JaCorey Williams – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
JaCorey Williams PF – 6’8, 220lbs – Born 12th June 1994 Canton Charge Williams has intrigued the Cavaliers for sometime now. They have signed him for each of the last two training camps and allocated him to Canton both times; they are clearly none too subtle about wanting to keep him around. And so while Williams has yet to make the regular season roster, don’t think for a minute the Cavaliers brass didn’t notice the subtle improvements in his output this season. The biggest one is in his assist rate. A face-up power forward who has hitherto been more of an athlete than a skill-based player, Williams’s continuing developments in his ball skill and his offensive poise will be key to him being able to convert this physical profile into an NBA gig. Williams left Arkansas after three seasons to transfer to Middle Tennessee State to prove that he was able to do more than just defend as a press specialist and get garbage points – and also just a liiiiiittle bit because of a forgery arrest that saw him dismissed from the team – and in demonstrating far greater post-up ability in that season than Arkansas ever allowed him to do, he achieved that. Now, with the physical profile of a face-up four, Williams is out to prove that he can add some handle to that game. There is range still to add to the jump shot. Williams continues to be a post-based player, someone featured regularly in the Charge’s half-court offence, and who is always able to get to his much, much favoured left hand. Mobile and athletic, he also runs the court well, goes to the glass and still gets those garbage points, and-1s and short hooks. Williams is improving his ability to drive from […]
Scoochie Smith – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Scoochie Smith PG – 6’2, 180lbs – Born 11th November 1994 Canton Charge Smith spent his first professional season mostly in Australia with the Cairns Taipans, yet for whatever reason, the Australian season ends very early. This thus gave him time to return to America and be picked up by the Charge last March, and after a summer league stint and training camp contract with the parent Cavaliers, Smith returned to the Charge for the full season this time around. A ball-dominant pass-first point guard, Smith consistently yields high assist numbers based in part on his speed and the resultant ability to collapse the defence, and in part through simple execution. Between driving and kicking and swinging the ball around the perimeter, he gets the big numbers in the ultimate unselfishness category without having done too much to shift the defence. Careful and controlled, Scoochie plays with a high IQ, makes few mistakes with either the handle or the pass, initiates without being spectacular and is reliable without being counted upon. On the defensive end, it is a similar story. A small guard and a defender of one position and one position alone, Smith uses his speed and puts forth good effort to go with good timing. He does not much impede anybody bigger than him on switches and whatnot, yet at least he wins possessions. As an individual scorer, he is a mediocre jump shooter who tends to contort wildly at the rim, who for whatever reason struggles in transition and always has done. But if you want a steady, controlled ball-handler, who serves as a pick-and-roll playmaker and an unselfish initiator at point guard – that is to say, the opposite of Kobi Simmons – then The Scooch could be your guy. – 20th June, 2019 […]
Levi Randolph – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Levi Randolph SG – 6’6, 210lbs – Born 3rd October 1992 Canton Charge I am glad that Randolph is giving it a go in the G-League before he enters the prime of his career and before it is too late for a call-up, because I really feel he has a chance at one. Having been in summer league for each of the past four seasons, managing to appear on the rosters of nine different franchise’s summer league teams in that span, Randolph is very much on the radar. Yet after spending his first professional season with the Maine Red Claws, he spent two years in Italy and France, and while he is of course more than entitled to make that money, players don’t get called up from there. They get called up from exactly where he now is, if they put in full seasons of quality work. And that is exactly what he just did. Randolph is a scoring guard by trade who is slightly undersized for the highest level but makes up for it with good length, speed and athleticism. In his senior season at Alabama back in 2015, he was no less than 75th percentile in every offensive category, and the only one below the 80th percentile mark was the 75th percentile spot-up shooting. This is an incredibly versatile and talented scorer who shoots off screens, who takes it in strong given half a lane, who gets to the rim in transition and semi-transition, and who makes plays for himself and others. Randolph gets to the rim going right and passes off going to his left, with slightly too high of a dribble to play the point guard spot but a player with genuine creativity, energy and skill. He gets buckets, simply, and particularly with weapons […]
