http://grantland.com/the-triangle/t...which-players-are-the-next-free-agent-steals/
Kyle O’Quinn (Restricted Free Agent)
O’Quinn doesn’t play much, but his per-minute numbers have always been good, and there is still hope that he can develop one of the two bedrock skills every team wants now in a big man: 3-point shooting and rim protection.
The Magic tried, and failed, to turn O’Quinn into a 3-point shooter this season; he shot just 12-of-42 from deep, and defenses were happy to let him chuck open 3s. A smart team would continue that experiment. O’Quinn has a solid stroke, and even if he never shoots 3s well, he can do damage in open space. O’Quinn is a clever passer who can facilitate from the elbows:
Close out hard on his jumper and O’Quinn can slither into a defense off the bounce:
O’Quinn has a lot of discrete skills, but lacks the one foundational skill to let them shine consistently. He might be able to approximate Boris Diaw’s passing, but he doesn’t have a Diaw-style post game to draw double-teams and open up the most productive passes. He can do work on the move, but he doesn’t actually move all that much without the ball; Orlando’s coaches have urged O’Quinn to roll hard to the rim, but he has a bad habit of just kind of floating in space after setting a screen. That would be an acceptable habit if he could float himself out to productive 3-point shots, but he hasn’t done that yet.
Unfortunately, O’Quinn almost never gets to the line, which is exactly what you’d expect from a guy with no post game or stomach for hard cuts. Getting better at just one of these things could have an outsize impact on O’Quinn’s overall production.
Even though he’s not much of a leaper, O’Quinn provides a whiff of rim protection. He has long arms and good timing; he gets a lot of Draymond Green–style blocks, in which he barely leaves the ground but uses his wingspan to smother shots. He’s a talker on that end, but he gets confused now and then, and he doesn’t have the bounce to string together multiple strong cuts and jumps around the basket.
It’s easy to focus on what O’Quinn can’t do. But there’s an intriguing player in here, and some team should pay a bit above market to see if it can coax that player out — and persuade Orlando to not exercise its matching rights.
