Virginia Basketball: Breakdown of De’Andre Hunter’s Summer League debut

Film & Analysis: Defense

First, let’s look at what was dubbed as De’Andre Hunter’s bread and butter, his impact on the defensive end.

A technical savant after learning under defensive wizard Tony Bennett, Hunter’s technical approach to the defense was lauded during the pre-draft process as incredibly sound and picturesque. His footwork moving around screens (i.e., stepping around the screener’s foot in order to slip past them), closing out on shooters (i.e., using poise and discipline as to not foul shooters/drivers), and sliding in lockstep with drivers is all impressive, with the 6-foot-7 forward using his strength and intelligence to defend on-ball instead of taking risky gambles (which are traditionally shunned in Bennett’s pack-line scheme).

Atlanta traded up to draft him with the fourth selection with the hopes that his on-ball prowess would translate to the NBA — it’s only one Summer League game, and overreactions should be avoided considering the chaotic nature of the games (in terms of coaching, roster construction, scheduling, it being the rookies’ first taste as professional ball), but his defensive performance on Sunday left much to be desired, particularly lending some credence to some of the concerns that Hunter’s detractors had in regards to just how effective his defense would be.

This isn’t to say that his defense was bad. It wasn’t — he had some solid moments on and off the ball, but, overall, there were occasions where his lesser athleticism was exposed by some of Minnesota’s quicker guards and wings.

Some of Hunter’s defensive concerns pertained to just how good he could be on the ball, with some questioning just how much his strength — which was good for the NCAA, but not necessarily a difference-maker in the NBA — was factored into how well he swallowed up his opponents. His lateral quickness is OK, but it’s a bit underwhelming, and wasn’t really something he relied on when keeping up with opposing forwards.

Against the much quicker 6-foot-4 Josh Okogie, some of De’Andre Hunter’s foot speed concerns were exposed.

Switching onto Okogie after a dribble handoff, Hunter steps up and, mid-step, sees Okogie fake a jumper. He bites for it and gets caught off-balance, giving the slightest edge to his man. Okogie darts right before using a right-left between-the-legs cross to change directions; with Hunter not completely in his stance after the initial fake, he can’t flip his hips fast enough to contain the quicker guard, and reaches in to stop him, committing a foul.

On another play, Okogie receives the ball on the left wing with Hunter glued to him. He dribbles around a screen (with Hunter still attached), uses an awkward behind-the-back dribble to change directions, and, just as Hunter tries to body him up as Okogie’s back is turned to the basket, he bursts past Hunter mid-step, turning the corner and getting to the rim. Okogie misses the extension layup (he was only 4-of-12 on the night), but he was able to drive past Hunter and get himself a decent look, with Hunter simply unable to adequately cut off the drive due to the speed of Okogie.

The above two examples are a tad bit excusable given the mismatch, although someone of his collegiate pedigree would presumably be expected to do a better job containing Okogie. Regardless, you can point toward the differences in athleticism if you want to create a plausible excuse. Unfortunately, you can’t come up with one here, as Hunter lets Mitch Creek waltz toward the basket in the secondary break without giving much of an effort to slow him down. It’s possible that the Naz Reid screen disrupted his ability to slide with Creek, but considering that he barely made contact with the burly big man, it’s unlikely that it truly played a role in Hunter’s poor transition defense. It seems like he merely let Creek get past him, which is lazy and unsightly.

Defending off of the ball, other than his on-ball limitations as an athlete, is perhaps the greatest concern pertaining to his effectiveness and actual impact as a defender. His low steal rate and limited activity as an event creator and help defender are well catalogued, and it’s questionable whether or not his defensive pedigree will hold up in the NBA, considering that on-ball defense is perhaps vastly overrated compared to defending off of the ball. Team defense is perhaps more important, as most offensive actions happen off of the ball, with defenses getting beat more often with sneaky sets, backdoor cuts, flaring shooters, and an assortment of other off-ball actions.

How Hunter acclimates to defending off-ball in the NBA will be his true test and will determine just how valuable he can be on that end of the floor. Against Minnesota on Sunday, the results of his off-ball defense were a bit mixed.

His competitiveness fighting through screens as a lock-and-trail defender was persistently present, but the technique was rather inconsistent, partially due to the strength of some of the Timberwolf screeners (particularly the 6-foot-10, 256-pound Reid). For example, he gets completely hung up on the off-ball screen set by Reid, dying on the play and forcing the slow-footed (and surprisingly heavier) Omari Spellman to switch onto the curling Okogie. Luckily for the Hawks, Spellman manages to get a finger on Okogie’s jumper, with the shot falling well short of the basket and ending the Minnesota possession.

Minnesota’s strategy to free up Okogie throughout the game was to run him through endless screens, which put Hunter to the test on more than one occasion. Here, Hunter does a good job of running with Okogie through a few screens, although the space between the two is larger than Atlanta would’ve liked, with Hunter failing to dip his shoulder low enough to slip past each screen seamlessly. At one point, he gets hung up on Reid again, and although Okogie (who’s not really a reliable nor confident three-point shooter) has plenty of space to rise for a three, he instead pump fakes before driving and passing the ball off. The possession ends with Okogie driving into a pull-up jumper, with Hunter biting on a fake and fouling him (another example of so-so on-ball defense, and a strange occurrence of suboptimal discipline).

As I said, though, the result of his lock-and-trail defense were mixed. Although the above examples weren’t optimal, he had a few possessions where he utilized sound technique, both when following his opponent and closing out on the shooter.

Here, early in the game, he manages to fight through two screens (and a half-screen, if you count Reid standing in his way at the beginning of the clip) without giving room to Okogie. He dips his left shoulder, nimbally keeping himself low and slithering around the screens set by Creek and Keita Bates-Diop before quickly closing out on Okogie whilst also disrupting a potential pick from Reid. Without the space needed to put the ball down and maneuver the pick-and-roll, Okogie makes the quick decision to throw an entry pass which gets tipped and knocked out of bounds. This is more of what you want to see from Hunter.

Again, he follows Okogie through a weaker screen from Reid, using a timely and well-poised closeout to deter a three-point attempt.

And, finally, despite not being much of an event creator, De’Andre Hunter did manage to get a pretty nice rejection as a help-side defender early in the second quarter. Jared Terrell gets the ball off of a pindown and streaks downhill toward the basket, but as Spellman steps in to body him and slow down his drive, Hunter rotates over, slides his feet in lockstep with Terrell and quickly rises up to swat the ill-fated layup attempt, all in a smooth, effortless transition.

Hunter only sported a block rate of 2.5% and per-game block average of 0.5 while at Virginia, so this isn’t something we should genuinely expect more of, but it’s encouraging nonetheless to witness Hunter’s recognition and activity as a help defender.