2011 NBA Mock Draft: North Carolina’s John Henson Potential Star for the Pacers?

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North Carolina’s John Henson a steal for the Pacers at 15 in our mock draft.

15. Indiana Pacers – John Henson, PF, North Carolina, 6-10, 210

And with this, we come to the first of the playoff teams. In Indiana’s case, barely.

The Pacers are:

PG- Darren Collison (23), A.J. Price (24), T.J. Ford (28)

SG- Paul George (20), Brandon Rush (25), Lance Stevenson (20)

SF- Danny Granger (27), Mike Dunleavy (30), Dahntay Jones (30), James Posey (34)

PF- Tyler Hansbrough (25), Josh McRoberts (24), Solomon Jones (26)

C- Roy Hibbert (24), Jeff Foster (34)

Is Kemba Walker an option here? Maybe, but only because I don’t know that they can improve significantly on any of there starters and that would make Walker an acceptable BPA pick.

Still, I’m going to go in another direction, one that doesn’t seem very Pacer-ly.

The pick is Josh Henson, North Carolina.

When you’re in the position the Pacers are, there are only so many ways to elevate your standing. The days of top-5 picks are probably over so long as the Collison, Granger, Hibbert foundation remains intact, and few and far between are the free agents willing to head to Indiana.

As I suggested the Rockets do in the previous selection, the Pacers should swing for the fences.

Hansbrough has been a steamroller for the past few weeks, averaging 19.5 pts and 7.7 reb in his last 12 games, but history suggests that those numbers represent the absolute peak of his production offensively, and defensively Psycho-T remains unable to provide much in the way of guarding the rim. He’s averaging just 0.2 blocks a game.

The chance to develop Henson as a complement to Roy Hibbert should prove to much to pass over. The 20-year-old Tar Heel has active, athletic, and incredibly long. By way of all the aforementioned, Henson has become a tremendous rebounder and perhaps the premiere shot-blocker in college basketball (now averging 3.3 blocks in just under 27 minutes a game).

He’ll need to develop his perimeter game, and more importantly, he’ll need to add a ton of muscle, but Henson about as good a prospect as you can get at 15.

I considered Tristan Thompson here too, but if you’re picking for upside I think you might as well go for broke. Thompson is probably more NBA-ready, but Henson’s ceiling is significantly higher.

Now if he can just add 10-50 pounds.

(Previous pick: Donatas Motiejunas – Houston Rockets)

(Upcoming pick: New York Knicks)

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