If you don’t know who Johnny Hamilton is well I don’t blame you because I guarantee few people in Trinidad and Tobago heard about him (unless you haven’t been reading the T&T Newsday!😉) and Turkish basketball is hard to stream.
Hamilton currently plays for Darüşşafaka Tekfen Basketbol (Darussafaka) in the Basketbol Süper Ligi in Turkey. This team also plays in the 7Days EuroCup Basketball tournament, which is the European basketball equivalent to Europa League football. He’s a 7’0″ 230 lb center who’s main job is to protect the rim and clean the glass on both ends.
In both leagues he doing pretty well for himself throughout the first 8 games of both tournaments. In BSL he’s averaging 7.3 PPG, 7.1 REBs and 2.0 BLKs and has stepped up his play in EuroCup with averages of 12 PPG, 8.8 REBs and 2.1 BLKs.He’s averaging a little over 5 more points per game without being the main scoring threat on offense.
Also, off those 8.8 rebounds, 3.7 of them are coming on the offensive end (3.4 ORB in BSL), which would half explain why he’s scoring more, because of the 2nd chance points he’s getting that way. He’s shooting 66.1% from the field in EuroCup and 58.1% in the BSL, with most of those makes coming around the rim, which means lots of dunks, alley-oops from teammates and putbacks on offensive boards.
His defense is what makes him a great player. Since becoming their defensive anchor, Darussafaka currently boasts EuroCup’s best defense in terms of points allowed (70.9 PPG) and his EuroCup leading 17 blocks (Darussafaka has 30 blocks total) has Darussafaka 2nd in that category.
Before Turkey, he played one year in the NBA G League after going undrafted in the 2018 Draft. He played 49 games for the Drive, started in 20 games and averaged 11.2 PPG, 8.8 REBs (3.8 ORBs) and 2.5 BLKs while shooting 56% from the field.
His only real weakness is that he’s limited offensively in the sense that, in games you don’t see him score other than at the rim. He’s shown some touch around the rim, but you don’t see him post up a lot or attempt a lot of jumpshots. The offense doesn’t go through him and he’s not the main scoring option which is why he won’t get a lot of those opportunities. If he does have a couple post moves and a jumper that opponents have to respect, it would take his game to the next level. Obviously it gives Darussafaka another weapon on offense and it opens out his game more, making him harder to defend, draw double teams and pass it to an open teammate etc.
Enjoy the highlights and we wish Johnny Hamilton nothing but success going forward.
Q Sports 