Article: Freeman poised for breakout season

[HOYAPLAYA]

bleacherreport.com/articles/243734-austin-freeman-elliot-williams-top-list-of-players-poised-to-breakout?ref=other-stories-list

Apologize if this was already posted on the board.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

I agree with the conclusion, but I'm not sure about all of their reasoning. I'm not sure if anyone thought Austin was a surefire for the NBA in only a couple years. After 4 years I like his chances but I'm not sure many were expecting him to bolt early. I also think Austin was quite good last year despite his drop off in 3pt%

[gtowndynasty]

I love Austin, but lets not go overboard. He is a good college player. But at the next level, he is an undersized 2 that lacks the athleticism to make up for his lack of size. His handle is not particularly good, he is not particularly quick/fast, and his hops arent out of the world. Anyone who projected anything but a four year college career with a chance to be taken in the second round and make a team doesnt understand the nba game.

With that said, I expect Austin to be great this year for the Hoyas. But even a great year wont translate to any nba buzz. Case in point...as good a year as Harangody had, he would still have been a fringe second rounder.

[dense]

Ehhh I agree with what your saying just suspect reasoning IMO.

Gody wasnt gonna be picked in the 1st round but would have been picked mid 2nd because he cant play the 4 Defensively in the NBA he is a 6'7 PF with no hops. I think he proved from accounts that he could put the ball in he bucket from even deep NBA range in the workouts. Just not able to guard anyone at all. He will have to be a 3 in the NBA no doubt about it. Interesting will be if he stays trimmed down as he looked in the NBA workouts or will put weight back on to play in the post for ND.

Freeman has worked on all those things(handle is much improved)...he isnt a sure-fire NBA player i think because of other factors, he is a power-guard who isnt a great knock down deep shooter. But i think this summer he showed he definitely has the hops back that he had when he was at DeMatha. Even if he has a great year you are right...no buzz will come of it.

[MCIGuy]

Its Bleacher Reports, people. Not SI or ESPN or FOX Sports or Rivals even SB Nation. You take whatever is written with a grain of salt when it comes to BR.

[prhoya]

The author is right. Austin is due for a breakout season. And we need it.

Btw, I don't see VM on the list.

[Giannicolus Jones]

Aug 30, 2009 5:53:16 GMT -5 MCIGuy said:

Its Bleacher Reports, people. Not SI or ESPN or FOX Sports or Rivals even SB Nation. You take whatever is written with a grain of salt when it comes to BR.

It's Bleacher Report, and the author is Jameson Fleming, a Syracuse student. He seems like a nice guy (he did a guest post at HoyaHoops last year), but I always take an extra grain of salt when someone from Syracuse talks about the Hoyas

[jamesonfleming]

After Austin's surge in votes in my poll, I figured HoyaTalk picked up the article...and sure enough you guys did.

I just wanted to say something about Bleacher Report and myself. Please don't think B/R is bad as most people make it out to be. There are A LOT of really bad, biased, idiotic writers. But there are many professionals and future professionals like myself that are using the site as a launching pad. The site is developing a feature columnist program and other ways to separate the crap from the people who know what the heck they are doing.

As for myself, yes, I'm an SU student, yes, I was president of Otto's Army, and yes, deep down as a fan I really don't like Georgetown. But I want to be a professional in this business, and I'd never throw some stupid biased out on the table. When it comes to knowing other college basketball teams outside of Syracuse, I know more about GTOWN than any other school. You are supposed to know your enemies right?

Basically, if I think someone on Georgetown or the team itself is going to be good or bad, I sincerely mean it.

@giannicolous, I was also the one who wrote the letter of apology after my student section trashed your fans at the dome.

[hoyafrigginsaxa]

Well, well, well jameson... I hope you're ready for not one, but TWO beat downs this year

[strummer8526]

Aug 30, 2009 9:38:42 GMT -5 prhoya said:

Btw, I don't see VM on the list.

Oh I expect a breakout. He'll shoot 32% from the line, and it will be considered miraculous.

[robbyt]

Yo dynasty -

His handle and his hops are not that good? Are you kidding?

His handle is excellent and he ran the point when asked last season with more steadiness and vision than anyone else.

