Summer League Breakdown: AJ Hammons

 

 

Summer League is an amazing event, the Las Vegas League in particular.  Everyone has something to prove and is willing to do what it takes to show they belong and the Dallas Mavericks‘ roster was no different.  One of the best and worst things about any of the Summer Leagues is that the talent participating is not a fair representation of NBA Basketball competition.  Some of that was mentioned in “How Should We Value Justin Anderson’s Summer League Play?”  Some of these guys are literally fighting for their career.  Jonathan Gibson fought with success, he’s signed to a three year (though mostly non-guaranteed) contract.  As of now, Perry Ellis has not had that kind of success.

 

During this series we’ll take a look at Mavs players under contract that showed us something during their time in Summer League.

 

Summer League will now be referred to as SL.  Just to save 10 characters, even though these aren’t tweets… Ok just to save typing time… 

 

 

Second Round: AJ Hammons

 

 

Unlike Justin Anderson, AJ Hammons came into SL with a little more to prove.  The 46th pick out of Purdue had many questions surrounding him.  Not many of these questions definitively received answered because SL IS NOT the place for a big man to come in and dominate.  SL is the place where smaller guards who constantly have the ball in their hands thrive.  (Tyus Jones, Glen Rice Jr, Josh Selby and Damian Lillard are four of the last six SL MVP winners).  Hammons didn’t get a ton of opportunities on offense, but something he did fairly well during SL was show up defensively.

 

 

Rim Protection/Defense

 

Hammons is a big presence on defense, especially around the rim.  On this play he thwarts Chicago’s Raymar Morgan’s attempt and keeps it leading to a fast break. 

Later, in that same game, he gets beat off the dribble on a switch but recovers nicely for some great help defense. 

Then in the Celtics game, Jordan Mickey gets called for a traveling violation on this drive attempt.  The important thing for Hammons is that he stayed in front of Mickey, bodied him, and stopped him in his tracks.

 

 

 

Playmaking

 

One really encouraging aspect of Hammons game was his passing and playmaking abilities.  That top-of-the-key or high-post area is where many past big man have thrived in a Rick Carlisle offense.  

This is just a simple give and go but imagine AJ doing that with Seth Curry or JJ Barea this season.  

Another give and go but this time AJ receives the ball in the post and holds it just long enough for Behanan to shake his defender.  Then AJ whips a pass to him under the basket.  The awareness with the added timing it takes to complete plays like these will really help AJ succeed at the next level. 

 

 

Hands

 

Something that might be a little more difficult is catching and securing the ball.  Not sure if he was just dealing with nerves or maybe he used to use that Dwight Howard Substance in college but AJ won’t be replacing Jason Witten for the Cowboys anytime soon.

Right after this play, former NBA player and commentator Brad Daugherty went on a three possesion rant about AJ catching the basketball.  It may be a real problem but it may not so why look too much into it now.  This is better anyway, and he caught this pass.

 

 

Jumper

 

One of the more appealing aspects of AJ’s game coming out of college was his jumper.  DraftExpress.com even noted that he was “Great in mid-range” with “range out to [the] college three.” After Summer League he seems to have more work than that report suggested. 

This is a really rushed attempt, it’s almost as if he couldn’t decide whether to post up or face up so he just did a turnaround jumper.  

His catch and shoot attempts were not much better, and after this attempt he was immediately taken out of game (Coincidence?).  The fact that he felt comfortable taking them means something though.  That aspect of his game will grow with confidence and reps.  

 

By my count he only took 4 jumper during SL anyway.

 

 

Post Moves

 

Again, there were not many attempts but here’s another rushed attempt in the post/paint/wait…no it’s another jumper/floater.

These rushed attempts were probably due to the fact he was so excited to get the ball anyway but it’s still something to watch out for.  Here’s a better post move.

Takes his time, sets his feet, gets Poeltl to bite on the mini “Dream Shake” and puts the ball in the bucket.  

 

If AJ wants more attempts like this he really has to work on his footwork though…