Phil Carr – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Phil Carr SF/PF – 6’8, 200lbs – Born 20th October 1995 Canton Charge Although his first professional season started off with a one-day contract with the New York Knicks in order to get him allocated to Westchester, Carr was waived out of the Knicks organisation altogether when Westchester cut him as well in early January. While the Knicks liked the potential they saw him as a face-up four, they also saw the rawness within him, rawness also on show in his 13 games with Canton. At his core, Carr is a face-up four who shoots a lot of mid-range jump shots that have the potential to be turned into three-pointers. His handle is loose, and he wisely does not much of that; instead, long and agile, Carr tries to get jumpers away through pick-and-pops as much as he can. He will also cut and roll to the rim, although any finish other than the dunk is a tad unreliable. On the defensive end, Carr won his conference DPOY award as a junior. That conference was the MEAC, which is not exactly replete with 6’8/6’9 athletes with recovery speed, so he had an advantage over the field there. Nevertheless, Carr has good shot blocking timing when in position, and he potentially has the ability to defend stretch fours like himself on the perimeter. At the pro level, though, Carr’s relative inexperience exposed his shortcomings. Defensively, he was often out of position and fouled on the recovery, while offensively, he simply did not make enough shots. Carr needs strength and skills reps on the court, and more court time in order to slow him down. If it all comes together, he is the right sort of player for modern basketball. As of right now, though, he has a long way […]
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman SG – 6’4, 190lbs – Born 1st September 1994 Canton Charge Bobby Longname spent his first professional season with the Charge after making the roster initially as a local tryout player. He came in with a solid role player résumé; good shooter, good defender, part-time point guard, occasional creator, pink shoe wearer, and one who never ever turns the ball over. And apart from the pink shoes, he stuck to the brief. A cutter, extra passer and unselfish player, Abdur-Rahkman began to emerge as a player once he began hitting jump shots. His driving game is not stellar, reliant largely on straight lines, and without the threat of a jump shot to make a defender play him differently, it was very defendable. As he improved as a shooter, though, Abdur-Rahkman became a very effective offensive complement, as the Charge also realised. Spotting up off the ball, while patient and measured when on it, Abdur- Rahkman is not really the end-of-the-shot-clock type of player despite Michigan’s usage of him as it in the past, yet on all other types of offensive possession, he finds ways to contribute. Even thus far in the pros – where the defenders are bigger and the game is more athletic, thus a greater impediment around the basket to a smaller off-guard like himself should he ever venture in there – he plays within his limits and does not take on challenges he cannot win. And he still never, ever turns it over. Defensively, at both guard spots, is where he excels more. Aggressive on that end, Abdur-Rahkman frustrates and disrupts, always seemingly the one to break things up without necessarily having the steals numbers to show for it. He is a good on-ball defender at both guard spots, and has decent-enough length […]
Devin Sweetney – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Devin Sweetney SF – 6’6, 220lbs – Born 23rd October 1987 Capital City Go-Go As a pro, Sweetney has played in 10 different countries, for 18 different teams, including a training camp stint with the Denver Nuggets in 2015. He had not however played in the G-League since his first professional season, when he was selected in the fourth round of the 2010 D-League Draft by the Tulsa 66ers. The 66ers no longer exist and the league has been renamed since then, so that was truly a different era. Nevertheless, Sweetney popped up on the Go-Go’s roster, initially as a local tryout player but sticking around until early February despite being waived and brought back twice, before being waived for good and finishing his season back in Mexico with the Venados de Mazatlan, averaging 20.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. For the Go-Go, Sweetney averaged 3.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in 10.1 minutes of 17 games, smashing down dunks in the way that he does but struggling to hit outside shots, also par for the course. He is a very athletic 6’6 wing who runs hard and often and finishes with power, yet who handles little, creates little unless it is born out of his physical profile, and whose defence is free-roaming in nature. It is too late to have upside now, yet he is a decent pro at the right level. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here
Michael Orris – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Michael Orris PG – 6’3, 190lbs – Born 8th August 1994 Capital City Go-Go Orris spent some time with both the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (as a returning player; quickly waived when Ben Moore became available) and Capital City Go-Go (as cover for Chris Chiozza’s stint with Team USA), but played only four games and 51 minutes across the two. He is a fringe G-League player who is nonetheless well suited to the plug-in cover role he now seems to fill. Orris is not an athlete nor a shooter, lacking dynamicism, the ability to create a shot, and the ability to hit them. What he is instead is a pass-first prober, someone always looking to get inside the paint and pass through the space, either to a roll man or someone in the dunk position. Unselfishness is good, but one clutch college postseason tournament jump shot aside, Orris has never demonstrated the ability to change gear beyond that. [2020 UPDATE: Retired, now coaching.] – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
