**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

Should have taken Cam. Just from the he’s a top 5 projected talent still around at 17. Who cares about his attitude.

My guess is JHS is moved to BK soon.
 
JHS a big point guard, but not athletic and can't shoot threes. Lives on a diet of tough middies.

Kinda of duplicative with D'Lo in ways.
 
Vecenie's scouting report on JHS:

Jalen Hood-Schifino

BACKGROUND

Parents are Angel and Glenn. Hood-Schifino was born in Pittsburgh and lived there until he was in middle school, when the family moved to Charlotte. He quickly became a sought-after prospect as a high school player, largely due to his frame and affinity for playing on both ends of the court. He was well-traveled. He started his high school career at Northside Christian Academy in Charlotte, then moved to Combine Academy in Lincolnton, N.C. During that season, he committed to Pitt under coach Jeff Capel III but decided to go through a more robust recruiting process after blowing up as an elite recruit in the summer between his sophomore and junior seasons. Transferred following that year to his final landing spot, Florida powerhouse Montverde Academy. Was consistently among the best players at Montverde, playing with fellow terrific recruits such as Dariq Whitehead, Malik Reneau and Dillon Mitchell. The previous year, he played with draft picks Jalen Duren and Caleb Houstan. Came off the bench as a junior but played a critical role. Started at point guard as a senior and was integral to the team’s success. During both seasons, the team won the GEICO national tournament. Because of all the talent around him, Hood-Schifino’s impact on the game has always gone a bit underrated. He was passed over for the McDonald’s All-American game and Nike Hoop Summit, although he was a Jordan Brand Classic invitee. Many schools didn’t think he was a point guard. Ultimately, Hood-Schifino was considered a consensus top-30 recruit and was a borderline five-star player. He committed to Indiana over Florida, Memphis, Texas and Tennessee and chose Indiana in part because the Hoosiers saw him as a point guard. After Xavier Johnson’s injury, Hood-Schifino got his chance to play point and thrived. He won the Big Ten Conference Rookie of the Year award and was named third-team All-Big Ten. He helped lead Indiana to a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament, where the Hoosiers eventually lost in the second round to Miami. Hood-Schifino declared for the 2023 NBA Draft after the season, as he was considered one of the bigger risers of the college basketball campaign. He was invited to the 2023 NBA Draft Combine.

