With Newell specifically it’s important to note I do have a whole prospect profile and we will be also only then referencing his college and summer league film. We also won’t mention my own Ceiling raiser, Connector, Floor raiser format. One of the most interesting things I think ive discovered in this series is how different each players become after college so I can mention a lot of things but it could very likely just be off and inaccurate. To begin this essay I wanted to reference is my scouting report…
Please like and flame:
https://fanspo.com/nba/s/general/p/gpSxgqipCUWji6/histericalchees-draft-profiles-asa-newell
anyway Im gonna put the text in here if you don’t wanna click on the link but generally I would appreciate it if you guys did read it.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ASA NEWELL
Position/Archetype: Small Ball 5
College: Georgia
Pros:
High Motor: He's got a lot of energy for sure, we will get to some added stuff into this but on both sides of the court he adds defensive energy and offensive energy wether thats in transition or on defence with his rebounding and with some good blocks but you can see a strong motor keeping this guy going.
Explosiveness: He is very comfortable playing off two feet under the basket, operating in the dunker spot and getting up really easy for dunks, his 36 inch vertical is very nice for a 6'9 barefoot player who isn't super skinny. Not only that he pushes the pace pretty well with some good speed for his size. Interesting transition ability.
Defensive Versatility: He is pretty mobile so I like him operating as a very switchable 5 who won't get mismatched hard by guards since he keeps himself in front well and very coordinated. Not only that he's a pretty good rim protector, he will have problems against larger guys against him since he isn't the biggest center but he does have good defensive ability.
Touch and finishing: Seen him operate in the dunker spot a tonne and I buy his touch with a mix of hook shots and him being able to find open looks at the rim by keeping the ball high and over physically larger or similar guys as well as effective fakes at the rim and post ability to get his looks. Also can get to the rim with some basic line drives which is nice for a center trying to expand his game to the perimeter, this will be very valuable.
Developing shot and Modern skillset: The shot isn't there and I will get to that, but as the season progressed so did his shot and the more excited I was for him, I am a Georgia fan by part of being an Atlanta sports fan so I really do hope he continues to follow the jump shot growth we saw this year, developing volume at over 2 attempts per game at just under 30% isn't good, but we've seen a lot worse develop and the form looks good and the willingness is there and the coordination is pretty nice. I think he's got the base to make it work.
Cons:
Discipline and Focus: Needs to control himself when being too aggressive as a defender, I love the energy as I've said with the motor but its key to keep composed as a rim defender and center, that is what takes you to another level. Added on to that keeping focus in the half court in sets and playing a large role in creating plays offensively, I think thats gonna be a key skill for him to learn to be more effective as an NBA player.
Size and 3pt uncertainty: Again he is still raw as a shooter, it's the swing factor, the development piece for him that he needs to put together. I buy it personally but if it doesn't come around his size is gonna be an issue since he will have to be a super athletic 5 an one who's a lot stronger in the past and use that coordination to reach his ceiling which is just rare. We'd need to see Bam Adebayo type of skillsets. but when I look at people with similar relative size and build, they've developed shots to be effective in his aim role so thats the real thing we have to see.
NBA Pro Comp: Wendell Carter Jr, Some similarities to John Collins before shot development came in
Projection: I think he will be probably a backup 5 ideally at the NBA level but its all shot dependant, there's massive upside if that shot continues to develop like I think it will, i'm still thinking high level backup 5 to potentially starting as a 4/5 alongside another tall similar swing 4/5. Pretty High Floor with this guy!
CHEESE FINAL BOARD RANKING: 17
https://youtu.be/if7xs1GcGE0?si=EPDbGT5RhYBN4GJl ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The Key thing With Asa Newell as a prospect is he was a tweener 4/5 and that is really a point I’d love to focus on as a general NBA topic is the change in importance of tweeners as the game has developed
What is a tweener? Why is it important to the modern game?
Im sure most of you know what a Tweener is, the general definition is “a player who can fit two or more positions yet can’t do either very well.”
This means in Newells case, he has characteristics that make him both a 4 or a 5 yet there’s other characteristics within his game which has held him back. Tweeners at one point in NBA history was solely a bad tag to have, no one really wanted a tweener and while the definition may seem bad still, the game has developed in such a way that maybe the tweener tag isn’t a good word to use anymore.
The game has become so positionless and every position you need to be switchable and move across the court and having players who are tweeners and have these characteristics if you use them to your advantage it has become the ideal and thats a theme within the new big group the hawks have.
4: J. Johnson | A. Newell | M. Gueye
5: K. Porzingis | O. Okongwu
All these people have multiple positions, 4/5 of them play either the center or the 4. This is important as it means you can now create pretty much any mix of these players in the frontcourt. All have decent level minimum of court spacing as well as minimum size for someone guarding a 5.
Asa Newell in the Hawks roster is going to have fight for minutes on the bench with Mo Gueye. Gueye established himself as a premier big defender with crazy defensive stats in a minimal role, Newell adds a similar player with maybe more offensive upside and is much less proven as a defender.
The general hope is you can get Asa Newell to be much more refined ball handler, closeout attacker and general court spacer. His athleticism with the combination of size, length and speed allows him to be a vertical threat as well, similarly to how you may view a John Collins.
John Collins, former Hawk, developed his jump shot prowess with the hawks after basically not shooting at all at Wake Forest in college. In comparison, Asa Newell is a much more proven shooter as well as showing the ability to knock them down from NBA range in summer league going 43% on decent center volume across summer league.
John Collins is ideally a 4 but can be used as a small ball 5 in certain lineups and that’s probably the mould you want to get with Asa Newell. I don’t view Asa Newell as the mega vertical/lob threat Collins proved to be for the hawks but he showed in his summer league film the burst with the speed and agility fill up the court and cut. The mobility he put on show is something so useful to the team if he can utilise it at his best in the league.
Another thing I enjoyed in summer league was to watch him be more and more aggressive at the cup, he looked physically pressured and overwhelmed early on but he showed he can be more impactful at the rim and empowering and it allowed him to dominate late competition. He also stuffed up stat sheets with his versatile play. Decent ball handling and awareness to make basic passes that kept him in the flow of the offence, he got a lot of boards and was a consistent offensive threat on amazing percentages, got good stock numbers in general. He found impact across the court.
I get it, it’s summer league it’s a time to overreact and be optimistic and you should never take these things too seriously. But when I saw how well he did in the role as a 4, it looked like he could manage it in the NBA. It didn’t look like he was having a lucky time there. He wasn’t dominating the competition because he was physically stronger or more talented of a pull up maker, mismatch advantage taker, self creator. It was because he used what he is talented with in combination with him knowing how to fill a role and fill up the court, where he was moving and how to make life for him and others better. And if you do that it helps you be a consistent NBA player and it helps more than just yourself but also your teammates. It’s something Risacher does so well, it’s something that premier role players tend to do so well.
so that’s where I will leave it, this one was a tricky one with the general difficulty of talking about how a rookie will impact a team next year, it’s very hard to make accurate predictions on that could be without an NBA sample size.
Houstan next…