STRENGTHS
An elite high school player from the time he was 14 years old onward. Was selected to the McDonald’s All-American team, Nike Hoop Summit team and Jordan Brand Classic team after being named a five-star recruit in the class of 2021. Decided to go with the G League Ignite program, where it was a tale of two seasons. He struggled immensely early due to inefficient play as he adjusted to the speed of professional basketball. By the second half of the year, Hardy had clearly taken a leap as a passer and playmaker and really started to consistently knock down shots from distance. Took him some time, but he figured it out on some level.
Great length, which is important given his skill set. Has something in the range of a 6-foot-9 wingspan. All about scoring for Hardy. He’s a bucket-getter. Extremely comfortable as a pull-up shooter. Has a tight handle and can create his own looks. This is his best skill right now. Handles the ball at his own pace and lulls defenders to sleep before a quick move, typically into a stepback jumper. Strings together multiple moves in a row before rising and firing. His moves combine change of pace and change of direction fluidly, making him very difficult for defenders to stay in front of. Can turn crossovers into behind-the-backs or between-the-leg dribbles. Can combine that with all sorts of hesitation moves to completely put defenders on their heels. If he’s in a switch, he’s not going to have a problem creating against a big. Also plays well out of ball screens. Keeps control of the ball tight to his body. Absorbs contact well. Plays with patience at times. In terms of craft, Hardy has the best handle in the class. Doesn’t always get the most out of it functionally, but he’s extremely technically gifted off the bounce.
That handle allows him to be an outstanding shot creator. He can do it from all three levels. Good at getting to the basket on drives and typically does so in a relatively straight line after getting a player on his heels. Generated four half-court shot attempts at the rim per game, a top-30 mark among all guards in the G League this past season. Has some finishing craft, even if results were negative. Generated six half-court pull-up jumpers per game, mostly out of the midrange, which was a top-15 mark in the G League. Uses his handle to get those shots. Can create stepback 3s and also has some touch. Was much better as a pure catch-and-shoot guy than as a pull-up shooter, showcasing how difficult his shot selection made his life. Most of his catch-and-shoot jumpers were 3s, per Synergy, and he hit them at a 40.7 percent clip. Keeps things simple with his set shot, a one-two step shot prep, and knocks them down. Occasionally makes some coming off baseline screens where he takes them off the hop. Could stand to speed up his process a little bit, but the ball looks pure coming out of his hand.
Also had some real passing flashes. Comes almost all out of pick-and-rolls. Hits live-dribble cross-corner kickouts out of ball screens. Does a good job of finding the open roll man when teams put two on the ball. Does a good job of splitting defenders with smart live-dribble pocket passes. When he wires himself as a distributor — which doesn’t always happen — he does a good job of keeping his eyes open and playing with vision. There is some real upside for him as a passer.
WEAKNESSES
One issue here is size. He is a generously listed 6-foot-4 combo guard. Has the length to make up for it, but he looked pretty small this past season on the G League court compared to the rest of the players. More than that, the most concerning thing for Hardy comes with his athleticism. He’s not an awesome athlete, and he doesn’t have a ton of vertical pop, which is a problem for his size. Also is not a particularly twitchy athlete laterally. Think he could stand to get stronger throughout his lower half. He’s become so good with his ballhandling craft that it matters less on the ball, but you see it pop up routinely on defense.
Hardy was one of the worst defenders in the G League this past season. Defensive stance is poor, and he often tries to take the lazy way out with pokes and lunges to try to go for the ball. Doesn’t navigate screens well. Takes poor angles around them and consistently gets knocked off his line by contact. Misses help rotations more than you’d like to see. Consistently poor closeouts. When he got beat, he had very little ability to recover. Not big enough or athletic enough to close back that space.
Hardy’s defensive effort wasn’t good enough. Disengages on that end too often. Loses track of his man off the ball too often. Often quit on plays after getting hit with a screen. While I don’t think Hardy’s tools are all that good in terms of recovery, it was hard at times to tell because he would not make second and third efforts. NBA coaches won’t go for this, and for him to make an impact at the next level, he must be locked in much more consistently.
Another place where you saw Hardy’s concerning lack of athleticism was him as a finisher. Doesn’t have the power through his leap to absorb contact and finish through consistently. Doesn’t seem to hang in the air. One of the worst finishers in the G League this past season. Made 38.6 percent of his shots at the rim in half-court settings, per Synergy. Among the 152 players in the league to take at least 80 shots at the basket, Hardy finished dead last in terms of efficiency (and wasn’t all that close to No. 145, who came in at 46.1 percent). Also made five of his 20 floater attempts. Even though he has craft, he struggles to elevate and make his life easier. A lot of missed finger rolls. Looks uncomfortable going to his left hand and sometimes actually only tried inside-hand finishes. He also practices a lot of contact avoidance.
In general, doesn’t have the pop to create easy shots as a creator. He can separate to get free for a stepback, but often these shots are very difficult. And because he’s not overly big, they’re contested. Rarely takes non-contested shots at the rim. Beyond that, has poor shot selection. Gets tunnel-visioned on trying to score and takes a ton of bad shots. Ends up being inefficient almost purely because of this. Posted a 49.2 true-shooting percentage with the combo of poor finishing and poor decision-making on shots. Had a lot of turnovers and finished with a negative assist-to-turnover ratio. Has to make a mindset adjustment and be willing to play more unselfishly. By far the most effective version of Hardy is when he’s mixing his passing with his shooting, but he doesn’t do it enough. Will also note, while I like Hardy’s handle in general, he struggles to collapse defenses out of isolation. Can lose control of the ball more than you’d like to see from a guy whose handle is almost the entirety of his skill set right now, leading to turnovers. Also gets himself in trouble by trying to jump pass to create better passing angles or by going up at the rim and getting swallowed up, leading to him trying to make a bailout, last-second read. It’s another example of where his lack of hang time is an issue, because he doesn’t have that extra split second to make those reads and doesn’t have the elite-level feel for the game to consistently make killer reads.
SUMMARY
Hardy is not my type of player, because it’s hard to win with guys who are smaller, score-first players who don’t defend. On top of that, Hardy has some real athletic limitations that could cause issues. His margin for error is minimal because of these factors. For Hardy to play in the NBA, he needs to drastically improve his defensive effort and attention to detail. To be a successful NBA player who sticks in a rotation, he needs to improve his shot selection and decision-making. It is worth noting, though, that these things are fixable. They’re mindset adjustments. Hardy does have a crafty, technical handle that could allow him to find success. He has real shooting touch. We’ve seen guys, like Jordan Poole, find success like this. The past is littered with more examples of it not exactly working out beyond a microwave-scorer level than with it all coming together like Poole, but Hardy does have real upside at a certain point in this class. I don’t think I’d take him anywhere in the top 20, but past that point, if a team wanted to bet on his ability to create a shot and his upside in terms of vision, I’d get it.