What to do with Taylor Hendricks year one

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

Probably should’ve just drafted Whitmore.

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

Probably should’ve just drafted Whitmore.

Or not made a stupid trade for Collins

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Sure… that and defense… size… athleticism.

The Jazz (supposedly)had him ranked 18th. If he can get over the knee issues that could make him highly favored. I'm guessing part of the reason he was so bad on D was due to playing on a knee that needed surgery.

Being 6'6 with ball skills makes Sensabaugh highly playable early, moreso than Hendricks.

 

[kabenac]

He's a 3/4, though. IMO. Too light in the shorts to play 5 right now.

I don't really like Hendricks at 5. Hendricks would be an ideal 4. I think he can get to 230 pretty easily. At 230 he would weigh more than John Collins.

 

[FrenchJazzFa]

Not sure Collins will not be a bust. So give him 10-15 per night for start and see where he goes.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The Jazz (supposedly)had him ranked 18th. If he can get over the knee issues that could make him highly favored. I'm guessing part of the reason he was so bad on D was due to playing on a knee that needed surgery.

Being 6'6 with ball skills makes Sensabaugh highly playable early, moreso than Hendricks.

We will not have to search hard for Tay Hennys #1 hater.

I watched the defensive clips with Sensabaugh… trust me… it wasn’t the knee.

 

[silesian]

The Jazz (supposedly)had him ranked 18th. If he can get over the knee issues that could make him highly favored. I'm guessing part of the reason he was so bad on D was due to playing on a knee that needed surgery.

Being 6'6 with ball skills makes Sensabaugh highly playable early, moreso than Hendricks.

This. Hendricks is a diamond in the rough. Very very rough. He is going to be lost this year. Needs to move up a long learning curve. That should be our expectation. When he is sucking this year (all rookies suck), y’all going to be going crazy shouting “bust”. All I care about is improvement.

 

[sip]

This. Hendricks is a diamond in the rough. Very very rough. He is going to be lost this year. Needs to move up a long learning curve. That should be our expectation. When he is sucking this year (all rookies suck), y’all going to be going crazy shouting “bust”. All I care about is improvement.

There is nothing rough about Hendricks game. He has some skills like shooting, finishing at the rim and defense that are going to translate immediately.

 

[Jingled]

I'm not sure Henricks has a game that would really benefit from playing big minutes in the G-League, similar to Ochai last year. He might be better off playing a few rotation minutes right away.

 

[HermanG]

I'm not sure Henricks has a game that would really benefit from playing big minutes in the G-League, similar to Ochai last year. He might be better off playing a few rotation minutes right away.

I was thinking the same thing. Hardy doesnt want to guarantee minutes to rookies and makes them earn them.. but if Hendricks calling card is his defense and he plays off ball on offense, then I dont think G League is the place for him. He needs to have a chance to adapt to NBA pace, strategies and opponent skills and athleticism to develop those further.

That is unless they want to change his mold in some way (e.g. learn more ball skills).

 

[SoberasHotRod]

I'm not sure Henricks has a game that would really benefit from playing big minutes in the G-League, similar to Ochai last year. He might be better off playing a few rotation minutes right away.

I'm not arguing that Hendricks should go to the G-League, but I do believe the G-League eventually helped Ochai. @homeytennis might be able to confirm, because my memory might not be accurate, but it felt like Agbaji finally started to string together some good games in the G-League before he went on his run of good games for the Jazz.

I think the main things the G-League is good for is to help guys learn the system they are playing in and gain some confidence. It seems like that is what happened with Agbaji, and if Hendricks has similar issues of looking lost out on the court it could be good for his as well.

To be clear, I don't think the G-League is good for much more than that, and if Hendricks is ready for even limited rotation minutes he should spend his time with the Jazz.

 

[homeytennis]

Ochai at times looked totally lost in the GLeague like Bolmaro lost. Then he started to figure it out and started getting better quickly. The problem I see now is that there aren't a lot of minutes for Hendricks unless he kicks butt in training camp and preseason which he may do.

