Nesmith played a handful of games his last season in college and came into the NBA in probably the worst year for rookies maybe EVER. No summer league, limited training camp, limited practices, social distancing due to COVID, distractions galore.
It's not just too early to tell, there's so many confounding factors for a guy who was drafted as a raw prospect that there's just no useful information to rely upon when trying to draw any conclusions.
He may be raw defensively, he was supposed to at a minimum bring a shot and he's shooting a horrific 21% from 3. He's not even shooting above 30% from 3 which is even bad for a shooter.
Make all the excuses you want, but if you can't come in and bring the minimum, which is your shooting skill, at even a below league average level you are seriously underperforming.
Defensively, he was bad in college and is even worse now. He can't handle the ball and doesn't have the foot speed or athleticism to get to the rim.
What the hell does he provide? Seriously?! I didn't like the pick during the draft and I don't like it now. We would have been better off drafting a big or even more guard help considering we know Kemba has a degenerative knee condition and we don't have enough playmakers with the ball.
He's a rookie so yeah he gets a pass, but there are still minimums you should hit even as a rookie. To so horrifically underperform usually is a good indicator he may never be better than a bench/rotation player honestly. There were plenty of players still available at 14 that we could have invested that pick on that would have already had a better return (Precious Achuiwa!!!!!!!!!!!).