USA International Strengths: An extremely quick and explosive player … Plays with cockiness and confidence that is necessary to succeed at the top level … His wingspan and leaping ability put him in a rare category of point guards … Has great open court speed and likes to attack in transition … He is very good at changing direction mid-stride without losing speed or control of the ball … He is extremely dangerous off the dribble, where his first step and nice handles allow him to explode by defenders … Gets to the rim and finishes well with a nice mix of moves … Converts a good percentage at the line … His lefty jumpshot looks smooth and he has a quick release … Has the ability to stop on a dime and pull up … Defensively, he has very quick hands and great lateral footspeed allowing him to stay in front of even the quickest guards… Enjoys pressuring ball handlers … Anticipates well and gets out into the passing lanes … Showed mental toughness and he deserves some credit for sticking through a difficult situation, where he encountered a new culture, a coaching change and inconsistent playing time … Was tamed by the system that did not allow all of his strengths to be on display …
Weaknesses: Did not have the season needed to improve his stock, but playing the PG position at the top Euro level is difficult for any player, much less one coming straight out of high-school … Has struggled playing in the half court because his jumpshot has been inconsistent, which allows defenders to play off him and clog the lanes … Does not take care of the ball, but is rather very careless with it, trying to make the flashy play rather than the simple and correct one … Needs to learn to control the tempo, to slow down and change gears; he goes at one speed (full throttle) at all times which leads to a high turnover rate and it makes him very predictable and easy to defend … Shows a strong preference to finishing with his left hand, even when going right, he will usually switch back to his strong hand and expose the ball to the defense … Because his frame is extremely light and frail, he has a hard time going up against stronger guards because they can body him out of driving lanes … Defensively, even though he does a good job staying in front of people, they are still able to get their shoulder on him and take him to the basket … Tends to fade on his shot too much, leaving many of them short, especially when playing longer stretches of minutes …
Weaknesses: Desperately needs to add muscle mass to his body … Right now his body is about 20-25 pounds too light … He can be pushed around by bigger and stronger guards, and is less effective at penetrating because he can’t absorb contact … He may struggle to put much strength and weight on, as he appears to have a naturally skinny body … Can improve upon his offensive game. His jump shot and decision making are good but he’ll need to develop those skills further Inexperience. He still must prove himself on the college level …
YouTube Clip – 7/13/2009