Is Jordan Hawkins the NBA’s Next Great Shooter?

Is Jordan Hawkins the NBA’s Next Great Shooter?

The New Orleans Pelicans have been one of the best teams in the NBA lately and one of the biggest stories underlining their success has been the emergence of rookie Jordan Hawkins as one of the best shooters from his draft class Hawkins was the 14th overall pick in the 2023

NBA draft out of Yukon and his ability to score from Beyond The Arc is exactly what he was known for in college and it’s looking like that’s going to continue to be his bread and butter in the NBA but there’s a difference between just being a good three-point shooter in

What Jordan Hawkins is doing there are plenty of guys who can just knock down catch and shoot threes but Jordan Hawkins is a special type of perimeter threat being one of the most important archetypes that you could be as a three-point specialist in today’s NBA Jordan Hawkins is a movement shooter

Typically movement Shooters are able to come off of screens and while still carrying that momentum from coming off the screen in the first place they can easily transition into getting their shot up and knock it down at a high percentage here in early offense herb is

Going to pass it to Nance and they’re going to fake a dribble handoff and meanwhile you can see Daniel’s motion for Hawkins to cut across the top to get the cross screen with Josh green looking at Nance now before the defense can even key in on what’s Happening Hawkins

Already has the ball in his hand and he’s already gotten into a shot having a guy that’s this tough to guard off of screens allows the Pelicans to run set plays for him with a high likely hood of success one of which is this gut action where he passes to the post before

Cutting to the paint and then exiting off of a gut pin down up top for a three they ran it twice in the third quarter against the Mavericks and the first time it left Tim Hardaway Jr completely lost and way behind the play by the time

Hawkins gets the ball the second time he doesn’t really go all the way under valent junice’s man and even though Josh Green does a good job chasing him over the screen with a shooter like Hawkins it’s just not enough to prevent him from knocking down the shot this is a play

With a horns out setup with a guard getting a screen at the elbow followed by a dribble handoff and then flowing into a Spain pick and roll and it can either get the roller a good look at the rim or it can get the initial guard in

The horns action an open look from three we can see them execute it here against the Jazz and all this attention on the pick and roll up here while Hawkins and Marshall are cutting on the weak side is going to allow Hawkins to leave aaji behind in the confusion to pop out off

The pin down from zel for a wide open look from three the last offscreen play that I want to look at with Hawkins is a variant of a blind Pig action with Hawkins cutting up from the weak side to get a handoff on the strong side Wing in

This situation we have the initial Blind Pig action with zel and Alvarado but since Kesler is in a good position to disrupt it Zeller’s going to skip out on the pass and Hawkins Cuts up from the weak side to look as though he’s going to get a handoff from zel but since

Colin seon is overplaying the screen quite a bit trying to keep Hawkins from using it Hawkins is just going to reject the first handoff to leave seon behind so he can get an open look from three off of the second handoff the point of these plays is specifically to get

Hawkins good looks from deep and when you’re able to shoot like that while still actively moving off of screens is genuinely a rare skill that’s in very high demand in the NBA there’s not a lot of guys who can do this at a high level just looking at the current landscape of

The best three-point Shooters off screens right now Hawkins is literally scoring the most points per possession off screens in the entire league ahead of even a guy like Steph Curry now obviously Steph’s volume is much higher but this is something that bodess really really well for Hawkins as a long-term

Piece moving forward and for the Pelicans constructing a roster but where things get even more interesting is when you start to look at how Hawkins is able to create from other areas of the floor when teams are trying to run him off the three-point line on this play Hawkins is

Going to come up and ghost the screen on Gordon to pop out and Strather is going to Blitz Zion honestly I don’t really know why unless he thought that Gordon was going to switch and Nance is going to set this flare screen on him when he

Comes back but naji’s going to close out and Hawkins uses that opportunity to blow by him and attack the rim for an easy layup here he’s going to curl off the hand off from valent chunis and get green to chase him he stops just above the free throw line and hits green with

A pump fake getting him in the air and this gives him plenty of space to rise up for an easy shot on this empty side pick and roll Ingram’s going to attack but pay attention to Zion angling to set the screen on Watson so that when Ingram

Passes to him Watson’s going to be forced to make a difficult close out and Hawkins uses the pump fake to shake him for a clean one dribble pullup right inside the ark while the primary draw with Hawkins is his ability to light it up from Beyond The Arc he’s still able

