WIth his 3-point shooting and defensive capabilities, Florida State’s Devin Vassell is the kind of wing many NBA teams would love to add to their roster.
Vassell, who has worked out for the Hawks, Warriors, Knicks, Celtics and the Magic (and interviewed with the Hawks, as well), averaged 12.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game as a sophomore. He’s a hometown guy, originally from Suwanee, and played at Peachtree Ridge. He has the potential to help the Hawks in two of the categories they struggled most in last season – 3-point shooting and defense.
He was consistent with his 3-point shot during his time at Florida State, making 41.51% of his 3-point shots as a sophomore and 41.94% as a freshman.
Concern grew over Vassell’s shot when a video recently circulated on Twitter showing him chucking deep 3′s with poor mechanics, however, it doesn’t seem to have affected his draft stock too much, as he has assured teams that he was just messing around after a workout and hasn’t changed his shooting motion.
Vassell addressed the media Thursday and the following was gathered from that interview.
Height/weight/age/position: 6-foot-7/194/19/wing
… On how his interview and workout with the Hawks went: “I think everything went pretty good, really good. Interviews were great, workout was great. Talked to their head coach and some of their guys in the front office, and they liked my workout and like who I am not only on the court, but off the court. Who knows, it would be a dream come true to play for the hometown, but anywhere is a blessing for me.”
… On how ready he is to contribute on defense from the get-go: “I think I can come in right away and help any team defensively. I think with just the IQ that I have, on-ball, off-ball, being able to get to the help-side defense, being able to kind of anticipate plays, I think that I’ll be able to come in and right away help teams out and be able to make it more difficult for the star players on other teams to have great games.”
… On the context behind the video of him shooting with bad mechanics: “Of course I’ve seen the video. I haven’t changed my jump shot. I feel like there’s no reason to change my jump shot. I think at the end of the day, it was the end of the workout, and we were just shooting them from a lot deeper than the regular NBA 3-point line, and I just think it’s from the angle that she took it. I think it made it seem like I cocked the ball, had my hand a lot further than I normally do. But I’ve never attempted to change my jump shot and won’t change it because I’ve had a lot of success with the jump shot that I have right now. … At first when it happened, I probably was talking to multiple teams about it. As I started having workouts, some teams asked me about the video. But, everything was fine. I’ve talked to the teams and everybody’s saying I didn’t change my jumper. I think that it was a great thing; the video came out and literally the next week teams were able to come in and see (me), so if there were any questions, if they had anything, it’s one thing to be able to say it over the phone or over the camera, but once you see it in person, in real life that nothing’s changed, everything is fine. It’s almost something that I can laugh about now.”
… On what he’s been working on the past few months: “Just my ballhandling, getting my shot off quicker, being more consistent from the 3-point line, getting to my spots midrange, being able to finish at the rim, being more athletic. Just a bit of everything, really.”
… On what he needs to work on transitioning into the NBA: “I think I’ve definitely got to get stronger, just with the position that I play, two/three, just got to get stronger, put a little bit more weight on, but it’s just going to be an adjustment either way. The pace, the physicality of the game. But I think at the end of the game it’s something that I’m ready for and I’m prepared for. There’s going to be great times and there’s going to be not-so-great times but as I long as I stay focused and just keep working I think everything will work out perfectly fine.”
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