Jordan Hall: 2022 NBA Draft Scouting Report
On the size & passing combo, defining "high feel" and Hall's ideal NBA role
We aren’t shy about discussing where we’ve grown as a scout over the last few years. One such shift that is clearly and quickly taking place: our increased valuation of high-feel prospects.
Feel is a difficult trait to describe. There’s an element, to steal from former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, of “I know it when I see it” at play. Feel is not just passing, but seeing plays develop and manipulating the defense to get them. Feel is knowing when to take over a game for your team, sensing the moment. Feel is where creativity intersects with discipline, where instinct fuses with adaptability.
Previously, feel without shooting wasn’t something we valued. What good is elite feel if you aren’t going to be playing with the ball in your hands a ton? And if you aren’t a threat to score it or shoot the ball from the perimeter, how can an NBA team justify letting you play with the ball? Defenses would go under screens and dare you to shoot, meet you on the other side of the pick and allow help defenders to stay home, thus not opening kicks to the corners for these great passers to capitalize on.
For those universal (and over-simplified) reasons we were lower on prospects like Tyrese Haliburton, LaMelo Ball and Josh Giddey. The shooting didn’t stick, but high-feel playmakers with good size were hard to come by. And we’re learning from our mistakes. It’s easier to develop shooting than it is that natural feel and passing ability that is innate to the greats.
Jordan Hall out of St. Joseph’s is big. He’s 6’7” bordering on 6’8”. He is a tremendous passer, top-ten in the nation in assists per game. For the second consecutive season, he’s also shot over 35% from deep! And yet, we hesitate in giving him the bump up a board that we should have given the aforementioned prospects in years past.
Are we just stubborn and not learning our lesson? Not exactly. Hall may have the size and the passing, and the shooting to boot. But there is something missing. On our recent episode of The Box and One Podcast, guest CJ Marchesani brought up his evaluation of Hall and agreed that there’s something that hasn’t clicked yet for Hall:
A giant distinction to make here is that there is a difference between being a great passer and having great feel. If he had both, we’d be talking about him as a lottery pick as a young sophomore with all the traits to his name. What Hall possesses in IQ as a passer is a little watered down by his lack of IQ as a scorer. He settles for jumpers in the mid-range, and while the counters and bevy of footwork moves are impressive, they leave off the two most important and efficient zones for scoring: the rim and the free throw line.
At 6’8” and guarded regularly by smaller players, Hall should be getting to the charity stripe or finishing at the rim more. A 15% free throw rate is far too low, especially considering the 25 post-up possessions he’s accrued. Out of the pick-and-roll, Hall’s turnover rate (21.4%) is far higher than his foul rate (2.6%).
Hall is not a great athlete, so it isn’t surprising that he struggles to get to the rim a great deal. But a 6’8” point guard who takes 72% of his half-court attempts as jump shots is a bit high. Someone with great feel for the game would utilize their craft to get high-quality looks for themselves.
We’ve been wrestling with Hall all season long. For all these concerns, we love certain aspects of his game. The shot is pretty sturdy, and finding a 6’8” strong passer who can knock down shots and play next to another star is very intriguing. He’s got a little Kyle Anderson to him, a slow-mo creator who does a lot of the little things. But Hall needs to get better defensively to matchup Anderson’s level. What position he defends best on an NBA floor we still aren’t certain of.
Where does a player like this get drafted?