Will Solomon

One of the top scoring guards in European basketball has taken his game to a whole new level this season, at the ripe age of 29. All the years of experience at this level seem to have come together and produced a much more mature player, as his numbers are up across the board individually, but he’s also lead one of the youngest teams in the competition to the Top 16 stage as well, which is not a bad feat.

We’re talking about an outstanding athlete who is blessed with terrific scoring instincts. Solomon is a very quick and explosive guard who can put the ball in the net in many different ways. He’s a terrific ball-handler with either hand, and is particularly adept at using the pick and roll. He has a nice mid-range game, able to create separation sharply off the dribble, and can create a shot for himself out of nothing on a broken play, with the greatest of ease—sometimes to finish with a powerful dunk. Solomon is a very good shooter with his feet set, but the pure volume of shots that he takes really kills his percentages from behind the arc. In short, Solomon is a scorer through and through, and that’s what he’s always been known for.

This year, more than ever, though, Solomon has proven himself as at least a decent playmaker as well. He has very good court vision, and can really move the ball around with purpose, even if he doesn’t have very much talent at all besides him. Watching his film, it was hard not to notice how many times a good pass of his would go unrewarded with an assist because of a turnover, brick, or bobbled catch by one of his extremely young teammates.

With that said, Solomon isn’t immune to making mistakes himself. He doesn’t always let the game come to him, trying to thread the needle on some impossible passes at times, taking bad shots early in the shot-clock, over-dribbling, and running into brick walls. He’s been known his entire career for his mental lapses, and even though his turnovers are at a career low this season (while his assists are at a career high), this is still a problem that plagues him at times.

Defensively, we see some of these same problems as well, just on the other end of the court. Solomon has excellent lateral quickness and an unbelievable wingspan (measured at 6-9 ¼ at the pre-draft camp in 2001) for a player his size, but he lacks strength, focus and awareness. He can play some pretty good on-ball defense when he puts his mind to it, but as a team defender he often looks lost, gambling for steals and struggling to fight through screens on the pick and roll.

Players like Solomon—athletic, creative, experienced, aggressive--are an invaluable commodity in Europe, and are duly compensated as such. Solomon is rumored to be making 1.7 million dollars net for this season alone, and after the career-best year he’s having, that number won’t be going down any time soon. There are clearly worse players than him in the NBA, particularly at the backup guard position, but at age 29, it’s hard to envision him making the jump back over (he was drafted in 2001), unless a team really decided to step up with a big offer.