{"id":333424,"date":"2025-12-07T19:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T19:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333424\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T19:49:07","slug":"washingtons-hannes-steinbach-issuing-sneaky-nba-draft-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/333424\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington&#8217;s Hannes Steinbach Issuing Sneaky NBA Draft Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5r\">The 2026 NBA Draft class has largely been highlighted by its top three \u2014 Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa \u2014 but plenty more players have seen blistering starts to their college careers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5u\">Washington forward Hannes Steinbach is one of those, with blistering production that is sure to see him surge forward in draft talks sooner rather than later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5x\">The true freshman from W\u00fcrzburg, Germany, stands at 6-foot-11, with a surprisingly steady frontcourt game centered around touch, footwork and a dash of modernity. He joined the Huskies with a decorated international resume \u2014 having led Germany to the silver medal at the 2025 FIBA U19\u2019s \u2014 and was one of the more anticipated freshmen in some time for Washington.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"60\">Through just a handful of games, he\u2019s lived up to his billing as one of the best prospects in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"63\">Steinbach got off to an immediately hot start with Washington, going for 21 points on 81% shooting in his very first game, with seven rebounds and six assists to boot. He played three more November games before suffering a small injury that kept him sidelined for a few weeks, and has returned with two fiery performances.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hannes Steinbach had a 29\/10 double-double vs. UCLA earlier this week, but it&#8217;s also worth watching how the Bruins targeted him on defense in the second half<\/p>\n<p>Really have not been encouraged by what I&#8217;ve seen from the German prospect on that side of the ball <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/J6UChRRuT3\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/J6UChRRuT3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 FLOOR and CEILING (Wilko) (@wilkomcv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wilkomcv\/status\/1997734373974782105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"69\">In his return-game against UCLA, Steinbach was stellar, going for 29 points on 11-for-12 shooting, adding 10 rebounds, three assists and a steal. He didn\u2019t see much work beyond the arc, instead showing his prowess around the rim. He\u2019s got great hands for his size, able to corral plenty of passes, and has NBA-level touch and footwork in spinning for a variety of close quarters lays. The Huskies fell by just two points, but Steinbach\u2019s performance off injury was a positive.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6c\">On Saturday, Washington matched up against a ranked opponent in No. 24 USC, and their star freshman against raised his draft stock.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6f\">Against the Trojans, Steinbach went for 24 points, 16 rebounds and three assists, helping his squad to a come-from-behind win. He finished 7-for-12 from the field, this time showing off his perimeter prowess in hitting two of three 3-point attempts. He showed immense physicality in this one, muscling for another 16-rebound game, while also getting to the free throw line and finishing 8-for-10 there.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6i\">With his two recent games, Steinbach has blossomed his overall production to 18.5 points, 12.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game on 63% shooting overall, hitting on 66% of his triples. Defense was the biggest concern for him coming into the season, though his mobility has looked better than expected, and his 1.0 block per game has been a fine number.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6l\">Steinbach came into the season as a first-round talent for many, though his immediate production and lack of major flaws has many thinking he could be a lottery play, or even more.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NBA Draft class has largely been highlighted by its top three \u2014 Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-333424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}