 

[KqWIN]

So I get what you're saying, and playing is better than not playing, but Hendricks is really intriguing as a 3-5 but his intrigue falls off a cliff for me if he's basically playing guard. Just makes him a tall, worse-shooting Ochai. Would be an interesting approach developmentally but we would need to prepare ourselves that he is basically invisible or just flat out bad in that context (which can hamper his development).

If you’re searching for intrigue, I think that comes from the defensive end. Specifically, I think it comes from being able to do multiple things on the defensive end. While we didn’t see Hendricks really guard the perimeter in college, it’s something he’s physically capable of and I’m interested to see how he does. I think his high end defensive outcomes include him being able to do everything on defense like a young Siakam. While developing his perimeter defense and interior defense may be competing ideals from a physical standpoint (he’s way to skinny to be considered an actual big right now), I think learning how to play on the perimeter will have carryover benefits. It may not be his permanent role to chase around perimeter guys, but getting that experience will make him better at guarding bigger wings, for example.

Also, like you said, playing some minutes is better than no minutes. I wouldn’t be so strict about how and where he plays. Either way, I don’t think he gets much time. I think given the choice, Hardy will be more inclined to give Ochai 25 minutes and Hendricks 0 versus a 15 and 10 split.

 

[KqWIN]

Why should Hendricks be pencilled in for minutes over Sensabaugh?

I feel like people are clowning on this take, but the Jazz and Hardy have made it clear that they aren’t going to give Hendricks minutes just to give him minutes. He will have to earn them, and if Brice is a better player than him it would align that Brice plays instead.

If you’re pencilling in Hendricks > Brice it’s either.

1) Saying that Hendricks is definitively a better player day 1.

2) The Jazz will give Hendricks the minutes without them being earned.

I’m not sure I’d be so confident about #1 and whether they’re lying or not they’ve been pretty adamant about #2.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I feel like people are clowning on this take, but the Jazz and Hardy have made it clear that they aren’t going to give Hendricks minutes just to give him minutes. He will have to earn them, and if Brice is a better player than him it would align that Brice plays instead.

If you’re pencilling in Hendricks > Brice it’s either.

1) Saying that Hendricks is definitively a better player day 1.

2) The Jazz will give Hendricks the minutes without them being earned.

I’m not sure I’d be so confident about #1 and whether they’re lying or not they’ve been pretty adamant about #2.

Overall there is a chance Sensabaugh is better but his specific talents aren’t really a huge need and are something that isn’t handed over to rookies and his huge glaring weakness is a thing that gets you planted on the bench. If both guys are healthy I am extremely confident that Taylor gets more minutes. Brice’s college defensive tapes reminded me of Grayson Allen as a rookie… and that was against college players. We will see if that was just a focus or commitment thing but he was atrocious.

 

[Agent#00]

Hardy want to improve defense and Hendricks is the best 3D prospect in the draft. He’s gonna get his minutes and just like Kessler he’s gonna struggle in his first few games then figure things out eventually. If not he’ll play with Johnny j in g-league.

 

[KqWIN]

Overall there is a chance Sensabaugh is better but his specific talents aren’t really a huge need and are something that isn’t handed over to rookies and his huge glaring weakness is a thing that gets you planted on the bench. If both guys are healthy I am extremely confident that Taylor gets more minutes. Brice’s college defensive tapes reminded me of Grayson Allen as a rookie… and that was against college players. We will see if that was just a focus or commitment thing but he was atrocious.

We're talking about a 6-12 minute role at most (there's a chance there is no role to begin with) and who knows what exactly those lineups are going to be needing. If you're running a unit with Kessler and Dunn with no Clarkson/Sexton, for example, you might need more scoring punch. Brice was miles ahead of Hendricks offensively. I get that coaches want to be hard asses and stress defense, but reality is they should play the player who helps the team most regardless of whether that value comes from offense or defense. There's a reason why Hardy plays Clarkson. Bad defensive players get played all the time, young and old.

