2017 Liberty Ballers Community Big Board No. 10: Au Revoir, Frank Ntilikina

Strasbourg point guard Frank Ntilikina became the first international player to be taken in our community big board.

With Jayson Tatum and De’Aaron Fox out of the picture Ntilikina ran away with this poll, accumulating over 62 percent of the 811 total votes. Donovan Mitchell was in a distant second with 17 percent, and Lauri Markkanen finished with just 12 percent of the vote. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for Markkanen in the Sixers community, which seems to differ from the national consensus. Most have Markkanen floating somewhere around the top seven. If the voting falls similarly to the way it did yesterday, then Markkanen would be on the outside looking into the top 10.

I’ll preface this by saying that I absolutely adore Donovan Mitchell. He’s No. 11 on my personal big board (which will be dropping today, along with the rest of the staff), and sometimes I wonder if I should put him even higher. Forget the positional questions. He’s a guy who can shoot from just about anywhere in the gym, can jump through the roof and will play lockdown defense. Whether he plays at the one or the two isn’t really important, because he’s talented enough to make it work at either positions. I think he’s better suited playing off ball because his handle need some work, but he’s actually got some pick and roll potential from what I saw at Louisville. There will be no argument on my end if Mitchell wins this poll.

With that said, Markkanen’s an elite shooter for a guy his size. If he can turn into an average defender/rebounder, there’s undoubtedly a superstar player in that 7-foot, 255-pound package. Not sure you can really go wrong with either.

We’ll add UNC’s Justin Jackson to the mix to replace Ntilikina. Happy voting.

LB Community Big Board

1. Markelle Fultz - Washington
2. Lonzo Ball - UCLA
3. Josh Jackson - Kansas
4. Jonathan Isaac- Florida State
5. Dennis Smith Jr. - NC State
6. Malik Monk - Kentucky
7. Jayson Tatum - Duke
8. De’Aaron Fox - Kentucky
9. Frank Ntilikina - Strasbourg
10. ???