Bold Statement: The Best Exterior Player in the 2015 Draft

While I know many will not agree with who I deem as the best PG, SG, SF in the draft I want to at least throw my opinion out there and give you my rationale. I’m sticking to exterior players because it’s much harder to compare apples and oranges as opposed to apples to apples. The first thing I would like to say is that I view Mudiay and D’Angelo Russell as legit NBA prospects with a chance at becoming All-Stars in the right environment. With that being said, I think that Mario Hezonja is the best PG, SG, or SF that can be drafted in 2015. I think that the fact that he is hidden in Europe and he receives inconsistent minutes are two contributing factors that lead him to be missed in this conversation.

For starters, Hezonja is a true 19-year old shooting guard that is listed at 6’8. If his height is not fudged, I would say that he has a shot to reach 6’9 at the rate he has grown. He has Wiggins and Paul Geroge like height for the SG postion.

Second, Hezonja has a rapidly developing game from the SG position. I was going to post this before his 8-8 3pt game, but that performance only validates this idea. He has deep NBA 3 range already and although his shooting is a bit streaky, he is finding his shot more often than not recently.

Third, Hezonja is an alpha dog. This combined with his pure shooting ability is where he deviates from the natural tendancies of Wiggins and PG. Even on a team like Barcelona where seniority reigns supreme, Hezonja’s mentaility and ability forces Xavier Pascual to build his gameplan around Mario from time to time. This is a rare occurance at such a high level in Europe for such a young player.

Fourthly, Hezonja has flashed well above-average athletic ability even though the game played in Spain doesn’t suit that kind of game. I think Mario’s athleticism will be a surprise to some as he isn’t the typical Euro guard who relies mostly on craftiness to dominate (although he has a bit of that himself). I think his athleticism will flourish and even improve as he enters the league.

Fifth, Mario has experience that is unparalled to any other draft prospect. Much like I harped on regarding Dario Saric, Porzingis and Karl Anthony may be the only other player prospects in 2015 that are in the same level as Mario in regards to expereience. Mario has the unique distction of playing for a top European club as well as receiving valubale (but not too much playing) experience with the Croatian Senior National Team over the summer. He has gone toe-to-toe with legit NBA talent, which is something that must be accounted for.

While Mario Hezonja’s biggest weakness is his defensive ability and his attitude, I would say that his attitude was mostly an issue when playing with his own age group where he was head and shoulders better than 95% of the other players. On the senior Barca team he has handled his lack of minutes extremely well, and has shined when given the opportunity. He looks very fluid on the court with his teammates and has developed a sense of how to balance playing within an offense, as well as utilizing his 6-8 frame in iso situations. Defensively, Hezonja has a reported above-average wingspan (6-9/6-10 wingspan when he was 6’6-6’7). This combined with his athletic ability means there is room for improvement with increased efforts and I expect him to grow in that department if drafted to the right team.

Overall, a true 6-8 SG at 19 years old with a plus wingspan, athleticism and deep range combined with professional and senior national team experience ought to be thrusted into the converstaion as the best exterior prospect in a generally average draft class. I think that if he were playing college basketball, he would have already been in that position. Additionally, I think he is without a doubt the best European prospect ahead of Porzingis (even though I like him too). He will have a much easier transition into the league and has a higher downside under my estimation.

What do y’all think, should he be in the converation or am I crazy?