By Jamie Shaw and Jeff Bendel
Nate Hinton has always come from behind, hidden in plain sight. For example, his recruitment; Hinton was a Top 10 player in North Carolina, throughout his high school career. He had always played on the biggest teams, both in travel ball and in high school, and he always produced in a big way for those teams.
From April of 2017 until his commitment in September of 2017, the summer between Hinton's junior and senior seasons, Hinton picked up 26 offers, from the likes of Indiana, Pitt, Georgetown, Clemson, Tennessee and others. However, it was the Houston offer Hinton picked up in May of 2017 that ultimately mattered.
Hinton's late bloom, as we mentioned was a bit surprising as he scored 2.217 career points in high school. He also led his Team Loaded NC AAU team to the Adidas Gauntlet Championship game as well as his Gaston Day School to the NCISAA 2A State Championship game both in the 2017-2018 seasons. However, at the end of the day, ESPN did get it right as he finished the year ranked 95 in the country, after not having been in any rankings prior to the final.
It is not how you start but how you finish, and it seems Hinton always seems to finish strong. Hinton is a high academic student and his father Dr Benjamin Hinton has pastored Tabernacle Baptist Church in Gastonia, NC for 26 years now and grown the church to seat 1,150 people.
After his performance in the prestigious North Carolina Top 80, an event that brings the very best players from North Carolina under one roof to compete against one another, Jamie Shaw called Hinton, 'The Breakout'. Shaw continued to write, 'Hinton is all motor all the time type player. He has a great frame, and gets downhill in an attacking manner. On varsity this season, he averaged 12 points, 3 assists, 5 boards, and 2 steals per game. Hinton has been visited by the likes of Virginia and Davidson in his early career.'
Hinton's motor has been his calling card, he has always been relentless in his pursuit of the ball. Throughout high school, Phenom Hoops continually called Hinton a high level defender, because when you couple his motor with his 6'5' and 210 pound frame, it is impossible to not see how he is able to dictate and direct a game on the defensive end.
Coming into Houston, Hinton was basically their fifth guard on the roster. However, his work ethic carved himself out 19.2 minutes per game and a start. Not to mention Hinton was able to parlay his game changing defense into a first team American Athletic Conference All-Freshman nod.
By the Numbers
pic via Houston Chronicle
In today's game, there are more and more telling signs of what tools are necessary to project a college player to the next level. That being said, simply not enough people are talking about Nate Hinton as a NBA prospect. Coming off his freshman season, Hinton put up nice numbers across the board while being one of the stingiest defensive players in the country. At 6-foot-5 with positional flexibility and an excellent two-way identity, it seems like he could be the next breakout star in college basketball.
The more one dives into Hinton's advanced numbers, the easier it is to see just how special he truly is. In sorting things out, Hinton is the only freshman guard in the last ten years to play at least 700 minutes, shoot 85% or higher from the line, and have a defensive rating of 89 or lower. After removing the free-throw stipulation, he joins only Marcus Smart and Ke'Ron Brown. No matter how it's diced up, Hinton comes out looking like one of the best defensive guards in the country. That being said, he's also a very productive offensive threat with two-way versatility and the necessary skillset to pique the interest of NBA scouts throughout the upcoming season.