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Saturday, June 9
Updated: June 11, 3:13 PM ET
Poor shooting plagues Chicago camp
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
CHICAGO -- Will Solomon better hope the NBA pays more attention to season shooting stats than the numbers produced at the pre-draft camp if he wants to stay in the draft.
"They know I can score and make 3s," the Clemson junior combo guard said of his 39.7 percent overall, 37.7 on 3s during the season. "I'm here to show I can play the point."
|  | | Kirk Haston was one of the few players to consistently knocked down his outside jumpers. |
He's certainly not here to show he can shoot, putting up numbers like 1-for-7 and 2-for-10 in games at the Moody Bible Institute.
But there's no reason to just pick on Solomon. He's not alone. He's got plenty of company. The most common number it seemed this week was 1 or 2 -- as in number of shots made. Shot selection was part of the reason. Rushed shots were another. And plenty of players played decent 'D.'
But the shooting has been awful.
Arizona sophomore guard Jason Gardner might have been the worst offender, shooting a combined 6-for-28, 2-for-15 on 3s after shooting 38.1 and 36.7 from behind the arc during the season.
Mid-range jumpers were hard to knock down in Chicago. Making a 3-pointer seemed to be even more rare, which is somewhat understandable considering the college 3-point line is a few feet closer. But that's why a player with deep range like Duke senior Shane Battier, who proved throughout the season with a 41.9 percent clip that he could make the 3-pointer consistently, rises in the eyes of the scouts. This draft dominated by high school senior big men is devoid of pure shooters.
They certainly weren't in Chicago.
"No shooters, here, well maybe Trenton Hassell and Gilbert Arenas, but that might be it," said New York Knicks scout Kenny Williamson. "In Europe, the players learn to score from the outside in. We seem to start from the inside out."
Players get nervous and tight with their potential careers on the line with every jump shot. The shots aren't easy to come by because each player is part of a five-man rotation, playing five-minute stints before being rotated out for the next group. If a player didn't get a shot off in a five-minute stint, he might not shoot for 10 after sitting on the bench for five. Not good for a shooter's rhythm.
But still?.
Michigan State's Charlie Bell went 1-for-8 and 1-for 9-in two games. Georgetown's Lee Scruggs was 1-for-7. Kentucky's Keith Bogans went 2-for-8. Baylor's DeMarcus Minor was 1-for-8. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Marcus Hicks was 2-for-7. Meridian CC (Miss.) wing Jamario Moon was 3-for-10. St. John's Omar Cook was 2-for-8. Hofstra's Norman Richardson was 1-for-8. Hassell went 1-for-9. Even Iowa State forward Martin Rancik wasn't exempt -- he went 1-for-12 in one game.
Now, some of these players did redeem themselves. Bell was 7-for-10 in one game (with a 3-pointer). And there were a few exceptions: Texas' Maurice Evans' 4-for-8; Detroit's Rashad Phillips 5-for-11; Kansas' Kenny Gregory' two 7-for-14 games (although a lot were transition buckets); TCU's Ryan Carroll's 6-for-13 (3-for-5 on 3s); Pepperdine's Brandon Armstrong 5-for-10; and Indiana's Kirk Haston consistent mid-range 5-for-8 and 6-for-12 performances.
"You've got to show you've got range and if you do then your stock can change," said Haston, who might have pushed himself into the late first round and away from Indiana for his senior season with his Chicago performance. "There aren't many jump shooters here, maybe no deep shooters. But you had to show that you can shoot from the outside in here."
Evans said he noticed right away that no one was shooting the ball well and knew that if he could that could elevate him. He's correct because a number of scouts were looking for players who could hit shots.
"That's what separates you," Evans said.
Players who can hit the mid-range shot like Battier, Arkansas' Joe Johnson, Charlotte's Rodney White, Seton Hall's Eddie Griffin, Michigan State's Jason Richardson, Notre Dame's Troy Murphy, Villanova's Michael Bradley and North Carolina's Joseph Forte didn't need to be at the Chicago pre-draft camp. They'll all be gone in the top 20.
But the inability to consistently hit the mid-range shot in Chicago will hurt the draft status of players like Alabama's Gerald Wallace (at a private workout this week), Arizona's Gilbert Arenas (41.6 percent on 3s during the season, but 1-for-5 here) and Hassell. They may all go in the first round, although Hassell might return to school, but they could have gone higher if they shot better this week.
But, according to Hassell, this is a draft problem, not a national epidemic, at least not in the Ohio Valley Conference.
"The big leagues like the Big Ten and ACC don't have shooters, but we do, we had two of the best," Hassell said of Eastern Illinois' Kyle Hill (43.4 percent on 3s) and Henry Domercant (44.1 percent on 3s). "There are shooters, but they're not at the big schools."
And, apparently, they're not at the pre-draft camp, either.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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