What if the Sixers Draft … Ben Hansbrough?

Back in 2008 the Sixers traded Reggie Evans to Toronto for Jason Kapono to address their lack of outside shooting, but it didn’t really work out for us.

Kapono never became that regularly-used 3-point threat that a host of other teams have, and in hindsight it’s easy to see why Ed Stefanski’s thinking was flawed.  Putting Kapono, a small forward, in the game meant taking out the current lineup’s small forward, and for the Sixers that was usually the team’s best player, Andre Iguodala.

There was also another player you could bring in instead of Kapono to play the 3, and that was Thaddeus Young, a very important part of what the Sixers like to do on offense.  What Thad and Iggy brought to the table greatly outweighed Kapono’s specialized skill.

Jodie Meeks was somewhat successful as a 3-point specialist because he didn’t replace anyone who was an integral part of the Sixers’ style of play.

For their 2nd round pick Draftexpress has the Sixers choosing 6’3” Ben Hansbrough of Notre Dame, Tyler Hansbrough’s little brother.

This pick only makes sense for the Sixers if they’re drafting him for his 3-point shooting, but would the Sixers be making the Kapono mistake all over again?  Before I get into what I think of Hansbrough, I want to delve into this question.

Ben played point guard this past season at Notre Dame, but it was his first year doing so and before that he played two seasons at shooting guard for Mississippi State and one season at shooting guard for Notre Dame.

In the NBA, if he were a starter, he’d have to play the point.  But coming off the bench I would have no problem bringing him in as the off guard.  I think his best comp is former Sixer Willie Green, who is also 6’3” and saw a lot of playing time as a shooting guard next to Chris Paul this past season.

Willie is more athletic and more agile, but Hansbrough is the better shooter.  If you would have been okay with Lou Williams and Willie Green playing together in the backcourt for certain stretches, then I think you’d be okay with Lou and Ben Hansbrough together.

As the off guard, Hansbrough has two people in front of him on the depth chart: Evan Turner and Jodie Meeks, two players who aren’t as important to the Sixers’ game as Iguodala and Thad.  Let’s say you have the following lineup out there in the 3rd quarter, where Thad comes in for Hawes and Iguodala has been given a breather:

Thad-Brand-Lou-Meeks-Jrue

Then Coach Collins sees something from either Meeks or Jrue that he doesn’t like, but he doesn’t want to lose 3-point shooting from his lineup.  He can then call on Hansbrough for some Steve Kerr minutes and keep size by also putting in Evan Turner:

Thad-Brand-Lou-Hansbrough-Turner

That’s what Ben Hansbrough would be for this team, a Steve Kerr who will play spot minutes about 2 out of every 3 games and give Doug Collins some lineup flexibility.

On YouTube, I found two Ben Hansbrough clips, a well-done highlight reel of Ben at Notre Dame, and the last 6 minutes of a game against West Virginia in 2010.  Very little in his game strikes you as something that comes from a natural talent with the basketball; what he does on the basketball court all seems to come working hard at the game.

My observations:

• If what we want most from Hansbrough is his 3-point shooting, then how did he look shooting the ball?  I know it’s a highlight reel so every shot he took went in, but to my amateur scout eyes he it seemed like he had terrific consistency and form on every one of his long-range shots.  I don’t know where shooting accuracy comes from, but here’s my theory of why Ben is going to be a great shooter in the NBA: he believes in his shot because of the hard work and practice he puts into it, not because he has some God-given ability to put the ball in the basket.
• In the West Virginia game he was playing off guard and was having trouble getting away from his defender.  I think that’s something we won’t see that often from Hansbrough in the NBA simply because his NBA defenders will be older and slower (I think Collins would use him against certain players but not against others).
• Stealing blatantly from Bill Simmons, he’s like a white NFL wide receiver in that he’s “deceptively quick”, but he’s clearly not an NBA starter.  He seems to play with a lot of energy and buoyancy and it reminds you of the J.J. Bareas and the Nate Robinsons of the world.  It’s easy to see him making a big 3 that sends the Wells Fargo Center crowd into a frenzy.
• He can get to the rim with really well-timed hesitations, changes of speed, and spin moves; I haven’t seen that much hesitation, spin, and change of direction from a white guy since the Bush administration (I’ll be here all week, folks).  He takes and misses only one shot in the West Virginia clip, but it’s typical Hansbrough – he has a long and lean defender guarding him but he does this little shimmy to catch the defender flat-footed for just a split-second, but it’s just enough to create the space he needs to put up a floater.  In the highlight reel there’s this fantastic sequence:

He steals the ball at the top of the 3-point line and heads the other way with the defender racing back with him.  He knows the defender is faster and that he’ll catch up but he still wants to make the defender think it’s a race to the hoop to set the defender up for one of his juke moves.  Just when the defender gets in front of him, he abruptly slows down and sidesteps to the left; the defender is carried away by his momentum just enough to give Hansbrough a clear path to the basket.

I read an article about how he trains and I think his ability to get to the rim is a result of practice.  He goes to the gym early in the morning, puts chairs all around the court, attacks the hoop while dribbling around the chairs, and when he goes up to finish a coach smacks him with some sort of contact pad.

Hansbrough’s game doesn’t work in the NBA if he’s easy to read (see: Iguodala, Andre), but he’s not.  Instead of a poker face, he’s got a poker “body” – he can change speeds or execute moves without telegraphing it.  Another thing he needs to have his game work in the NBA is an ability to patiently create or wait for angles of attack for his dribble drives, but luckily he has this, too.

Something that I couldn’t learn from the YouTube clips – how often does Ben Hansbrough put up bad shots?  I wish I’d seen more video of him to determine this.

For more on Ben Hansbrough, check out the article Draftexpress just did on him.