Oleksandr Kobets – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Oleksandr Kobets SG – 6’5, 201lbs – Born 15th April 1996 Capital City Go-Go Kobets began the season with the Go-Go as an allocated player after a one-day training camp contract with the Wizards (who tried to do the same with compatriot and namesake Oleksandr Mishula, but that did not happen for whatever reason). He did not initially join the Go-Go, but was acquired in early November, playing eight minutes over three games before being waived after tearing his ACL in a game for his Ukrainian national team. He did not play again elsewhere all season, and thus his first season in America was unfortunately a dud. When healthy, Kobets is a wings-and-corners shooter, a confident offensive player who uses spot-up shooting, up-fakes and a turnaround to space the floor; not handling much other than to drive close outs yet a confident offensive player whose upper body strength allows him to finish through contact if he gets to the rim. The question was whether he had the physical tools to defend the wing positions at the NBA level. After this serious injury, that will definitely be the question again when he returns. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
Darel Poirier – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Darel Poirier C – 6’10, 230lbs – Born 27th July 1997 Capital City Go-Go Unrelated to Vincent, Darel Poirier arrived in the G-League from his native France, where he had his foundations in the Centre Fédéral de Basket-ball team, the squad made up of players from the French National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP), and so often the starting point for so many of the country’s best. After graduating from INSEP in 2015, Poirier was signed by the top division team Cholet, but barely played for them, spending time instead with their under-21 team and then on loan to second division Charleville-Mezieres. For them, Poirier averaged 4.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per game, shooting 22.8% on a three-point stroke he had not much used before. A face-up four or occasional five with a good handle, Poirier still needs a whole bunch of seasoning, particularly with regards to his shot making and shot selection. It seems odd that he would leave the French development system to come to the G-League at this time with no obvious shot of the NBA, and he is only slightly younger than the comparable Aaron Epps with a less distinguished résumé. Nevertheless, a decently athletic 6’10 player who can and will handle is always a good combination. Eligible for the NBA Draft this past summer, Poirier is an athlete and dunker, with long arms, energy and a good motor. The physical tools give him switch potential, and although his metrics for the year are unflattering, he did at least noticeably get better during the season. Poirier cuts to the rim and finishes explosively, correctly understanding that a player of his athletic prowess should always catch the ball on the move where possible. He does however lack feel for the game, […]
Pe’Shon Howard – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Pe’Shon Howard PG – 6’3, 185lbs – Born 10th December 1990 Capital City Go-Go Five years since the completion of a college career spent at Maryland and USC, Howard has had a strange professional career. For his first season, he signed in the German third division of all things with Weissenhorn then left after only a couple of months, reportedly due to changing his mind about being there. He then went unsigned until 2016 and a short stint with Rayos de Hermosillo in Mexico, then joined the D-League with the Reno Bighorns, briefly popped back to Mexico last season, and has now joined up with the Go-Go. He has thus spend more time not under contract than under contract. Nevertheless, here now in the G-League, he has established himself as a solid role playing piece of guard depth. At all those stops, Howard has never been the kind of player who can consistently get beyond the first line of a defence, get into the in-between areas, move the opposition around and explore the space. He is instead more of a three-and-D type of point guard, a solid distributor who is much more of a full-court point guard than a half-court one. Howard is a distinctly sub-par finisher at the rim – a very poor one, in fact – yet he likes to push the ball anyway, and gets to the line when he does so. Rarely does he get to the rim in the half-court, instead being the type to bring the ball up, hand it off and move off the ball for a jump shot. When he was playing alongside Chris Chiozza, a man who could do more of the playmaking, this role suited him well. Known for being a defender in his college days, Howard still […]
