Solo Ball is weekly Big East Player of the week

[DogMania]

18 a game in Big East play as a sophomore is crazy.

Again, when he gets handle and a better ability to attack the rim, we’re talking best guard in the country. 25 PPG player and someone who is unguardable on the levels of a Kemba and Shabazz.

If we can turn him into a lead guard next year while doing it he’s a top 10, maybe top 5 pick.

Put on the breaks a little bit there. First off, he's a long way from being transformed into a PG. He's a great shooter and is just starting to manufacture some scoring opportunities for himself. His handle is improving but I don't know how well he sees the floor yet. Maybe he'll transform into a point guard which would be his best path in the NBA. He reminds me of a Payton Pritchard type player, who is an important rotation player for the C's. It took time for him to be the player he is now, on both ends of the floor, but he showed he could be coached up.

Players his size don't usually get drated that high unless they are 3 level scorers who also can defend. If he doesn't show that he can defend his position, he'll struggle to find the floor in the NBA unless he's surrounded by an excellent cast of defenders, and even so his PT might be situational. With all that said, he's just a sophomore and if he returns he could play himself into a very good NBA player and possible first round draft pick.

Someone mentioned that he might be one of the best guards in the nation, but there are some very good ones who are bigger and have more advanced games. Don't get me wrong, I think he's an outstanding college player who is starting to come into his own with so much more to come. Let's just slow things down a bit. As good as he's been the last few games, I think a few forgot that he went 0 for the second half in our loss against Xavier, where if he hit just one or two of those threes we win that game. With that said, I think he's gaining more and more confidence and will show to be a more consistent player hopefully on both ends of the floor throughout this latter third of the season. His Improvement has been evident. He had a monster game winning performance against MU. Can't wait to see more of those this season and hopefully next as well.

 

[superjohn]

Hawkins will be fine. Sam Hauser and Landrey Shamet play meaningful NBA minutes when all they can do is shoot. Steve Novak carved out a 10 year NBA career just shooting. Hawk will always have a place in the league. Shooters always do. The Pelicans are just a giant pile of garbage as an organization. He needs to be somewhere else.

It would be a waste of a lottery pick if he's like those guys. Hauser was undrafted, Novak second round, and Shamet end of the first round. They all shoot it better than Hawkins does. Hawk better become a really good three point shooter or he will end up an end of the bench guy struggling to stay in the league. For a "great shooter" he rarely seems to make them.

 

[aceboon]

It would be a waste of a lottery pick if he's like those guys. Hauser was undrafted, Novak second round, and Shamet end of the first round. They all shoot it better than Hawkins does. Hawk better become a really good three point shooter or he will end up an end of the bench guy struggling to stay in the league. For a "great shooter" he rarely seems to make them.

funny for him to bring up Shamet who isn't even good, barely plays, and is hanging onto his NBA gig by a thread. if that's the comp for Hawkins then his career has gone incredibly off track.

 

[AntG168]

funny for him to bring up Shamet who isn't even good, barely plays, and is hanging onto his NBA gig by a thread. if that's the comp for Hawkins then his career has gone incredibly off track.

I brought up Shamet as a floor to prove a point. Wing guys who can shoot always have a role in the league. Writing of a second year guy in a sophomore slump who has proved to be a sniper at every level is unwise. I don’t know how you took that to mean Shamet it his player comp. Why didn’t you think Hauser or Novak? He “plays” like none of them. The commonality between the 3 is shooting. Wayne Ellington had a 10 year career for crying out loud lmao. Shooters will always have a job. I could care less about his sophomore slump. Hawk can shoot the s*** out of the ball.

 

[superjohn]

funny for him to bring up Shamet who isn't even good, barely plays, and is hanging onto his NBA gig by a thread. if that's the comp for Hawkins then his career has gone incredibly off track.

Hawkins is strange to me. His whole game is shooting and he got his rep based off of being able to hit high degree of difficulty shots and what he did in the tournament. He gets a ton of lift on his shot, has a quick release and his form looks similar to Ray Allen but once you get over how pretty it looks you realize he's not all that great a shooter and shooting is basically all he does.