STRENGTHS
Hood-Schifino has terrific size for whatever role he ends up playing, be it at point or on the wing as a secondary ballhandler. He’s a strong, physical 6-foot-4 without shoes with a great plus-six wingspan and a 215-pound frame. The key to Hood-Schifino’s game is his versatility and overall feel. There are very few holes in what he brings to the table, and he’s smart enough as a processor to think things through on the court. Offensively, it all starts out of ball screens. Hood-Schifino is a tremendous pick-and-roll player who thrives taking a screen and making plays. Plays with a terrific tempo and pace, plus has great feel for how to take (or reject) screens. Changes gears well and has high-level footwork to get separation. Knows how to snake dribble and get his man onto his hip but can also hit the brakes with hang dribbles and hesitations to get free from bigs in drop or guards recovering. Goes slow to fast well. Has a bit more burst here than initially meets the eye. Love the way he strings out bigs and forces them to engage with him. Handles ball pressure well by making early passing reads. Very poised for the most part. As a scorer, Hood-Schifino loves to try to get into the midrange. Loves the elbow jumper and loves to get to his right and pull-up. Was good at taking a screen or a dribble handoff from Trayce Jackson-Davis in the middle of the floor, getting downhill to his right, then stopping and popping. If you play drop coverage against him, it’s going to be a struggle. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t really need to be aligned with his feet toward the rim when rising but can align himself in midair to get a clean, balanced look. Also, good going to his left. Tends to get a bit more penetration to the right than the left, so his percentages are a bit worse from the left side of the floor. In total, Hood-Schifino made 42.3 percent of his midrange pull-up jumpers this past season, per Synergy, a very good number for a teenager. From the middle, he has a potential floater game too, which could help with some of his issues at the rim. Can take them off one foot or two. Made 41 percent of those, per Synergy. But he can also pull up from 3 at times. He typically takes a couple of those per game and shows real potential because he’s always on balance. If guys go under, he’s unafraid to stop behind the 3-point line and go for it. It’s not the most polished skill, but he can be very good in time. He took nearly two of those per game and made them at a 37 percent clip, per Synergy. He has a well-rounded skill set as a scorer out of screening actions, and it’s easy to buy him as a high-level scorer in these situations as he gets older. He also pairs this with strong feel as a passer. Averaged 4.4 assists per game. Hood-Schifino’s terrific at finding his teammates once he gets into the middle of the court. Always has his head up and is ready to find teammates as soon as he comes off the screen. Legitimately can manipulate defenders with his vision and with his driving as he takes up space to engage defenders. That ability to play at pace, slow down and draw defenders toward him or keep them hostage on his back and hip works wonders. Consistently reads the backside help defenders to find open targets. In terms of execution, he can hit live-dribble kickouts with either hand and the cross-corner pass to wide-open 3-point shooters. Finds smart angles on jump stops to hit open spotup shooters, like a Villanova-style guard such as Jalen Brunson. Also had great chemistry with Jackson-Davis as a roller, often finding him on sharp little pocket passes. Their synergy together this past season was the lifeblood of Indiana’s offense. Hood-Schifino pairs a terrific offensive ball screen game with being an awesome defender. Great pressure on the ball at the point of attack. Gets into defenders’ space and has terrific lateral ability to stay in front of his man. Very technically sound. Drops his hips well to cut off angles. Then, when someone tries to body him up, he has real strength through his chest that doesn’t allow people to push him backward. Plus, he has really good hands to disrupt what the opposing man wants to do. Gets in there and causes issues. Against screens, he’s sharp at getting through them. Does a great job getting skinny and over the top then fights back to get attached in recovery. Will be excellent in a drop-coverage scheme, using his strength to get around screens and using his length in recovery. Great attention to detail off the ball too. Hood-Schifino stays very attached getting through off-ball screening actions. Great rotationally and always knows where to be. Seems to communicate well within switches when they become necessary. Slid up and down the lineup occasionally depending on who was on the court with him, although Indiana generally played much bigger this past season due to its size across the wing positions. Hood-Schifino should have no problems against offensive players one through three.

WEAKNESSES

Athletically, Hood-Schifino isn’t all that impressive. Will be a below-average athlete by the standards of an NBA guard in terms of explosiveness. Has the functional stuff like lateral quickness and hip flexibility. Doesn’t have an awesome first step. Not a powerful leaper. He generally needs a ball screen to get any sort of penetration. Has great footwork out of ball screens but can’t really break down defenders in isolation situations. Doesn’t have a particularly shifty handle. Ball can get a little bit loose in his hands and end up farther away from his body than you’d like to see. Doesn’t have great shake. Will limit him a bit as a scorer and will likely be more of a secondary ballhandler because of it. Hood-Schifino is very unlikely to be an end-of-shot-clock weapon in the NBA and likely will not be a primary scoring option. But he could be a legitimate bigger point guard if the passing and playmaking continues developing. Outside of that pull-up game, there are real questions about how he scores at the next level. That starts with the shooting, and it’s why there are some questions about his off-ball potential. Hood-Schifino made just 30.4 percent from 3 off the catch this past season. His shot prep isn’t awesome, likely due to playing mostly on the ball throughout his life. Really needs to be stationary and spotting up. Off any sort of movement, he struggles to set himself and maintain balance. Has a bit of a pause off the one-two to load into the shot. Never takes them off the hop. Mechanically, he has a significant ball dip. A lot of misses to the left or right. Doesn’t look all that comfortable. Needs to spend the offseason really becoming more comfortable getting into rhythm and flow as a shooter off the catch given that he’ll have to play off the ball more often. Clearly has touch given his pull-up game, so there is a shooting base to work with. Hood-Schifino also really struggles to score at the rim and doesn’t get there often, in part due to that lack of first step. Only got 1.5 shots per game at the rim in half-court settings, per Synergy. But it’s also partly because of his lack of leaping ability as a finisher when he gets there. He made just 46 percent at the rim this past season in half-court settings, per Synergy, one of the worst marks among potential first-round picks this year. He put up a lot of wild ones at the basket. Generally, doesn’t use his frame to its utmost advantage. Doesn’t really try to attack rim protectors’ bodies and instead tries to throw up wild touch finishes with finger rolls. The open space of the NBA might help him, but he will really need to work on his craft here. Struggles with turnovers a bit more than you’d think for someone who has solid feel for the game. Can be flat-out inaccurate as a passer at times and throws some wild ones you don’t like to see. These are largely born out of aggressiveness, but he can be a bit over-the-top with it. A lot of mistimed lobs or balls thrown at players’ feet accidentally. He has great vision but needs to focus on completing the job in terms of skill level. I think his handle could stand to tighten up a bit. Heavy pressure on-ball defenders might give him trouble. Averaged 3.4 turnovers per game, which was way too high for his usage level.

