What Joe needs to improve to help NBA Draft stock
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FAYETTEVILLE — With a surprising announcement over the weekend, Isaiah Joe broke a recent trend of Arkansas-born stars leaving the Razorbacks and entering the NBA Draft after just two seasons.
Instead of following in the footsteps of Bobby Portis and Daniel Gafford, the Fort Smith native withdrew from the draft and will return to school for his junior year.
In addition to immediately vaulting Arkansas into preseason top-25 conversations, Joe’s decision will give him an extra year to improve his draft stock. After being considered a potential lottery pick after his freshman season, he was a second-rounder in most 2020 mock drafts - if included at all.
Going through the process and interviewing with several NBA teams was still an invaluable experience for Joe, as they gave him information and feedback on his game.
The biggest thing he heard, unsurprisingly, is that his shooting ability is what has teams most excited and that he needs to prove he can knock down shots at a consistent clip. With NBA teams taking more three-pointers than ever before, that is a critical skill in today’s game.
Joe shot an impressive 41.4 percent from beyond the arc when he made a UA single-season record 113 three-pointers as a freshman. Even though he led the SEC with 94 threes last season, his efficiency dipped to 34.2 percent.
“With the way the game is played, I feel like my game translates to the league a lot,” Joe said. “I think the biggest part of my game now is just showing them that I can get bigger, become more of a playmaker and increase my three-point percentage. Once I show them that I can be the best shooter on the court at all times, I really feel that space will really help my game.”
However, three-point shooting is far from the only thing Joe can improve upon as a junior in 2020-21.
While he doesn’t want to take away from the fact that he’s a great shooter, head coach Eric Musselman said he could add other aspects to give him more of a multi-faceted game.
“I think drawing fouls and adding free throws attempted to his game and continuing to evolve as a ball handler, I think those are things that he's looking forward to,” Musselman said. “I think that every player, until you hit about 30 years old, you're constantly wanting to evolve and trying to get better.”
Although teammate Mason Jones got most of the attention as the NCAA leader in free throws made (233) and attempted (282), Joe was one of the best free throw shooters in the country in terms of efficiency. He made 81 of 91 attempts from the charity stripe, which - at 89.0 percent - ranked third in the SEC and 14th nationally. That came after a freshman season in which he shot 75.6 percent from the free throw line.
As a distributor, Joe saw his assists per 40 minutes dip from 2.27 as a freshman to 1.92 as a sophomore. Musselman has said he plans to give him more ball-handling opportunities, using him in pick-and-rolls and isolation situations similar to what he did with Jones last season.
There’s also the matter of Joe’s size. At 6-foot-5, he came to Arkansas as a skinny 167-pound guard from Fort Smith Northside. Last season, Joe was listed at 175 pounds and he’s now up to 180.
“I think the biggest thing people want to see is me get bigger and bulk up and get stronger,” Joe said. “I’ve been gaining weight consistently over the past couple of years. I really see I’m going to continue to do that. I can continue to show I can hold my own on defense and become more of a playmaker.”
Joe said he’d like to get up to 185 pounds by the start of the season and be around 190 when the 2021 NBA Draft rolls around. That will put him in a good spot moving forward and he said he believes he’ll bulk up even more after getting into the league.
Musselman echoed that the No. 1 thing for Joe right now is his body development, which he said will come with age and more work in the weight room.
“Continuing from a nutritional standpoint, to try to add body weight to his frame, and I think that alone will significantly help him because that’s really important at the next level,” Musselman said. “I know that he’s committed to - not that he hasn’t been in the past - but I think he’s excited about the weight room, I think he’s excited about nutrition.”
With only three scholarship players on the roster who’ve played regular-season games for the Razorbacks and as the returning star, Joe will likely be asked to take on more of a leadership role, as well.
“The leadership, you’ve got to be able to pick up that role,” Joe said. “Me being the veteran and this being my third year - my second with Coach Muss - you’ve got to lay down the ground rules, let the freshmen and all the newcomers know the system.”
Jones and Jimmy Whitt Jr., the Razorbacks’ leading and third-leading scorers last season, have moved on, which makes Joe the go-to guy on a talented - albeit young - team with a lot of new pieces.
“I think, certainly, Isaiah’s going to be a stabilizing influence,” Musselman said. “When you’re in a game, and you’re on a rollercoaster and the game’s going (up and down) and there’s runs, who do you look to as a coach? Who do your teammates look to? And Isaiah’s kind of like that stabilizing guy that never got on the rollercoaster.”
Now that the difficult decision about whether or not to return to school is behind him, Joe has shifted his sights to the upcoming season and improving on all of those aspects of his game.
“I think I’ve set myself up to have a big season and be able to put my name higher on draft boards and things of that sort,” Joe said. “Right now the main focus is we’ve got the task at hand and that’s getting to play some games and having a good season.”
While a lot of college coaches value only what’s best for the team and don’t necessarily think about how to position players better for the NBA Draft, Musselman said he’s going to do his best to help Joe achieve his professional dreams.
Rather than “recruiting” him back to Arkansas, the second-year coach said he tried to give him the most information possible to help him make the best decision for him and his family. Now that he’s back, though, Musselman will do everything he can to improve Joe’s draft stock.
“I know right now Isaiah wants to play in the NBA,” Musselman said. “He's part of the Arkansas Razorbacks right now, but he has a goal and a dream to play in the NBA, so we want to try to help him in practice behind closed doors to work on skill development to put himself in the best position to be as high of a draft pick as he possibly can a year from now.”