Midseason report card: grading every Hornets player’s performance at All-Star break
By Ben Handler
Nathan Mensah, Grade: D
Much like with Leaky, the fact that Mensah even got onto an NBA court is impressive. But unlike Leaky, he didn’t show a lot of signs that he belongs. The 6’8” 25-year-old undrafted rookie big man has almost no offensive game.
He has zero floor spacing ability, he’s too small to impact the game around the rim, and he has limited - if any - touch. He scored just 33 points in over 300 minutes, and shot just 12/28 from the floor, despite attempting zero three-pointers.
Mensah also had a ridiculously high turnover rate in very low usage, and committed an outrageous 64 fouls, more than one for every 5 minutes he was on the court while blocking just 14 shots on the season.
While it was nice seeing him get his shot, I’m just not sure Mensah is an NBA player. I’d be fine with never seeing him suit up again for the Hornets. He just doesn’t have the skill set to survive in the modern NBA with his size.
Hopefully, he has a nice playing career overseas, or in some other walk of life, but I don’t see it happening in the league for the kid. He’ll almost certainly spend the rest of the season in the G-League.