Shep Garner – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Shep Garner PG/SG – 6’2, 196lbs – Born 6th December 1996 Grand Rapids Drive Garner made the Drive’s roster via the local tryout route, and survived for the entire season. He joined them in his first professional campaign after a senior year in which he was almost completely divested of any on-the-ball, inside-the-arc responsibilities, and was instead empowered to gun up the shots. And that, he did. As a senior, Garner shot 7.1 three-point attempts per game, compared to only 1.3 two-pointers a night. He very much figured out what he does best; that year, Garner ranked in the 95th percentile in spot-up possessions, in the 91st percentile in transition plays, in the 83rd percentile for pick-and-roll ball handlers and in the 91st percentile when coming off of a screen. Considering those four play types totalled 84% of his total possessions used, it would be fair to say that Garner caters to his strengths. With a quick, compact release, Garner is shot-happy, and has managed to get slightly more judicious over time to the point that he is not just chucking them. Aggressive offensively outside the arc, Garner very rarely ventures into it any longer, which, considering his struggles to finish at the rim, is probably best. He could nonetheless stand to use his shooting threat more as a decoy and as a passer when coming off of screens, even if he is not going to drive to the basket on curls. Defensively, Garner plays with effort, which is half the battle. He never used to, yet he has improved on that end over time, and he applies good ball pressure to other small guards other than he. It takes an intricate roster balance to fit Garner in the rotation, given his lack of size and playmaking. Those […]
Michael Bethea Jr – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Michael Bethea Jr SG/SF – 6’6, 185lbs – Born 22nd January 1995 Grand Rapids Drive Bethea’s circuitous route to the pros included a year at Grambling State, who had gone winless over Division 1 competition in two of the three previous seasons. On a team needing any help it can get, Bethea – a junior by this time – scored only 5.3 points per game on 29.9% from the field and 25.6% from three-point range. He then moved again, this time dropping to Division 2 Chico State; it did not lead to any offensive uptick, however, as Bethea averaged only 6.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game as a senior. So, how does one go from that to being a double-digit scorer in the NBA’s official minor league? Not sure. I guess he just got better, fast. Bethea has a good frame, standing 6’6 with a good wingspan, and it would appear as though he simply got better as a shooter. It is not the quickest release, yet Bethea is nowadays a confident-enough shooter to take looks both pull-ups off the dribble and feet-set shots off the catch. He creates and handles little, and has to continue to get stronger in order to expand his driving game (strength which would also help on defence), yet it seems as though Bethea has become a plenty solid-enough G-League replacement-level player. The local tryout route, then, strikes again. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
Adam Woodbury – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Adam Woodbury C – 7’1, 245lbs – Born 13th January 1994 Grand Rapids Drive Three years into his professional career out of Iowa, Woodbury has spent his entire time in the G-League, and has now been with six different franchises. Indeed, he managed four this season alone. Woodbury initially returned to the Westchester Knicks, was traded before camp started along with Buay Tuach to the Capital City Go-Go for third- and fourth-round picks in this year’s draft, was waived the next day (along with Tuach; highly successful trade, that one), was picked straight back up by Westchester, waived again at the start of the season, spent a fortnight over November and December with Stockton, and only then was picked up by Grand Rapids, where he spent the remainder of the season. In combination, this would suggest that he is a fringe G-League player. Maybe he is. Or maybe he was, because he just posted a career-best season. Woodbury only does a few things on the court, and has to be used in a certain way to have any positive effect. With respect – and do please get to the end before thinking I’m beating up on the guy – there is quite a lot he does not do. He is a seven-foot post player who does not post, who doesn’t handle, who doesn’t shoot and who does not block many shots either. He does not jump, he does not have good touch at the rim, he does not create offence, and he does not even have that much toughness on the ball. He struggles to pass out of double teams (not that he is drawing many), he does not have the lateral foot speed to keep people in front, and he also does not dunk that much. What […]
