Apparently the NBA workout season is upon us. I found this little news blurb about Siena guard Kenny Hasbrouck, a 6′-3″ Senior combo guard:
Siena senior Kenny Hasbrouck’s taken another step toward his goal of getting to the NBA .
The MAAC player of the year and all-american honorable mention has his first NBA workout set. He’ll get a look from the Oklahoma City Thunder on May 15th, his first scheduled nba date.
Hasbrouck says he’ll work for the Knicks as well, but the date isn’t set yet.
Ordinally, MAAC players would also be thinking about playing overseas. While that could happen for Kenny, it not his plan right yet. He’s instructed his agent only to talk about NBA deals right now. Europe on Hasbrouck’s backburner until all his NBA options are exhausted
I profess I don’t know a thing about Hasbrouck. Siena made the tournament this season, but I didn’t get a chance to see them play. He seems to be somewhat of a defensive pest based on his stats. He’s #6 in total steals and in steals/40. His shooting stats are sort of underwhelming (especially his 66% from the line) but he started all 129 games in his four years at Siena. Hasbrouck is another guy from the D.C. area.
Here is his Draftexpress profile (just stats), and here is his Wikipedia.
As word of these workouts begin to trickle in, we will begin to see the kinds of players, and the positions Presti seems to be interested in addressing.
The Spurs kept Jacque Vaughn around all these years for his defense. He's worked out well in his younger years defending the driving point guard types. Maybe Presti likes having that style of player in his repertoire for 10-12 minutes a game.
I hope that RW learns how to stay in front of the CP3 types.
I noticed how solid of a player he was in the tourney. I think Presti has a really good idea where he wants to go with the top pick but is trying to get a bead on what to do with the late first rounder. Hasbrouck is definitely a nice player.
@Nix
Junior year, yeah. I saw that. I thought you were listing all of his senior accomplishments.
@Joe
That's pretty much how I've heard of it being done, have two players go against each other in workouts to judge relative strengths and weaknesses.
@J.G.
Yes, I would think.
You know what happens sometimes with these workouts is that the GM starts setting up workouts with groups of guys so he can see how they do up close and personal. For example, lets say Presti is interested in getting a good look at Stephen Curry. Curry's agent realizes that Curry will go in the range where the Thunder are drafting. So he sends Curry down to OKC on the 15th. Then Presti brings in a guy who he is only somewhat curious about (like somebody for the summer league or for the Tulsa 66ers, somebody he won't likely use a draft pick on) and has him work out with Stephen. He gets a chance to see how Stephen will work in isolations and coming off curls and such with Hasbrouck all up in his grill.
I'm just speculating. I don't really know that this is how it will work. Some agents for top tier guys won't let their guys work out against lower competition because it may make their guy look bad. If I were the agent for Jordan Hill, I wouldn't want him to workout against DeJuan Blair, because Blair is probably twice as strong and will toss him around. But If I'm Blairs agent, I want him to get a chance to workout against the Thabeets and the Hills because he's got nowhere to go but up.
@J.G.
According to his wiki site he scored 30 his junior year in the first round of the tournament against Vanderbilt....
Good call, Joe, but I would just hope that somebody like that could also have some NBA offense in their repertoire, you know?
I noticed several times this year with the Thunder, that we have a gaping hole in our roster: a guy who can play solid defense on small fast guards.
Our two good perimeter defenders are Weaver and Thabo, who are both 6'6 or 6'7". We needed somebody who can consistently stay in front of those small fast guys like Leandro Barbosa, Jason Terry and Chris Paul types. Those guys under six three or so who are really fast on the drive or getting to their spots.
Judging by Hasbroucks underwhelming offense, maybe Presti is looking to have somebody who fills that niche. Lord knows Chucky couldn't do it, and Earl can't do it anymore, and Westbrook seemed like he played better D on the bigger types of guys that he could use his strength on.
I got to watch Hasbrouck play against Oklahoma State this year and I hate to rain on his parade but, I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed other than his defensive abilities, which were obvious from the tip.
Honestly, from what little I did see of him this year (OSU, Niagara, Niagara, OSU and Louisville), he seems to me to be a poor man's Kyle Weaver...which is fine, but unless he has a lot more upside than I've seen, he seems like a solid 9 or 10 man used primarily for defensive purposes on an NBA roster. Toss in the fact that his FG%, 3PT% and even FT% all went DOWN his Junior and Senior years from his Freshman(Siena did schedule tougher competition but that just confirms some of my fears) and that 9 or 10 man role seems pretty accurate. Just my opinion from a very, very limited sample size though. I could very easily be wrong.
@Nix
And you might be confusing Hasbrouck with someone else, since I only think he had one 30pt game in his senior year and that was against lowly St. Peter's in the MAAC. And Hasbrouck didn't break the 13 point barrier in the NCAA tournament (12 and 11 points in his games).
I think that Presti should consider signing Ersan Ilyasova. He will be a restricted free agent this year, and, just like with Krstic, it is doubtful that the Bucks would bother re-signing him. He's a great three shooter, plays good defense, and is a good rebounder. Sounds like a useful sort of player.
He had several 30pt plus games...and one in the tournament...(that's more 30pt games then RW had before the NBA)