PJ Hall: Who doesn't love Naz Reid?
Garbage Time Ghim is back to talk about Clemson's PJ Hall and why he thinks Hall should be one of the most coveted big men in the 2024 NBA Draft.
AJ and Big Justice say we live in a BOOM or DOOM world.
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It seems like everything in life is viewed through this lens; something is either the greatest thing ever or the worst we’ve ever seen. The world of scouting is one of the strangest sub-cultures you can find on the planet. With every scout having their own lens through which they view players, it’s impossible to ever come to any sort of consensus on a player unless we’re talking about world-eating monsters like Victor Wembanyama or Zion Williamson. With that being said, it’s important to note that not every class has one of those monsters, and complaining about a class not having one of them doesn’t help anything, either.
I imagine a class like the one we have in front of us now is where scouts and front office people really get to show off what they’ve got. This is the class where you build the rest of your roster. So many times, we get lost in the chase for a star. We dive into trade machines, start peering into the barren wasteland, also known as the free agent market, and pray that another disgruntled star throws a trade request into the wind that ends up in a tweet (or X) somewhere. In the 2024 class, you find the guys that’ll support your star; this is when you find Naz Reid, Aaron Gordon, Aaron Nesmith, Isaiah Hartenstein, or Maxi Kleber. None of those names will headline a lineup anywhere, but all of those guys are contributors to teams pushing forward in the playoffs.
If you’re building a championship-contending team, you need innings eaters. You need a guy like Jamie Moyer, Ryan Dempster, or Kevin Millwood to eat up innings and offer decent to good production when your front-line starters aren’t pitching. You knew those guys would never lead the league in ERA or be in any All-Star discussions. You also knew how important they were to getting your team through a 162-game season every year and being a good team. You need guys who can come off the bench and give you some punch on either or both ends of the floor. You need a guy who can start or close for you when you sustain an inevitable injury over the course of an 82-game schedule, and a guy who can even swing a couple of playoff games with their impact around your stars.
I think PJ Hall is this year’s Ryan Dempster or Naz Reid. He has “rock-solid bench performer” written all over him, and the ceiling to one day even become a starting four in the right situation. Hall is a 6’10” forward from the University of Clemson, and he just finished off a very successful four-year career for the Tigers. Hall averaged 18.3 PPG, 6.4 RPG, and 1.4 BPG in his fourth season. His shooting splits were 48.8/31.5/77.9, and he had a BPM score of 8.4. Hall was one of the most productive players in college basketball last season and carried his team to the Elite 8 in the NCAA tournament. The numbers look great, and he had a successful career for the Tigers; now, how does all this translate to the next level? I really wanted to write about Hall because it feels like he’s being slightly underrated in this class. In the pursuit of a star role player or someone who can just be additive to a contender, I think Hall should be a hot commodity.
Offense:
The biggest thing that stood out in his film is his versatility on both ends of the floor. On offense, he’s an easy fit with almost any type of lineup. At Clemson he played a ton of minutes next to another big in Ian Schiefflin. The chemistry they showed throughout the season was incredible to watch. Clemson ran a ton of high-low actions with the two bigs because they can both pass and post up inside. Some of the entry passes and lob passes over the top from both bigs were really fun to watch throughout the season. Clemson also put Hall in many DHO actions with their guards, especially Joe Girard III. Hall was excellent in those actions because he set good screens and made quick decisions with the ball in his hands. The more you watch Hall, the more you’ll come to see that he’s a gifted passer. It’s doubtful that he’ll ever average a ton of assists per game, but he can move the ball.
Hall has good feel on the floor, is very aware of where his teammates are, did a great job of passing out of double teams, and consistently hit the one more when he was out on the perimeter. Hall will be a useful weapon as a DHO screener and a short roll creator; when he gets it in the post, we know he can reliably find the open man on the second side when he’s doubled. It’s fun to highlight his passing ability because it’s not even the best part of his game.