Kellen Dunham – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Kellen Dunham SG – 6’4, 205lbs – Born 18th June 1993 Capital City Go-Go Dunham is about as pure of a shooter as there can be. He is on the court to move about, use screens, spot up then get jump shots away. Anything beyond that is an unexpected bonus. Playing almost exclusively off the ball, Dunham intrigues purely because of how many points he could potentially give a team without needing to take a single dribble. If he does dribble, it is to turn a strongly closed-out three-point shot into a pull-up two, and not much more than that. Dunham’s quick-release allows him to shoot through even the tiniest gaps, and he has NBA range on his shot. As with any such player of this type, the question from an NBA point of view is are they big enough to have success doing this simple package at that level, and can they hold their own defensively. In the case of Dunham, these concerns are valid. He lacks for NBA size, length, strength and athleticism; the ability to get shots away so quickly as to not need to fight for position much is a virtue, but anyone fighting him back is going to win. This is not Klay Thompson we are looking at here, other than in style of play. Because he needs setting up for everything, Dunham can go through quiet spells offensively, and on the rare occasions he does get to the rim, he is a poor finisher. With no post game, little handle, in lacking the tools to defend his position and in being inevitably physically overmatched at the next level, Dunham is more Diebler than DiVincenzo. So the very open nature of the G-League is a suitable level for him – play here, get […]
Duje Dukan – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Duje Dukan PF – 6’10, 220lbs – Born 4th December 1991 Capital City Go-Go The Dooj was one of the unlikeliest NBA players of a generation when he signed with the Sacramento Kings in the 2015-16 season, a move made even more unlikely by the fact that he managed to survive on the roster for the entire campaign. He had been a marginal player at Wisconsin, not even cracking 1,000 total minutes played in five years with the program, and yet somehow he made the NBA, presumably on the assumed potential of his jump shot despite having hit only 32.8% from three-point range with the Badgers. Dukan’s career since that time, apart from a very short stint back in his native Croatia with Cedevita Zagreb (RIP) in the first half of the 2016-17 season, has all been in the G-League. Perhaps he is looking for another call-up to the NBA. He is only an average G-League player at this point, a smooth yet undynamic reserve power forward option who combines some decent shooting with paint touches and smart slips to the rim, yet who is mismatched for speed defensively and mostly only defends via the foul. But while a decent-enough athlete when running forwards, Dukan lacks for lateral speed and strength, and is a targeted player on the defensive end. Dukan’s offensive smoothness when putting the ball on the floor or facing up from outside has some value, but he has to be making his shots to be a positive on the court. Although, to be honest, if his previous call-up taught us anything, it is that he doesn’t have to stand out from the crowd to be the one picked out from it. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the […]
Dikembe Dixson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Dikembe Dixon SF – 6’7, 201lbs – Born 6th September 1996 Capital City Go-Go Anyone can of course declare for the NBA Draft whenever they like. Particularly those playing in college who are giving away their marketable skill for free due to the stupid archaic nature of NCAA basketball that ascribes all kinds of mythical qualities and puts all kinds of importance on why the athletes should not be paid other than by scholarship, all of which is a conceit to obfuscate the fact that it is a bloody convenient historical relic and nothing more. Dixson, however, may have been one of the few who would have benefited from staying that one extra year. Dixson declared last season as a redshirt sophomore, and, at the age of 22 when he did so, fair enough. That said, his averages in that sophomore season had all regressed from his freshman year, seemingly still hobbled by the knee injury that ended his second season after only 10 games. He thus entered the draft without momentum or the cleanest CV; he had helped his UIC team to a runners-up finish in the CIT that season, yet with him back in the fray, maybe they could have made the platform that was the NCAA Tournament. Nevertheless, Dixson went pro, and after going undrafted, he joined the Miami Heat for summer league. Unable to get an NBA contract after that and despite further workouts, he initially went to the Lebanon for a stretch, then joined the G-League, initially with Windy City then latterly traded here to Capital City. The Intrigue surrounding Dixson comes from his athleticism. He is a big time run-and-jump athlete in a wiry 6’7 frame that has high-level potential. Potential both offensively, where he runs the court freely, and defensively, where […]
