lucky777s

It is pretty tough to defend Hoffa as a guy with much potential to improve in the nba.

But I will say that in games that he played 20+ minutes his stats were quite good with the Raptors. And that he was drafted by a team that tried to make him into a completely different player than he was in college (never a good move). Played for a coach that gave him no role on offense at all, after being the focal point of his college team. And his PT was extremely limited even though his replacements were no better and no more successful.

Hoffa is good at denying low post position and holding his ground against big C's. He likes to bang with other bigs and quite often gets under their skin and upsets them. He can usually box out his guy and keep him from getting the rebound. And on offense he has fairly good passing skills.

His team D isn't horrible but he shows for too long on the pick and rolls instead of just running back to his man after making the guard change course to avoid him. His rotations in the lane are premature at times. Our team rotations were so bad it was hard to tell if Hoff was helping or hurting out there.

His biggest problem is lack of reach. He can't haul in rebounds unless he is in perfect position. Smaller players easily outreach him for balls and tip them away. He can't bother anyones shot in the paint. You can complain about his mobility a little but not many big bruising Cs are going to be as mobile as a lean PF. You can't ask him to be both. He moves well for his size.

He needs experience in the worst way, but doesn't have the skills or upside for any coach to justify investing heavy minutes in him if they have alternatives that can produce more right now.

Many of his fouls were pure BS. NBA calls based on reputation as small guards like Iverson would literally throw themselves into Hoffa and get the whistle. Other times he would take viscious hacks at guys under the hoop, which is kind of what you want some times but gives him a bad rep with officials. I also think that when a player does not score or even touch the ball on offense he gets zero respect from refs on defense. You could really see that in games where he got the ball and scored. The refs seemed to let him get away with more defensively because he was now a 'legit' player in their minds and not just a goon.

I had hoped a fresh start in Utah might work out for him but it seems like he will always be an end of bench guy. I think he had potential to be a decent backup.