The Alluring Potential of Mario Hezonja

Strengths

Let me start off with a disclaimer: I do not spend my days illegally streaming FC Barcelona and the Liga Endesa professional league in Spain. With that being said, there was a limited amount of Mario Hezonja tape to analyze, and almost all of contained only the good plays that he made. So the resources that I will be going off of are his YouTube highlights, which can be very dangerous, and experts opinions’.

Hezonja is 20-years-old and this was his second full season with FC Barcelona’s main club. In 56 International games for FC Barcelona in the 2014-15 season season, Hezonja averaged 15.5 minutes per game while scoring 6.07 points on 46.5 percent from the field.

Hezonja is listed at 6’8”, 213 pounds and though he was shuffled around on the wing in Europe, he projects as a two guard in the NBA. What makes Hez such an intriguing prospect is his combination of size and skill.

Even though he’s tall for his position at 6’8”, Hezonja can be lethal from beyond-the-arc. In his 2014-15 international season, he shot 63-161 (39.1 percent) from beyond the arc. His form on his jump shot looks so natural and smooth, and the ball looks good coming out of his hands on a high release point. The video below — which is a game that Mario went a perfect 8-of-8 from deep — shows Hezonja as a spot-up shooter, his deep range, and also the ability to come off of screens to knock down a three-point shot.

Besides the deep range, the most impressive shots in the clip above are the ones that come as a result of him moving off the ball. A couple times Hezonja came hard off of a pin-down screen to catch the ball, adjust his feet, and rise up for the jumper all in one fluid motion. Only a handful of players in the NBA have the ability to do this, which shows how good Hezonja’s footwork is and also how quickly he can get his shot off.

Although 58.9 percent of his field goal attempts came from beyond the arc in 2014-15, Hezonja also has the ability to score in other ways. Hez can take defenders off the dribble and get his own shot, or play off the ball and cut to the basket. This is the aspect of his game where he reveals his surprising, freakish athleticism.

These are the kinds of plays that introduced me to Mario Hezonja and I have been unexpectedly intrigued ever since. It is hard to find one highlight clip of Hezonja where his athleticism does not jump out of the screen. Whether it’s emphatic, out of nowhere blocks or reverse alley-oops, Hez is just flying all over the court. These kinds of plays are why Hezonja has been flying up the draft boards over the past weeks.

Obviously, his highlights and stat lines don’t quite add up. His highlights show a freak athlete with a lot of upside that can shoot it from deep, while his stats read of a role player off the bench. A lot of people probably see those stats and ask themselves why Hezonja is being considered with a top pick, but this is where the expert opinion comes in. Here is what overseas professional basketball pundit, Fran Fruschilla, had to say about the high-flying Croatian, via the Detroit Free Press:

"But Fraschilla, though noting there are maturity concerns, scoffed at looking at Hezonja’s statistics. “He’s mercurial, and maturity has been as issue as a young player,” Fraschilla said. “Do not go by his statistics in Barcelona."

The maturity issue is something that will be touched on later, but it’s apparent that Hezonja was getting inconsistent minutes and that led to the low statistical averages. So his numbers do not scare me away from him as a prospect. This on the other hand just about sums up Hezonja’s talent potential:

Next: The Weak Side