Todd Withers – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Todd Withers PF – 6’8, 216lbs – Born 6th May 1996 Grand Rapids Drive I have no idea how Synergy Sports manage to go as deep as they do. But somehow, they were able to cover and analyse every game of Division II’s South Atlantic Conference in 2017-18. And with that, they were able to determine that Withers was a 92nd percentile spot-up shooter that season. That combined with his athletic 6’8 frame made for an intriguing combination, and Withers thus made the Drive roster as a local tryout player to begin the season, surviving for the entire year. In that season, Withers has come out pretty well. The basic numbers do not overwhelm, and his three-point shooting is not where it needs to be, nor what Synergy suggested it would be. Offensively, Withers does appear to be very much limited to the running dunk and the catch-and-shoot three, with any in-between game or shot creation being a rare bonus. Look at those defensive metrics, though. For a player untested beyond the Division II level previously, Withers seems to know how to play on that end. Withers plays with a very good level of energy on the defensive end. He uses the athleticism that he has, combining it with his good length to cover a lot of ground on that end, and he also got caught out of position far less than a man of his relative inexperience normally would. Withers really did impress offensively this season, and assuming his three-point shots go in again, he has made himself a three-and-D candidate at the forward position at the NBA level. It need not really matter that he does not handle the ball much if he does those two things well enough. – 20th June, 2019 This above is […]
Marcus Thornton – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Marcus Thornton SG – 6’4, 205lbs – Born 5th June 1987 Grand Rapids Drive There are three Marcus Thorntons in high level professional basketball today. There is the one out of LSU who played many years in the NBA. There is the one drafted by the Celtics in the second-round out of William and Mary who has a lot of hair and scores a lot of points. And then there is the power forward from Georgia. This is the first one, the man who formerly was the future of the New Orleans Pelicans backcourt with Darren Collison, seeking to be the next veteran to make his way back into the NBA via the minor league route. Thornton last played in the NBA in February 2017, when he was traded by the Washington Wizards to the Brooklyn Nets as an ancillary part of the trade that swapped the pick that became Jarrett Allen for Bojan Bogdanovic. Immediately waived by Brooklyn, Thornton has been with the Drive since December of that year, save for a brief stint in China down the stretch of last season. 21.5 points per game in 29.0 minutes per game is a colossal return, even if Thornton takes a very large share of the shots to do it. A scorer through and through, Thornton can make pretty much any kind of shot. He is an excellent catch-and-shoot player when open, yet he also can hit them when contested. He works off the ball to get open, runs the court at every opportunity even now into his 30s, cuts on the baseline, and is an excellent player to have off the ball on the offensive end. Less successful with the ball in his hands due to an inability to create space with the dribble alone, Thornton nevertheless […]
Speedy Smith – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Kenneth “Speedy” Smith PG – 6’3, 180lbs – Born 28th January 1993 Grand Rapids Drive With the exception of the very first few months of his professional career, in which he made an unsuccessful attempt to sign in Latvia, Smith has played the entirety of his professional career in the G-League, including the last two full seasons with Grand Rapids. He has been a sometime-starter, sometime-reserve for the team, a flexible and useful full-court point guard who has improved his own efficiency metrics each year of his G-League career. The man they call Speedy – because he’s speedy – has good size and length for the point guard position to go with that. He is a reliable ball-handler, which is good considering he plays almost entirely on the ball. Not a good outside shooter at any point in his career – although improved slightly overtime – Smith is also not really the type of guard who will get beyond the first line of the defence, collapse and kick. He is instead the type to always keep the ball moving, create plenty of transition possessions, who is unselfish to a fault in the halfcourt, who finds the open man without forcing the issue, throws lobs and keeps the pace up. As a scorer himself, Smith finds it difficult to get to the rim and is disinclined to do so, shooting a floater when he does. But he does not look too score. He will only take the shots if they are really, really there. Instead, he is in to share the ball and defend. Smith is an effective free-safety on defence, quite a strong player to go with his speed who is very pesky on the perimeter. He gambles well, and always seems to know where everyone is at […]
