NBA Comparison: Malik Beasley

Strengths: Hughes is a smooth athlete with nice explosiveness, capable of finishing above the rim when he gets an opening … Polished ball skills … Effective in the open floor as well as playing in the half court … Has solid scoring ability and versatility … Shows quality ability to break down opponents off the dribble, and has some decent wiggle in ISO situations … Understands how to set up opponents with change of speed, hesitation moves … Drives the ball well and has touch when he can’t complete plays with dunks … Utilizes finger rolls and floaters well … Handles the ball well for a wing and routinely brought the ball up for Syracuse … Shows a good shooting form and can fill up the bucket with points in a hurry, averaging 19 ppg as a junior … Shot 81% from the FT line … Can pull up off the dribble as well as knock down shots on catch and shoot situations … Not a black hole, despite being the team’s go to scorer. Does a solid job of looking to get teammates involved … A good passer and protects the ball well averaging 3.4 assists to 2.3 turnovers … Has shown steady improvement as a shooter and scorer, raising his FT% steadily throughout his college career … Confident player, doesn’t get rattled easily and shows solid competitiveness … Solidly built frame at 215 lbs … Shows solid anticipation to jump passing lanes on defensive end … Solid rebounder, showing a willingness to give up his body and battle bigger player for boards (4.9 per game) … Contributed nearly a block per game (0.8 per) in both sophomore and junior seasons … Extremely consistent player, putting up double digits in all but two games … Considered a high character guy and good teammate … Solid length with a wingspan that appears in the 6-9 to 6-10 range …

Weaknesses: Lacks ideal height for the wing position … Athleticism is solid but not elite. Finished a lot of plays with finger rolls and got his shot blocked around the rim a fair amount … Limited upside as he turned 22 on March 10th … A good shooter, but his three point percentage dipped to 34% with a lot of pressure put on him to score from the perimeter … Defense is a concern as he will need to re-learn some of the basics of spacing and man defense, having spent two years at Syracuse following his transfer from East Carolina … Over confidence in his shooting leads to too many shots from too far outside the three point arch. While he has the range, his tendency to launch shots 5 feet beyond the line raises some question marks … Appears that he could tone his body some … Can be over ambitions with his passing at times, trying to thread a needle or look for the spectacular play …

Overall: Despite hitting just 34% from three, he actually connected on more three pointers in his sophomore year 87-236 (36.9%) … Perhaps defenses being able to focus more of their attention on Hughes affected his shooting efficiency to some degree as a junior …

Notes: Measured: 6’4.75” barefoot, 6’6.50” in shoes, 8’5.50” standing reach, 229.0 lbs, and 6’7.50” wingspan at the 2020 NBA Combine … Played his senior season of high school at famed South Kent Prep in Connecticut … Started his college career at East Carolina, where he played his freshman year before transferring to Syracuse and red-shirting one season … Majored in human development and family science …

Aran Smith 6/22/20