With the NBA Draft tomorrow night, we now re-post our NBA Draft Stock Profile articles. This one originally ran March 18. We’re just a little over a week away from Selection Sunday, and you know what that means- you can literally start to count down the hours until March Madness begins. Once the NCAA Tournament begins, you’ll have several top NBA Draft prospects to keep an eye on, including Illinois combo guard Kasparas Jakucionis.
He is considered to be a potentially top 5 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft by numerous pundits and prognosticators.
And those who don’t have Jakucionis top 5 in their respective NBA mock drafts have him going top ten. And it’s easy to see why, as he could be the next Luka Doncic.
Yes, Doncic, the five-time NBA All-Star (and All-NBA first team) who was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers just last month.
Doncic is the game-changer of all game-changers. Just ask his Lakers teammate, The King, Lebron James.
“Any time you’re able to get a body off of you or eyes off of you, it unlocks a lot for you and for our team,” James said to RG.org of Doncic. “He attracts so many eyes and so many defenders.”
The man who leads non-Michael Jordan related G.O.A.T. discussion is absolutely right about the Ljubljana, Slovenia native.
And the similarities go far beyond the fact that both players hail from Eastern European countries (Jakucionis is from Vilnius, Lithuania) that were communist for part of the 20th century.
(Although it’s worth noting that only Lithuania was an Eastern Bloc i.e. aligned with the USSR nation, Slovenia was not).
Both Jakucionis and Doncic are known for having a smooth style of play, excellent court vision, versatile scoring abilities and elite ball-handling. They are not especially known for playing top notch defense though, if we’re being honest.
But defense is not the name of the game in today’s NBA.
Shooting three-pointers most certainly is, and if you’re reading this, then you already know how much Jakucionis (who has also drawn a lot of comps to Chauncey Billups) and Doncic love to shoot the three-ball.
Both players have been labeled as point guards, and as shooting guards. But it’s really hard to say that they’re either a true one, or a true two guard.
They’re both really, in fact, combo guards.
They’re also both winners (Jakucionis won the FIBA U16 European Championship with Lithuania, Doncic was the 2024 scoring champion and 2019 Rookie of the Year) and floor generals.
It happened again tonight, on Senior Night, in the 88-80 come from behind win versus #18 Purdue.
Down 63-53 late in the second half, the Illini stormed back to take a brief lead, at 67-66.
Tied at 79, inside the final minute, Jakucionis knocked down what would ultimately prove to be the game winning shot. And of course, it was a three-ball.
Then on the next possession, Jakucionis grabbed the rebound on the other end, off a missed three point attempt by Braden Smith, the leading contender to win Big Ten Player of the Year.
“What we’ve seen all year from him- hits a dagger three,” said coach Underwood.
“He’s not afraid to fail. He knows he can make them. Kasparas Jakucionis has the clutch gene, or what some would call the closer’s mentality.
It’s something that you just have, or don’t have. It can’t be coached, according to Underwood.
“It’s innate, I’d like to say that I could take credit for that, but he came here like that.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.