Il y a 2 ans
Points forts
- Playmaking
- Speed
- Defensive potential
Décent, mais à travailler
- Shooting
- Decision making
Points faibles
- Not a great vertical athlete
- Finishing against size
Kennedy Chandler was born in the small town of Cordova, 30 minutes outside of Memphis, Tennessee on September 16, 2002. That makes him 19 years old and it will also make him 20 years old by the start of his first NBA season. He comes from a non-basketball, non-athletic family (his father works for FedEx) but he's been performing at the highest level for many years already: McDonald's All-American, Jordan Brand Classic, etc. He seems well-surrounded and supported, better than a lot of high performing kids of his age, which could play either for or against him when it's going to get tough. For now, he handles himself quite well in the media which means he doesn't let much slip in interviews, except what he's supposed to say.
There are two topics everyone talks about when they talk about Kennedy Chandler: his size and his passing ability. He's 6'0 (1m83) and 171 lbs (77kg), which is very tiny for an NBA point guard. It's more or less Chris Paul's size. Chandler hasn't quite let it dictate the way he plays, though. He's a very aggressive, pick-and-roll savvy point guard who likes to attack the rim. He's got amazing body control in the air and enough creativity under the rim to cause trouble to defenders of any size. He's got also tremendous court vision. He's very patient with the ball and doesn't hesitate to let the shot clock wind down in order to get defenses to commit to something they shouldn't. Don't be fooled by his number at Tennessee (5.2 ast to 2.5 tov), he's better than that. His teammates are dropping and/or not finishing a ton of his plays and sometimes it affects his decision making.
Defensively, he's a LOT better than advertised. I'm not sure he'll ever be a lockdown defender because of his size, but Kennedy Chandler is sturdier on his feet than advertised and uses his low center of gravity to make himself difficult to back down. He's also very adept at using his small size to slip over screens and chase ballhandlers out of the paint. When the effort is there (because it isn't always there), he shows flashes of elite pick-and-roll defense. He gambles a lot too, which is something to keep an eye on. Is he undisciplined on defense or it is just the context that makes it difficult for him to keep his cool. Curious fact: Rick Barnes doesn't make him defend the point of attack much. He uses the much smaller Zakai Ziegler to do it, which never quite made a lot of sense to me.
As far as his weak points go, Chandler is really struggling to finish against size (surprise, surprise). He had one of his worst games this season against Arizona, who packed the paint with giants like Christian Koloko, Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo. His shooting form is good, but he tends to overdribble in pull up situations which gives defenses the time to settle and contest. Much of his game is in transition and early offense, so he'll have to up the tempo to become an efficient NBA player. He is a better three point shooter than his percentage indicates (34%), but he insiste on taking these super long NBA threes even if he lacks the power to take them. He'll need to bulk up in order to make them regularly, but the mechanics are there. Hopefully he doesn't shoot himself into a hitch trying to convince NBA scouts he can make this shot.
I really like Kennedy Chandler as a prospect. He'll always suffer from a lack of size, but he's got the technical tools to make it at the NBA level. If he's given an offense to run with competent finishers that can earn his trust and if he gets just a little stronger without losing his bursts, he could even be an all-star. He's not a 100% can't-miss prospect, but his ceiling is very, very high. I like to think of him as having a Kemba Walker type of ceiling.