Randy Haynes – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Randy Haynes SG – 6’4, 215lbs – Born 23rd April 1995 Grand Rapids Drive Despite having the name of a truck-driving minor character in an 80’s coming-of age movie, Haynes is also in fact a 2018 Old Dominion graduate who averaged 12.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game as a senior, something he was able to parlay into a five-game stint with the Drive to begin the season after making the roster via the local tryout route. Haynes scored 10 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in 34 minutes across those five games, before being waived in early December and not signing elsewhere for the remainder of the season. A slightly undersized two with decent speed, Haynes played a largely three-and-D role in his senior year for the Monarchs, with a three-point rate of .539 on the season, born out of a good degree of off-ball movement and use of screens. The percentage he shot on those of only 32.2% was not high enough, yet with very smooth form, this seems improvable in time. Haynes also took a few turns on the ball offensively, and although he lacks the handle and sheer explosion to readily create space in which to drive or shoot – save for a step-back move he likes to use regularly – he does nevertheless like a measured spin into the lane for a runner or floater, and runs the lanes in transition where he can. Defensively, Haynes often took on the opponent’s best guard or wing offensive player, using his good speed and length to play a decent level of man-to-man defence. He is prone to the occasional gamble, as well as the occasional missed help assignment, yet Haynes grew into his role at ODU and became a very decent two-way […]
Elijah Brown – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Elijah Brown SG – 6’4, 200lbs – Born 19th February 1995 Grand Rapids Drive In his first professional season out of Oregon (via Butler and New Mexico), Brown began with a summer league spot on the Golden State Warriors, followed by being drafted in the third round of the G-League Draft by the Drive, appearing in 11 games and averaging 4.9 points per contest, before being waived in December. He subsequently signed in Lithuania with Dzukija, averaging 14.0 points in 22.6 minutes over the team’s final 18 games. Mike’s son has some athleticism and perimeter scoring about him, but does not exhibit the kind of offensive discipline to take advantage of that. A good spot-up shooter, the lefty with the long stride has a quick release, moves off the ball a bit, and can run the court a bit with his decent speed, yet he seems not to want to handle in traffic when he can instead just raise up for a jumper. Not all of them were good looks – indeed, many were not – and Brown all too often forces the action. The bigger concern was his defence, where Brown would not play with a good motor or with his hands up, and thus did not make the impact he could have done with his length and speed. There is talent within him, but perhaps all the movement in his career thus far has not allowed him to fully take advantage of it, learn how to play in rhythm and within a team concept. As an individual, however, he has responsibility for his own defensive intensity, and that needs to pick up. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million […]
Joe Kilgore – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Joe Kilgore SG – 6’4, 200lbs – Born 25th April 1996 Grand Rapids Drive Kilgore was the Windy City Bulls’ first-round pick in the past G-League draft, selected 12th overall in his first professional season out of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. He played in 18 games for the Bulls before being waived in mid-December, then was picked up by the Grand Rapids Drive, where he played nine more. Waived again in late January, the Bulls picked Kilgore back up again in mid-February and played him in one more game before waiving him in late February, whereafter he did not sign or play anywhere else. At A&M CC, Kilgore spent 48.5% of his possessions as either the pick-and-roll ball-handler or in isolation, averaging a combined 0.772 points per possession over the two. That is not a great mark, but then Kilgore was playing the lead guard role. As an athletic 6’5 player, he would surely be better served playing off ball; instead of driving from a stand-still every time, he could be driving curls, ball-reversals, backdoor cutting and the like, running the lanes in transition, spotting up (where he shows some potential and shoots much better off the catch than the bounce), and playing pressure defence. That said, in his time across both the Drive and the Bulls, Kilgore recorded only a 7.2 PER, shooting 12-52 from three-point range. Gotta make more shots than that, because the G-League has plenty of other 6’5 athletes it can go to. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like […]
Dakarai Allen – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Dakarai Allen SG – 6’5, 193lbs – Born 4th February 1995 Grand Rapids Drive Grand Rapids have been Allen’s third G-League team in his two G-League seasons, as they traded the returning player rights to Nnanna Egwu to Agua Caliente for him back in January. In those two years, he has continued the incremental development he showed over his four years at San Diego State, while also operating within much the same limitations. One of the best athletes on this or any team, Allen is a rangy wing who best applies his favourable physical profile on defence. His speed makes him able to press hard and recover, to fill in a lot of space, to deflect in the passing lanes, and have some versatility in match-ups on that end. Allen also plays with some good defensive determination, the other half of the battle, and aside from some positional errors, his defence is a strong suit. Allen applies the same determination offensively, albeit to more mixed results. He correctly understands that with his athleticism, he should be catching the ball on the move rather than trying to create from standing with the handle, and he can often be found in transition or cutting to the rim. That said, Allen lacks for finishing poise at times, contorted up some wild things at other times, and is overly right-hand dominant. He also still lacks for any consistency in his jump shot, a big hole in his game which means a lack of floor spacing from a key spacing position. The defence, though, is very commendable. And if Allen sticks in the G-League a while longer and really develops his ability to hit open looks, it will serve the rest of his career well going forward. – 20th June, 2019 This above […]
