PHL Anon
Now that the 2016 NBA Draft has concluded, we can look at breakdowns, and more importantly convince ourselves that our basketball team just drafted three sure-fire lock Hall of Famers.
I’ve come up with the best draft breakdown you’ll ready anywhere. So let’s kick it off.
No. 1 Ben Simmons, Forward, LSU
Strengths
-Everything.
-Also, his accent.
Weaknesses
-He will make you work harder to find reasons to criticize him than you would normally have to.
Simmons has superb quickness, incredible body control, long strides and can operate at different speeds in a nearly unprecedented way for a player his size. Few players in recent memory are as effective at grabbing a defensive rebound and igniting the fast break as Simmons is, and a sky-high 26% of his offensive possessions comes in these situations according to Synergy Sports Technology.
In the half-court, Simmons is much more of a mixed bag. He saw some success operating with his back to the basket this season, but struggled when asked to act as a primary ball-handler and facilitator in pick and roll and isolation situations, partially due to LSU’s very poor spacing.
Simmons’ best traits in the half-court revolves around his tremendous ball-handling and passing ability, as he has outstanding court vision and a knack for finding open teammates with bullet passes. He’s one of just five players (Luke Walton, Danny Ferry, Nick Thompson and Jerald Honeycutt) in our extensive NCAA database to average over 5 assists per-40 minutes while standing 6’9 or taller, and is the only one to do so as a freshman.
While Simmons doesn’t show much range as a shooter, he has excellent touch with either hand around the basket, being highly creative and acrobatic with the way he can finish plays, sometimes above the rim with a head of steam. His average length and propensity for avoiding contact around the rim hurts his percentages as a finisher inside the paint (he converted a just-decent 55% of his attempts here in the half-court), but he is such a mismatch at his size that he’s able to draw a huge amount of fouls and free throw attempts (9.8 per-40) to compensate.
He also shows some ability to score inside the post with right-handed jump hooks and excellent footwork. He is devastating operating in isolation situations from the mid-post area as he’s simply too quick and too creative with the ball for most big men to stay in front of. College opponents negated that somewhat by putting smaller players on him as the season moved on and double-teaming the post, but things could be different in the NBA with better spacing, superior teammates and more creative coaching adjustments than we saw this season.
While Simmons makes his free throw attempts at a decent rate (67% at LSU), his outside shooting has always been considered the biggest weakness in his game. He’s a 12/50 (24%) 3-point shooter in the 74 career games we have data on since he first appeared on the scene at the 2012 FIBA U-17 World Championship, and hasn’t shown much progress in the past four years in this area, which is a major red-flag in today’s NBA.
[Editor’s note: I was iffy on Simmons all throughout the college season. I think I’ve gotten caught up in the media and the fans and I’m now ecstatic. Or gullable.]
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No. 24 Timothe Luwawu, Guard/Forward, France
Strengths
-His name sounds like Wawa.
-His girlfriend. Pics at the bottom of the post.
Weaknesses
-Me having to spell his name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFd1PmYpomA
Luwawu open 24/7! Yyyyeeessss! Can’t wait to hear Marc Zumoff call his games.
Connecting on 36% of his attempts from beyond the arc on 5.3 attempts per-game, up from 29% on just 2.2 last year when he played in the French Second division with Antibes, Luwawu appears to have become a significantly more viable threat from the perimeter. Despite his overall uptick in efficiency, the young Freshman still has a way to go as a perimeter threat as he struggled with bouts of inconsistency throughout the year, shooting just 17% from beyond the arc over five games in January, and 25% over five games in May. He was solid on catch and shoot situations on the year overall, but his effectiveness off the dribble slid a bit as the year wore on, which was only compounded by the sizable role he played offensively.
Even if Luwawu’s skill set and decision-making didn’t always line up with his role, there’s little question that being thrust into a situation where he was asked to regularly create in the pick and roll and push the ball on the break was a plus for him. The freedom Mega Leks offers to young players is more or less unprecedented in the European game, and though Luwawu figures to play a dialed back role at the next level early on, he got plenty of on job training this season that could serve him well in the future. He wasn’t overly efficient shooting on the break, got tunnel vision going to the rim, and made some questionable decisions as a passer throughout the year, but also had plenty of impressive moments, giving plenty of reason for optimism about his offensive skill set moving forward.
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No. 26 Furkan Korkmaz, Guard, Turkey
Strengths
-He may be the only player on the Sixers that is a legit shooter.
-Great bro hair.
Weaknesses
-He plays with the very deceptively mysterious Dario Saric. For real… do we know if he is actually even still alive? I never know what he’s doing over there.
Korkmaz highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZMN2-E5pxc
Doing most of his damage in spot up situations, Korkmaz may lack strength and a degree of creativity off the dribble at the moment, but he has an obvious NBA skill in his ability to hit shots from the perimeter, where he posts impressive percentages overall and runs particularly hot at times. He’s also a strong passer with an excellent feel for the game, contributing to his team’s ball-movement with his court vision and showing some ability to create offense out of the pick and roll and closeout situations in different settings.
One of the more explosive scorers in FIBA Europe junior competition in recent years (career 25 points per-40, 56% TS%) the NBA team drafting Korkmaz will hope that he can offer some value as a roleplayer early on and potentially translate more of his scoring arsenal to the NBA game as his body fills out.
Now, for those of you hating and talking about how long it will take for these guys to come over to the team… Well, here’s this:
Told Timothe Luwawu's buyout is reasonable, and Furkan Korkmaz's workable as well. Both want to come over.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) June 24, 2016
Let’s get excited and enjoy today, guys. This may be the start of a very special era of Philly basketball. If not, I’ll lead the charge off the bridge!
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Now, for Timothe Luwawu’s girlfriend!
