I was reading through Fran Fraschilla’s list of the top five prospects by position and was particularly interested in his take on Xavier Henry, the shooting guard from Kansas. Here’s what he wrote about Henry:

3. Xavier Henry, Kansas
To his credit, Henry had the kind of freshman season at Kansas that most expected of him. His shooting ability was utilized well by coach Bill Self, as Henry fit into a talented team led by two All-Americans. At 6-6, Henry has prototype NBA shooting guard size and range. A lack of lateral quickness, however, could rear its ugly head on the defensive end of the floor.

Notice that Fraschilla ranked Henry third, behind James Anderson. The only criticism that Fraschilla levies is a lack of lateral quickness.

That struck me as odd, since Henry performed very well at the combine, finishing first in overall athleticism amongst the 18 wings who participated in the lane agility drill, the 3/4 court sprint and the vertical leap.

But Fraschilla is speaking only of lateral quickness, so I looked up Henry’s numbers in the agility drill. He finished it in 11.1 seconds, which was the 7th fastest amongst the group of wings. Moreover, there was only one point guard (John Wall) who finished with a faster time.

So of the 26 point guards and wings that completed the lane agility drill, Henry finished 8th.

Well, maybe this year’s group of wings is just slow. When looking at the class of 2009, Henry tied or beat James Harden, Gerald Henderson, Terrence Williams and Tyreke Evans. When compared to the class of 2008, he would have beat Jerryd Bayless and George Hill, and finished just .06 seconds behind O.J. Mayo.

Clearly, Henry has the athleticism to slide his feet, so why does Fraschilla think he lacks lateral quickness?

I can only speculate, but based on my experience playing college basketball, it may have more to do with positioning and anticipation than actual quickness. As a 6-8 small forward, I had to cover a lot of 6-3 or 6-4 guards at the D3 level. My coach, Bo Ryan, used to preach ball pressure, so I was always up on my guy trying to pressure the ball. This made me an easy target for a dribble-drive and I would often get beat to the hole.

After some time, I figured out that I didn’t have to be so far up on the ball (Coach Ryan didn’t say anything to me when I backed off a little bit), so I would give a cushion to a smaller player so that I could still contest a shot with my length without giving up the drive all the time.

What’s the point? Well, Henry is just a freshman which means he doesn’t have basketball figured out. Maybe Fraschilla has seen him get beat on the dribble a few times and assumes that he can’t move his feet. But based on his combine results, his lateral quickness is above average to good, so once he figures out how to cover opposing wings, he should be fine.


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