The truth about Jordan Hawkins’ shooting

Trajan Langdon – the general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans – spoke to the media about Jordan Hawkins, specifically about his shooting abilities, and here is what he had to say:

"“On our team, I don’t think we have anyone like that who just comes off in his shot variety. I think is one thing that we really looked at in him,” Langdan told media after the draft. “His shot profile is as unique of a shot profile in the shooters you’re going to find in college basketball this season. So, it’s not only his shooting prowess but also his profile and his ways to get into shots all over the basketball court, which will be huge for us this season.”"

What Langdan is getting at here with his comments on Hawkins is that he and the Pelicans’ decision-making crew feel that Hawkins is a very versatile shooter.

You see, in today’s ultra-skilled NBA, it isn’t enough to just be a good spot-up shooter. Defenses are way too smart to concede a large volume of open looks to dead-eye snipers. So, if you can only hit spot-ups, there is a hard ceiling on how valuable you can be as a player.

However, if you can get into shots in multiple ways – like by coming off of pindowns, flare screens, or handoffs – you make yourself harder to scheme against and give yourself more of a chance to leave a large imprint on the game.

That’s because if you’re a more versatile shooter, you have more avenues for generating looks for yourself, which means you can take more efficient shots in a game. And as a general rule for when you play Hawkins’ role on offense, the more efficient shots you can take, the more valuable you are to your team.

So, moving forward, when you are evaluating a player who projects to be more of a “shooter” on offense, ask yourself this: how versatile of a shooter are they? That’s what Langdon and the Pelicans did with Hawkins, and it seems like they like the answer they came up with (you know, considering they drafted him!).