Taylor Hendricks affirming first-round status
I traveled to Cincinnati over the weekend to see the UCF freshman play in person for the first time. The 19-year-old Hendricks was a later-blooming and perhaps under-evaluated high school prospect out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and finished his career as a consensus four-star recruit after winning back-to-back state titles. He wound up picking Central Florida over bigger-name offers due in part to the fact that the Knights were also willing to take his brother on scholarship. So while he wasn’t a buzzy name in NBA circles before this season, this certainly isn’t a case where a prospect is coming out of nowhere—it’s more a testament to his development than anything else.I was quite impressed with Hendricks’s showing against Cincinnati on Saturday: His team lost due in part to a huge turnover problem, but Hendricks played a pretty complete game as a catalyst for the Knights. He scored 21 points on 14 shots and made four threes, also adding eight rebounds, a block and a steal. Hendricks has great size, plus the length and athleticism to defend multiple frontcourt positions, and he’s a generally active player who doesn’t shy away from contact and makes an effort on the glass. He’s also a really promising shooter who happens to be 6'9" with projectable tools. When those types of stretch bigs come into the NBA already understanding how to play inside—and when they don’t really need the ball a lot to make a huge impact—that typically creates a really high-value floor as a positive contributor.
Hendricks probably doesn’t have a starry ceiling, as he’s not a creative player off the dribble and likely won’t have much offense run through him. On the flip side, UCF doesn’t run much for him anyway, so it’s possible there’s a bit more here; Hendricks passes pretty well and has great feel overall for playing without the ball. He is also a reactive off-ball defender who reads the game quickly and often puts himself in the right place ahead of plays developing. All this stuff figures to translate pretty quickly going up a level. Hendricks is not an exceptionally explosive athlete by NBA standards, but his anticipation skills and positioning help cover for that.
Oversize 3-and-D frontcourt pieces are always useful, and, at this point, Hendricks doesn’t appear to be a particularly complex eval for teams—it seems pretty safe to say that he’ll come off the board in the middle of the first round. It’s not wild to think he could sneak into the lottery, and my guess would be he’ll be off the board by pick No. 20 or so. If he continues to trend upward, Hendricks should be a safe bet to return value on a rookie contract. Seeing him in person and understanding his physical impact on the game was worth the stop.