To score from other areas of the floor and I’m really interested to see how his volume expands in the mid-range as his role becomes more defined and his playing time becomes more consistent this is something that a player like cavius CW Pope does really really well being able to hit Defenders that are

Closing out with a pump fake get them airborne and then just take one dribble inside the arc and get an easy mid-range pull-up it punishes defense that tries to run players off the three-point line and funnel them into the paint because there’s usually a big gap between the

Defender that’s closing out and the second line of defense that’s waiting for that player attacking the close out to get downhill all of this scoring ability allows Hawkins to do more than just put the ball in the hoop where he’s really stood out is when he’s using his

Ability to collapse defenses and demand attention when attacking Closeouts to create some really easy looks for his teammates we can see it on this transition possession where he’s going to be trailing Marshall and pal is forced to close out on him to prevent an open transition three this allows

Hawkins to attack and leave pal behind and with zero backline defense Green’s going to be forced to step up and guard him and he finds Dyson Daniels for an easy two points on this play herb is going to feed valent chunis in the post and the Mavericks send the double

Leaving herb open to get the pass on the cut to the basket Jones Jr slides over to provide actually some pretty good help at The Rim so herb just kicks it out to Hawkins up top and with the defense now in rotation he can attack

The rim and force the defense to step up on him leaving the easy dump off available this curl action in the corner is going to get green sliding over and it’s going to force Dwight po to step up a little bit and that’s just going to

Leave the Pass open to Nance on the roll and he gets to the rim and draws the foul I’m not saying that Jordan Hawkins is the most advanced playmaker in the world but as a complimentary passer playing off the catch he does a really great job just knowing how his scoring

Threat is going to manipulate defenses and that’s enough for him to be able to leverage it into high percentage looks for other guys on the floor and even without the ball in his hands just being able to keep Defenders home when someone like Ingram is attacking in the pick and

Roll due to the threat of a catch and shoot three is something that opens up a ton for the Pelicans on the offensive end especially on a team that doesn’t really attempt a high volume of threes and relies a lot on spacing for their primary creators to get to the rim or do

Damage in the mid-range when the defense starts to hone in in on guys like Zion like the Nuggets do here sending two on him in the pick and roll and leaving Nance open on the roll forcing St to slide over and tag him all that does is

Leave Hawkins wide open in the corner the same exact thing happens here with Ingram the Nuggets send two on the ball leaving Jackson to have to cover valent chunis on the roll and it leaves Hawkins free for the shot Utah is going to be worried about Ingram attacking the

Middle of the floor against Collins so Keon is going to be waiting to provide nail help and with fonio following Alvarado Hawkins doesn’t really have any contests to get the pass for three these are the easiest points in the world stuff like this and what needs to be

Understood more than anything is that yes the defense will adjust accordingly and start shutting Hawkins out of offensive possessions but that’s not a bad thing because it lets Ingram and Zion and CJ have significantly more space to work with as it stands right now New Orleans only attempts 32.2% of

Their shots from Beyond The Ark which is the third lowest frequency in the NBA despite being top 10 in three-point percentage when Hawkins is on the floor that frequency Rises to 35.9% which is much closer to League average the point here is that Hawkins unlocks a lot for

Them with the threat of his shooting and he addresses one of their biggest concerns it’s one thing for a team to be good at hitting shots from Beyond The Arc but it’s another thing for a team to leverage the threat of that shooting to start warping defenses with Jordan

Hawkins on the floor that warping is going to start to happen as his minutes start to increase in his role becomes clearer and ultimately I think it’s going to simplify the Pelicans offense a lot and make them have to work significantly less hard for their points really hope you guys enjoyed this video

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The New Orleans Pelicans have started to pick up steam, and rookie Jordan Hawkins has been playing a major part in that. The 14th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, selected out of UConn, has been proving that he’s capable of lighting it up from beyond the arc, and more importantly, doing it off of movement.

Jordan Hawkins’ shooting is something that not only makes him an exciting prospect for the New Orleans Pelicans moving forward, but it also unlocks a ton for the Pelicans around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. Jordan Hawkins’ ability to space the floor creates more for guys like Zion and Ingram to work with, and simplifies an offense that occasionally makes things more complicated than it needs to be.

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