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Mathews is a four-year player from the very small Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. And this season he was the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year with averages of 21.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.

He has decent height to play the league but figures to struggle on the defensive side of the floor. Mathews has the vertical leap to contest shots well, but lacks the foot speed to stay in front of the more capable slashers at the NBA level.

But, alas, Mathews has the one elite skill that all 30 NBA teams could use: shooting.

He came into college basketball as a solid shooter and has increased his 3-point percentage every season. In 2018-19, Mathews is shooting an elite 40.6 percent from 3-point range on 8.1 attempts per game.

The fact that Mathews can heat up from 3-point range is only made more interesting by the fact that he is getting to the free throw line six times a game this season, a very high figure for a player whose primary weapon is their jump shot. His varied scoring ability has led to an awesome 33.6 PPG over his last 3 games.

At Lipscomb, head coach Casey Alexander runs lots of great actions with Mathews coming off of pin down screens and cross screens to get him into the paint. Once in the lane, Mathews actually possess a solid postgame for a wing.

From the post-Mathews can get to a fadeaway jumper with soft touch, or he can pump fake his defender into oblivion, freeing up himself for a wide-open layup. And of course if nothing is there, he willingly kicks the ball out to the perimeter to reset the offense.

This makes life easier for everyone on the floor for Lipscomb, as Mathews is a high-IQ player who for his career, only averages 2.0 turnovers per game.

At the end of the day, Mathews best chance of getting drafted is going as a late-round flier to one of the more 3-point reliant teams in the league such as the Jazz, Raptors or Hornets. But the more likely scenario is that Mathews joins an NBA team for the Las Vegas Summer League and makes a great impression there to get invited to training camp. With his leadership skills and versatile scoring ability, something tells me we will hear from Mathews in the NBA at some point, even if it takes awhile for him to truly stick in the league.

Garrison Mathews, shooting guard, Lipscomb

Mathews received few Division I offers out of high school, partially because he split time between football and basketball. When he moved to the hardwood full-time, he shattered scoring records at Lipscomb and raised his three-point percentage from 35 percent as a freshman to 40 percent as a senior.

He’s already worked out for the Atlanta Hawks after a solid showing in Portsmouth, where he tested “better than expected athletically,” according to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. Look for Mathews to make an NBA appearance at some point even if he has to take an indirect route to the league. That may mean taking a two-way deal with a team like the Hawks, who already have Kevin Huerter, Kent Bazemore and DeAndre’ Bembry under contract for 2019-20.
https://youtu.be/2PI0bNBMTRQ

80sballboy wrote:Justin Robinson
(basically solid player, not an elite athlete but good enough, not explosive, pretty decent defensively, good shooter, smart, no wingspan)
https://www.peachtreehoops.com/2019/5/19/18629761/justin-robinson-2019-nba-draft-scouting-report-atlanta-hawks-virginia-tech
https://www.nbascoutinglive.com/justin-robinson-virginia-tech
https://www.nba.com/draft/2019/prospects/justin-robinson#/

nate33 wrote:Robinson will just be a practice player. He'll run the D-League offense. If he makes the team, it'll be as a 2-way player, but I even doubt that. They'll probably prefer to develop more promising prospects with those 2-way slots.

pcbothwel wrote:Lol... what? We just signed a better play making version of Chasson Randle. Randle with better vision and more tenacity/instincts in defense for a 3 year Min deal is a STEAL.

Eli Babak wrote:

nate33 wrote:Robinson will just be a practice player. He'll run the D-League offense. If he makes the team, it'll be as a 2-way player, but I even doubt that. They'll probably prefer to develop more promising prospects with those 2-way slots.

Unfortunately they already signed him to a multiyear deal with "substantial guarantee". Ernie's... oh wait... Tommy's gonna Tommy.

Edit:

Read on Twitter

I don't know what they're doing. Already wasted a roster spot?

pcbothwel wrote:

Eli Babak wrote:

nate33 wrote:Robinson will just be a practice player. He'll run the D-League offense. If he makes the team, it'll be as a 2-way player, but I even doubt that. They'll probably prefer to develop more promising prospects with those 2-way slots.

Unfortunately they already signed him to a multiyear deal with "substantial guarantee"....

Lol... what? We just signed a better play making version of Chasson Randle. Randle with better vision and more tenacity/instincts in defense for a 3 year Min deal is a STEAL.

payitforward wrote:

pcbothwel wrote:

Eli Babak wrote:Unfortunately they already signed him to a multiyear deal with "substantial guarantee"....

Lol... what? We just signed a better play making version of Chasson Randle. Randle with better vision and more tenacity/instincts in defense for a 3 year Min deal is a STEAL.

I'm sure Robinson isn't even fully guaranteed for his first year, so there's not a lot of risk in the signing. Whereas if he works out, then it's a bargain.

