Shabazz Mohammed
Position: SF
Hgt: 6'6"
Wgt: 222
Age: 20
Projected Draft Number: #19 NBADraft.net/#9 Draftexpress.com
College: UCLA
College Stats 2012-13: 30.8min 17.9pts (.443FG% .377TPt% .711FT%) 5.2reb 0.8ast 1.7stl 0.1blk 1.6TO
Baja's Review: If your a Muhammad fan, you probably don't want to read this post. But I'll start with the good things. He's extremely competitive, and wants to win. OK, there, I've covered it. Muhammad came out of highschool ranked as the number one highschool player in the nation. He showed up at UCLA out of shape and overweight. He basicly played himself back into shape. Unfortunately college exposed many of his deficiences. Mainly, that in highschool, he could just overpower everyone he played against. That didn't happen in college. To his credit, he adjusted his game somewhat, taking a lot of fall away jumpers in the 5 to 8 foot range. He'd rather post up than play on the perimeter. That might be fine for 6'8" SF in the NBA, but he's not! He's 6'6", although he does have a large wingspan. His shooting was fine as long as he was spotting up, but off the dribble he was downright terrible. His means of getting to the basket is to just bull his way there. And although he put up a good vertical at the combine, I just didn't see it in a game, where he played mostly below the rim. He has to be one of the most selfish players this last season. In 30 minutes of play, he couldn't even average one assist a game. Not only that, he went into a pout if he didn't get the ball when he wanted it. He has only one objective when he's in the game. To get the ball, an score. Period!!! Defensively, he showed potential at times, but other times, especially when he was struggling on the offensive side, he just lost interest in defending the ball. He loves to leak out early, which affected his defensive rebounding. I have pages and pages of notes on Muhammad, and could go on endlessly. But I think you get the idea. I don't like him! Maybe he'll get on the right team and he'll figure it out. But I felt the same way about Michael Beasley, and he still hasn't figured it out. One last glaring question is, is he a SF or a SG? He's undersized for the SF position, and he's not quick enough, nor does he have adequate ballhandling skills for the SG position. I wouldn't be surpirsed if he slides out of the lottery.
Capt's Review: There are certainly reasons why Shabazz's stock has dropped this year from a potential #1 overall pick to current suggestions that he might fall out of the lottery. You can pick your poison - a somewhat disappointing year under Ben Howland (who, to be fair, has coached his fair share of disappointing seasons for players who turned out to be good); less athleticism than expected; a year older than originally claimed; complete lack of a passing game; potential me-first attitude problems. But there are also reasons why he was originally projected to be in the mix for the #1 overall pick. Muhammad has a very sweet shooting stroke, and while he works almost exclusively with his left hand, it seemed to be the case that defenders at the college level had a lot of trouble adjusting to his left hand in the lane with the result that they would give up a lot of effectively unchallenged shots in the paint. That may be a weakness NBA-level defenses can overcome, but one thing that should transfer is Muhammad's aggressiveness. He's not a stand-around player. When he's off the ball he is continually cutting to the basket, and he hits the floor going for loose balls several times a game. He is also deadly on the fast break, and he crashes the offensive boards with much gusto. Oddly enough he did not go after defensive rebounds, and he finished the season with more total offensive than defensive boards. Shabazz has a reputation as being a poor defender, but I watched a lot of UCLA this season and I didn't really see where he was deficient. He's not an in-your-grill defender, but it's not like he was getting beat left and right and I see no reason why he can't become a better-than-average defender with a little coaching. One of the biggest questions regarding Muhammad is what position he ought to play. He's 6'6" with a superb 6'11" wingspan, which puts him right on the cusp of being able to guard the SF. As a SG he's got great size, he's got the stroke, he just probably doesn't quite have the handles you'd like to see, but that's where I think he'll settle in the long run. Ultimately, while he's imperfect there's actually a lot to like, and I think that people (especially Doug "wouldn't take him in the first round" Gottlieb) are beginning to sleep on him. I see him going somewhere in the 8-12 range and I'd put 50% odds on his 5th year draft review starting out with "How in the world did Ben McLemore get taken in front of this guy?"
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