Strengths
Widely slated to fall in the late first or early second round, nobody is going to mistake Jerome for the best offensive player in this year’s draft. Having said that, he may well be among the smartest of the group on that end of the floor.
Much of Jerome’s profile as a draft prospect is tied to his physical attributes — and often what he may not be able to do in the NBA — but that is far from the entire story.
At 6’5″, Jerome has great size, which with his skill-set affords him the flexibility to function as a true combo guard rather than being locked into to just one of the two backcourt positions. Beyond that, though, his cerebral play style allows him to overcome some of the physical knocks on his game that could otherwise have prevented him from having any chance of getting drafted.
Jerome has excellent vision and is an instinctive passer, both in the open floor and out of the pick-and-roll. Jerome excels in working off screens, which leaves him ideally set up to leverage the two greatest strengths of his game in shooting and passing.
With a smooth and repeatable shooting stroke, Jerome was the picture of consistency from three-point range during his three years at Virginia. Equally adept at shooting on the move or on catch-and-shoot looks, Jerome shot an outstanding 39.2 percent over 424 attempts from deep in his time as a Cavalier.
Jerome’s work ethic and character are also worth mentioning. Set to turn 22 soon after the draft, Jerome certainly isn’t the youngest prospect in this year’s class, but based on his trajectory to date, there’s little reason to believe he won’t be able to find ways for incremental improvements at the very least.
Jerome bought in to and thrived in Virginia’s team-centric approach, honed his game in the process, and went from recruitment after-thought to an almost certain draftee. His attitude and feel for the game shouldn’t be underestimated in projecting the NBA player he could become.