
Mario Hezonja
Position: SG/SF
Height/Weight: 6-8/200
School: Croatia
Mario Hezonja is only 20 years old. That seems impossible. He’s been on the international radar for years. He started playing professionally in Croatia when he was 14. People have been following him ever since. There’s a reason: He’s excellent entertainment.
Super Mario is a ready-made highlight reel. He can throw down monster dunks and pull up for threes. He’s a lot of fun to watch.
If he started as a whisper — that kid is going to play in the NBA one day — Hezonja has grown into something much bigger. He has a lot of supporters — but Hezonja might love Hezonja most of all. He certainly doesn’t lack for confidence. In an interview, Hezonja said, “I should be the first pick in the NBA draft.”
Strengths
He has good size and athleticism for the position. While I was searching for this fun picture, I stumbled across this video of Hezonja throwing down the business end of an alley-oop, then hanging on the rim for style points.
He can shoot, too. In Spanish ACB and EuroLeague play this year, Hezonja shot right around 57 percent from two and 38 percent from three. He’s quick enough to go past some people and a good enough marksman to shoot over the top. Those can also lead to some of his weaknesses, though.
Weaknesses
Hezonja gets knocked for playing a little too much hero ball. He doesn’t pass a ton, usually because he’s busy trying to score. It’s possible, with coaching and indoctrination into a don’t-stop-the-ball offense currently en vogue around the NBA, that Hezonja would grow into a less selfish player. He’s also a 20-year-old kid who’s been told how fantastic he is since birth (probably). Might require some readjustment.
NBA
Shot selection is also a concern. Hezonja takes about 60 percent of his attempts from distance. That’s a lopsided figure, even though the NBA has morphed into a three-or-key kind of league (shoot from deep or make it to the rim).
The other issue here, and it’s not insignificant, is Hezonja’s free-throw rate. He just doesn’t get to the line very often. Part of that is because he shoots so much from three. But it’s still strange considering his athleticism. A guy that quick should get to the rim (and, by extension, the line) more often. In 32 ACB games this year, his per-40 free-throw attempts were an almost impossible 0.5 per game. I stared at that number for a while trying to blink it into something else. It didn’t. That’s the number. That’s really not good.
Not surprisingly, when you can’t/won’t get to the line, that doesn’t help you on the WARP front.
How he’d fit with the Sixers
If he could learn to get to the line and share the ball, quite well. Just imagine it, two Croatian stars, Hezonja and Dario Saric, in the same city on the same team. From Dario to Mario: Philly’s Croatian love story … The book writes itself. Someone find me a publisher.
NBA comparison
Not sure about comparison, but here’s an interesting story. According to David Aldridge, after the NBA Dunk Contest, Hezonja went to practice and did all of Zach LaVine’s dunks.
Draft Projection
Lottery. Somewhere in the three-to-10 range.