Payne is unique. He has freakishly good hands and hangs onto almost everything that comes near him, great footwork, strength, and quickness, and has some very good ability as a passer, which I hope they'll utilize in the coming years. It's also likely with his frame that by next year he'll be about 270 lbs.
The thing that will determine whether he's a great, not just really good player, is whether he can develop and use a short jumper and jump hook when he has the ball in his hands. If he can make other bigs guard him 15 feet and in from the basket, he has the ability to blow by most by putting it on the floor. He has the type of quickness to do that. But he needs to have the threat of his shot in order to do that. The free throw shooting goes along with that, and you could see some improvement on that as the year progressed. This guy has better touch than a Jordan Murphy, and I'm so hopeful that after a Spring and Summer of thousands of jumpers and free throws, he can add that to his arsenal. I think it will happen. And that alone adds a huge amount to their offense next year.
And that would mean he would be a great, not really good player.
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