Now what about Hammons?
- Thread starter Estes
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The last prediction I saw had him middle to late 1st round. Hope he goes to a good team with a good coach. Spurs would be awesome.
I am going out on a limb here and predicting he will not play for the Boiler's this year.
If I were a GM, I'd be hesitant on him just because of the motor. He seems like a nice guy, well intentioned - but he certainly isn't someone you'd say is a go-getter. We saw it even in his senior season - he was suspended at the beginning of the year, probably not something crazy, but he pretty much sounded like he needed a teammate to keep him on task to be at things on time.
In addition, while he greatly improved his consistency, there were still games last year you wondered if he was playing. And quite frankly, his last game as a Boilermaker was a bit puzzling too - yeah, he had great rebounding numbers, had some blocks, etc. - but he was playing against a team that had no one remotely near his size - and was 5-10 from the field for the entire game (not great for a 7'), 2-5 in the second half and took zero shots in 2 overtimes. It's games like that (and there's multiple like this) that you wonder how a senior playing in possibly his last game doesn't step up and take over against very much lesser competition. He didn't look like he cared out there.
So as an NBA team, which plays a lot more games than in college, if the consistency is an issue - that's not good. If you can't get motivated in Big Ten and NCAA Tournament games - you sure aren't going to be motivated consistently in the NBA regular season.
I'm curious as to why you put that (Little Rock performance) on Hammons. From my perspective, it was mostly our inability from others to get him the damn ball. Little rock had 3 guys camped around him and even in the moments when there was a passing lane, I thought we did a terrible job of getting him the ball.
If you watched him, he wasn't very active. And part of stepping up is calling for the ball, something he rarely did. There were too many halves, games, etc. that he was just floating around. And he was doing a lot of floating in the LR game. Not putting the game on him, but certainly didn't walk away from that game saying wow, there's an NBA player.
Also, if you don't agree, take away that game. Would you disagree that he lacks a motor? Painter said routinely that was an issue - he had to come up with ways to motivate.
LR literally stopped guarding our point at all and dropped the point defender to sit on AJ's lap. Then the wing was dropping into the passing lane as well. I can't blame any of that game on Hammons. There was one game, maybe at Michigan, that Hammons looked sluggish. Of course they all looked bad, but that's the one which I would reference as a negative in an otherwise impressive season for AJ.
Don't know about you but my motor runs a lot better on a seven digit salary instead of a scholarship.
I'll admit I don't watch a lot of NBA, but other than the playoffs I don't see a whole lot of guys going full throttle on a nightly basis. Actually because there are so many games in professional sports, the prevailing wisdom is that championship teams pace themselves. You hear the analogy of marathon vs. sprint quite a bit. I think that is sort of AJ in a nutshell.
I don't think he felt comfortable "bullying" his teammates for the ball even more. Basically, all season, the entire offense was already geared around him and others were coached to get it to him. In the Little Rock game, there were 3 guys around him and his teammates were wide open. What's he supposed to do? Demand the ball while triple teamed and not have any confidence in his teammates to make a play when they are COMPLETELY WIDE OPEN (and go against what he and his teammates were coached to do)? Also, maybe I'm old school, but I thought while we improved at feeding the post this year, we still weren't that great at it and missed a lot of opportunities throughout the year.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the LR game. I think your comments (motor) had merit in his other years, but I thought his senior year was outstanding. Basically, he was practically unguardable when it was 1 on 1.
He was locked and loaded basically every night. It was the defensive attention that he garnered that opened up the offensive for everyone else. When opposing defenses played him honest, he destroyed most teams. Defensively, he was a force. If we didn't have Haas on the team, AJ would have averaged 20 and 10 in my opinion.
I also think that the 2 game suspension early in the year is far overblown. We don't even know if it was a legit reason to suspend him. Painter never said what he did and didn't want anyone to question or dig further. Why? When AJ missed the bus to Northwestern, Painter told everyone that was the case. Why be quiet now? The entire thing was odd to me.
I personally think he'll find a niche in the league. Not saying he'll be a star or starter, but I think he has a good chance to be a solid backup big in the league for a while. He's a very good defender. He has good post moves and has extended his range to 18'-20' feet. He's a good teammate and well liked. I think with the spacing that exists now in the NBA, teams will play him honest and I think he'll do well with his opportunities. I think as much as Swanigan (who is more of an old school power forward) has a tough time finding a position in today's NBA, Hammons is solidly a 5 man and a legit one at that (unlike Jajuan who was great in college, but didn't quite have a position as he wasn't big and strong enough as a 5 man and not quite a 4 in the league).
Who knows what kind of pro he'll be and maybe I have slightly gold and black tinted glasses, but I'm optimistic for him.
I think he's going to one of the contenders late in the first with need at the center position and more specifically the need for a long, athletic center. He withdrew from because a team(s) was most likely talking to him (aka a contender/winning situation) and told them where they'd draft him.
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