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20 - AJ Hammons

7-0, 260 Center
Purdue Senior
Birthday
08/27/92 (31.6 yrs)
Hometown
Carmel, IN
High School
Oak Hill Academy
Team Site Profile
Statistics
Athleticism
8
Size
9
Defense
7
Strength
8
Quickness
8
Leadership
6
Jump Shot
8
NBA Ready
8
Rebounding
8
Potential
6
Post Skills
8
Intangibles
6

NBA Comparison: David Harrison

Strengths: Well-developed post-game for a prospect.  One of the best post scorers in college basketball this season.  Has a great sense of angles and a great feel for using his body to maneuver around his defender and get to the basket.  Also shows deft touch around the rim and can sink jump hooks and turnaround jumpers from out to 8 feet with regularity… Great size, standing at 7’0" with a strong 250 lb. frame, Hammons is hard to move in the post … Solid athlete at his size, can get up and down the floor in transition, which leads to a lot of put back baskets and blocked shots … Very good post defender.  Led the Big Ten in blocks all 4 years of his Purdue career.  Has great timing, wingspan (7’3") and leaping ability and knows how to go straight up and generally avoid significant foul trouble … Has expanded his shooting range while at Purdue.  Fairly dangerous from all the way out to 18 feet, and even connected on 6/11 three-pointers last season … Top 5 in the Big Ten in both offensive and defensive rebounding, despite only playing 24 minutes per game.  He ended up 3rd in the conference in rebounding rate … Has proven himself to be a hard worker, dramatically reshaping his body since his freshman year, becoming leaner and improving his conditioning … Has 4 years of high-level college experience, playing significant minutes in each of those years, so he will come in and be a fairly pro-ready rookie …

Weaknesses: Though not so much his senior year, Hammons can often disappear for stretches of the game, not asserting himself like he’s capable of doing … His advanced age (will be 24 in August) is one of his greatest limitations, as he is already a mostly-developed player and as a big man, will have a shortened window of prime basketball once he gets to the NBA … Not the most aware passer.  Would draw double- and triple-teams in the post last season and not be able to create much out of it from a passing standpoint…Still needs to continue to clean up his turnovers. Prone to getting stripped when he brings the ball down to his waist, and also has a tendency to make poor passes out of the post … Mild off-the-court issues that caused him to be suspended for 6 games in his career, including the first 3 games of his senior season, could be a red flag … Spent a fair amount of time in Coach Painter’s dog house and occasionally lost his starting spot to Isaac Haas the past two years … Puts up good rebounding numbers, but still lacks great technique to box out competition of equal size … Got outrebounded regularly on the defensive glass by freshman teammate Caleb Swanigan …

Overall: Hammons has been a great player on both ends of the floor in his four years at Purdue, and has shown tremendous improvement in that time, but his age will likely drop him to the late first round or early second … Has the skills to translate into a very good NBA rim protector with a capable post arsenal and deceptively good jump shot, so if he works hard, he can likely crack an NAB rotation, at least for a certain period of time …

Jacob Stallard 5/10/16

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