I think Hendricks ultimately gets more minutes, but I would say it's more on the basis of him being the #9 pick and not necessarily that he will be the better player day 1. I really don't think it's set in stone that Hendricks can help this team win more basketball games than Brice early on. Like I said, I just don't think people should scoff at the idea of Brice doing more early on if Hardy is actually true to his word about making guys earn it. This is true for Keyonte as well. Brice was arguably the best player out of the 3 last season so I wouldn't rule him out of being the most productive right away. Hendricks and Keyonte seemingly have been drafted for what they can be 5 years down the road whereas Brice fell because of where his knees might be 5 years down the road and not because of how productive he can be right away.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Hardy want to improve defense and Hendricks is the best 3D prospect in the draft. He’s gonna get his minutes and just like Kessler he’s gonna struggle in his first few games then figure things out eventually. If not he’ll play with Johnny j in g-league.

Somewhat of a tangent, but one of the most amazing things about Kessler is that had very few bad games. I remember his very first preseason game as being pretty rough on the defensive end, but besides that I think he only had a few bad games all year. He also seemed to have that amazing quality of picking things up and learning super quickly. Whenever he would struggle he seemed to learn from it and become even better.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I'm not sure Henricks has a game that would really benefit from playing big minutes in the G-League, similar to Ochai last year. He might be better off playing a few rotation minutes right away.

He's a Freshman though, hopefully his game has more growth potential than Ochai and doing that in yh GLeague might be beneficial

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We're talking about a 6-12 minute role at most (there's a chance there is no role to begin with) and who knows what exactly those lineups are going to be needing. If you're running a unit with Kessler and Dunn with no Clarkson/Sexton, for example, you might need more scoring punch. Brice was miles ahead of Hendricks offensively. I get that coaches want to be hard asses and stress defense, but reality is they should play the player who helps the team most regardless of whether that value comes from offense or defense. There's a reason why Hardy plays Clarkson. Bad defensive players get played all the time, young and old.

I think Hendricks ultimately gets more minutes, but I would say it's more on the basis of him being the #9 pick and not necessarily that he will be the better player day 1. I really don't think it's set in stone that Hendricks can help this team win more basketball games than Brice early on. Like I said, I just don't think people should scoff at the idea of Brice doing more early on if Hardy is actually true to his word about making guys earn it. This is true for Keyonte as well. Brice was arguably the best player out of the 3 last season so I wouldn't rule him out of being the most productive right away. Hendricks and Keyonte seemingly have been drafted for what they can be 5 years down the road whereas Brice fell because of where his knees might be 5 years down the road and not because of how productive he can be right away.

When I responded I wasn't trying to be dismissive but state the reason why I think it would be real safe to "pencil" in Taylor for the leftover minutes. I don't think Hardy will look to spark some offense with Brice by using him as a ball in hand guy in lineups that need offense. Anything can happen and maybe he is exceptional for a rookie but its more likely he is mistake prone and struggles with shot selection and then you can add that on to his defensive issues. Its not really about draft status... its about what he could bring to the team now and in the future. Its the reason he was basically a consensus top 10 pick. He should be able to spot up and hit enough threes while being passable or a slight plus on defense... so he can blend/hide better than Brice can. In that small of a role, 10-15 minutes, its hard to do much so its about him getting assimilated and comfortable. Sensabaugh in 10-15 minutes would just be a target on defense.

I also don't see many lineups where you don't have JC or Sexton... you also have Key in there and he has a big head start on Brice. I also think Dunn will be more productive off the dribble than Brice will be as a rookie. As a spot up guy I think Taylor will be just as good as Brice. Coming off of surgery I am just taking the position that this will look more like a redshirt year for Brice but would love to be surprised.

I also don't think it is just a coaching hardass thing for rookies who can't defend. If you have a great bucket but it has a hole in it... then you have a problem. Unless Brice is A LOT better defender than he showed (and it wasn't just the knee) then he will get absolutely flamed. Long term I like the pick but I need to see what he looks like on an NBA court before I make any definitive statements. I've seen enough players like Taylor to think he can survive for 10 minutes a night even if his shooting takes a bit to lock in.