Tommy Williams – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Tommy Williams SG/SF – 6’5, 220lbs – Born 23rd February 1993 Erie BayHawks Williams was designated as a returning player to the BayHawks for his second season after spending a full campaign with the team in 2017-18, making the roster initially via the local tryout route. This season, however, he was cut after only ten games, averaging 2.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.4 fouls per game in that time. Williams’s résumé prior to his successful tryout was two years at East Georgia State junior college, a year far down the bench at East Tennessee State, before finishing his college career at Division II Augusta, averaging 13.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Williams is a powerfully built 6’6 power forward who plays in the post and through the offensive glass, who beat up on less physical and less fast opponents at the Division II level. For the BayHawks, though, with the post no longer as good of an option, he was instead a plethora of missed jump shots and moving screens. It is unlikely he will return next year. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
Craig Sword – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Craig Sword SG – 6’3, 196lbs – Born 16th January 1994 Erie BayHawks Anytime a 6’3 guard records more than a block per game, you are going to remember it. Sword has now completed his second consecutive season with the BayHawks, starting out as a local tryout player initially but now becoming a very important part of their rotation and their defence. Swords’s stocks totals were part of his game over his four-year Mississippi State career, yet they were drowned out more by his very inefficient outside shooting and an incredibly high number of turnovers for a non-primary ball-handling offensive player. Now, though, he is recording almost as many blocks as turnovers. A good athlete with Bismack Biyombo’s arms, Sword has been in a much more off-ball focused offensive role here with Erie, allowing him to use his driving game more against close-outs and single sides of the court rather than having to create from up top. Never the best shooter, Sword can at least get to the basket in single coverage, invariably going to his right hand to do so, and although the handle is a bit loose and the propensity for committing charging fouls high, it is hard to check his good first step once he has gotten going. This is particularly the case in transition, where he simply loves to be. Defensively, as the stocks suggest, Sword likes to get involved. He makes plays on the ball like a young Matisse Thybulle in his prime, and while gambling and overhelping is an inevitable sideeffect of this, it is a price worth paying considering the number of possessions he wins. Sword needs to be in line-ups with good guards, handlers and creators alongside him if he is to succeed, because he does not do those things […]
Jordan Sibert – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jordan Sibert SG – 6’4, 187lbs – Born 1st August 1992 Erie BayHawks After two years down on the Ohio State Buckeyes bench, making minimal contributions in very limited minutes, Sibert transferred to Dayton for his upperclassman seasons, and massively improved his output to subsequently have a four-years-and-counting professional career. Indeed, he actually received a 10-day call-up from the BayHawks’ parent club, the Atlanta Hawks, in February of this year. They even played in for four minutes. It has been quite the turnaround for the man. When he was with Ohio State, Sibert simply missed his shots. The vast majority of the shots he would attempt would be jumpers, and he missed nearly all of them. Immediately upon transferring to the Flyers, however, his shooting efficiency improved, and it is the fact that he shot 38.2% from three on such a high volume this season that got him the spot on the Hawks’ roster (even if it was only to meet league minimum roster size requirements). High efficiency high volume shooting is at a premium, and that is what Sibert has been able to put up this season. A good athlete and fairly fast, Sibert is slightly undersized for the two guard position without a great deal of length to go with that, yet he is a strong player who has improved his defence and his finishing to go with his better outside shooting. Almost entirely foregoing the mid-range areas, it is all threes and drives for Sibert, not a man to create much with the handle but someone who can raise up over a defence, attack closeouts, drive baseline and always be confident in his shooting ability. Also improved defensively, Sibert’s lack of size limits his effectiveness in many match-ups in this regard and he does not […]
