NBA Free Agency: Could Mario Hezonja be a bargain pickup for the Bucks?

Strengths

Hezonja possesses a nice range of skills that, along with his size, make him an incredibly versatile player. Most naturally a wing, Hezonja has spent some time at both point guard and power forward in his NBA career to date, with the bigger of those two spots producing the most notable rewards.

Although Hezonja is a capable ball-handler and can certainly create for others, a lot of his best work comes off the ball.

His efficiency hasn’t necessarily translated to the NBA yet, but Hezonja’s shooting exploits in Europe left him well practiced at working off the ball to come on to jump shots, while he’s particularly adept at cutting to the basket to be presented with easy looks from close range.

That was best illustrated by Hezonja’s 69.1 percent field goal mark from inside three feet last season. Particularly when matched up with bigger defenders at the power forward spot, Hezonja’s quickness and athleticism allows him to take opponents off the dribble and get to the rim too.

In spite of struggles since coming stateside, Hezonja remains a confident and capable shooter. He shot 42.1 percent on pull-up jumpers last season, placing him ahead of Jimmy Butler and just behind CJ McCollum and Kevin Durant, while in his hottest spell of the season in February, he shot 40.4 percent from deep on 4.3 attempts per game.

Hezonja provided plenty of evidence that his three-point shooting touch hasn’t disappeared, and if a new team could help him to build consistency with it, his game still has the potential to reach a completely different level.