I have rarely if ever been as wrong about a prospect as I was about Mario Hezonja
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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I was all the way bought into Croatian Kobe hype. Thought the Sixers should've drafted him over Okafor.
the 2015 lottery was a minefield of busts -- from #5 to #10 we had Hezonja, Cauley-Stein, Mudiay, Stanley Johnson, Kaminsky and Winslow, all of whom are currently out of the league.
I remember watching some high
Mine in recent years was I thought Jabari Parker was gonna be a 10x all star and I thought Lamelo ball would be out of the league in 2 years
Holy crap who is this Hezonja kid? He looks like he's gonna be a multi time all-star
In the future I'm telling my kids this was Paolo-Franz
Mario Hezonja is going to be a problem for defenders.
Always wonder what Mario could've done in the league had he been drafted to a different and better situation.
Not much. He looks and moves like an NBA player but he's not really very good at basketball
I agree that he's not but he also had his most important developmental years be stunted by injuries and a pretty chaotic situation around him as well as his own role being a bit of a yo-yo. He didn't really get the best shake in the most important years of his growth as a professional.
That's all true. At least he ended up with a sick NBA highlight reel and a role on the best team in Europe
Certainly hasn't had the most linear path but still a career so many can only dream of.
He was a shooter that couldn’t shoot and never wanted to defend. So he was a 3 and D guy that could do neither.
Scott skiles, his head coach, was known for having some of the best defenses in the league with few turnovers. Hezonja never learned to defend and turned the ball over a lot.
He just wasn’t that good around NBA talent.
I agree that he wasn't but to be honest he was more than just a shooter but was pigeonholed into that role because of the clunky fit with him and the rest of their core. Magic didn't do a great job in the early 2010's building a core that they could legitimately win with, didn't do a great job with development/scouting, and didn't do great at supplementing the young guys with vets that made sense. Multiple coaches...Hezonja wasn't put in a good position to succeed.
Now that's a name I haven't heard in years.