feel like one blogger said he was slow and now everyone believes it. i don't see that at all. pre-draft scouting report: i only found one report that worried about his athleticism at all, and it was on defense in terms of defending in isolation against quick guards. every other report cited his defense (and ballhandling/passing) as the likely reason he sticks in the league. now that i think of it, of course this forum would hate him, lol. anyway, if he ends up as a 6'6" ish smith who can defend 1-3 and initiate offense, that's a more than solid pick at 17. it's highly unlikely to draft a star 17. hell, it's about 50/50 you even get a guy who signs a second contract in the league!
When you're bigger for your position and not super athletic, bouncy or twitchy; you tend to look slower to the eye test. He very well could be victim of that.
Eye test on athleticism, he doesn’t have NBA level quickness for a point guard and I don’t think it can be learned or trained for
but he has 4 inches and 30lbs on the average nba pg, too. chauncey billups wasn't quick, explosive, bouncy, etc.
It's an interesting comparison: I'd still be worried that he's not as strong or as explosive as billups because billups in college got to the FT line about twice as much (?) as JHS. That's usually a good indication of that defenses are compromised
well, jhs actually had three inches on billups, too! and as a freshman, billups's shooting numbers looked like jhs's. but yeah, they're not the same player at all. billups was a better shooter from the start. my main point is that billups was a plus defender despite not being that athletic--because he was smart and strong. those are supposedly true of jhs, too. the consensus was that he'll be able to defend and initiate offense. if we're waiting for him to score 20+ ppg in the nba, we'll wait forever. but there are more ways to impact the game.
I like JHS defensive potential way more then his offensive potential for what's it worth. I think he has good instincts with both his hand and feet while guarding on the perimeter (bit frustrating when that GS 1st round pick abused him that wasn't great for my scouting report) On offense though man I just don't know: no J, no touch around the rim, not an explosive leaper - going to take a lot of work
Dude is going to be good for us if he’s not involved in a trade. We can use a player like that at the point. Whoever thinks he can’t handle the ball or has no speed or athleticism at the point needs their eyes checked. He was freshman of the year in the Big 10 for a reason. Head’s up when handling the ball, sees the floor and can pass well. Looks quick as hell at that size and strength on D and is going to be a problem in a year for opponents somewhere in our rotation. Keep him on the varsity for minutes as available and all the learning in practice against the talented guards we have. Oh yeah and he knocked down a couple of 3s.
Yeah I think there's some nice tools that JHS has that we can use. He seems to have a good BBIQ and more natural feel for the game. Probably will not be this year, but hopefully he can continue to grow and take over Gabe Vincent's spot. Something about him reminds me of a less talented version of Lonzo. The size, the lack of shooting, and playmaking ability.
“the lack of shooting”. Why? Based on what? This was his first minutes with rotation players and he shot well. Nothing looks funky with his shot, unlike Lonzo.
lack of shooting was based on college stats and summer league, i guess. and it's not a picturesque shot. but he doesn't even need that to be a competent backup pg. i agree that the idea that what was going to limit him was athleticism was pretty wild to me. was nice to see him hit a couple threes (a third got wiped away, too), and i thought he handled the ball well against a lot of pressure and generally kept the ballhandler in front of him, too. he's not ready for consequential minutes, but rumors of his demise were probably premature.
