A brief multi-functional post. I was talking to one of the best lawyers in Florida earlier about J.J. “Glitch” Hickson’s game, and I came upon this scouting report while doing some research:
Strengths: Strong finisher – can absorb contact and still score. Nice hands. Long wingspan. Strong, thick frame. Nice post moves. Great shot-blocker. Great rebounder – had 10 double-digit rebounding games his freshman year. Very accurate from the field. Was “the man” on a team that plays in one of college’s best conferences. Athletic for a big man.
What’s interesting about this is that almost all of Glitch’s strengths have become weaknesses in the NBA (so far). Comparing J.J. to the league average, here’s what we see:
Offensive Rebounding Rate: 9.1 vs. 5.3
Defensive Rebounding Rate: 18.4 vs. 14.3
Total Rebounding Rate: 14.0 vs. 9.8
Blocks per 40 minutes: 1.7 vs. .5
You’ll notice two things about these stats. The first is that I’m citing Rebounding Rate as opposed to total rebounds. This, I’ve recently come to believe, is a more accurate representation of a player’s ability to rebound because it measures the percentage of available rebounds he gets.
The reason this is an important distinction is that just looking at defensive or offensive rebounding totals penalizes players whose teams shoot well, create turnovers, or allow their opponent to shoot a high percentage.
The second thing is that J.J. is above the league average in all of these categories … however, what we don’t know is whether or not he’s above the league average for Power Forwards. I’m sure that PG and SG drag the average down.
[I don’t (think) I have access to league average rebounding rate by position. If anyone knows where those averages are, please tell me.]
This is one case where I don’t believe we have to check the stats to know that Hickson is a piss poor rebounder. We also know that he routinely drops passes and flubs finishes around the rim (40% on tip-ins tells you that, as does 85.6% on dunks).
The overall point is that Hickson’s collegiate strengths have not been professional strengths yet … which reminds us that whenever you hear other PF mentioned in trade rumors, just about anybody is going to be a better PF than Hickson.
