I think the guy's a sleeper actually--he doesn't have the name recognition or the athletic upside to get drafted, but he cold make a fine role player just doing the dirty work. He's only 6'9", but he's quite long--and that allows him to rank very well in athletic markers among PFs; he's definitely in the upper half of PFs in terms of rebounding ability, and he's quite an underrated shotblocker. But what's most impressive is his ability to draw fouls; for someone who gets a lot of possessions (for PF standards), he is second among all college PFs in free throw attempts/field goal attempt, and he hits a very good 79% from the line--he absolutely lives on the line on most nights in college, and this isn't a fluke--he's done this throughout his four years at St. Joe's. Needless to say he plays around the rim and is one of the most highly efficient scorers in the college game.
Nivins drastically improved in his senior year, taking bigger control of the offense and really increasing his rebound rate, shotblocking and free throw shooting, and substantially decreasing his fouls. If he plays off the bench early on, I can definitely see him outhustling players and getting to the line quite well; his rebounding might hold up as well, and like Powe he can get easy points that way.
So I think he has latent athleticism and mobility to be rebound and block shots defensively, and has the finishing and foul-drawing skills to be effective offensively. His numbers might even be more impressive than Powe's (although Powe had injury problems)--Nivins was more efficient in scoring and was the better shotblocker, although Powe turns the ball over less and is the more reliable rebounder.
I think Nivins will go undrafted because he doesn't have any star quality, but he's very solid and can be a consummate hustle player if he puts his mind to that. Should definitely get in summer league and see what he has, although with JT around it's not a real need.
But for sure, I like him better than perhaps more heralded big men in the draft, such as
Leo Lyons,
DeMarre Carroll,
Taj Gibson, and perhaps even
Alade Aminu--he does the prototypical big man stuff and based on his type of production he has an easier path to reaching his potential as a hustle player.