SUMMARY
The question with Hood-Schifino is the offensive role. Will he be good enough as a midrange/3-point pull-up scorer to keep defenses honest to open passing lanes? And if he’s not, can he improve as a shooter off the catch enough to become an offball player? If he can do any of that, he’s immediately a valuable role player in today’s NBA because of how well he projects on defense. If he can just knock down a spot 3 consistently, that would be enough given his defense, passing and playmaking ability. Hood-Schifino has a lot of potential avenues he could go down to become a valuable rotation player, but it might be a bit rough early while he tries to find that role due to his scoring inefficiency and lack of explosiveness. I’m a believer in his game eventually translating, because guys who are 6-foot-6 lead guards with solid basketball IQ and terrific defense tend to have a lot of outs. And if Hood-Schifino does become a real spot-up 3-point shooter paired with continuing to improve as a pull-up ball screen weapon when mixed with his passing, then he has real starter potential for a long while. Given how well developed his pull-up game is already, I think it’s a worthwhile investment. He’ll take some development, but I’m a buyer in him figuring it out. That’s why I have him in my top 15.
 
Hollinger scouting report on JHS:
40. Jalen Hood-Schifino, 20, 6-4 freshman PG/SG, Indiana
I’m scratching my head trying to figure out how Hood-Schifino is projected as a late lottery pick. He wasn’t notably good as a nearly 20-year-old freshman — 13.0 PER with 49.2 percent true shooting, although it improved to 14.4 in Big Ten play. He isn’t a great athlete, is a below-average shooter and didn’t have any of the statistical markers that might signify a draft sleeper. Of the 2003-born prospects in my top 70, only Howard (just above) and Hood-Schifino failed to post a PER in conference games above 18.0.

Even Hood-Schifino’s best attribute, making tough pull-ups and floaters, is something of a red flag in disguise: Most pro-caliber players don’t need to rely on these shots because they can get all the way to the rim. College players who rely on tough shot making, from Adam Morrison to Johnny Juzang to Johnny Davis, have found it incredibly tough to eat on those same shots against pros.

Maybe he makes it anyway. He has great size for a guard, he’s a decent passer, if a bit turnover-prone, and he looks like he’ll be able to defend the position. On that end, he was willing to get into the ball and has good size, but there is very little in the way of dynamism — just 1.1 steals and 0.3 blocks per 100 possessions. He’s fine at this point in the draft, but the lottery hype blows my mind.


Hollinger analysis on the JHS pick:
Instant analysis: Lakers make a puzzling pick
Well, this is an interesting one for me, personally. The Lakers’ track record in the draft over the last decade or so has been as good as any team’s in the league. On the other hand, I think Jalen Hood-Schifino is the most overrated player in the draft. As an on-ball player specializing in middies and floaters, but with limited ability to either shoot the 3 or get all the way to the cup, I don’t see a ton of upside here, and I don’t really see how he fits in on a team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Lakers’ track record here deserves respect, but I’m a bit puzzled.
 
So they’re back with DLo/Reaves/Vando/Bron/AD

Bench is JHS/Beasley/Max/Rui/ ???


I would be surprised if the top 4 has any change. DLo’s leverage to stay increased dramatically today with CP3 and for now no pick trade. If they decided to go with JHS taking DLo’s spot, that would be a significant problem this year.
 
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So they’re back with DLo/Reaves/Vando/Bron/AD

Bench is JHS/Beasley/Max/Rui/ ???


I would be surprised if the top 4 has any change. DLo’s leverage to stay increased dramatically today with CP3 and for now no pick trade. If they decided to go with JHS taking DLo’s spot, that would be a significant problem this year.
guessing they bring dlo back on a lower number than dlo really wants and then try to trade him deadline?
 
Re-sign D'Lo, sign a cheap backup PG and bring JHS along slowly. Plus Reaves is essentially the point guard too.
 
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