One of Hall’s strengths is his post-up game. How he utilizes this ability and to what extent will be interesting to see. Hall is a bruiser with a soft touch. He’s nasty when establishing position in the post; he really gets low and uses all of his limbs. You can see him drop the anchor when he gets to his spot. Hall is a crafty finisher with the ability to turn over either shoulder and has good touch with both of his hands. Hall has shown good footwork but nothing special. He has good feet, but they’re not lightning-quick or ridiculously fluid.
Hall shines as a finisher because of his ability to play through and finish through contact. He has the uncanny ability to get stronger as he embraces more contact. If you watch the compilation of finishes below, you’ll see him seeking out contact as if it were fuel. When he gets to the next level, it will be interesting to see how his ability plays up against stronger and, more importantly, taller competition. I don’t believe he’ll have too much trouble adapting to the strength of NBA bigs, but I do think he may have more difficulty with the jump in size. Hall is crafty, strong, and has good touch; however, he does have a bit of a limited arsenal in post-moves, which may make him a little predictable for NBA bigs.
The caveat to all of this is that Hall isn’t some raging bull who’s looking to lock horns with anyone in the post. One thing that stuck out with his tape was his intelligence. Hall knew when to attack mismatches or pull out larger, slower-footed bigs and exploit his speed advantage. We’ll get into his outside shooting soon, but the threat of his outside shot was a real weapon that actually helped his scoring inside.
Hall was savvy about stepping outside and using pump fakes to get by his defender to finish at the cup. In situations where he was a smaller defender was switched on to him, he’d waste no time and rabidly establish position inside to exploit the mismatch. Hall may not be a dominant low-post scorer in the NBA, but he will create and find opportunities to use his abilities to his advantage. Tons of modern bigs look completely lost when given the ball in the post; Hall will not be one of those bigs.
The final piece to his offense is his outside shooting.
Hall is not and probably won’t ever be a big big-time shooter off the dribble. In his senior season, Hall took 165 three-pointers, which was easily the most he’s ever taken. In his previous three seasons at Clemson, Hall took a combined 176. This was a nice jump in volume, but it’s important to note that 91.1% of them were catch-and-shoot jumpers, and 98.1% of his made threes were assisted. This isn’t a slight against Hall; this is just an observation of the type of shooter he is at this point in his development. Hall shot 31.3% from three on the season with 4.6 attempts per game; the 4.6 attempts per game was also a career-high.
Hall had a usage rate of over 30 this season and saw a huge uptick in overall attempts and attempts per game from three this season. These stats are relevant because there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Hall sees that much usage in his rookie season and maybe ever in his NBA career. The fact that Hall played a huge role for the Tigers and was unafraid to take 165 threes this season is what I care about. When we talk about shooting gravity, it’s not always about the percentages; sometimes, it’s about the willingness to pull.
If you look at guys like Devin Booker or Trae Young, they’re considered by most to be good shooters from the outside. Defenders have to close out on them because you know they’ll take them if you leave them open, and they’ll hit them enough to make you pay for your mistake. Believe it or not, Trae Young and Devin Booker have never shot above 40% from three in a season. Trae Young has been in the league for six years, and Devin Booker has been in the league for nine, and neither guy has ever shot it above 40% from outside in a season.
To be clear, shooting it over 40% from outside isn’t the end-all, be-all stat for three-point shooting, but it is a stat attached to most of the legendary outside shooters in history. For Booker and Young, what they lack in efficiency, they make up in volume. Booker averaged 6.1 attempts from three per game this season, and Young averaged 8.7 threes per game.
PJ Hall may not have shot it at a high percentage from outside, but he offered the volume. Considering his powerful inside game, the fact that he was able to mix in shots from outside at a reasonable rate means that he added another significant wrinkle for his defender to consider. While watching the 2024 NBA playoffs, you may have noticed that versatility is a major asset. Many times, versatility gets people on the court. Look at guys like TJ McConnell, Jaden McDaniels, and Josh Hart. Hall may never lead the league in three-point shooting percentage, but he takes a good amount of them, which matters.
