Mario Hezonja: Phoenix Suns 2015 Draft Profile

Strengths

Mario Hezonja has the tools in place to be a dynamic two-way guard, and that starts with his offense. Looking at his long-range shooting first, the Croatian swingman shot better than 38 percent from three across all competition last year, despite playing with a longer three-point line than the one at the NCAA level.

Hezonja also made close to 60 percent of his twos on the year, while averaging about 15.4 points per 40 minutes, often times against much better competition than would be typical in the NCAA.

As far as interior play goes, Hezonja shot better than 65 percent at the rim last season per DraftExpress, not to mention he has the athleticism to jump out of a gym. In fact, according to Hezonja, he was able to easily complete all of the dunks Zach LaVine attempted at the 2015 Slam Dunk Contest, and after you watch some of his film, it doesn’t seem all that unlikely.

When Hezonja gets going, there’s basically nothing you can do about it. The guy is a 6’8″ freak-athlete who can absolutely drain it from distance, and if you play up on him, he’ll use his size to try to get to the hoop.

I mean, just watch this next video. It’s the highlights of a 26-point outing from Hezonja, and you’ll be able to see why people love him right away. The first shot he makes has an incredible degree of difficulty, and it’s kind of reminiscent of what is perhaps one of the most well known plays of Dr. J’s career.

And maybe even a little reminiscent of Kevin Durant too.

Other offensive strengths for Hezonja include his passing ability and his obvious explosiveness, and if he could just learn to limit his turnovers a bit and play within a team offense, he could be well on his way to NBA stardom. For that reason, Hezonja is a more dangerous in transition than in the halfcourt, but that really applies to most athletically-gifted slashers that enter the NBA Draft.

On the other side of things, Hezonja is not a great defender at this point, but as an on-ball defender, he certainly has his merits. He’s very quick moving side to side on the court, and he has no problem getting over the top of screens.

Additionally, Hezonja can get out into passing lanes and rack up steals, and when he does, it usually ends in a fast break dunk. However, as you’ll read, a lot of what Hezonja does on defense doesn’t really apply in off-ball guarding scenarios, mostly due to the lack of focus Hezonja can show when the ball isn’t in his vicinity.

I will say this though: Hezonja’s biggest strength is his confidence in himself. That confidence also has the potential to be his biggest weakness, but if he can come into the league with his Kobe Bryant-like confidence, he’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. 

And you know what, Fran Fraschilla called Bruno Caboclo the Brazilian Kevin Durant, so I’m just going to go ahead and call Hezonja the Croatian Kobe Bryant.

Will Hezonja be as good as Kobe Bryant?

Emphatically, no. Kobe is one of the greatest players ever. He is one of the best shooting guards of all time and personal feelings aside, he is an absolute legend.

Does Hezonja think he will be as good as Kobe Bryant?

I’d be willing to bet he does.

Specifically, Hezonja was asked if he would go over and see Lionel Messi (one of the top two soccer players in the world, if you didn’t know) play. Hezonja gave another gem of an answer.

“Que venga a Messi a verme a mí.”

“Let Messi come to see me.”

Next: Weaknesses