Another nice showing for Northern Illinois big man
James Hughes today. Standing a legit 6-10, with a nice frame and an excellent wingspan, hes clearly one of the more intriguing big men we find here. Hughes was extremely active all game long, challenging shots around the rim and coming up with a number of nice blocks on the ball and from the weak-side, and going out of his area on a number of occasions for some strong rebounds, a few offensive that ended up in tip-ins or easy buckets.
Offensively, hes a pretty raw guy, with a fairly limited assortment of post moves and just average touch around the basket. He got really winded early on due to the up and down style of play that we found here, and looked like he was going to collapse every time play stopped for a moment. To his credit, though, he did not let that stop him from playing hard when the ball was actually in play, and he did run the floor very hard and made lots of effort plays. Hughes has probably shown enough here to get an invite to Orlando, and if he continues to develop his fairly skinny body, he will at the very least have a chance to play in the NBA at some point in his career. We would like to see him develop a little bit more of a mean streak and try to maximize his tools even more.
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