player on both ends of the floor that makes few mins takes and truly impacts winning.

Last season as a sophomore, he averaged 15.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. While his 3-point shooting still has quite a bit of work, Robinson-Earl is one of the most NBA-ready players in his entire class.

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Published Aug 5, 2021

NICK CRAIN

Nick has spent the last four seasons covering the Oklahoma City Thunder and has grown quickly in the media since starting. He’s continued to produce Thunder content through writing for Forbes.com and podcasting with The Uncontested Podcast, as well as branching out to cover the NBA as a whole for SLAM Online.