Anthony Mosby – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Anthony Mosby PG – 6’3, 160lbs – Born 8th April 1996 Erie BayHawks AJ Mosby – or Anthony Mosby, depending on where you look – has just completed his first professional season out of Alcorn State. Not a powerhouse team in a powerhouse conference, exactly, and the 13-23 record that the Braves (I had to look up their nickname) posted in his two seasons with them in SWAC play meant no postseason platform for Mosby to perform on. The G-League Draft does however like to throw people into the spotlight, and after being drafted 36th overall by Northern Arizona and spending half the year there, Mosby was subsequently acquired by Erie from the available player pool to finish the season, thus completing an entire professional campaign in the NBA’s official minor league. Standing 6’3 but otherwise tiny, Mosby is a scoring point guard who uses a barrage of lefty floaters to score around the basket, flanked with a pull-up three with a quick release. As a senior at Alcorn State, he rated as 90th percentile in pick-and-roll ball-handling, 86th percentile in spot-up shooting, 87th percentile in isolation and 81st percentile in shooting off screens. That’s a lot of efficiency on a lot of shots, and so although it has not entirely carried over here into his first professional season, where the defenders all got bigger and stronger, Mosby nevertheless exhibited this knack for scoring at both of his G-League stints. It wasn’t a bad first season, all told. Considering his tiny size and the limitations this will always put on him defensively and around the basket, perhaps Mosby can use his time in the G-League to develop his playmaking skills for others, something that naturally is second to his own scoring desires currently. Yet Mosby commits few errors […]
Jaylen Morris – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jaylen Morris SG – 6’5, 185lbs – Born 19th September 1995 Erie BayHawks Morris played his way into the NBA last season in his first professional campaign out of Division II Molloy, signing two 10-day contracts and then a minimum salary deal for the remainder of the season with the Atlanta Hawks. Although they ended it at the start of last offseason, he quickly received a two-way with the Milwaukee Bucks; after that was ended in January, Morris was picked back up by Erie to finish the season, and therefore now has two years of NBA experience. That is quite a lot for a G-League player. What gets Morris into the league in this way is his perceived defensive potential. A rotator and keen help player, Morris has decent size and athleticism for the wing, and uses that to try and apply pressure on the unglamorous end. He overhelped quite a bit this season, perhaps overly trying to impress in that role, yet on the flip side, he also was a transition beast this year. Lacking the ability to break down a defence or create much via the slashing game in the half-court, Morris instead ran out at every opportunity. He is not the best three-point shooter and nor does he get to the foul line much, but a steady diet of driving lay-ups made him a two-way player of some worth. Morris does not have the top tier athleticism, and the muscle that he has added to his frame only slightly compensates for it. Given that he also does not have the highest skill level, it will be difficult for him to convert this two-year career in the NBA into a regular spot, unless he can somehow start making more shots. And I don’t mean floaters off […]
Sanjay Lumpkin – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Sanjay Lumpkin SG/SF – 6’6, 220lbs – Born 29th April 1994 Erie BayHawks Few players are quite as unique as Sanjay Lumpkin. I mean, even the name is a clue there, no one else is called this. Lumpkin barely scores the ball, and barely looks to try. His usage instead comes on the defensive end, a task he takes to with relish. The fact that he stands slightly undersized for the two guard position seems not to be in anyway a deterrent to him being a multi-positional defender. Lumpkin defends everywhere from point guard through to power forward, an athletic player who guards inside and out, who combines toughness, screening, fouling and some rebounding. He is the rare kind of player who does all of the little things and very few of the big things. There was a time in his Northwestern career that Lumpkin combined this with some ball-handling responsibility. The undermanned Wildcats needed someone to get the ball over the half-court line and initiate, and so while Lumpkin would barely be a part of the half-court offence beyond this, it did at least give him something to do rather than just watch processions unfold around him. Lumpkin is a very limited shot maker from all areas and does not have the ability to handle in traffic; indeed, nor does he seek to assert himself offensively. Erie did not give him this ballhandling responsibility, thus marginalising Lumpkin’s offensive role to the point of being an opportunity scorer without much shooting. He instead focused even further on his defence. As a defender, Lumpkin is valuable. He is strong with good timing, good discipline on his rotations and closeouts, and a possession-winner with deflections when free-roaming in space. He guards bigger players, he guards quicker players, and he always […]
