NBA Comparison: Marcus Williams/Shaun Livingston (smaller)

Strengths: A multi-talented combo guard who has shown the ability to run a team on a full time basis … He has been asked to play both of the guard positions in his senior season and he has preformed extremely well … Handles the ball comfortably and has good change of direction moves that allow him to get to the basket … Has terrific length and size as a playmaker and is able to use them both when finishing at the basket or to see overtop of the defense … He is a solid shooter, showing the ability to knock down shots from beyond the arc with his feet set … Also comfortable shooting off the dribble, he elevates extremely well and is able to pull up with very good rhythm … He doesn’t settle from the outside, but looks to get into the paint both in the half court and in transition …  A good athlete with an aggressive approach, he can get to the basket and finish strong or draw contact … He is not afraid of sacrificing his body and he has a knack for drawing fouls … Has a natural ability to find open teammates with pinpoint passing … A crafty distributor and playmaker, he is very good at forcing the defense to rotate and making passes once he gets into the gaps … Has a good mix of tools to defend both guard positions successfully …

Weaknesses: Even though he shoots the ball right handed from the outside, he plays like a left handed player and is uncomfortable dribbling the ball or finishing at the basket with his right hand … He becomes predictable because he will look to switch the ball to his left hand even in situations when a right handed finish is the most high percentage shot … A very streaky shooter, he needs to get into a rhythm before he can make shots … He shoots slightly off balance and with low arc, making it hard for him to get favorable bounces on the rim … He is an extremely turnover prone player, he goes too fast too often and tends to force passes that have no chance of being completed … Needs to become better at controlling tempo and seeing the numbers before attacking in transition … As a defender he needs to become more disciplined and focused on preventing penetration …

Borko Popic – 04/13/2010

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