The Hoops Junkie

 
I didn’t do the full 24 hour marathon of college hoops on ESPN yesterday, but I did manage to watch quite a bit. And while it is way too early to come to conclusions about teams or players, I did have a few observations from yesterday.

 
• Somehow San Diego State beating Gonzaga last night and now getting hyped as the best team on the west coast is a surprise. I had them at #14 in my preseason rankings and didn’t understand why they weren’t getting more love nationally. They have everybody back from what was a solid team last season, and they even added some perimeter shooting that they needed from transfer James Rahon. The Aztecs strength is their frontcourt though, where they cause matchups problems by basically playing 3 athletic combo forwards across the frontline in Kawhi Leonard, Billy White, and Malcolm Thomas. They could be vulnerable against a team with a good big man who could hurt them in the post, but they take can advantage on the other end with their speed and quickness advantages. The Mountain West looks to be strong again this season with San Diego State, BYU, UNLV, and New Mexico, so it will be interesting to see how things play out there. continue reading »

• Watching Kirk Hinrich play over the course of his NBA career, I still feel like I never know what I’m going to get. I’ve always been a fan of his game, but there are times where he just hasn’t been very good. It seems to be pretty much a mental thing to me though. When he’s aggressive on offense and shoots the ball with confidence, he’s a solid all around guard. He can already defend both guard positions, and he has a nice feel for game, but his offense is so up and down depending on where his head is. It’s been great to see him playing better of late though, and I hope he can keep it up. It’s been well circulated that the Bulls are trying to clear cap space to make room to sign free agents this summer, so it will be interesting to see if anything happens with him before the trade deadline. I’ve read quite a few rumors about him going to the Lakers, and although it may seem like a great fit at first, I worry about his confidence on that team. He’s a guy who needs to have the ball in his hands some on offense and needs to have the mindset to be aggressive. I worry he could end up similar to Jordan Farmar, as a guy who’s not playing up to his full potential due to lack of role and lack of confidence. Regardless of what happens though, I’d love to see Hinrich keep his confidence high and continue to play well .He can be alot of fun to watch.
• If you’re looking for college basketball teams that aren’t ranked very highly now but have a chance to do some damage in March, I’ve got a few for you  – Baylor, Ohio St, and Georgia Tech. None of these teams has a ranking higher than 20 in either poll, but if you look at talent and potential to rattle off a few wins in the tournament, I think all three of these teams has what it takes. They all have their weaknesses though too, as shown by their losses and place in the polls. continue reading »

• Every year it seems there is at least one undersized 4 man who excels in college basketball, slides into the 2nd round in the NBA Draft, then ends up being a successful NBA player - think DeJuan Blair, Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Paul Millsap, etc. This year that player could be Trevor Booker from Clemson. He’s only 6′7″, but he’s built like a tank, and he’s got great speed, quickness, and leaping ability for a guy with his build. He kinda looks like Julius Peppers back when he was playing basketball at North Carolina. He’s a specimen on the court, and he plays really hard too. Booker has also developed a pretty nice face up game where he can put it on the deck and use his quickness and strength to get to the basket. He’s shown that he can pass too, whether out of the post or even some drive & kick. Making himself into a better jump shooter out to about 18 feet would really make him tough, and I think he can do that in time. I didn’t have him on my NBA Draft prospect rankings earlier in the week, because I wanted to see him another time or 2, but I’ll have him on there next week as a guy I think is worthy of a pick later in the 1st round.
• Oklahoma got a much needed win against Oklahoma St on Monday night, but watching Wille Warren this season has been disappointing. He was pretty much a consensus preseason 1st team All American, and he hasn’t lived up to it. I want to see him more to determine how good of an NBA prospect he really is too. He’s not super explosive, but he’s a good enough athlete, and if he can play the point he should be able to use his size as an asset. I think he compares to Chauncey Billups in terms of size, athleticism, and scoring ability, so I think it would be very beneficial for Warren to study some tape of him. Billups wasn’t a great NBA point guard out of the gate, but he got better when he learned how to play smarter – how to pick his spots and score, how to get his teammates involved, how to be most effective on pick & roll, and how to use his size and strength to post up smaller guards and take them into the paint to score. If Warren can learn to do these things he can be a solid NBA point guard too, but right now he just really doesn’t seem to get it. continue reading »

• After last year I still didn’t have a good read on Al-Farouq Aminu, but after watching a few more games of his this season I am a big fan of his NBA potential. Most of the stuff I read about him says that he needs to do a lot of work on his perimeter skills, because he is going to have to be a 3 man in the NBA. While I agree that working on his ball handling, outside shot, and ability to face up and make plays off the dribble will be beneficial to him to become a more effective NBA player, I disagree that he needs to be playing the 3 position. I think he projects to be a beast of a 4 man in the mold of guys like Josh Smith, David Lee, and Tyrus Thomas who can fly down the floor and almost always have a quickness advantage on the guy guarding them. He’s listed at 6′8″, but I’ve read that he has a 7′4″ wingspan, and in every game I’ve seen him play this year, he plays like he’s the biggest guy on floor while blocking shots, getting rebounds, and attacking the rim. His ability to grab defensive rebounds and take off with it and start a break himself is very intriguing, and he can give it up to a guard, run the floor and get it back to finish as well. He’s still a little raw in terms of perimeter skills and post moves, but he’s better than last year, which is a good sign, and he’s still only 20 years old. His handle is a little shaky, but I think he can really improve there, and he makes some really good passes on occasion too that show that he does have a good feel for the game. I’m still working on my first edition of my weekly 2010 nba draft rankings, but Aminu is a guy that I feel comfortable with saying that he’ll probably be in my top 5. continue reading »