 

[AntG168]

.

 

[superjohn]

I brought up Shamet as a floor to prove a point. Wing guys who can shoot always have a role in the league. Writing of a second year guy in a sophomore slump who has proved to be a sniper at every level is unwise. I don’t know how you took that to mean Shamet it his player comp. Why didn’t you think Hauser or Novak? He “plays” like none of them. The commonality between the 3 is shooting. Wayne Ellington had a 10 year career for crying out loud lmao. Shooters will always have a job. I could care less about his sophomore slump. Hawk can shoot the s*** out of the ball.

The only problem with that is he hasn't proven to be a sniper on every level and he hasn't consistently shown he shoots the s*** out of the ball on either level.

Outside of going 50% from three in the tournament he has never consistently shot the ** out of the ball. He shot 35% fg's as a freshman at UConn and 41% as a sophomore. He shot 33% from three as a freshman and 39% from three as a sophomore. His 6 game run kind of saved his percentage and vaulted him into the lottery. In conference his fg% and three point% was worse in both his freshman and sophomore years.

As an NBA player his rookie year he shot 38% fg and 37% from three. Second year he's 36% fg and 33% from three.

 

[Inyatkin]

At this point maybe we can at least say the "Solo Ball assist count" from earlier this season was a low point in recent Boneyard history

 

[aceboon]

Hawkins is strange to me. His whole game is shooting and he got his rep based off of being able to hit high degree of difficulty shots and what he did in the tournament. He gets a ton of lift on his shot, has a quick release and his form looks similar to Ray Allen but once you get over how pretty it looks you realize he's not all that great a shooter and shooting is basically all he does.

yea at some point the production has to match up with the aesthetics on the jumper, Hawk gets Ray Allen comps because of the UConn connection and the picturesque form but college Ray is smoking him efficiency wise. Rip doesn't get billed as a long range sniper because of his midrange game in the pros and even he shot better from 3 as a sophomore on similar volume. only so long you can get by on a reputation as a shooter before the production has to meet up with perception.

 

[AntG168]

yea at some point the production has to match up with the aesthetics on the jumper, Hawk gets Ray Allen comps because of the UConn connection and the form but college Ray is smoking him efficiency wise. Rip doesn't get billed as a long range sniper because of his midrange game in the pros and even he shot better from 3 as a sophomore on similar volume. only so long you can get by on a reputation as a shooter before the production has to meet up with perception.

Agreed. He shot 36% last year. He’s slumping this season. Way to early to right him off. I don’t think his jump shot is a concern right now. At least not for me.

 

[UC0NN]

Plenty of guys can't shoot at the NBA level, NBA defenders etc. Shabazz is another one. Hawkins will need to right the ship or he will be playing in the G league or Europe soon.

 

[UC0NN]

Agreed. He shot 36% last year. He’s slumping this season. Way to early to right him off. I don’t think his jump shot is a concern right now. At least not for me.

The #s are what they are. And they are 32.8% for a guy who doesn't have great ability beyond shooting 3s.

 

[AntG168]

The #s are what they are. And they are 32.8% for a guy who doesn't have great ability beyond shooting 3s.

This isn’t uncommon for young shooters.

 

[Scottzer]

Diff between being able to dribble penetrate and be a PG.

Duke for instance isn’t running a PG out there. Proctor is anything but a PG, not saying that is the right model.

Memphis is running Haggerty and Hunter out there, neither traditional PGs. I didn’t realize Haggerty is only a sophomore, what a get.

I guess I agree with your premise - certain non traditional guys could work in some Hurley systems. We didn’t have to see it, because Newton stayed healthy last year. But, I suspect either Cam or Stephon (I get the is he or isn’t he a pg argument with the Castle) - could have run the offense quite effectively. It felt like a am had some of the best entry passes to DC, and he never turned it over. Castle wasn’t as clean, but good, and could get to the rim if the clock is winding down. I just don’t quite see Solo as having the right mix of skills to do that effectively.