I'll qualify this by saying that I'm a UH grad, current season ticket holder and I've seen every game that Jarace Walker played at UH. First the good. Walker has skills in quite a few areas. I'd say that the top 3 passes of the year for the Coogs were likely all thrown by Walker. He shot the 3 well at times. He had a few good rebounding games. He can put the ball on the floor a little. He's said to be extremely coachable and a hard worker. Haven't heard anything but good stuff about him off the court. That being said, what's his elite skill? He's a good athlete but not a great one. He isn't a fast twitch guy. Certainly not a bad athlete, but even in the AAC there were better athletes on other teams and even on his own team. He jumps well, just not quickly. I'm sure defense will get listed but that's a tough one to measure. UH likes to double the ball when it goes inside so Walker didn't get left to defend 1-on-1 that much. Houston also likes to double the ball to force the primary ball handler to give it up. That was Walker's role at times, to double the ball handler. It was effective often times but he also got blown by his fair share of the time too. The Athletic ran an article last week where college coaches and NBA executives gave comments about the top players in the draft. Here's a quote by an NBA exec (it's all anonymous) about Walker: Eastern Conference executive No. 1: Don’t know many players that can guard quick NBA threes, let alone a college freshman. I think he can guard threes but will have problems with quick ones right now. Can he do it in time? I would have to see his learning NBA principles and understanding of angles before saying he can guard quick wings, but he can guard fours. I think that's fairly accurate. He can guard 4's and some 3s. He certainly isn't going to be successful trying to guard 1s and 2s. What about his size? He's certainly got an impressive body. Just a big strong kid. The problem is that he doesn't use that big body. He doesn't play physical on either end of the floor. That was disappointing since he had a strength advantage most every night in the American Athletic. He plays a finesse game on offense and had difficulty finishing at the rim mostly because he was trying to avoid contact rather than going through people. From the combine measurements, his standing reach is only a half inch more than either of the Thompson Twins so I'm not sure how much he's going to be able to play at the 5. Here's another quote from that same Athletic article: College head coach No. 2 (his team played Houston): As the season went on, he got more and more aggressive. He started to understand what his capabilities were. I would like for him to be more active. When I say active, I mean getting to the glass a little more, posting up a little bit more, using that big, physical body a little more. To me, he was trying to be more of a finesse player. And that’s the trap a lot of these young players run into. Because they feel like that’s what they need to do to be NBA players. But no, just do what you do well right now. With that big body, I thought he could have been more physical. I thought he could have attacked the glass more on the offensive end and the defensive end. Passing? He threw some amazing passes last season but it was way too infrequent. Bottom line is that he averaged 1.8 assists per game. Hard to consider a guy averaging under 2 assists per game as a great assist guy. He was almost as likely to turn the ball over (1.5 per game) as he was to get an assist ( 1.8/game). He had one game with 5 assists and one with 4 but all of the rest were 3 or less. Rebounding - He had a few good rebounding games but 6.8 reb/game is underwhelming for a guy of his size and playing in the AAC. In 36 games he posted 7 double digit rebounding games with a high of 13. If he would have used his strength he could have been a real force on the boards. His shooting was similar - a few good games but overall inconsistent. As I mentioned, he had trouble finishing at the rim but he does have a little runner that he shoots on the way up and was effective with it at times. He also had some games where he was good shooting a little drop step turnaround from the right elbow. His 3 point game was hot and cold. He shot 34% for the season after getting off to a hot start but you just never knew what you were going to get from with his outside shot. In 16 of his 36 games, he failed to hit any 3s and in 9 others he only hit 1. On the positive side, he was always willing to take the big shot when the ball came to him. He had 5 games over 20pts and averaged 11.2 pts , with 66.3 FT%. 1.3 blocks per game with the vast majority being from the weak side. He does a good job of reading how the play is going to develop and being in position to help out. Good shot blocker, not elite. He's a good player and he has skills, don't think otherwise. He could develop later on but his ceiling isn't what you want in a #4 overall pick. In order for him to get the most out of his potential, he's going to have to start playing physical. Just not sure how many guys have gone from totally finesse guys to playing physical. For me, the biggest disappointment and the biggest worry is the fact that he just disappeared in so many games. Way too many times, despite all of his skills, he was a non-factor. The weirdest stat is that he was much better on the road than he was at home. He really struggled at Fertitta center - 9.3pts, 43.9FG%, 24.5 3pt%, 57.8 FT%.