Hall’s shooting profile is going to be simple. As I mentioned above, he’s not going to be doing a ton off the bounce in the NBA. He’s going to be a threat in the pick and pop, an outlet on the perimeter to take some threes, and he has even shown the ability to be a threat in early offense situations as a trail three-point threat. Hall has a compact shooting motion, generates good power from his lower half, and has deep range because of it.
As a guy catching and shooting from the corner or even from above the break, you can see the path to him taking four to five per game, shooting it around 35-37% for his career. That’s still a really good option to have early on as an energy big, coming off your bench and giving you 15 minutes a night. An 82-game season is a grueling journey for most teams; having a ⅘ tweener who has his physique, toughness, and versatility on the offensive side of the ball has to be intriguing to a lot of playoff teams.
DEFENSE:
PJ Hall is going to be a good defender on the NBA level.
Let’s start with the measurements. Hall is 6’10” in shoes, recorded a 39.5” vertical at the combine, and has a 7’1.5” wingspan. He’s a good athlete with bounce, he has the length you’re looking for, and he’s tough as hell. Here’s the thing with Hall: the good athleticism and wingspan are just bonuses. Hall's real value is the desire, focus, and energy that he brings to this side of the floor. Hall is a nasty defender who takes it personally when his man or the other team scores.
Roster building in the NBA is tough because it’s not a video game. You don’t automatically win the title by having the most talented players yearly. Look at the Phoenix Suns this season: they went out and got Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to play alongside Devin Booker. On paper, that team should have been ridiculous, but the rest of the roster was missing talent and balance. You need the players to mesh, there needs to be an identity, and there needs to be a good mix of different skills and types of players. Hall is a great option to add because his spirit and intensity could be a galvanizing force for a team.
Hall’s intensity is important, but so is his raw ability. He’s good in heavy drop coverage; he can meet at the level; they had him switching on ball screens and protecting the rim. As much as Hall was asked to carry a heavy burden on the offensive side of the ball, the same was asked of him on the defensive end.
Many times, Hall was their last line of defense and had to go up against some bigger bigs in the ACC. Playing next to Ian Schiefflin definitely helped on the boards, but Hall was still asked to do a ton, and he accepted every challenge. Hall won’t be a perfect defender for the mightiest bigs in the league like Jokic, Embiid, and Giannis, but he has enough grit and athleticism to give you a couple of good possessions against those guys.
Hall has grown as a rim-deterrent over his four years at Clemson. He did a great job of combining his strength, length, and instincts to average 1.4 blocks per game and 6.4 rebounds per game. Hall can be a little foul-prone, but his overall discipline has improved a ton. It was interesting watching him switch on ball screens. Hall isn’t the fleetest of foot, but he is a pretty good athlete. He could get blown by smaller guards, but he did an excellent job of recovering and using his leaping ability and length to contest and block a good amount of shots. Even though he doesn’t have the fastest feet, I thought he did a good job of flipping his hips and fighting to stay in front of guys. Hall definitely leveraged his length and strength to compensate.
The strength piece is another major asset for Hall on this end. The guy has a chiseled frame and broad shoulders, knows how to get his chest into guys, and has a strong lower half. His strength and ability to move guys off their spots or off their path to the rim is a very important skill to have on the next level. Half the battle is often getting guys to change angles or catch the ball in areas where they’re not as comfortable. Hall will have the strength to do some of that.
None of what I’m saying screams an All-NBA defender, but for the role that you’re going to be asking him to play, it’s more than adequate. Hall’s ability to switch and protect the rim makes him a really interesting defensive fit for many teams. As he proved in college, he can play next to a big, guard fours and switch on to wings and guards when needed. He can also play as your sole big in smaller lineups due to his shot-blocking ability and toughness on the boards. That's all you need when you’re looking for a seventh or eighth man off the bench to offer you good minutes as a backup big.
