Quincy Acy Brings Energy, Athleticism to Brooklyn Nets

After underperforming to start the year, the Brooklyn Nets waived forward Anthony Bennett and signed Quincy Acy to a 10-day contract to replace him.

Anyone who remembers Quincy Acy does so because of the impact he had with the Baylor Bears. A four-year player, Acy was a senior in 2011-12 and became a huge piece of a squad that became one of the greatest in school history. The Bears finished that season 30-8, the most wins ever for Baylor, and went all the way to the Elite Eight before losing to a Kentucky Wildcats team that had four players drafted in the first round of the 2012 NBA Draft.

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In his fourth year, Acy was the Bears’ third-leading scorer (12.0), second-leading rebounder (7.4), and best shot-blocker (1.8).

By no means did he rocket up draft boards, despite being one of the best forwards in the conference. His biggest hindrance was his size and a lack of a polished offensive game. Acy measured 6 feet, 7.75 inches, and tipped the scale at 224 pounds when he visited the combine in 2012, but this was before the start of small ball, and experts labeled Acy as an inbetweener with no real offensive game and questionable habits on defense.

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Acy’s offense is rooted in power; he had no real post game in college, and a lot of his points came from dunks and off second-chance points. In the pros, few players at his size can get away with having minimal skills offensively. What’s attractive, though, is his wingspan — oh, and his athleticism.

From fingertip to fingertip, Acy measured 7 feet, 2.75 inches, and his max vertical jump comes in at 37 inches. Those two numbers tell us that he’s a fantastic athlete who has the tools to be a solid defender. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in length.

He’s been around the block a few times, but has extended stays with the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors, and he excelled in his role. On a good night, he’d play 20 minutes. Regardless of that, he was expected to go all-out and make all of the hustle plays when he was out there.

In turn, he became an above-average rebounder and averaged 8.1 boards per 36 minutes over those two years.

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Acy’s work on the glass was nice, but how efficiently he shot is eye-popping. Since being drafted, his game has expanded, and that’s a welcoming sign for the Nets organization.

Here are Acy’s percentages from the restricted area and mid-range from 2014-16, courtesy of NBA.com:

2014-15 – 62.7 percent on 110 attempts in the RA; 37.8 on 135 mid-range shots
2015-16 – 70.1 percent on 107 attempts; 45.2 on 42 mid-range shots

Those are impressive. Also, he played in fewer games last season, resulting in lower attempts.

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After playing poorly with the Dallas Mavericks, Acy was sent down to the D-League, and he instantly looked like he was back in college. It’s clear that he’s getting more comfortable being a pro, and he shot a shocking amount of threes with the Texas Legends. Also shocking: he buried 39 percent of them.

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In addition to that, his point total surpassed 17, his rebounds were above eight, and he swatted two shots a night in 12 games. Although it’s the D-League, the potential is there. And Anthony Bennett was unable to show anything worthwhile with the Nets.

It’s not certain that he’ll be getting a ton of minutes, but who knows. Brooklyn has been playing atrociously as of late, and this gives Acy a great shot at standing out. He’ll get to shoot threes and hang out around the basket to clean up misses, but, most importantly, he’ll be able to get out in transition.

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Because of the explosiveness he has, fast breaks can get him easy points since he’s not a shot creator, and easy points will do wonders for his confidence. Once he’s acclimated, his energy and hustle will fit right in alongside some of the Nets’ other key rotational players, and Acy’s best-case scenario is going the route of Sean Kilpatrick.

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