What to expect from Kevin Huerter in his rookie year
Kevin Huerter wasn’t supposed to be a two and done player. Now, along with Trae Young, the Atlanta Hawks could now have their backcourt of the future.
On draft night, the Atlanta Hawks traded the rights to No. 3 pick Luka Doncic to the Mavericks for the rights to No. 5 pick Trae Young and a future first-round pick. That decision will take years to evaluate and will hover over both franchises for a long time. But the Hawks didn’t just land the slick passing, half court shot making prowess of Young. They landed another sharpshooter as well by taking Kevin Huerter with the 19th pick. And his skills should translate just fine when contemplating how he will adjust to the NBA.
At 6’7 Huerter not only possess decent to above average ball-handling skills, but was labeled one of the best shooters in the draft by many draft pundits. If you look hard enough, with rose colored glasses mind you, Young and Huerter resemble the backcourt duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The comparison to Thompson makes sense. Thompson and Huerter respectively were seen as excellent shooters who worked hard coming off of screens. They also both had favorable ball skills. Critics, however, would harp on their lack of lateral quickness. They would point to this being a limitation that would hinder them from excelling defensively at the next level.
And yet we see that Thompson rather quickly turned himself into one of the better one on one defenders in the league. No doubt part of that was due to the mentoring of Andre Iguodala, himself a rugged defender. Mostly that success has come from his willingness to work rather hard on that part of his game.
The process of patterning his game after Thompson could come easy. Playing time might be a whole other story because of his injuries.
Huerter too can emulate his game after Thompson. He’s already more athletic than most have thought, and has a rare confidence that impressed many teams throughout the draft process. At the NBA combine, he excelled in his shooting drills despite doing so with a torn ligament in his shooting hand.
Huerter had surgery on a torn ligament below his pinkie finger back in June. During the pre-draft process, his right hand was in a splint which affected his ability to participate in workouts for teams who might have taken him earlier. And because of that injury Huerter didn’t get a chance to feature what his true capabilities were during Summer League. Also given the sheer number of wing options currently available and long with the time missed because of injury, who knows when Huerter will be able to showcase his skill set.
Huerter can shoot the lights out we know. However, he will need to bulk up his weight to prove he can play against NBA rotational wings. But with him only being 20 years old and a first round pick on a bad team, he should have time to develop.