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2 - Xavier Thames

6-3, 187 Point Guard/Shooting Guard
San Diego St. Senior
Birthday
01/19/91 (33.2 yrs)
Hometown
Sacramento, CA
High School
Pleasant Grove
Team Site Profile
Statistics
Athleticism
7
Size
7
Defense
7
Strength
7
Quickness
6
Leadership
7
Jump Shot
8
NBA Ready
8
Ball Handling
7
Potential
6
Passing
7
Intangibles
7
84 Overall:

NBA Comparison: Smush Parker

Strengths: By far, Thames’ best quality is his ability to make jump shots from both midrange and long distance.  As a senior at San Diego State, he made 37 percent of his three-point shots, and according to Hoop-Math.com, he made 40 percent of two-point jumpers…  Uses screens effectively to get open…  Able to stop, rise, and shoot very quickly…  Not a fancy ball-handler, but keeps defenders off-balance with a combination of fakes, hesitations, and in-and-out moves…  Makes a lot of shots with a hand in his face…  Excellent free-throw shooter – made more than 81 percent of his attempts in each of his three seasons at SDSU…  Gets to the line on a regular basis – averaged 8.3 free-throw attempts per 40 minutes as a senior…  Takes care of the ball – committed less than 1.5 turnovers per game this past season… 

Weaknesses: A tweener – not skilled enough to be a true point guard and not big enough to be a shooting guard…  Lacks the speed of a point guard, and is not vertically explosive…  Dribbling and passing skills are below par for the 1 spot – played off the ball a lot at SDSU, with SF Winston Shepard doing much of the ball handling…  Thames struggles to finish when driving – rarely gets all of the way to the basket and relies heavily on an erratic floater…  Right-handed but prefers going to the left…  Generally a passive on-the-ball defender – gives shooters a lot of space, typically goes under screens, and doesn’t make many big plays…   

Notes: Thames was named the 2013-14 Mountain West Player of the Year.  He led the Aztecs in nearly every statistical category, including scoring (17.6), assists (3.2), steals (1.6), and minutes played (31.3)…  Averaged 26 points in three NCAA tournament games this past season…  Named a 2014 Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American…  At the NBA Combine, Thames produced a wide range of results.  He was arguably the event’s top performer in the shooting drills, making 82 percent of his midrange jumpers and 64 percent of his three-pointers.  On the other hand, he had the slowest sprint time (3.48) among those who were classified as point guards; in fact, his time was the fourth worst overall.                  

Outlook: As noted above, Thames is probably not suited to play point guard in the NBA, but he may have a shot at the 2 spot…  He is offensively limited, relying mostly on pull-up and spot-up jumpers for his points.  When he isn’t coming off a screen, he is often shooting with a hand in his face.  He made a lot of those contested shots at SDSU, but can he do that on the next level vs. taller and more athletic defenders?

Richard Harris 6/5/14

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