For those unfamiliar with Beverley, he is a 24 year old, 6'1", 185 lbs. rookie who is originally from Chicago, Illinois (In high school Beverley was also featured in the documentary Hoop Reality, the sequel to Hoop Dreams. I definitely recommend it if you get the chance to watch it); and played college ball at Arkansas. He played for two seasons as a Razorback, leaving school after his sophomore year because of academic scandal. Then, he played in Ukraine for a year, and bounced around some NBA training camps before going back to Europe for a couple of years. He excelled playing for Spartak St. Petersburg in Russia, winning the Eurocup MVP in 2012. In January 2013, he finally caught on in the NBA with the Houston Rockets, and has been fairly impressive in his time there. (SB Nation's Houston Rockets blog, The Dream Shake, covered his journey in full here.)
He's a quick, athletic, waterbug type of player; darting all over the curt to make plays. He first caught my attention because of his energy and focus on defense, something that the Rockets have desperately been in need of. But, after watching him for a little longer, it seemed clear that he had some nice potential on the offensive side of the ball as well.
Even with his slight build, Beverley has a knack for getting into the paint at will. A bulk of his shots end up right at the basket, and, as the video below shows, he's very capable of finishing once he gets there.
According to Synergy Sports, a combined 34% of Beverley's possessions come from either isolations or pick-and-roll ball-handling situations, leaving him with a ton of opportunities to break his defender down. As you can tell from the clips, Beverley's ability to get past the first level of the defense stems from his amazing athleticism, quick first step, and great ball-handling; reminiscent of a blacktop star. He often executes a number of dribble moves to get his position, and then blowing by him. And, once he gets by his first defender, he gets to the rim so quickly that the defense usually can't rotate in time, giving him an open lane to the basket.
His quickness makes him a weapon off the ball as well. He is very good at attacking the gaps in the defense, as shown in the first clip. If the primary ball-handler is looking to drive, as James Harden was in the clip, the defense will naturally play towards him. Beverley takes advantage of that by using his speed to go right through the defense can close out on him properly. He's also has potential to become a threat curling off of screens in the future. As soon as he gets directed towards the basket he's going to drive hard and drive fast, and he has the ability to get vertical and score amongst the trees.
His outside shot has also been decent since he got signed in January. He shot .375 percent from deep in the regular season, which is a pretty good rate.And, even though his shooting numbers come in a small sample size, his shooting from the right wing has to be noted. On tape, he looked very comfortable from this spot on the floor, knocking down shot after shot. As the shot chart above shows, he attempted the most threes from that location, and shot at a rate of .389 percent, higher than his average.
The ability to knock down three point shots is huge for Beverley, because it gives him something that is necessary to be a part of the Rockets offense. Their offensive system is predicated on pick-and-rolls, getting shots at the rim, and hitting outside shots; and Beverley's shot chart is a pretty nice illustration of those last two criteria.
As far as running the pick-and-roll goes, he still has some work to do. He's not a pure point guard, but he's still going to have a the responsibility of running the offense at times, making it crucial that he improve as soon as possible. He's not a very good decision maker, and is prone to making turnovers. He doesn't have the best vision either, and misses a few wide open players spotting up, as well as mistiming some passes to rolling bigs. And, even when he targets the right person, he tends to throw sloppy passes, ending up at his teammates' feet. But, these issues aren't uncommon with a young guard, and they will come with time and training.
It's important to note that all of these indications have been given in a small sample size, and he could very well end up being just another flash-in-the-pan. But, in my opinion, Beverley has the work ethic and raw tools to become a good bench player. He's had a long journey to the NBA, and that's created a resiliency in him that can't be shut down. While bouncing around in Europe, his coaches raved about his work ethic
and I think that will continue in Houston. If he's given an off-season and training camp to work out the kinks, I think he can make a fine combo guard off the bench in the NBA.
(All stats in this piece were taken from NBA.com's stats department, basketball-reference.com, and Synergy Sports.)