Mike Davis – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Mike Davis PF – 6’9, 225lbs – Born 21st October 1988 Capital City Go-Go Davis’s 35.4% of possessions used on cuts this past season was by far the highest percentage anywhere in the G-League. The next highest mark was a full 10% less – Roger Moute A Bidias, for what it’s worth – and to anyone who remembers Davis as being the midrange jump shooting specialist of his Illinois days, that is par for the course. Get him the ball inside the arc on the move, and he will either flail to the rim or put up the jump shot. Get him the ball in the post, and he will either flail to the rim or turn and put up the jump shot. Et cetera. Davis is a man who very much knows his comfort areas on the court – he has never stretched that jump shot out to three-point range, he tends to avoid going up strong near the rim, and prefers to be in that sweet sweet mid-range area for a jump shot. A smooth athlete with decent length albeit not much strength, Davis mostly plays defence by going to the defensive glass. He did not, and still does not, get too physical around the basket or try to win many blocked shots. Indeed, Davis has not really changed his game any in the ensuing professional years; he loves the mid-range, he goes to the glass, he runs quite well, and the rest is profit. It has earned him a few professional seasons at reasonable standards of competition, and a place on G-League benches. There appears to be no upside beyond this as he enters his thirties. So be it. This will do. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in […]
Quinton Chievous – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Quinton Chievous SG/SF- 6’6, 225lbs – Born 31st December 1992 Capital City Go-Go Chievous has now spent almost his entire professional career in the G-League, leaving only for very brief stints in Finland and Mexico to top and tail last season. It is a league that suits an athlete such as himself; the G-League plays at a higher pace than quite possibly everywhere else in the world, so anyone who can get up and down the court stands to look better by default. Two things that Chievous loves to do are crash the glass and run the court. His handle is loose and he rarely uses it; instead, Chievous plays hard to go and win the ball, He leaks out, is forever running to the basket, and is looking for the contact to finish with a righty bank shot. A good athlete with leap and body control, Chievous also has good size for a high level wing, even if his ball skill level is below what would be ideal. And he has not let that lack of ball skill inhibit him from impacting the game in a certain way. It is admittedly a limited offensive impact built on cuts, which in turn relies upon teammates finding him. If plays are run for his athleticism off the ball, Chievous has the speed to exploit the baselines (particularly from his preferred right side), cutting down the lane and finishing with some explosion. If they do not, however, Chievous is somewhat limited to transitions, mediocre spot-ups and whatever he can get on the glass. Defensively, he plays with the same energy and deflects the ball, expressive and pressuring but a little bit out of control positionally. In total, then, Chievous is a mistake- and turnover-prone player who lacks conventional wing skills […]
Isaiah Armwood – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Isaiah Armwood PF – 6’9, 215lbs – Born 28th December 1994 Capital City Go-Go to this season had been a surprise. He barely played in Italy’s Serie A with Trento as a rookie, dropped down to the Italian second division in his second season, dropped further down to the Japanese third division of all places in his third season, and was in Hungary last year, an improving league that attracts a decent calibre of third or fourth tier import, but which does not get many 6’9 athletes like this in it. It is thus perhaps not surprising that Armwood starred in that League, leading it in blocks with 2.0 per game, alongside 17.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest. This year has probably been the best of his entire professional career. Armwood was an excellent defensive player for the Go-Go this year, as a player of his physical profile should be. Long, wiry and a decent athlete, Armwood contests everything, takes charges, free-roams in space to great effect and is an improved man-to-man defender. He rebounds in traffic and uses his length, hoping to compensate for a lack of core strength. Armwood may not be the player who can get and hold position on the inside, but if ever he is out of the play, his mobility can get him back into it. His offensive game is a bit more awkward, and there are limited ways in which Armwood can help. He is not a ball-handler and only rarely takes mid-range jump shots, and the aforementioned problems with gaining position negates any significant post-up offence. Armwood instead runs the court well, dunks everything, attacks the boards, tips the ball on the offensive glass, uses his spring, jumps high to release any kind of shot (apart from […]
Noah Allen – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Noah Allen SF – 6’7, 215lbs – Born 1st February 1995 Capital City Go-Go Three years at UCLA saw Allen barely leave the bench. He recorded only 71 games, 604 minutes and 84 points in that time, never finding a role, never winning the coaching staff’s confidence, and seemingly always being recruited over. But having graduated in only three years, Allen went to Hawaii and finally established himself, averaging 15.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 30 games for the Rainbow Warriors. Clearly, Allen took on a much bigger offensive role as a senior, itself helped in part by the drop in standard. Yet a more empowered Allen showed he could do more with the ball in his hands than he ever did at UCLA. Allen does not have a tight handle on the ball, not able to change direction quickly, handle in traffic or regularly go to his left. Yet with a smooth 6’7 frame and a long smooth stride, he only needs to do enough to attack closeouts, take on the straight line drives and get to the rim in transition. This, he did, and as a transition lane filler, baseline cutter, right wing runner and occasional post-up to a righty hook guy (something the Go-Go did not use but which he did rank efficiently in albeit in a small sample size), Allen found a way to use his good physical profile offensively. Also demonstrating some drive-and-kick vision on those cuts, Allen is an unselfish player who found a good flow. For it to work, though, Allen needs to hit enough shots. Struggling to finish when contested given his lack of core strength, the relative lack of handle means a lot of jump shots. And neither off the dribble nor the catch has […]
