Meet RJ Hampton
The Pistons have acquired RJ Hampton who was waived by the Orlando Magic following the trade deadline to make roster space. He has cleared waivers and is officially available as far as I know.
Who is R.J. Hampton?
Hampton is a 22-year-old, 175-pound, 6 foot 4 combo guard hailing from Dallas Texas. He was a superstar high-school player and was a consensus 5-star recruit and widely regarded as a top 5 recruit in his class. Rather than go to college in the states he opted to head to New Zealand to play a year of professional basketball to play for the Breakers. (worth noting, the New Zealand Breakers do play in the Australian league)
His year down under was not a disaster but not great. He had some injury issues and finished with an uninspiring season. Hampton, who was originally projected as a likely top 5 pick fell all the way to 24th to the Bucks. He never played for the Bucks and was traded immediately to the Nuggets. He didn’t spend long in Denver. Never really getting into the rotation, before being traded at the deadline as the centerpiece of the Aaron Gordon trade. He did a decent job down the stretch of that season and was a regular rotation member thru that season and the next for the Magic. Through that time and into this season though, he never really impressed. It wasn’t always a total disaster, but there was also not much that was worthwhile. This season he struggled to stay in the rotation and it was clear he did not have a place with the surging Magic.
Offense:
Its…. not great. Hampton is definitively in the category of being the wrong sort of tweener. Instead of being a combo guard who can do either spot, he doesn’t really work for either position. It isn’t terribly obvious why he hasn’t been effective offensively because initial viewing makes it seem as though he has everything. A good handle, a smooth shot, and decent size, and he’s not unathletic. This may not make the most sense but after spending a great deal of time watching his shot attempts, it almost reminds me of Stanley Johnson offensively. It seems like he has all the tools, but I’m not sure he actually has the explosion necessary to consistently create space and definitely not to actually finish tough shots over defenders in the paint. He gets blocked regularly, pukes up difficult floaters and flip shots, and struggles to consistently get by any worthwhile defenders. Effectively he seems to have all the tools, but on an NBA court it is suddenly clear that he’s basically a C- at everything. This also explains how a guy who was so highly touted out of high school to flop so hard he doesn’t even survive his rookie contract. C- in the NBA is A+ at almost any other level so you watch his high-school tape and he’s just a god at everything. The problem is, in the NBA you pretty much need to have at least one tent-pole skill and Hampton doesn’t. The end result is a supposed comb-guard with a TS% of just 50% on his career with a shot distribution that looks like a pure shooter except he is a below-average jump-shooter. Some comparisons:
Hampton gets just 16.7% of his shot attempts in the restricted area, on this year’s Pistons that would put him between Kevin Knox (16.2%) and Saddiq Bey (20.3%).
His assist rate (percentage of buckets he assists on while on the floor) is just 15.8%, which on this Pistons team would put him just ahead of Alec Burks who’s at 15.6%.
The percentage of his shots coming from deep is 36.5%, which would put him just behind Killian (37.9) and Bogdanovic (39.8), and a bit ahead of Ivey (34.2).
All those numbers make up the profile of a guy who is primarily a spot-up shooter who doesn’t do much creation. The only area where it doesn’t look like that is that he does occasionally get to the line, not enough to really make a difference but he does draw occasional fouls, and that only 33% of his two-point makes have been assisted, which ironically is the exact mark Saddiq Bey had this season.
So if you’ve read all this and figured that this sounds an awful lot like the Pistons got a smaller version of Saddiq Bey you would not be far off. The biggest similarity to Bey (this season at least) is that his entire player profile as a pro is that of a shooter, except he hasn’t shot very well. And unlike Bey, Hampton doesn’t have the positional size to fall back on when times get tough. The most important thing to take from these numbers is that, while Hampton has a good enough handle to have the ball some, he has shown pretty much no ability to actually play point-guard. Almost like, imagine if Jaden Ivey lost all of his explosiveness.
