SALT LAKE CITY — The Jazz held a very good workout of draft prospects Monday, now two and a half weeks away from the day of the NBA Draft itself. Elie Okobo from France, Troy Caupain from Cincinnati, Sindarius Thornwell from South Carolina, Tyler Lydon from Syracuse and Dillon Brooks and Jordan Bell from Oregon worked out for the Jazz.

Oregon teammates battle

The most fun part of Monday's workout was seeing former Oregon teammates Brooks and Bell play one-on-one against each other. This doesn't greatly matter in a five-on-five context, but seeing the two friends battle it out after the workout was already completed was cool to see.

Brooks, named Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2017, is an offensively versatile small forward prospect that led the Ducks to their best season in decades this year. From an NBA perspective, he's a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type prospect, whose limited athleticism and quickness have the potential to cost him at the NBA level. He's currently slated to go 45th in DraftExpress' latest mock draft.

Brooks was a good interview, though, especially when talking about his infamous flop against the University of Utah in Salt Lake City last year.

"A lot of players do it and get calls. It's a secret. It's always a good trait," Brooks said about flopping. "But sometimes you can get ahead of yourself, and that's what I did, I got ahead of myself."

I'll be curious to see if Brooks can succeed in the NBA. He's very good at driving straight to the basket and using that contact, but some of those skills go away with bigger and longer NBA defenders. He can still be a contributor if he shoots the three as well as he did last year, though.

I really like Jordan Bell as a prospect, though. Bell was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and was a 6-foot-7 monster at the rim and in space for the Ducks last year. Offensively, he was a good finisher at the rim and a good putback man, but not much more than that. He opted to shoot the Jazz 100 Monday, and though he wasn't good, it was good that he tried it, showing off a jump shot he's been working on.

I don't think he could have worked in the past NBA because he probably works more as a small-ball center than anything else, but I think he's a good fit in today's NBA. With an iffy offensive game, I don't know that he works as a four until he adds more skills. The Ringer compared him to Udonis Haslem and Darrell Arthur, comparisons I like. Interestingly, Hardwood Blues compared him to Trevor Booker, which I also see from a size and athleticism point of view. Booker has more guard skills than Bell ever will, but Bell might already be a better defender.

For drafting in the 20s, Bell's profile is a pretty good one. I'd advocate for the Jazz to draft him (especially at No. 30 or No. 42), except that I'm not sure you could ever put him on the floor next to Rudy Gobert and have a capable offense. He's currently slated at 35th in the DraftExpress mock.

Sindarius Thornwell visits

Another prospect I really like more than where they're projected in mock drafts is Sindarius Thornwell, the South Carolina wing that dragged them to the Final Four this March. This is a little bit of a surprise for me, because I usually really dislike four-year college prospects, especially of Thornwell's type: players who struggled early in their college careers, then did better once becoming older and bigger and have earned their reputation through a small number of games in late March.

But Thornwell's numbers are so good, even after you adjust for his age, that they make me reconsider. In particular, those scorer types usually struggle with the transition with becoming a role player in the NBA. But Thornwell is legitimately good at the role player stuff, too. He's a terrific, hard-nosed defender, a good rebounder for his size (he had 21 rebounds against Alabama!), and figured out how to spot-up shoot this year, too (making 40 percent from 3). He fit his talents within South Carolina's team concept, which is a good sign.

The statistical models, even ones that heavily account for his age and level of experience, still are very impressed with his output last season.

The Ringer compares him to Wesley Matthews and P.J. Tucker, while Hardwood Blues says Kent Bazemore. Those are great outcomes for a prospect that's currently slated to go 57th in DraftExpress' mock. It could be a good second-round pick for the Jazz.

Tyler Lydon's NBA role

I may be burying the lede here a little bit by putting Syracuse's Tyler Lydon last in the article. Of all the prospects the Jazz brought in Monday, Lydon is currently projected to go highest, 30th in the draft, in DraftExpress' mock. You'll notice that's one of Utah's picks.

Lydon is a combo forward that is a terrific shooter and a high-IQ player, two things that would be very good fits in Quin Snyder's offense, especially from the power forward position. The big worries are about Lydon's mid-range game and especially his defense. Lydon's defensive numbers are OK, but it's so hard to get a read on what kind of defender he really is because of Syracuse's zone defense. Obviously, he won't play much 2-3 zone in the NBA.

Monday's workout may have given the Jazz a bit of a chance to see Lydon's defense in action, but Walt Perrin, Jazz VP of player personnel, said that Lydon still has a ways to go in order to defend NBA players.

The models aren't very high on Lydon's level of production, especially as a 21-year-old sophomore. His closest comparisons are guys like Shawne Williams and Brian Scalabrine. Truthfully, among stretch four prospects, I'd rather have T.J. Leaf, D.J. Wilson, or Isaiah Hartenstein.

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