In the first frame, he misses Alec Burks who is wide open in front of him at the baseline and would’ve had an easy bucket had Evans made the pass rather than attempting a shot which gets blocked by Clarke. In the second frame, Evans drives against 6'9, Naz Reid, and completely overlooks Eric Paschall cutting beside him to the rim, instead, tripping himself up and turning the ball over. In the final frame, after running PNR with Marquese Chriss, who finds a bit of separation from Hasan Whiteside in the middle of the lane, Evans is unable to get him the ball and throws up a wild floater.

Passing

Evans’ passing and playmaking this season has been very up and down. After showcasing his ability on that end in a Summer League environment where he had full reign to play freely, he’s had some difficulty adjusting to playing in a limited NBA bench role. It was expected that he would accrue a good amount of turnovers as he gains familiarity in this new position, but the concern with him right now has been the inconsistency. At times he is too conservative with the ball, turning down more difficult and creative passing options, opting instead for making a short and safe pass to a nearby player. At other times he plays way too aggressively, forcing passes that have a very low chance of converting for anything. So far he has notched 21 assists with 23 turnovers, which is good for the worst TO ratio on the team, 14.6.

However, there have been moments where we’ve some of his passing capabilities. He just needs to become a lot more consistent and learn to pick his spots better, playing within the flow of the game.

Shot Selection

Related to drives, this has been the most concerning aspect of his game so far. Evans will constantly take a shot he doesn’t need to be taking, and even worse he’s turning down one’s he should for them.

This is how his field goals are broken down by area this season:

Restricted Area: 28.6% (4/14) — Team-worst

In The Paint (Non-RA): 32% (8/25)

Mid-Range: 27% (10/37)

Corner 3: 60% (3/5)

Above The Break 3: 31.8% (7/22)

What’s even more staggering is it seems for Evans, the more dribbles he takes, the worse his shot gets:

0 dribbles: 43.3% (13/30)

1 dribble: 35.7% (5/14)

2 dribbles: 30.0% (6/20)

3–6 dribbles: 22.6% (7/31)

7+ dribbles: 12.5% (1/8)

He’s become very attached to his midrange shot. This is obviously something he’s extensively worked on during the off-season and to be fair to him, when it debuted in the Summer League it actually looked quite good. Unfortunately, in the regular season, he’s been unable to recreate its success noted by the fact he’s shooting 27% on them.

This is a shot he’s comfortable with and has shown the ability to make, so him taking them, in general, is not a huge area of concern. But it is when he’s passing up open 3s, which he’s shooting 38% on, for them.