This is all pretty grim
Well we can get some positives in now. First off, Hampton has played less than 3,000 minutes in his three years, which isn’t Wiseman-levels of low sample-size but it’s still small. Hampton and Killian Hayes were in the same draft and Hayes has played 3,820 minutes while Hampton has only managed 2,651. Tied up to that is that in the last two seasons he is shooting 34.7% from deep. That isn’t anything to write home about but it does give a reason for some hope here. The sample-size is still small and he’s still young, he doesn’t need to improve his shot a ton to start to actually be a valuable shooter. If he can get towards league average from deep on decent volume, he has some intriguing upside given that he still has real ball-handling abilities even if he isn’t a point guard. He has shown just enough ability as a shooter that it isn’t foolish to hope he can take a step forward as a shooter so that his abilities actually match up with his shot and statistical profile. Basically, he isn’t that far away from providing similar value that Saddiq Bey brought, but without some of the baggage of Bey getting used to shooting all the time or the supposed expensive extension he’s after. More succinctly, Hampton could easily be a severely discounted version of Saddiq Bey, which is a good thing to have!
Defense:
I won’t pretend to be overly knowledgeable. Hampton was not a guy I watched overly closely and while you can go online and watch every shot attempt and every assist he’s ever made in chronological order you can’t really do that with defense. From what I’ve been able to gather he is mostly mediocre defensively. As a point guard he has decent size but 6’4 is nothing special as an off-guard. He generally struggles on the defensive end but not in a horrific, offensive way. Once again, some shades of Saddiq Bey here. I do think he has some defensive upside though because he moves laterally pretty well.
Intangibles:
Not much to say here. No accounts of him being a problem. Was supposedly a really good student in high-school which is a positive I guess. Always hard to judge exactly how a previously high-touted prospect handles being a back-end guy but whatever. Consider this a non-concern.
Where does he fit on the floor:
My guess is that he slots right into the wing rotation. not just because that seems to me to be the most natural fit for him long-term but also because after trading Saddiq Bey and Kevin Knox the Pistons have a significant need of bodies on the wing. Contrary to some people’s belief I do not think he is going to make a real impact on the playing time of Killian Hayes. I mentioned that Hampton assisted on just 15.8% of his team’s baskets, and Hayes is at 31.8%. Hayes and Ivey should not lose any point-guard minutes to Hampton. I could see Hampton taking CoJo minutes though I suppose.
The upshot for the rest of the roster:
Depending on exactly how much they want to see him on or off the ball, it seems likely that Cory Joseph and Hamidou Diallo will be the guys in danger here. Maybe even both. I would prefer if he takes all of Cojo’s minutes and saps maybe a few wing minutes away from whoever but admittedly it wouldn’t be the worst thing to take minutes from Diallo for a guy who can shoot at least a bit.
Best case scenario:
He finds a step up in his shooting and realizes this could be his last chance to hang in the league so he commits himself totally to defense. By the end of this season, he is a genuine 3 and D player with the ability to occasionally put the ball on the floor and run some actions himself. He plays well enough to get a multi-year contract that isn’t overly expensive and becomes a valuable piece as the first guard off the bench who fills into the starting lineup when an injury requires him to. Think almost like a bigger (and henceforth, better) version of Langston Galloway.
Worst case scenario:
Oh yeah, two teams have basically given up on him in two years he simply isn’t an NBA-caliber player and the rest of this season is the last time he’s on an NBA floor.
Verdict:
A fine move because there is effectively no risk involved to get a guy who could be valuable, the Pistons don’t even need to open a roster spot for him. I would guess that he will not be on the team past this season though. He has largely been utterly unimpressive and even in the better outcomes the Pistons probably have too many guards as it is and he isn’t big enough to really survive as a 3. If he is on the roster next season I would guess it is because they effectively struck out on free agency and had space so they give him a show-me one year deal.