Charlotte Hornets: The Madridian Bull Willy Hernangomez

Willy Hernangomez’s Offense

The offensive side of the basketball has generally been Willy’s relative strength in his short NBA career. However, a frustration Charlotte Hornets fans endured last season was pocket passes fumbling out of the Madridian’s outstretched hands, notably those thrown by Tony Parker. This season Willy was a changed man, showing off very soft hands as he caught numerous bullets from Malik Monk and Cody Martin especially.

This allowed Willy to have an offensive impact as either the roll man in pick and roll/dribble hand-off actions or in the “dunker” slot. The below-shot chart shows Willy being relatively efficient inside the paint, with Willy’s 2PT FG% of 60% ranking 81st out of 509 qualified NBA players.

An important auxiliary skill of any pick-and-roll based big man in the NBA is the ability to make passes off the short roll, a skill Cody Zeller and PJ Washington have just about mastered. Whilst Willy can find open shooters against basic defensive coverage; he doesn’t quite have the composure of the aforementioned Hornets bigs.

Willy is a uniquely skilled big who also has some utility outside of pick and roll actions. Willy has great footwork and touch in the paint, which the Hornets incorporated into their offense by running 2.6 post-ups per game for Willy. Whilst Willy sometimes struggles in the post when guarded by more physical defenders; it’s a viable play in the modern era of basketball with various teams employing “small ball” strategies.

Furthermore, Willy is a very composed passer from the post, able to find cutters and open shooters when teams show him double-teams. This gives hope that Willy could one day develop more composure as a short-roll passer.

Disappointingly, Willy hasn’t shown much progress as a shooter. He only attempted 0.7 3 point shots per game in each of the last two seasons, with accuracy decreasing from 38.5%(in 2018/19) to 22.7%(2019/20). With how effective Willy is at running handoffs and pick and roll, adding that extra layer to his game would amplify his offensive impact.

Overall, Willy is a C suited for the modern game. He’s got a post-game to fall back on against smaller defenders, and he’s a good enough passer and screener to run constant pick and rolls and handoffs with the Hornets guards.