June 18, 2015

Nnanna Egwu

Continuing the theme set out by Desrosiers above, Egwu is a paint player on defense and a mid range to perimeter player on offense. The polar opposites in Egwu's game are quite extreme.

On defense, his effort is tremendous and he is effective all over the court. Be it around the basket, defending switches or in screen action, Egwu seems to always be in the right spot, with good mobility backed by a great effort level. Fluid if not the hugest leaper, Egwu's timing and length make him a tremendous shot blocker around the basket, and he also defends the perimeter better than most others on this list. Indeed, his pick-and-roll hedges are so hard that he's often not in rebounding position, but his rotations are fast and he is able to recover as well as anyone. The rebounding numbers suffer from all this help defense - Egwu is at least better at boxing out and rotating than he was, yet takes himself out of position through the hedges, chases and blocks quite routinely. But it's justified by the effectiveness of it all.

Offensively, it is a very different story. One of the worst interior finishers for a centre around, Egwu instead favours the perimeter, casting up jump shots with a reckless abandon that the percentages have never justified. Egwu wants to be a shooter and takes shots with the mindset of one, but he isn't an especially good one, and those two factors combine to make the big man a 41% shooter. A 41% shooting five would just about be acceptable with a very efficient, high volume three point stroke, but Egwu has not this. He is instead a severely limited scorer, who completely avoids the post, plays entirely face-up, mostly from far away (save for some cuts and pick-and-roll action), and utilises either a long range righty hook thing or a catch-and-shoot jump shot. Neither of which he has proven much good at. Never getting to the line and eschewing all contract, Egwu is thoroughly awkward on the offensive end, and it certainly is not justified by the effectiveness of it all.

If Egwu can stay good at that which he already is, and become good at that which he sorely wants to be, he is that rarest of beasts - a stretch five who can also defend the paint. That intrigues anybody. But in four years at Illinois, his offense barely if at all progressed, and it needs to do so quite sharpish.

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