Jeremy Hollowell – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Jeremy Hollowell SF/PF – 6’8, 220lbs – Born 25th February 1994 Erie BayHawks In two years at Indiana, Hollowell struggled. He was inefficient from all areas, turned the ball over a lot, was not aggressive, stopped the ball, did not buy in on defence and was at one point suspended for his lack of focus. In two years at Georgia State, Hollowell started to find himself. He began to play with a better rhythm in his favourite areas of the court – the base lines, the wings, the post – and began to better utilise his athleticism. With good leap along with long arms, Hollowell has a forward’s frame at the highest levels, but realised after his time as a Hoosier that he could not coast on that alone. Especially if he was playing without the right motor. He was less disjointed with Georgia State, and while he was still taking some bad shots and combined being over-aggressive with never being quite sure of when to move or not, the production started coming in offensively, and the defence finally started to emerge as well. Now having completed two years here with the BayHawks, Hollowell continues to make incremental improvements. They are small, yet in picking up his rebounding rate, his foul line efficiency and his assist rate this season, as well as continuing to fight slightly more defensively, he has made himself into a solid G-League player. Hollowell is an opportunity scorer rather than a creator, but when he is going to the offensive glass, running the pick-and-pop, posting up those smaller than him down low for turnaround looks and being judicious with his slightly wild drives and motion-heavy jump shot, he is a bonus to the offence. Hollowell does not always have it every night and falls […]
Kameron Chatman – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Kameron Chatman SF/PF – 6’9, 215lbs – Born 1st June 1996 Erie BayHawks Chatman played his first two collegiate seasons at Michigan, yet never found his footing on either end of the floor. He in fact lost minutes as a sophomore rather than stepped up to claim a regular rotation spot, and was effectively deemed unplayable by season’s end. Chatman inevitably transferred out of the program and went to Detroit Mercy, where in the only season he played for the Titans, he significantly improved his averages from 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game up to 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds respectively. Bolstered by this improvement, Chatman forwent his senior season to declare for last year’s draft, and after going undrafted, he initially signed with Pinar Karsiyaka in Turkey, joining the G-League player pool in February only after being released from there. The Wolverines largely camped Chatman out in the corners and on the weak side as a shooting option, yet Chatman sought to prove with Detroit that he could be more than just this. The long and wiry lefty really wants to be a ball-handler and shot creator, playing half-court offence like a young Josh Smith out there. He has not the explosive athleticism of someone like that, however, and not only regularly loses the handle in traffic, but also forces up shots where a reset or a pass-off would be a better idea. To be fair, Chatman does move well, especially for the 6’9 height he is now usually listed at, but that 6’9 size is something he uses mostly to get jump shots away. And although he shot them well in his one and only season with Detroit, it remains the anomaly for now. Chatman has never been consistent on the defensive end, a liability […]
Cat Barber – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Cat Barber PG – 6’1, 173lbs – Born 25th July 1994 Erie BayHawks With the exception of very brief stints in Italy and Israel, Cat Barber has spent his entire professional career thus far on the very fringes of the NBA. He has had a training camp contract with Philadelphia, summer league stints with New Orleans and Dallas, and has spent the rest of his time in the G-League. Dog Groomer initially returned to the Greensboro Swarm to begin this season, and was traded by them to Erie in late February for John Gillon, a more conservative point guard type. Erie subsequently allowed Horse Masseuse to play in the ball-dominant, high-usage role he seems most comfortable with. The results, as ever, were mixed. Llama Cosmetologist likes to isolate, and combines his excellent straight-line speed with the ability to change down the gears. He is regularly able to get to the rim and is an excellent finisher at it, small enough to be pushed out of the position he wants yet talented enough to make the resulting tough banker anyway. Driving both ways, great in transition, utilising a spin move and able to pull up from mid-range, Camel Coiffeur is very effective on the ball – he can get to the rim from a standing start, finds it particularly easy to do so using curls and in semi-transition, and although he is a highusage high-volume offensive player, he also does not have that bad of shot selection, a willingenough passer in the drive-and-kick and pick-and-roll situations. Instead, it is simply that in being a sub-par outside shooter, he struggles to play an off-ball role on that end. On the defensive end, Tapeworm Pedicurist has been known to lapse. Perhaps he lacks the confidence in that half of his game […]
