These last few weeks have been pretty crazy. A zebra roller coaster if you will. Whenever I open a web browser it attempts to tell me to change my home page to draftexpress.com – which is odd because my browsing habits usually elicit a different suggestion. (slightly-SFW) Speaking of DX they released the shooting stats from the Chicago draft camp for the first time ever. You may remember while watching 5 guys sitting in ESPN golf shirts that sometimes in the background some kids were running around and shooting the ball.
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A number of people were keeping track of how many went in and how many were missed. How important are these results vs. the results that teams will have during their individual work outs? I don’t know. What I do know is that Keith Benson, a kid I’ve had a number of chances to meet for evaluation, is the mathematical inverse of Kyrylo Fesenko when it comes to shooting ability.
Beware the data is far from complete. Each of the spot up locations were shot 25 times each. Bigs shot 25 from HS three and 25 from NCAA three; PGs and wings shot 25 from the NCAA three and 25 from NBA three. The off the dribble locations were shot 18 times each. Then there was a timed section (I don't know how much time it was) where players number of shots varied greatly. All of the info is found here. And yes, when I do my future draft comparisons I will be referencing this information.
Enes Kanter
The big Turk went 10/25 (40%) from High school range and 14/25 (56%) from NCAA three range. He was way better shooting from the high post (and outwards) nailing 14/18 of his off the dribble shots from 15-18 feet. In the timed section he made only 5/12 shots. Money man he isn't. Over all Kanter went 43/80, for 53.75% over all. (DX puts his % at 53.86 for some reason . . . ). This is a very nice score for a bigman shooting from distance. Kanter is a very interesting prospect that the Jazz could very will pick up at the #3 spot. Of course, though, the Jazz have a great track record with developing European bigs who have a number of other guys on the roster that deserve more playing time than they do. It absolutely wouldn't be a loss (sarcasm, btw) if the Jazz draft Kanter and then have to decide on moving either a) the guy with the best post moves in the NBA, b) a guy who is a clutch performer and got us a win against the Miami Heat, or c) the #3 draft pick from last year who has more upside than anyone in the 2011 draft.
Marshon Brooks
Right now he’s at the top of my list of guys to pick at #12, despite all the time I spend on twitter defending Jimmer. I think Brooks is going to continue to move up on the draft board and from what I’ve seen so far, I can tell he’s going to be a very solid NBA player. (Greater career than Nick Young) He did not light it up with his shooting, but I think he’ll only get better. He didn’t shoot the HS three, instead only going from the NCAA and NBA three distances. If you saw where Raja Bell and Andrei Kirilenko shot the ball from this year you can remember a) cringing a lot, and b) expecting them to shoot it from these spots. That’s where our offense works our wings towards. From the NCAA distance Brooks made 15/25 (60%). From the NBA distance he made 17/25 (68%). The now dusty Harpring curl play needs to be brought back if we draft this kid. His off the dribble 15-18 footer went in 16/18 times (88.89%). He appears to be somewhat in control as well. During the timed drill he only shot 12 times, making 7 of them (58.33%). Over all he was the 10th best shooter on the floor that day, managing a cumulative 55/80 (68.81%).
Jimmer Fredette
Right off the bat, because I know that’s what you care to know, let met state that Jimmer shot well, but by fg% he was 9th best on that day. He also didn’t shoot from the HS three that day. His numbers were NCAA three: 19/25 (76%); NBA three: 18/25 (72%). Only one other dude made a combined 37 three point attempts (Isiah Thomas) in Chicago. Jimmer made 10/18 (55.56%) from the off the dribble 15-18 foot range, which was way lower than the 70+% he made from deep. But with the clock on Jimmer was able to get up 15 shots (again, the more athletic Brooks only got up 12). And with the pressure on the BYU guy made 11 of them (73.33%). He shot above 70% at each station except for the one operating from Carlos Boozer’s office (15-18 feet). Fredette went 58/83 (69.87%) – but the website lists him at 69.22%. Hmmm.
Isaiah Thomas
We don’t really have a shot at this guy, as he projects to be a 2nd round guy. He needs to be mentioned though. Not only did he shoot better than Jimmer did (60/81 = 74.07% … which is also different from what the website listed him at), but he was a work out wonder in the other measures as well. His lane agility test clocks in a 8.22 seconds, which isn’t just a really good score, but it’s the 2nd best score of all time (re-read that in a Kanye West voice if you want). He also has a 38.5" vertical leap. These are all great points but he’s 5’10.5 in shoes and doesn’t have the body of work to really bother talking about much more on a fan blog for a team with the #3 and #12 draft picks.
Of course a number of guys like Kemba and Brandon were too cool for school to actually participate in this. That’s why there’s nothing else to this post. Again, check this link to see all of the data.
And yes, I’d like Keith Benson to do well in life. He’s a good kid. I just don’t want him on our team. Thankfully, a lot of crazy stuff would have to happen for him to come here.