NBA Free Agency: David Nwaba could offer Bucks elite backcourt defense at low cost

Weaknesses

Nwaba’s list of weaknesses is by no means long, but he happens to have the misfortune of lacking in the skill currently among the most valued by NBA teams.

Describing Nwaba as a poor three-point shooter almost implies something that isn’t the case. Generally when guards or wings have such a label to their game, you can expect to see them still fire away with regularity, but that’s not the case with Nwaba.

Nwaba sticks rigidly to what he’s good at and what he’s comfortable with. His team could certainly benefit from him opening up space with his shot, but he sticks with what he trusts in.

The result is just 57 three-point attempts across 90 career NBA games to date, and 19 total makes for a 33 percent success rate.

As Mark Strotman of NBC Sports Chicago noted in January, Nwaba’s reluctant shooting stretches inside the arc too, as he’s moved closer to abandoning the mid-range. Nwaba attempted just 95 non three-point jump shots on the season, making up just 22 percent of his total attempts.

In total, just under 65 percent of Nwaba’s total field goal attempts came from within five feet of the rim, an astonishingly high percentage for a guard. Taking the league’s top-two driving guards as a comparison, only 40 percent of Russell Westbrook‘s attempts came within that range, while just 33 percent of James Harden‘s shots were within five feet.

To a degree, Nwaba’s determination to stick to shots at the rim is impressive, particularly as he boasted a respectable 47.8 percent clip from the field overall and 55.7 percent from within five feet, but there’s no mistaking how it limits him either.

The scouting report on Nwaba is simple, and in spite of his above average ability to get to and finish at the rim, if a team can stop him there, the lack of offense he offers may make it tough to keep him on the floor.