One point that I didn’t make clear above but I will here: I made these big board adjustments before I got to see any of these prospects live.
So when I went to Temple on Thursday night to watch Taylor Hendricks and UCF take on the Owls, I had embraced putting him in the Top 10 in my rankings.
And let me tell you, he justified that and more with his performance.
Hendricks finished on the night with 16 points, seven rebounds, two steals, and a block to stuff the stat sheet. Taking only eight shots (which admittedly should be higher), Hendricks was a presence all over the floor in ways that go beyond just getting buckets.
As I discussed above with Whitmore, ground coverage is essential for a player like Hendricks. Ideally, he’ll be a power forward next to a true center unless an opposing team goes small leaving Hendricks to play as the lone big on the floor.
He has a great upper body and broad shoulders, but his base is fairly narrow, meaning I’m not sure he’ll fill out physically in a way where you’d want him playing as a center full-time.
Therefore, he’s serving as a weakside rotator and rim protector but also covering on swings and kick outs to the corners and on the wings. Hendricks is in a role where ideally he’s closing out or having to come to a stop in space and contain a driver. He can do both of those things really well, especially closing out.
On a few plays in particular where I thought there was no way he’d get the contest after having one foot in the paint on a skip pass, Hendricks darted to the corner and still managed to make the shot difficult for the Temple player because of his length and leaping ability.
There is no position on the floor where I’m afraid for the outcome in relation to Hendricks guarding them—be it in ball screens, in space, isolation, or around the basket. His weakest point, which again is unlikely to come into play too much in the NBA, is guarding real size in the post. Outside of that, I trust his feet, hips, and recovery ability to hold down the fort defensively. Hendricks rates in the 84th percentile on that end for a reason.
And offensively, he’s even more efficient rating in the 92nd percentile. Catch-and-shoot, face-and-shoot, easy rim finishes in transition: Hendricks’s off-ball fit within an offense is like a glove. Low-usage, high-efficiency players with size are the perfect complements to stars in the NBA, meaning that Hendricks has an anchored floor in the league.
The main reason why he hasn’t rated higher on my board up to this point, or even past where I have him at 10, is that it will require quite a bit of work for him to break his current ceiling and emerge as a second option on a good-to-great team. Hendricks has the poorest handle of any prospect I’m evaluating inside the lottery or close enough to that range, and he hasn’t shown the self-creation ability to assert himself as someone who can consistently go get his own offense.
Without that ability to break down defenders on a possession-by-possession basis, his role is capped as a play finisher albeit one of the best in this class. Not only that, but it also limits how a team may want to utilize him within an offense also cutting down on plays we may see him get more involved as a playmaker.
If he can improve his dribbling and prove he’s a threat to turn, face, and drive or pull up, then he becomes a far more interesting play closer to a ranking of #5 than #10. For now, I will remain cautiously optimistic that he can develop into a player of that ilk and bet on the more conservative projection of his career.
This kid is going to blow up in workouts IMO. The shot is there and he moves well for his size. That ball handling will come and will help his one on one creation. Hard to find his size to skill ratio in the draft
