Josh Huestis – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Josh Huestis SF/PF – 6’7, 230lbs – Born 19th December 1991 Austin Spurs Coming out of college, although he had scored 11.2 points per game as a senior, Huestis had yet to establish what kind of offensive player he was. Sometimes he played in the post, sometimes he spotted up from the perimeter, yet in neither case did he stand out. Instead, Huestis was a defence -first player, a rebounder and a shot blocker, who scored through cuts, put-backs and the like as much as he did through any designed plays. Not much was run specifically for Huestis as, with his limited handle, merely average shooting and college basketball’s refusal to run stuff for rolling screeners for some reason, it was not easy to know how to do so. Struggling to finish through contact around the basket, Huestis needed a role. As a pro, Huestis has sought to establish himself as a perimeter shooter. All this has really done for him, though, is show that he isn’t one. Huestis fell out of the NBA last season because the guaranteed money ran out after the Oklahoma City Thunder declined his fourth-year team option. Immediately after doing so, they then gave him over a thousand minutes, as opposed to the mere 96 he managed over his first two years combined. The Thunder at the time were desperately looking for a wing defender who could also space the floor. Huestis, however, didn’t, shooting only 28.7% from three on a high volume of attempts. He needed a bounce-back season this year to re-establish his NBA credentials; instead, though, he again shot poorly in the low-30% range that is usual for him. The 38.5% he shot with the Blue in the 2016/17 season is clearly anomalous compared with the rest of his career. […]
The best remaining unsigned free agents
September 4th, 2018
The bulk of the NBA’s offseason business is done. The big signings are done, the second-tier players are almost all off the table as well, and for the most part, rotations for next season are set. That said, there are always a couple of players who, even at this relatively late stage, are still unsigned. With the bulk of NBA places gone, so too now are the bulk of the EuroLeague and Chinese league places, the two next best-paying leagues in the world. Those who remain unsigned therefore have limited spots to fight over, and might be fighting each other. Here, then, in absolutely no order whatsoever, are some of those remaining who could still potentially help a an NBA team. Jamal Crawford Crawford opted out of a $4,544,400 contract with the Timberwolves, as his one year with the team was not a happy union. He had the third-lowest points per game mark of his career (and the lowest since the first two years of his career), a joint-lowest assists per game mark, and a career-worst DBPM of -4.0. He still make a lot of tough shots off the dribble, as is his way, but he was ineffectual defensively, and measured out as an overall net negative. Nevertheless, Crawford’s ability to save plays should still get him another contract somewhere. It is however surprising that now, in the first week of September, he still hasn’t got one. – Joe Johnson After playing well in a part-season at a new position of power forward on the minimum salary for the Miami Heat down the stretch of the 2015-16, Johnson signed for big money the following summer to do the same for the Utah Jazz. In the first year with them, he did so, being a productive half court offensive player via a […]
Josh Huestis’s D-League adventure, a misplaced exercise in loyalty
July 23rd, 2014
(originally published elsewhere) A few days ago, Darnell Mayberry broke the story that Oklahoma City Thunder draft pick Josh Huestis might spend next year in the D-League, collecting a mere $25,000 or so salary, rather than sign in the NBA. This would be groundbreaking, not as the first first rounder to not sign immediately in the NBA (this happens quite often), but as the first to do so who instead signs in the D-League. It also makes absolutely no sense on the face of it. As useful as the D-League can be, its salaries are extremely uncompetitive. Players are paid by the league in one of three salary brackets, determined by their ability, and even though Huestis would no doubt be worthy of the highest D-League salary possible, that figure is still paltry. It will be comparable before tax with what an NBA 10 day contract pays, and when I say ‘comparable with’, I mean ‘slightly lower than’. Huestis would be doing so because the Thunder asked him to, in a pre-arranged deal running unnervingly close to the line. Tom Ziller speculated it, and Zach Lowe confirmed it. The projected second round or undrafted player going in the first round was indeed a eye opener, and it follows that, given that they may have been alone in wanting to take him that high, the Thunder felt they had the leverage to lean on him in this way. Apparently, to agent Mitchell Butler, the fact that it is the Thunder makes it all worthwhile. An analogous situation here is that of George Hill with the San Antonio Spurs in 2008. The Spurs took the IUPUI guard in the first round when no one expected them to, and used this as a means of leveraging him into accepting less than the customary […]