Isaac Hamilton – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Isaac Hamilton SG – 6’4, 185lbs – Born 14th May 1994 Canton Charge Hamilton could be a good role player if he fully embraced a role. Slightly undersized for a high-level two-guard yet smooth and fluid in his motion, with enough speed to be competitive, Hamilton has good passing vision for a wing player, which, when combined with off-ball movement and his love of running the wings in transition, could make him a very solid role player to any point guard willing and able to consistently get beyond the first line of a defence. The problem though has been that Hamilton has long wanted to be more of a focal point offensively. Prone to stopping the ball at UCLA, Hamilton’s destiny as a player is as a spot-up threat from the wings in the half court, and as a lane runner in transition. Combined with his fakes and feeds to the interior, he has long had potential as an off-ball shooting threat, something he is better suited for than trying to be a playmaking guard given his lack of core strength and limited handle in traffic. Yet Hamilton has never been the calibre of shooter that would make such a package work. This year in particular, he lost his shot; combined with a long-standing apathy to the defensive end, and he wound up being neither half of the desired three-and-D controlled off-guard NBA teams would like to see. Hamilton has now spent two years in the Cavaliers’ system. He began his pro career with a summer league stint with them, itself followed up by a training camp contract and an allocation to Canton, where he has now played two years. His numbers in this, his second season, are however way down on those of year one. And those […]
Chance Comanche – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Chance Comanche PF/C – 6’10, 210lbs – Born 14th April 1996 Canton Charge Fair play to anyone in any professional who has a marketable skill and who seeks to get paid for it. So you should (says Mark in his free Manifesto). Having not done much in his first two seasons at Arizona, the traditional argument would have been that Chance Comanche should have stayed in school, built up his body, his skills and his CV. But that argument only holds water if Comanche was being developed in the right way. Long and a good athlete, Comanche should be a rim-runner. He should be hustling around, running the court, rolling to the rim, catching the ball on the move, dunking on people, crashing the glass, spotting up where possible, getting to the line, hitting them and playing defence. Not trying to post up all the time in a thin-framed body not designed for carving out space, and with a shortage of poise, footwork and composure down there. At Arizona, where he was primarily being used as a post-up player, he was being played to his offensive weaknesses, and if his defensive awareness and uncertainty suffered as a result, there was probably a causative link there. In fairness, Comanche does have some touch around the basket. He does not take bumps too well, yet when he is able to finesse it home, he has touch with both hands, including a particularly good off-hand. Defensively, his awareness is picking up, and while he still needs both more interior strength and better perimeter footwork, he has an impact as a rim protector. If he can pick up his effort on that end, and develop into an excellent roll man, he has some Dwight Powell potential in him. That’s not what Arizona […]
J.J. Avila – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
J.J. Avila PF – 6’8, 250lbs – Born 11th October 1991 Agua Caliente Clippers Notwithstanding the sample size, if Avila can continue to shoot the three-point shot as well as he has done this season, he adds a further dimension to his paint-based interior game, a game that already makes him a threat at this and any comparable professional level. With a big, wide, strong frame, Avila’s origins are to be found in the paint, where he has skill to go with the size. His slow, languid drives are nevertheless effective, getting to the rim and finishing through contact, and he is also a very good passer on the move. With good feet and touch, he can be a hub offensively despite his athletic disadvantages; an offensive creator more than just a finisher, Avila has long had a decent mid-range shot to go with the unselfishness and passing vision, and if he is adding corner three-point range to that, even better. Those same athletic disadvantages, however, do make a difference defensively. Avila’s good hands make him very effective at slapping the ball away from opposing post players or drivers to the rim, yet beyond that, he needs some covering for defensively. The good footwork offensively gives way to slow feet defensively, and while his strength allows him to carve out space on the rebounding glass, Avila does not have the speed to track the ball outside of his area, nor the leaping ability to quickly jump twice. His lack of foot speed is particularly troubling when caught in space, switching onto speedsters or battling against face-up four men, and if he is to be played at centre in a drop-back situation, he lacks the length, leap and shot blocking instincts to be much of a paint protector. Nevertheless, […]
