Meet Christian Hammond

Justin Gainey is on the transfer portal board for the first time as NC State’s head coach with the commitment of Christian Hammond. Hammond comes from Santa Clara, where he averaged 15 points as a sophomore and was a meaningful part of its run to the NCAA Tournament. 

Hammond is a textbook example of a player who had to develop a strong skill set to be competitive because he doesn’t have a deep well of athleticism to lean on. I would say he accomplished this, as he was first-team all league a year ago and has now made the jump to the power conferences. 

Hammond’s carrying trait is his shooting touch. It’s high-end. The sophomore guard shot almost 40% from three at a pretty decent volume and he shot almost 50% on twos away from the rim. As a jump shooter, he has a fast release and can get it off in a hurry, even off the dribble. He doesn’t need a lot of space to comfortably get a shot off. 

That goes for other kinds of shots too. He lives a lot in the world of floaters, pull-ups, baby hooks, etc. and last year, he was one of those guards that defied the larger analytical model for ideal shot charts. A lot of these shots are contested and he can comfortably get them over guys. 

Hammond chisels his way into the high paint, an area he's very comfortable, and then scores over 23.

Similar look here. Playing off two feet in the paint, he uses his body to create a little space and he doesn't need a lot to make these types of shots.

Hammond is also a good cutter, and his ability to catch the ball on the move and immediately get a high percentage floater to the rim makes him really impactful in that role. It's harder to rotate to that as a help defender because he's not going to the rim. Hammond figures to be a very natural fit as an off-ball piece who can carry some shooting gravity but also attack closeouts and score over rim protectors. 

The things that Hammond does not do well are all products of his lack of athleticism. He is not a rim hunter at all. There is not a lot of explosiveness off the dribble and with that comes a lack of ability to compress defenses organically.

Here is Hammond attacking a double gap off a ghost action. He's not able to create any kind of advantage.

Similar look off a ghost action. Hammond wasn't a good fit for these types of actions. He was better with a more rigid screen that he could use and a roller.

Hammond made 32 unassisted shots at the rim last year, just under one per game. To compare that to a true rim pressure guard, Quadir Copeland made 96 in the same number of games, while also having a much higher assist rate and free throw rate (and usage rate, to be totally fair). 

These numbers paint the same picture that the tape does. Hammond doesn’t really get to the rim. He is a good passer, but his passing lives more inside of actions than it does in the organic compression of defenses via advantage creation. He can read pick and roll well, but he's not going to break down a defense off the dribble like we saw with Quadir Copeland.

This really isn't a big problem as long as State isn't trying to use him in a way he isn't cut out to be used. It’s for this reason that I really like him in a role similar to what Tre Holloman or Matt Able was doing last year, where he’d be off the ball a lot of the time but could give you some creation reps over the course of each game. It’s not at all a fruitless activity to run plays for Christian Hammond. It’s probably just not sustainable for an entire season at a volume offered to a primary option.

When you do run plays for him, and Santa Clara did plenty, he’s a good passer. You can count on him to make consistently good reads and good passes. I'm not sure he'll be able to turn the corner on a hedge very often, but he can take apart some drop coverage.

This starts as drop coverage. The eventual switch from Kentucky shrinks the window for this pass a lot. Hammond fits it in there in stride at a tough angle.

Against Kentucky, he saw little on-ball activity in the first half, but went through a stretch early in the second half where Santa Clara ran several plays in a row for him, during which he netted two assists and an and-one. While he isn't a natural creator, he can give you that secondary facilitation in spurts.

I think the bigger question with Hammond is his defense. He's a bit wiry and can get knocked around sometimes. He's also not a great chase defender, and he had some trouble with the 5-out stagger and zoom actions from Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament. He can get blown by sometimes and that's something that probably has a low ceiling for fixability.

Hammond gets into a switch situation and gets punted by the 220-lb Mouhamed Dioubate

Overall, Hammond is good first add for Gainey. He's a high floor player, and there's little doubt in my mind that he can be an efficient contributor offensively in a predominantly off-ball role. If State can pair him with a downhill guard, we'll be moving in the right direction in the backcourt. I'd like to see him improve on defense. He'll never be an elite on-ball defender, but he's coming from a team that was pretty bad across the board on that side of the court.. Do your thing, Mr. Gainey.