« on: November 27, 2017, 03:24:56 PM »
I'm catching up on Zach Lowe's piece from last week where he devotes one of his "Ten Things" to Mario Hezonja being terrible. Even before the end of the piece, I started thinking about the DPE. Here's what Lowe says:
It's painful to watch a player wriggled so deep inside his own brain you can feel his indecision seeping through the television. Hezonja shoots when he should pass, drives when he should shoot, and sometimes hot-potatoes the ball around the perimeter when he could rise for an open triple.
Against Utah this week, he passed up what would have been a decent 3-point look, drove into the lane with his head down -- without a plan -- and belched up a lefty floater that surely drove Orlando's coaching staff insane.
He remains lost on defense. Frank Vogel yanked Hezonja three minutes into the second quarter of that same game after he blew assignments on three straight possessions. We didn't see him again until garbage time -- and then not at all Wednesday against Minnesota.
Orlando shopped Hezonja everywhere before the Halloween deadline to decide on his $5.2 million option for next season. They wanted to foist that choice onto someone else. They found no takers, and declined the option.
Someone should buy low on Hezonja, begin again from scratch, and see if they can mold him into an NBA player. He's 6-8 with some hops, and he can shoot. That's an interesting foundation.
Hezonja had a ton of hype after the draft and was picked 5th. He's amounted to basically nothing so far in the NBA but if there aren't a ton of other attractive options out there, anyone want to see what Stevens and his staff can do with this kid?
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Topic: Mario Hezonja as a Reclamation Project? (Read 2811 times)