• I really like Gonzaga’s team this year. They’re similar to Syracuse in that they lost some major talent from last year, (Daye, Pargo, Downs, and Heytvelt) but they may actually be a better team. They absolutely stunk against Duke in MSG, but Matt Bouldin still didn’t seem like himself after suffering a concussion 10 days earlier, and I think in general they just had a bad day. They looked much better to me in their win against Oklahoma on Thursday than they did when they won the Maui Invitational a month earlier though. Demetri Goodson hasn’t been great at the point, but they have the luxury of going bigger and playing Bouldin there and bringing in Bol Kong off the bench, who is starting to play better and earning more minutes. The biggest key though has been the emergence of Elias Harris, the 6-7 freshman from Germany who has a game similar to Shawn Marion. He seemed like the 4th option on offense early in the season, and now he’s really asserting himself. I’m going to come out with my weekly NBA Draft prospect rankings after I see a couple weeks of conference play, and Harris is guy that I’ll have ranked pretty high. He’s one of those combo forwards that we’re seeing much more of now as the NBA is becoming smaller and faster and there is more of a premium on spacing the floor.
• Purdue’s victory over West Virginia on New Year’s Day was very impressive. Their ball pressure really exposed the Mountaineer’s point guard issues, and JaJuan Johnson was too much for West Virginia to handle inside. I’d be really interested to see Purdue play Texas or Kentucky. The Boilers don’t come close in talent, but they play with more maturity and take care of the ball better than either the Longhorns or the Wildcats, and their defense is as good as anybody’s. I think the development of Kelsey Barlow as the season goes on will be a big factor in how good they can be come tourney time in March. Barlow is their best athlete, he can guard multiple positions, has a nice handle, and can really get to the basket (he just missed a couple finishes after explosive drives to the hoop against WVU). If he continues to grow, he’ll give Purdue a chance to be a Final 4 caliber team. continue reading »

• Avery Bradley at Texas reminds me some of Russell Westbrook in his last year at UCLA – an elite athlete playing the 2 position who will probably need to prove he can play mostly as a point guard in the NBA. Westbrook started the 2007-2008 season not really on the NBA radar and ended up as the 4th pick in the draft. Bradley came into his freshman year as a highly rated prospect but isn’t super high on the mock drafts I’ve seen. I don’t think he’ll have a chance to play much point guard this season with Balbay and Lucas getting all the minutes there, but if he declares for the draft and can display he can play the point in workouts, he could end up as a pretty high pick too.
• Jordan Hamilton is another nice freshman prospect for the Longhorns. He’s not even playing 20 minutes per game, and he still needs to learn how to play, but like Bradley, his upside is too high for him to slip too far if he decides to enter the draft. He just looks like an NBA wing when you see him on the court. He’s 6-7, a solid athlete, has a nice handle, and he shoots the 3 well. continue reading »

• After seeing most of the highly ranked college teams play so far this year, I feel pretty strongly that Kentucky, Texas, and Kansas are the 3 best teams in the country. They’re just on another level talent-wise than any other team I’ve seen. Even though it’s early in the season, I’ll go ahead and say that I’d be pretty surprised if one of those 3 teams doesn’t win the national championship this year. continue reading »

• Tyreke Evans is a beast. I was trying to think about who his game most reminds me of, and Baron Davis (from about 2007) was the best I could come up with. Baron was a little more athletic, but Evans is 3 inches taller and has a much better feel for the game. They both play kind of a power point guard role, using their size and strength to post up or drive to the hoop. And Evans finds a way to get to the basket even when the guy guarding him is sagging off. He’s not much of a shooter right now, but he knows that and doesn’t force up the crazy off the dribble pull up 3’s that Davis tends to shoot. One of the most impressive things about Evans though is his willingness to make the easy pass. He’ll throw the look ahead pass to a teammate running the floor, he’ll make the extra pass around the perimeter, and he’ll make the easy kick out to a 3 point shooter if the defense collapses on his penetration. I like his demeanor too. He plays hard and with confidence, but his facial expression doesn’t really ever change. I thought he’d be a good NBA player, but I’m much higher on him now than I was after seeing him play at Memphis last year. Maybe I just didn’t see him play enough.
• I’ve been president of the David Lee fan club since his rookie year. He’s an athletic big who runs the floor well, is super active on the glass, is a good passer, and can finish with both hands. He’s taken his game up a notch this year though by turning himself into a pretty decent shooter out to about 18 feet. I’ve been waiting for this to happen for the last couple years. It will be interesting to see what happens with him this summer when his 1 year deal expires. I would love to see him on a good team. continue reading »

• I witnessed a white-out in an NBA game last night. In the 3rd quarter against the Wizards on ESPN the Kings were playing a lineup of Spencer Hawes, Andres Nocioni, Omri Casspi, Beno Udrih, and Sergio Rodriguez.
• James Harden may not be getting the hype that some of the other rookies are so far, but the Thunder made a good pick taking him at number 3. He’s not getting to play a featured role like Brandon Jennings and Tyreke Evans are, but he’s got a really well rounded offensive game. He’s smooth, has a great feel, can shoot it, attack the basket, and is a good passer. Right now he’s getting decent minutes off the bench, and it will be interesting to see if they ever move him to the starting lineup or keep him behind Sefolosha in kind of a Manu Ginobili/Jason Terry role off the bench. continue reading »

Welcome to thehoopsjunkie.com. I will be bringing you whatever is on my mind in the world of basketball. Please email me at thehoopsjunkie@gmail.com with any questions, comments, or suggestions of lists or rankings that you would like to see on the site.