Speaking of backup bigs, take a look at some of these clips I put together of Hall and Naz Reid. I’ll get more into the comp later, but I think Hall could become this type of defender. Whether it's defending Nikola Jokic, defending the Jokic-Murray pick and roll, or guarding Devin Booker on a switch, Reid has really shown off his versatility on the defensive end on a national stage in the playoffs. Hall should be watching Reid closely and looking to follow after him. Hall has the requisite size, length, and intensity to become a similar defender to Naz Reid.
Comp:
Naz Reid
Tom Gugliotta
Troy Murphy
As Pierre so eloquently put it recently on his YouTube channel, this draft may be perceived by many as a weak class, but the reality is that this is the type of draft where you fill out the rest of your roster around your star players. Although it may be weak in star power, it is packed with guys who’ll one day contribute to contenders. The three guys I listed above might be a weird mix of guys, but I see elements of all three when I watch Hall’s film.
I already discussed Naz Reid when I broke down Hall’s defense, but where I really see the comp is in the type of role that Hall could play in the NBA. Reid played 24.2 minutes per game off the bench for the T-Wolves, backing up Rudy Gobert and Karl Anthony-Towns. In his minutes, he averaged 13.5 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.9 BPG, and 0.8 SPG on defense. All that production off of the bench led to him winning 6th man of the year and being a pivotal part of a very good and successful T-Wolves team. Hall is like Reid; he has a nasty streak, has good length, and is similar in size. Beyond the numbers, Reid does a great job of coming in and offering good minutes when their starting bigs need a break. Reid has really grown as an outside shooter, as he took five threes per game this season and shot 41.4% from out there. The growth in his outside shooting makes him a natural fit next to guys like Gobert or KAT and adds to the versatility of the T-Wolves.
Tom Gugliotta and Troy Murphy came to mind because of the type of players that they were in the eras that they played in. Both were big guys with real outside shooting touch, but they could also bang inside because it was a necessary skill to survive in the league when they played. If Gugliotta or Murphy were in the league now, they would have taken way more threes and would have shown off more of their guard skills. Gugliotta was such a skilled big and was way ahead of his time. He was an excellent passer who could wow you with his vision. He was a one-time All-Star and was supposed to play in the 2000 Sydney Olympics for the USA, but an injury kept him out, and he was replaced by the one and only Vince Carter. We all know how that turned out for Frederic Weis.
Murphy was bigger than Hall, but he was a big-time floor spacer, and his game would have really suited the modern NBA. If you watch some of the offensive clips of Murphy that I put together, you’ll notice his sweet shooting stroke and the spacing he provided as a big. All those pin-downs they ran for him that led to 20-foot two-point jumpers would all be threes in the modern NBA. He was an interesting option in ball screens because he could either roll or pop and was good at exploiting switches in the post.
The three guys I presented as comps may not be the most exciting trio in the world, but context is critical. Most people have Hall going in the second round; some may even have him going undrafted. I get it; he’s a little boring, didn’t shoot it as well as people thought he would, and is a bit of a tweener in terms of his size. He won’t do a ton with the ball and is primarily a play-finisher at this point in his development. With all that in mind, I’d have no problem with a team using a late first-round pick on a guy like Hall. This is the class to find your 7th or 8th guy. This is when you build a real team around your headline guys.
I once went to an ice cream parlor, and they had a special Halloween-themed flavor that was seasonal. The lady behind the counter was pushing me to get it. I decided to take a shot and went with it. I had no idea that the ice cream came with candied crickets on top. It was one of the worst decisions of my life, and to this day, I avoid that place. I will not name the place because it’s very popular in Southern California. The point is simple: the new and flashy thing isn’t always good. Sometimes, you go basic, go with what you know, and don’t end up eating bugs for dessert. PJ Hall is good at basketball, is physically ready for the NBA, and should contribute to a contender someday.
Really nice write-up on a player who I find very intriguing. I wouldn't mind see seeing PJ Hall join his former teammate Hunter in Denver! I think he's a guy who could help sooner rather than later as far as what the Nuggets need NOW to really compete during Jokic's peak. I would assume the Nuggets GM is already very familiar with PJ, so here's hoping.