these probably don't look like the career stats of a "great" passer:
but every time i watch kevin huerter play, i can't help but be impressed with his playmaking ability.
he's not magical with it; there's no magic johnson "hee hee"-ing going on. but he can make a variety of passes and they're almost always the right read, on time, and on target.
look at this assist from game 1 against the golden state warriors a few days ago. he gets the handoff, turns the corner, and drops a very patient dime to domantas sabonis on the slow roll at the last moment:
one thing that separates huerter from a lot of catch-and-shoot wing players is he does have a decent handle and off-the-dribble mid-range game.
so coming off of handoffs he can actually patiently take a few dribbles before making a decision. that opens up a lot of stuff like this trae-young-esque lob:
this is a really nice two-man game, those quick-decision, crisp bounce passes are so nice:
i like how kevin often passes into pockets of space. he leads domas into the cut here:
he's fantastic at throwing skip passes. here he finds keegan murray on the weakside. notice the placement: it's not thrown where murray was even though he was already open, but instead where he's supposed to be (free throw line extended). he leads keegan to the spot:
this one is a beauty, to murray again:
here he sees harrison barnes with two feet in the paint and rifles it to timothe luwawu-cabarrot in the corner:
sometimes there's some needle-threading too:
this is top-tier stuff:
don't let the 3 assists per game fool you.
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random thoughts:
for the record, i witnessed with my own eyes a team with lebron james and anthony davis on it turn to austin reaves and rui hachimura in crunch time in a playoff game - and they came through.
i've written about steph curry's superhuman conditioning levels before, but just watch him here on this possession. important to note that this was right after the 2nd half started, but still...
everyone knows that jalen brunson is an incredible offensive player now, there's no denying it anymore. but i'll always try to give him props on the little stuff, like his sprinting cut in a virtually meaningless moment of a random game and this perfect close out where he sprinted out to a shooter full speed and went directly into a slide to stay in front of the drive and contest straight up without fouling... this is good enough to be an entire medium lights post on its own:
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