Was fun to watch Chandler Hutchinson in this game.
#24 Nevada @ Boise State for 1st place in the Mountain West on the line.
Hutchinson Positives:
1) He is a legit scorer. The handle is for real. He can move & get to the basket. Adept at finishing with the right or left hand. Excellent body control. Good hops. Very effective coming to a jump shot & going back up over defenders for easy looks
2) Seemingly any time he wants, on the break, in a half court set... literally at any time, he can throw it into 5th gear, and he's simply by his defender. He's so fast, he makes every other player on the court look like they don't belong. I don't know exactly how that will translate to the NBA, but I have to imagine he'll be in the upper say 25% of NBA guards/wings in terms of pure speed.
3) Doesn't force his shot. Very good about getting the ball to open teammates.
4) It was difficult to assess his defensive abilities because Boise State spent most of the game in a zone defense. That said, Hutchinson stayed mentally alert. He knew his assignments at all times & several times he even pointed his teammates to their correct assignment. He was very aware of Kendall Stephens when he was assigned to his side of the floor. Other times when he could, he was great about anticipating a shot going up and going in for a contest or for the rebound.
Hutchinson Negatives:
1) Has a very bad habit of not following his own shot. The entire game I saw him crash the offensive glass one time. No matter if he shoots it, passes it, or a teammate puts up the shot, as soon as the action is completed he does a Steph Curry imitation & he's already running back up the court on defense. Sloppy rebounding skills on offense.
2) He's not an exceptional passer. He sees what needs to be done, but all of his passes are lasers. He whips the ball around without a sense of touch or finesse. I never saw him employ a bounce or lob pass. I only saw one pass into the post that led the big to a bucket. Poor anticipation skills. He moreso, gets double teamed, and looks for the nearest open teammate & gets rid of it.
3) Definitely still needs work to develop an NBA 3. He has a shot, but he lacks confidence & the mechanics aren't as fluid as they need to be. He's not Kendall Stephens, for example, who will just let it fly with confidence at any time. It's almost like he has to have space to feel comfortable letting it go.
This is just a side note on his defense. Well... also in general. In the 1st half, Hutchinson didn't even look like the best player on the court. He didn't look like one of the 3 best players on the court. Nevada has a guy averaging 19 ppg this year. Junior SF Caleb Martin a NC State transfer. nbadraft.net has him going in the 2nd round in the 2019 draft.
Martin posterized Hutchinson on a baseline drive in the 1st half, and Martin who's listed at 6-7, I would believe Hutchinson is more like 6-6 even though he's listed at 6-7 too.
With Kendall Stephens going 4-4 on deep 3s & shooting right over the zone, Boise State dumped out of their zone & went to some box & 1s, and man defense to close out both halves. Also, Villanova had Mikal Bridges defending Providence's PG as he brought the ball up the final 5 minutes tonight & Mikal was giving Providence's guards trouble.
Hutchinson is no Mikal Bridges, but Boise State did have Hutchinson out top guarding Caleb Martin. On one possession late in the game, Martin drove right on Hutchinson, utilizing a screen, and Hutchinson wasn't able to recover. Martin laid it in for a relatively easy layup. Hutchinson basically was burnt on that possession.
However, with just under a minute to go, and the score 72-72 (with 1st place in the Mountain West on the line), Hutchinson again guarded Martin at the top of the key. Martin tried to blow past him to the left this time & he got a little breathing room (Martin has a quick first step), but Hutchinson recovered and not only caught up to Martin but he leaped high enough & stayed high enough to wait Martin out until he tried to force up a shot & then he swatted it into the 3rd row. It was a very impressive defensive & athletic play with the season on the line.
Hutchinson also had 2 steals that were impressive during the game (he had 4 total steals, but only 2 were impressive). One time he stripped a post player who tried to dribble around him. Just picked his pocket. And the second time he looked off Nevada's PG, read a passing lane, and jumped out for a steal going the other way. Definitely see the alertness, the physical tools, and the instincts for Hutchinson to be a well above average defender at the next level.
Based on all of this, and everything else I've read & seen on Hutchinson, I feel like he's a solid fit in the 15-20 range of this draft.
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