The Charlotte Hornets have presumably had their franchise point guard for a few years now, but that hasn’t been working out as planned. LaMelo Ball has struggled to stay on the floor, and that’s a large reason why the franchise has been floundering in the lottery for the last few seasons. There have been rumblings of a potential trade, though none of them seem to be of much substance. Still, that idea doesn’t seem as farfetched as it would have a couple of years ago. If the Hornets do need to replace LaMelo, or even if they just want another guard to lead the team in tandem, Jeremiah Fears could be their guy.
**Height:** 6’2.5″
**Wingspan:** 6’5.25″
**Standing reach:** 8’2.5″
**Weight:** 179.4 pounds
**Vertical:** 32.5″ no step, 36.6″ max
**Slashing ability, ball handling, shot making upside**
Fears’ most defined skill is his ability to put pressure on the rim. He plays more physically than his size would suggest, initiating contact with both primary and help defenders to create openings at the rim. He can finish with either hand has showed off a wide variety of wrong foot finishes, reverses, floaters, and other crafty shots through or around larger defenders. He drew over six free throws per game, and he did all that in a season that he turned 18 right before.
Part of that slashing ability comes from Fears’ ability to handle the ball. He has a super tight handle with a deep repertoire of skills. He’s extremely creative attacking space and has quick counters if his first move is taken away. He has a fair few highlights with some nasty change of direction and super fluid combinations of moves. He uses that handle along with his physicality to get downhill and create advantages for the offense.
He also uses that handle to create space for jumpers and other midrange shots. He can decelerate quickly against defenders that are on their heels trying to protect against the drive. He was a decent shooter from two during his one season at Oklahoma, so there’s a foundation to build off as it pertains to his scoring away from the basket.
**Scoring efficiency outside of free throw shooting, decision making, defense**
Fears’ scoring efficiency was buoyed quite a bit by his foul drawing and free throw shooting. He made just 28.4% of his 3-point attempts and 44.5% of his attempts at the rim in the half court. He made a number of tough, impressive layups, but he also missed several easy layups that he made harder than necessary. It’ll be harder to draw fouls at the NBA level if opposing defenses know he’s a non shooter that’ll struggle to finish if guarded with disciplined defense that doesn’t foul him.
While Fears flashed some play making upside, he had a very poor assist to turnover ratio for a lead guard with 4.1 assists against 3.4 turnovers per game. Too often he picked up his dribble without a plan or forced a play that wasn’t there. He needs to learn to dial back the throttle a little bit when necessary.
Fears is on the smaller side, so he’s going to have a tough time making it as an impact defender. He got a decent amount of steals, but he’s going to get picked on quite a bit when guarding the ball just because most of the people he’ll be guarding are bigger than him.
Fears is a tough prospect to nail down. The ceiling is apparent with how good he already is at creating advantages and drawing fouls against set defenses. It’s a foundational piece of a lot of the game’s best players. However, the supporting traits around that skill need a lot of refining. That also means that he’s arguably the most boom-or-bust prospect in his projected range. If he improves the shooting and decision making, he could be a franchise lead guard. If those things don’t come around, it’s hard to justify giving him the usage required to utilize his best skill, which makes his path to relevance very difficult. There’s not much of a fallback for him if he’s not your team’s ball dominant starting point guard.
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