DraftExpress: On Tyler Honeycutt

Photo: Daily Bruin

DraftExpress: On Tyler Honeycutt

#1 Tyler Honeycutt, 6-8, Sophomore, Small Forward, UCLA
7.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.4 turnovers, 1.5 steals, 1.2 blocks, 50% FG, 60% FT, 35% 3P



By Jonathan Givony
DraftExpress
Sept 20 2010

Starting off his freshman campaign slowly due to a spinal stress fracture followed by a stress reaction in his right tibia, Tyler Honeycutt nevertheless managed to bounce back and string together a very interesting freshman season for an underachieving UCLA squad.

Showing excellent size for a small forward at 6-8, to go along with a nice wingspan and better athleticism than you might expect on first glance, Honeycutt is a very smooth, very versatile wing player with a big upside and an outstanding feel for the game.

Honeycutt does a little bit of everything offensively at the college level, even if he was clearly way too unselfish as a freshman last season. He averaged just 7.7 field goal attempts per-40 last year, sixth most total on the team, looking a little too willing to fit in at times.

While there is no way he should have been passing up shots to the type of talent UCLA sported on its roster last season, this does highlight possibly his greatest strength—his excellent passing ability—as he's a major asset for any team to have in their half-court offense. Honeycutt has excellent court vision and anticipation skills and regularly makes passes that hint at an extremely advanced basketball IQ. He does a great job facilitating his team's ball-movement and looks to have the potential to develop into a point forward type down the road—the type of player a coach can run his team's offense through.

Honeycutt also has a very nice stroke from the perimeter, even if he was at times hesitant to show that last year and was inconsistent with his shooting when he did. He made just 13/46 of his jumpers (10/29 3P, 60% FT) according to the data at our disposal, but should be able to improve on that significantly based on his excellent mechanics and the soft touch he displays.

As a ball-handler is where Honeycutt might need the most work, as he's just an average shot-creator at the moment. His ball-handling skills need plenty of work, particularly in terms of his ability to change directions with the ball and operate in pick and roll and isolation type situations. He was the fifth most turnover prone player in our database last season on a per-possession basis, coughing the ball up on an extremely high 31% of his possessions. His terrific court vision sometimes leads him to try and force the issue threading the needle with some very tough passes, but as he matures and gains experience, he should be able to improve his decision making skills significantly.

Adding strength to his lanky frame should open up plenty of things in Honeycutt's game, as he's clearly yet to reach his full athletic potential. Somewhat of a late bloomer in high school, Honeycutt's frame will be able to put on more weight down the road. He has a great feel for scoring around the basket, but is hampered significantly by his lack of strength at the moment.

Defensively, Honeycutt has outstanding potential with his terrific size, length, smarts and anticipation skills, and he's already one of the more productive players in the NCAA on this end in terms of the amount of rebounds (9.6), steals (2.2) and blocks (1.8) he puts up on a per-40 minute basis. Honeycutt moves his feet well on the perimeter and does a very good job of using his length to contest shots, but he can definitely get taken advantage of at times from a physical standpoint by older and stronger players. He struggles fighting through screens and seems to have mental lapses at times on this end of the floor like all young players do, but based on what we've seen and the fact that he's playing under Ben Howland, he should be just fine in this area down the road.

The fact that Honeycutt is already such a good rebounder despite lacking a significant amount of strength and spending heavy minutes at the small forward (as well as the power forward) position is a great sign. He has an excellent feel for tracking down loose balls and doesn't seem to lack much in the ways of toughness or hustle the way some other skinny players do.

Based on what we saw at the adidas Nations Experience in Chicago in August, Honeycutt could be on his way to a breakout season on the national level, something UCLA sorely needs. With a bigger role in Ben Howland's offense and more aggressiveness than he showed last year, Honeycutt will emerge as a coveted NBA prospect and could be ready to make the jump to the League already next spring. His ability to fit into any type of half-court motion offense will make him very interesting for slower paced teams in particular.