Nigel Johnson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Nigel Johnson PG – 6’1, 190lbs – Born 20th January 1995 Canton Charge In four years at three prominent schools – Rutgers counts as prominent, despite the profound struggles of, ooh, the last forty years or so – Johnson never once cracked the 40% shooting mark from the field. Only once did he surpass the .482% true shooting percentage he shot as a freshman; it was in the .521% he shot the following year as a sophomore. Considering he is a score-first small guard who has never displayed much of an affinity or an intent for playing the point guard spot in a more traditional style, this is something of an issue. The solution is to use Johnson in a specific way. He is not a lead guard you can reliably turn to to move around a defence, steady the ship or close out games. He tends to dominate the ball as though he is that, but he isn’t. Instead, Johnson is best served as a change-of-pace guard off the bench. Inefficient though he can be, he can score in bunches, and he is a very good shooter when taking the right kind of shots (i.e. catch and shoots rather than shooting on the move). When he can pair that with defensive commitment, he becomes a useful reserve guard. When engaged defensively, Johnson has good hands, which he pairs with his good speed to be a presence at the lead guard spot. He only defends one position, but if he can defend it with zest, that counts for something. At Virginia, he never looked entirely comfortable in the pack line defence, and all too often missed his spots. But that is in the past now. Now, if Johnson can prove his value as a committed defensive hounder of […]
Malik Newman – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Malik Newman SG – 6’3, 190lbs – Born 21st February 1997 Canton Charge Newman’s first professional season was a strange one. Leaving Kansas after his sophomore season, he went undrafted, went to summer league with the L.A. Lakers, signed a two-way contract with them on the first possible day to do it, yet never even made it out the month of July before they ended it. Subsequently picked up by the Miami Heat for training camp, he did not make their roster, was allocated to Sioux Falls, then was traded in mid-season for Emanuel Terry, and thus found himself closing out the season here with Canton. This is probably not the sort of journey he declared for. Finding himself somewhere between the two guard positions, Newman has the height and size of a point guard with the game of a microwave two. Dynamic and a good athlete, Newman moved more off the ball in his time at Kansas, thus becoming more of a catch-and-shoot three-point player than a primary handling lead guard. This is probably a better use of his skill set. Yet if he is to only be a secondary ball-handler, he is a bit small for the off-guard role. Newman is nevertheless a very good spot-up shooter and a transition specialist, the two main areas of his offensive game. Jumping high to shoot, Newman also adds a pull-up two, and has some craft with his hesitation moves to get to the cup rather than just always raise up. He makes quick decisions rather than linger on the ball, which opens up the court for him, and although he is a limited playmaker for others, he can at least get his own in isolation with the handle. With step backs and pro moves, he will be a […]
Malachi Richardson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Malachi Richardson SG – 6’4, 200lbs – Born 5th January 1996 Canton Charge Richardson was picked up by the Charge at the end of the G-League season, with not even enough time to appear in a single game. He had spent the majority of the year in the NBA, beginning with the NBA champion Toronto Raptors (who had traded the expiring salary of Bruno Caboclo for him at the deadline in 2017-18 just to then not play him; by the way, it feels weird to be calling the Raptors that), but never appearing in the rotation. The fact that the Raptors sought to constantly upgrade their wing depth in the forms of Pat McCaw and Jodie Meeks was a bit of a damning indictment of Richardson; he was salary dumped onto the Philadelphia 76ers at the deadline, immediately waived, and thus now is looking at having to fight his way back in from the G-League. Can he do it? Only if his defence gets better. Richardson is not as quick as many of the candidates for the coveted three-and-D role that are around not only in the G-League, but also in this year’s draft class. He was drafted in the first round in the belief that he would be able to go on to fill this role at the NBA level, yet he has now been passed over not only by the team that drafted him, but the team that got him for absolutely nothing. Within three years, he has been rejected by three NBA teams, and the supposed three-and-D shooter does not have a legacy of being either. The G-League is quite a good option for those looking to reclaim their career in such a way. After all, Danuel House did it just this season. If you […]
