This guy sounds intriguing. He's supposed to be a great defender and is a national leader in "box plus minus" and PER. So...what's wrong with him? Why isn't he showing up in mock drafts?
We have a draft thread already. He's not athletic or strong enough to score in the NBA. His defense probably doesn't translate well for that same reason.
I don't think his strength and athleticism is the issue. He embraces contact and is pretty agile and coordinated. I think it has more to do with being a post scoring 4 with zero shooting ability. His current skillset is not that valuable in today's nba, but he should be a late first / early 2nd in this draft. The talent in that range is pretty overrated imo and would be worth a shot.
No. He's like a supercharged Andrew Nicholson without the shooting, but more defense. Better overall athlete too. Really unique player without a direct comparison.
He has an old man's low post game. In spite of not being quick or athletic, he finds a way to get his shot off in traffic around the rim. But, that's pretty much his offense. He can't score more than 3' from the rim - including at the FT line where he's a 52% FT shooter. Has an old school center's game, in an old school PF's body. Not big enough to play center in the NBA. He'd need to be paired with a stretch-5. He's a red shirt sophomore and I know it's tempting to make the leap to the NBA after having a somewhat breakout season, but I really think he'd be better served staying at Wisconsin one more year. This draft is so freaking deep, he'd get lost and probably go late second round, if he even gets drafted at all. If he stays in school and doesn't regress, he'll go higher in next year's less deep draft. If he can add a a semi-reliable jump shot out to about 12 feet and improve his FT shooting, he'll be a first round pick next year, which gets him a guaranteed NBA contract. Staying in school would be prudent. BNM
He looks awesome. I love when he falls down getting a steal and passing it ahead, gets up, sprints down the court, gets the ball back, and scores a layup.
Just because he Embraces contact doesn't mean strength isn't an issue. I don't think he's strong enough to make those low-post moves work in the NBA. He also appears to be somewhat unathletic so he won't be able to finish over guys either.
His upper body could use 10 pounds or so for sure, but he looks to have a pretty strong base already. I also don't think he'll have to be necessarily stronger than his match up either. His footwork, craft and touch has a chance to make up for that disadvantage in certain matchups. Let me just say that I don't think he has starting potential or really a fit for this team, but if a team believes in the post up and thinks he can be a bench weapon that you can play your offense through a bit down the road, he's nice value where you'll be able to get him in this draft.
Perhaps a comp is Alan Williams, who was also an undersized 5 who had a ridiculous PER. But the difference is that Happ is a leader in all kinds of defensive metrics. So I don't really care about his offense so much. He's getting both steals and blocks as well as having a really good defensive rebound rate. It suggests that his "motor" is off the charts, so he could outperform his draft position a la Draymond (also said to be undersized and under-athletic).
Do you know if he's definitely declaring for the 2017 draft? I still think he'd be better waiting until 2018. Much shallower draft with a chance of making it into the first round for a guaranteed contract. BNM
I do like that he seems to actually care about playing defense. Defense and rebounding are so much about effort. Yeah, athleticism and length help a lot, but the NBA is full of athletic players who don't give a shit about defense. BNM
He's from a small town like Meyers in Illinois.....has a pretty good footwork...like ZBo he doesn't look like he can jump over a credit card. Who knows? Maybe he's the next Michael Doleac
