This was a really fun article, and as a fan & writer who has League Pass, I will be tuning in to some of these matchups 🙂↕️
As I mentioned in my quote, I think the Jazz are interesting enough to watch sometimes.. definitely not when they’re not pulling their players in Q3, but! The sentiment is there!
Tbh I’m okay with the Jazz pulling their starters in Q3 bc doing so opens up minutes for Blake Hinson and BlinsonBall is one of the more entertaining brands of basketball one can find*
Thank you for your interest in BlinsonBall! I now get to talk at you about me and my roommates’ favorite pastime. Full disclosure: I’m a recent Pitt grad with several friends who worked with Hinson in group projects and such and had nothing but nice things to say about him, so I’m definitely biased and rooting for him.
But! Putting my bias aside, he is a fun player to watch. Historically he really doesn’t play on-ball that much, but in his limited minutes in the NBA far he’s started to show a little bit of PnR ability. Check out him freezing both defenders with a fake no-look over-the-head hook pass (???) to the popping big to open up an easy layup (at 13:46, https://youtu.be/6mXiRdZV2v4 ).
The main attraction, of course, is his three. When he’s hot from three, he’s REALLY hot (check out some of his G league statlines, or his famous 7-7 performance at Duke in college), and it doesn’t take much for him to get hot. After like… two? made threes, his shot selection becomes the highly entertaining “idgaf abt the hand in my face or where I am on the floor as soon as the rock touches my hands this shit going up” type, à la MPJ or Klay.
But he’s also started to understand how to use the threat of his three to open up cutting opportunities when defenders overplay him on the perimeter, a skill he didn’t really have in college. Check out his first NBA bucket, where he bails out of a designed corner stagger into a 45 cut because he feels his defender trying to toplock him (first basket of the video. https://youtu.be/uIK8SIcbvKE ). That’s a nice read! And at a BIG 6’8”, if he can get moving with speed to the rim like this more often, I could see him getting to the line at a not-insignificant clip, which would add a nice additional layer to his game.
While he still needs to realize the freight train he can become on offense, he does take advantage of his size to play solid on-ball defense. He can and will get beat off the dribble by small speedy guards in the Maxey/Fox archetype, but does a good job of pressing up into players he knows are faster when forced to switch to restrict their angles for blow-bys, and that physicality somewhat naturally mitigates that disadvantage by jarring the handles of smaller players loose.
Outside of that circumstance, he’s a pretty switchable defender. The Jazz seem comfortable leaving him to defend one-on-one in the post, even against bigger players, because he often has a strength advantage and does a good job of using it to deny deep paint catches. He does get caught ball-watching occasionally, especially when stationed on the perimeter while the action is on the other side of the perimeter, and his feel for team defense is a work in progress — I can’t find the clip, but during their game the other night he overhelped on a middle drive that wasn’t really there, leading to an easy kickout for an open three — but those are things that more NBA minutes will help with.
This is all to say, as a fan of the NBA, I think Blake Hinson has a place in the league. Altruistically, I hope he sticks around so he can find success, and selfishly, I hope he sticks around so I can hear Pittsburgh mentioned more often on NBA broadcasts.
This was a really fun article, and as a fan & writer who has League Pass, I will be tuning in to some of these matchups 🙂↕️
As I mentioned in my quote, I think the Jazz are interesting enough to watch sometimes.. definitely not when they’re not pulling their players in Q3, but! The sentiment is there!
Tbh I’m okay with the Jazz pulling their starters in Q3 bc doing so opens up minutes for Blake Hinson and BlinsonBall is one of the more entertaining brands of basketball one can find*
* when he’s making his threes
I haven’t caught any Hinson minutes yet but you’ve got me intrigued
Thank you for your interest in BlinsonBall! I now get to talk at you about me and my roommates’ favorite pastime. Full disclosure: I’m a recent Pitt grad with several friends who worked with Hinson in group projects and such and had nothing but nice things to say about him, so I’m definitely biased and rooting for him.
But! Putting my bias aside, he is a fun player to watch. Historically he really doesn’t play on-ball that much, but in his limited minutes in the NBA far he’s started to show a little bit of PnR ability. Check out him freezing both defenders with a fake no-look over-the-head hook pass (???) to the popping big to open up an easy layup (at 13:46, https://youtu.be/6mXiRdZV2v4 ).
The main attraction, of course, is his three. When he’s hot from three, he’s REALLY hot (check out some of his G league statlines, or his famous 7-7 performance at Duke in college), and it doesn’t take much for him to get hot. After like… two? made threes, his shot selection becomes the highly entertaining “idgaf abt the hand in my face or where I am on the floor as soon as the rock touches my hands this shit going up” type, à la MPJ or Klay.
But he’s also started to understand how to use the threat of his three to open up cutting opportunities when defenders overplay him on the perimeter, a skill he didn’t really have in college. Check out his first NBA bucket, where he bails out of a designed corner stagger into a 45 cut because he feels his defender trying to toplock him (first basket of the video. https://youtu.be/uIK8SIcbvKE ). That’s a nice read! And at a BIG 6’8”, if he can get moving with speed to the rim like this more often, I could see him getting to the line at a not-insignificant clip, which would add a nice additional layer to his game.
While he still needs to realize the freight train he can become on offense, he does take advantage of his size to play solid on-ball defense. He can and will get beat off the dribble by small speedy guards in the Maxey/Fox archetype, but does a good job of pressing up into players he knows are faster when forced to switch to restrict their angles for blow-bys, and that physicality somewhat naturally mitigates that disadvantage by jarring the handles of smaller players loose.
Outside of that circumstance, he’s a pretty switchable defender. The Jazz seem comfortable leaving him to defend one-on-one in the post, even against bigger players, because he often has a strength advantage and does a good job of using it to deny deep paint catches. He does get caught ball-watching occasionally, especially when stationed on the perimeter while the action is on the other side of the perimeter, and his feel for team defense is a work in progress — I can’t find the clip, but during their game the other night he overhelped on a middle drive that wasn’t really there, leading to an easy kickout for an open three — but those are things that more NBA minutes will help with.
This is all to say, as a fan of the NBA, I think Blake Hinson has a place in the league. Altruistically, I hope he sticks around so he can find success, and selfishly, I hope he sticks around so I can hear Pittsburgh mentioned more often on NBA broadcasts.
Thanks! And I agree, there’s plenty to keep an eye on — at least in the first half!