In Kenner he threw down multiple air-catching jams and was in the finals of the McDonald's All-American dunk contest a few years ago.

Most importantly he is very high in two innate skills that go overlooked: a) spatial awareness and b) poise. Overall he has super bball IQ.

For him to break out this year is more a question of the team simply getting out of his way and getting him quality opportunities than of him improving (though he has and will improve) IMO. He has been scoring in double digits as the third and fourth guy to get touches for two years, as other guys have jacked up nutty threes and clogged up the offense. Keep it simple, go to Freeman and Monroe over and over.

Freeman can play in the NBA the same way Tyler Hansbrough can, through just being a great all around basketball player. He's also built like a tank and could play Australian Rules Football.

[gtowndynasty]

Robbyt I agree. He is much better than what we see on the court. But based on what i think, and this is corroborated by looking at any draft board you will ever see, he is not an nba prospect. Hansborough has size. Any big man that can bang and run up and down is going to get a shot in the L. Freeman is an undersized 2. And while his handle is good enough not to get ripped, he also is not breaking down people off the dribble. If he has the ability to do so, it may behoove him to show it so the scouts can begin to look at him as a guy who may be able to provide backup minutes at the 1 for someone. Otherwise, he will be continued to be viewed as an undersized two.

One guy reminds me of what Austin could be in college...Miles Simon. Very good player. High IQ guy, very good jumper, handle not so great, but a real winner. That being said, after the career at UA that Miles had, he had the same issues to overcome that I am saying Austin has, the perception he is a small 2.

As a disclaimer, I like Austin a lot. I think he can be a real beast this year. But I also liked Sapp and J. Wallace a lot and could understand that no matter what they did on the court at GTown, he was not going to the NBA. Im sorry, but that is just what it is. Austin can change that, but it would mean he'd have to slide over to the 1 and demonstrate he can play there and expand his range well beyond the college 3 point line.

Not to look too far ahead, but IMO we have one legitimate nba prospect this year, GM. There is nobody else on an nba radar. I think depending on the development of HT, he can be a league prospect, but he isnt right now.

Just my $0.02

[hifigator]

Aug 30, 2009 12:48:15 GMT -5 strummer8526 said:

Aug 30, 2009 9:38:42 GMT -5 prhoya said:

Btw, I don't see VM on the list.

Oh I expect a breakout. He'll shoot 32% from the line, and it will be considered miraculous.

You are going to be so surprised when you see this. I've been working with Vern and he's consistently up in the 75% range. Hell, he'll probably be hitting 80% by the time the season gets here.

[jerseyhoya34]

If he hits rim 80% of the time, it will represent progress.

[robbyt]

Dynasty - I will give you that Free is not a consensus NBA prospect right now, although there is a lot of time to make himself one. Hansbrough does differ in that he has one of the two fundamental basketball tools, height and quickness, whereas Free has some size for a guard and some quickness but neither overwhelmingly. On the other hand, I saw a motor in him in Kenner this past summer that I had never seen before, he blew past 7 players on skates several times. Our impression of his quickness could change.

This season will show whether Freeman can make himself a prospect. Nobody doubts his shooting ability. I would love to see him (as I mentioned a long time ago):

a) take after the similarly sturdy Mark Jackson and post up other guards. Would be absolutely nasty at this due to his 1) size and 2) poise/IQ.

b) become a mini-LJ, i.e. free range banger and windex man

Again, this dude is very, very thick, like NFL thick. He is a mesomorph whereas most bball players are ectomorphs. I weigh 215 and passed him on 37th street during Kenner, he dwarfed me mass-wise. He has a *monstrous* upside as a banger, IMO, almost totally untapped as yet. There are truckloads of windex points that he could add to his great shooting and craftiness.

One other thing:
Monroe might be the only lock for the NBA in this group, but there are a lot of possibles who are at a minimum locks for pro careers somewhere, like in Europe. Wright, Sims, Clark, and definitely Freeman, etc. will all be playing basketball somewhere professionally for a long time (if they want to).

[MCIGuy]

Robbyt, III wants Freeman to develop that postup game too and crash the boards more. But first he wants him to regain his form. This is info passed onto those of us at HR this past spring.

