Demetri McCamey – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Demetri McCamey PG – 6’3, 205lbs – Born 21st February 1989 Austin Spurs McCamey has spent three of the past four seasons with the Spurs now, yet the player he was as a senior at Illinois seems to be a thing of the past. The McCamey of back then was an excellent spot-up shooter (an enormous 1.634 points per possession) who, while he did not move the opposing half court defence around like other lead guards out there, passed well enough on the move and used the mid-range shooting weapons of Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale to average a hefty 7.1 assists per game. Defence was a concern – McCamey’s tendency to switch off on that end, particularly when things were not going his way offensively, led to the unflattering nickname of McComa – yet McCamey was a lead guard of some note, on the fringes on the NBA, and perhaps in it were he able to better establish himself defensively and consistently stay in shape. However, McCamey has simply never shot as well as that since. Over 158 games in his four G-League seasons, he is shooting 32.3% from three-point range and 37.7% from the floor, and no longer getting to the foul line, attempting only 8 foul shots all season. It is also hard to put McCamey on the ball here in Austin in a way that he was back with the Illini when players such as Ryan Arcidiacono, Keifer Sykes, Nick Johnson and Travis Trice are always with him – the niche McCamey fills now is as the reserve, slow-it-down, streak-shooting replacement-level player. Upperclassman McCamey, the one who consistently hit difficult jump shots and passed with some flair, was great fun. Very good, too. Here’s hoping he can get back to shooting like that again. […]
Connor Burchfield – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Connor Burchfield SG – 6’4, 180lbs – Born 6th April 1994 Austin Spurs In his first professional season out of William and Mary, Burchfield moved around. He signed early with Juventus in Lithuania, was cut after two months just before the season began, was drafted by the Spurs with the penultimate pick in the first round of the G-League Draft, lasted two further months, before latterly spending 13 days with the Sioux Falls Skyforce and 11 days with the Greensboro Swarm. Across all these gigs, he managed only 113 minutes played, enough time to get up 21 three-pointers but hitting only five of them. Burchfield is of course a shooter by trade, and an elite one, hitting 50.8% from outside across his four-year collegiate career on 354 total attempts. He moves off the ball, runs to the wing, cuts back door, and works to get open without dribbling. That said, apart from the very occasional drive of a close-out, Burchfield almost never handles the ball, and hasn’t demonstrated the ability to much do so. And with a small stature, a short and skinny wing span and little athleticism, defence will forever be the valid concern. After all, while he can chase around other Connor Burchfield types, he is changing no one’s plans. [2020 UPDATE: Retired and works in insurance.] – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
