Vanderbilt Basketball: Following injury, Aaron Nesmith’s season deserves more praise
By Cody Larson
Nesmith’s overall efficiency
Nesmith can score in a variety of ways; his game has many lanes, it’s not a two-way street. At times the way he ran off screens with/without the ball reminisced of the way Klay Thompson does (a player he actually does statistically resemble, per Kenpom). At other times he was quickly setting up his shot with a step back or side step maneuver. He can pull from well beyond the line and doesn’t need much space to get his shot off.
He also is a fairly strong finisher inside when a body is in his way. He’s built to score downhill with his body control and he has proven that he can do such. Even while being only a modest athlete in terms of explosiveness, Nesmith had been the go-to guy for Vanderbilt in the clutch this year thanks to his ability to steadily find shots from both inside and out.
Nesmith’s shot chart
- 52 shots at the rim
- 38 other 2-pointers
- 115 3-point shots
He’s got the type of game that makes advanced stat junkies like Daryl Morey water from the mouth. Because of that, it only makes sense that Nesmith excels in the statistics they pioneered.
He ends his season ranked 21st in offensive rating per Kenpom at 127.6 (in terms of draft prospects that’s good enough to rank him second, only behind Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis).
He also ranks a similar 20th in effective field goal percentage at an impressive 65.8 percent. He ranks the highest among Power 5 conference guards, and only 3 draft prospects rank above him (all being big men; Udoka Azubuike, Obi Toppin, and Zeke Nnaji for specifics). His true shooting percentage of 68.5 is good for 13th in the country; just as impressive.