NBA Comparison: Bobby Simmons

Strengths: Wing player with good athleticism, a long wingspan and wiry strength … He has put the pieces together in his senior season and has lived up to the potential that he flashed early in his career … He shows a good motor and has a strong work ethic, looking to out-hustle and outwork his opponents at every opportunity … A very good transition player, he gets out on the break and runs his lanes, looking to use his explosiveness in order to complete plays at the basket … His first step is fairly quick, but very long, which allows him to cover a lot of ground and get into the paint … He is very slippery when slashing to the basket and uses a nice mix of hesitation moves to get his defender off balance … Finishes extremely well around the basket, he has a good scoring touch inside and is able to use his length to finish over and around help-side defenders … An effective midrange shooter, he shoots with good balance and is comfortable pulling the trigger with his feet set or off the dribble … Has the ability to post up, looking to out-muscle smaller defenders, or to out quick bigger ones … Shows good instincts as a rebounder, gets to the right spots and attacks the glass on both ends of the floor … Solid defender, with his size and the effort he puts into it, he has the ability to defend a number of positions … Can be a disruptor in the passing lanes, using his length to get steals or deflections … He is a year younger than most of the senior class, leaving for a longer window to develop his game …

Weaknesses: Does not have a very polished skill set on the perimeter … He is much more comfortable operating from the mid-post area where he can face up and attack out of the triple threat, rather than sizing up his defender at the top and taking him off the dribble … Not a great ball handler and he doesn’t have a reliable secondary move that would allow him to continue his drive when he gets cut off … Offensively, he is more of a straight line athlete and is a bit limited in terms of changing direction laterally … A selective and streaky shooter from beyond the college three point line, he will need to extend his range and improve his consistency in order to be a threat from the NBA line … Was able to overpower and out-jump his opponents at the college level, he will need to prove that he can be as effective against next level athletes … Not a great one-on-one defender, for such an impressive athlete, has a surprising lack of lateral quickness … 

Borko Popic – 03/30/2010

Borko Popic is a lead scout/contributor to NBADraft.net. Please check out his premium website / scouting service hooprospects.com, an essential tool for college coaches, and European and NBA scouts.