OTOH, pcbothwei, 1) what makes you so absolutely certain that he's better than Chasson Randle in any of those things? & 2) why should "better than Chasson Randle" be a metric of any kind at all? I.e. why is that a recommendation? Are you saying that, otherwise, it would have been difficult to find someone better than Randle?

pcbothwel wrote:

payitforward wrote:

pcbothwel wrote:Lol... what? We just signed a better play making version of Chasson Randle. Randle with better vision and more tenacity/instincts in defense for a 3 year Min deal is a STEAL.

I'm sure Robinson isn't even fully guaranteed for his first year, so there's not a lot of risk in the signing. Whereas if he works out, then it's a bargain.

OTOH, pcbothwei, 1) what makes you so absolutely certain that he's better than Chasson Randle in any of those things? & 2) why should "better than Chasson Randle" be a metric of any kind at all? I.e. why is that a recommendation? Are you saying that, otherwise, it would have been difficult to find someone better than Randle?

The reason I point out Randle is because he was an undrafted 4 year scoring guard that played with us last year. Their skill set is similar and played against similar competition (ACC & PAC-12). It gives us an idea about how Robinson's skills would transfer.
1) Robinson averaged double the assist (And better AST:TOV ratio)
2) Robinson was a better 3pt shooter, but a much better scorer as a whole and in the paint.
3) Robinson was a better defender/better fundamentals while averaging more than double the amount of steals

Plus, I LOVE improvement. It shows work ethic, and IQ/self awareness. Robinson year over year became more efficient, rebounded better, gathered more steals, and increased his usage. That shows a guy with skills, but really a guy that puts the work in every summer.

payitforward wrote:

pcbothwel wrote:

payitforward wrote:I'm sure Robinson isn't even fully guaranteed for his first year, so there's not a lot of risk in the signing. Whereas if he works out, then it's a bargain.

OTOH, pcbothwei, 1) what makes you so absolutely certain that he's better than Chasson Randle in any of those things? & 2) why should "better than Chasson Randle" be a metric of any kind at all? I.e. why is that a recommendation? Are you saying that, otherwise, it would have been difficult to find someone better than Randle?

The reason I point out Randle is because he was an undrafted 4 year scoring guard that played with us last year. Their skill set is similar and played against similar competition (ACC & PAC-12). It gives us an idea about how Robinson's skills would transfer.
1) Robinson averaged double the assist (And better AST:TOV ratio)
2) Robinson was a better 3pt shooter, but a much better scorer as a whole and in the paint.
3) Robinson was a better defender/better fundamentals while averaging more than double the amount of steals

Plus, I LOVE improvement. It shows work ethic, and IQ/self awareness. Robinson year over year became more efficient, rebounded better, gathered more steals, and increased his usage. That shows a guy with skills, but really a guy that puts the work in every summer.

He did improve slightly year by year. Of course, year by year, he increased his edge in experience over opponents. Nor did the numbers zoom up from year to year. Nor were they super-high even his senior year.

There's no reason whatever to think anything particularly optimistic about this undrafted, way undersized, 4 year college PG. I was wondering why we should rate him over Chasson Randle. You didn't answer that question, so I went and looked Randle's college numbers.

Robinson's numbers are better than Randle's, though it should be mentioned that he played in a tougher conference. So, maybe he'll be better than Randle was. But... "steal?" No.

pcbothwel wrote:

payitforward wrote:

pcbothwel wrote:The reason I point out Randle is because he was an undrafted 4 year scoring guard that played with us last year. Their skill set is similar and played against similar competition (ACC & PAC-12). It gives us an idea about how Robinson's skills would transfer.
1) Robinson averaged double the assist (And better AST:TOV ratio)
2) Robinson was a better 3pt shooter, but a much better scorer as a whole and in the paint.
3) Robinson was a better defender/better fundamentals while averaging more than double the amount of steals

Plus, I LOVE improvement. It shows work ethic, and IQ/self awareness. Robinson year over year became more efficient, rebounded better, gathered more steals, and increased his usage. That shows a guy with skills, but really a guy that puts the work in every summer.

He did improve slightly year by year. Of course, year by year, he increased his edge in experience over opponents. Nor did the numbers zoom up from year to year. Nor were they super-high even his senior year.

There's no reason whatever to think anything particularly optimistic about this undrafted, way undersized, 4 year college PG. I was wondering why we should rate him over Chasson Randle. You didn't answer that question, so I went and looked Randle's college numbers.

Robinson's numbers are better than Randle's, though it should be mentioned that he played in a tougher conference. So, maybe he'll be better than Randle was. But... "steal?" No.

Huh... He is better than Randle, not really that close. His playmaking and defense are superior and he has more tools offensively.
Carsen Edwards went 33, Devonte Graham went 34, Frank Jackson went 31... Robinson is clearly a mid 2nd that we got as a UDFA and have 3 years control plus bird rights for.

Thats a good deal

payitforward wrote:And... here we have Garrison the Pale scoring 44 points vs. NC State in the NIT quartefinals:

Watch on YouTube

payitforward wrote:We also have the undrafted FA Corey Davis Jr. Check him out:

Watch on YouTube