With two seasons left Freeman has to do three things to help his draft status : 1) get his long range shot back (I think his midrange shot is already at a high level) and become almost automatic from out there when left open 2)make huge strides in his ball-handling so he can be more competent and confident in bringing the ball up against pressure as well as take his defender off the dribble to get to the hole and 3) take advantage of his physical strength by doing the type of damage inside (rebounding, scoring) that would increase his value to teams.

I've read that Freeman is making strides in the ball-handling department. Then again he was a decent dribbler in high school and last summer he was supposedly making strides in that areas as well even though it didn't necessarily always show during the real season. Frankly I think its more mental than anything else. Once he gets his comfort level at handling the ball-handling responsibilities at the high D1 level I think he'll be just fine on that front.

I think it was in the "positive" thread that someone pointed out that Freeman in his first two years, when compared to other guys in their frosh and sophomore seasons, was the most efficient scorer to have played thus far under III. And that is despite his big drop-off in three-point shooting last season. When it comes to his height I like to think of two shooting guards from UNC that are around Free's height. R. McCants and Wayne Ellington. Free as a freshman shot the ball much from deep much better than Ellington did when he was a freshman. But I believe the reverse was true for their sophomore seasons. And of course Ellington became a truly big time scorer during his junior year. I'm not sure in III's offense if Freeman can put up those type of numbers next season but over these next two years he at least has to be as effective a scorer (efficient) as Ellington. McCants was simply more explosive and a go-to guy but I think Freeman is a better all-round shooter than him. However those two guys had one huge advantage at North Carolina: the pace of their teams' offense. The Tar Heels under Roy Williams pushed the ball much more quickly. They took more shots as a team, which meant guys like McCants and Ellington got to take more shots and put up more points. Their teams ran the fast break a million times more than III's which means those guys often got the chance to pad their totals (and fg%) with easy baskets. Freeman must get his points almost exclusively out of a slow, halfcourt set. You put Freeman in UNC's lineup and you don't think he is putting up better numbers? Sure doing so may have disguised his deficiencies (as I think it did for both McCants and Ellington) but he would certainly have gotten the chance to score more his first two seasons. Simultaneously if you had placed McCants in the Hoya offense would he have ended up being selected #14 in the NBA draft with all the holes in his game? If Ellington was a Hoya would he have scored nearly as many points his junior season? Obviously success on the court must be taken into the equation. McCants and Ellington's teams went to Final Fours and won national titles. Plus their UNC squads were on TV all the time and scouts basically followed them around the country.

Nonetheless I think the biggest difference is point production and that's where the UNC guys have a leg up. I truly believe that III can make a player a better all around performer, but until he speeds up the pace or until his teams start winning championships his guys won't always look as enticing, to NBA scouts and GMs, as comparable players from high profile programs who play a more flashy style. And unfortunately that style also likely takes a toll on recruiting too from time to time. Therefore it will be interesting to see how III’s former players in the NBA turn out. If Jeff keeps progressing, if Roy makes that leap, if Summers plays much better than a second round selection then III and his program can display substance over flash.

Also as Robbyt pointed out another thing going against Freeman is his build. He doesn’t have a typical basketball physique like guys such as McCants and Ellington. It looks as if he should be playing another sport. This type of perception has been shadowing Freeman even when he was a top 15 player in high school. But when the ball was tossed up and the game began it did not matter because Freeman proved immediately his worth. Hopefully with Free’s slimmer build and his rediscovered athleticism *along with two years of experience under his belt) he can start to change perceptions of hi for the better and ultimately reach his goal of playing in the NBA. I’m not writing him into the draft at this point, but at the same time I’m not going to sit here and suggest its out of the question two years from now.

[MCIGuy]

Okay I had to bump this thread.

Props goes to Syracuse student Jameson Fleming for making an early and correct call on Austin.

Interesting to re-read some of our thoughts on this issue.

[lichoya68]

austin is good a FREAKING TIGHT END INSIDE AND OUTSIDE And also pretty good d adn rebbies nuf said the best is yet to come go hoyas beat the hall