Rockets cut Matthew Hurt.
Hmmm.
Maybe he’s just too slow to play in the NBA, but he also had 15% body fat at the Combine. One player had a higher body fat than Matt (Raiquan Gray at 17.2). Over the past decade, about 6 guys at the Combine had higher body fats.
Fit people tend to have 14-17%, but NBA players tend to have 6-10%. And at the most recent Combine, 31 prospective players had less than 6%.
For Matt to make it in the NBA, I’d guess he needs to demonstrate the willingness and ability to get lean and mean. Some of it is genetics, of course, but my impression is that players who get traction in the NBA are ruthless about fitness. If interested, Matt might talk to Jon Scheyer or Nolan Smith (who both had less then 6%). Or talk to JJ, who went to the NBA with a body fat of 7%, and then got focused on fitness. Or Mason Plumlee, 6.15%. Or Miles Plumlee, 9.5%. Or he could go for broke and talk to Dahntay Jones, who shares the NBA record at 2.6%.
I’d guess this body fat measurement is a marker not just for quick athleticism but for effort. As in willing to make the effort to be freakishly athletic.
Some of our superstars over the past decade skipped the combine, and so I couldn’t easily find a body fat, but my hunch is that a few of the guys who didn’t perform at a high level in the NBA were also not dedicated to fitness.
The good news is that a lot of this is under his control.
https://hoopshype.com/lists/slimmest...draft-combine/
https://www.nba.com/stats/draft/comb...FAT_PCT&dir=-1
https://www.si.com/edge/2015/01/28/b...-miles-plumlee