Chinanu Onuaku – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Chinanu Onuaku C – 6’9, 250lbs – Born 1st November 1996 Greensboro Swarm Salary dumped by the Rockets onto the Mavericks at the start of this past summer, Onuaku was the first between he and Zhou Qi to lose their job as the Rockets’ prospect centre due to the arrival of Isaiah Hartenstein. Two consecutive years in the G-League on assignment to Rio Grande Valley has not seen Onuaku improve his output any; indeed, it even took a slight backwards step. This year, after an unsuccessful training camp stint with the Portland Trail Blazers, Onuaku wound up going the G-League Draft route. He was picked second overall by the Swarm and started at centre for them the entire season, and was given more offensive responsibility than before. This resulted in a greater scoring output, a new affinity for a three-point shot that seemingly is going to need a lot more work before it becomes a thing, and an even higher turnover rate. Still setting a lot of moving screens, still taking dribbles where he perhaps does not need to do so, and still easily stripped by guards reaching down, Onuaku’s offensive game remains fledgling. As above, the mid-range jump shots have moved out to the three-point line, but that is hardly a weapon right now. The seal-and-finish game potentially availed by his strength does exist, but the turnovers make it risky. Onuaku’s hands are still a bit rock-solid, and the hook shot touch a bit rudimentary. But he is at least contributing out there. Incremental progress offensively flanks his good defensive presence at this level. The question is whether he can convert on this to make it back to the NBA. A very good rebounder and a long wingspanned interior defender, Onuaku is an old-school paint big in […]
Tyler Nelson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Tyler Nelson SG – 6’3, 180lbs – Born 9th August 1995 Greensboro Swarm Nelson was the third overall pick in last year’s G-League draft, beginning his first season as a professional after a four-year career at Fairfield in which he averaged greater than 20 points per game across his two upperclassmen seasons. The draft does not draw in the calibre of player that it once did for reasons not worth going into in this space, yet in Nelson, the Swarm found themselves a very versatile scoring player with experience of both working off the ball and being the go-to player on an otherwise undermanned team. The 42.7% from three-point range Nelson has shot here in his first professional season greatly outstrips the 35.3% he shot as a senior. Yet it figures to be more of the norm for him going forward. On a limited Stags team, Nelson’s degree of difficulty on his shots was far harder than it will be hereafter, and regardless of whether he is running off screens or off the dribble, the jump shot is the lynchpin of his offensive game. Everything else and all the savvy that goes with it are built around its success. Nelson shoots very well off of curls and screens, as well as just traditionally spotting up, and he works off of the attention that brings with timely cuts and good passing vision through the space that is opened up. A good decision maker as well, Nelson occasionally takes turns on the ball and pushes it about as well as a small and kind of slow player can, and although it is difficult for him to finish at the rim when contested considering his lack of explosion, Nelson can get to it off of a curl as long as he […]
John Gillon – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
John Gillon PG – 6’0, 178lbs – Born 31st March 1994 Greensboro Swarm Gillon began the year with the Erie BayHawks, and was acquired by the Swarm in trade in exchange for Cat Barber. The Swarm had been using Barber as a sixth man type off the bench, and clearly felt as though they needed a more traditional type of point guard in their line-up instead. Enter the incredibly solid all-around Gillon, who is exactly that. Gillon’s small size caps his upside and makes it difficult for him to do certain things – for example, finish at the basket, defend any position other than point guard, reach the highest shelf in the supermarket, or become a sumo wrestler. What he lacks in the size and athleticism departments, however, he makes up for with guile and craft. He is a very solid playmaker, a man always probing off the pick-and-roll and able to kick to the perimeter or drop his own floaters around the basket. Gillon does have a tendency to slow things down when he could make quicker decisions; he likes for some reason to take a few seconds before he decides what to do, and while this does not necessarily result in him making bad decisions, he reduces his options by letting a defence get set. He does not need to be a speedster to be able to move slightly quicker before the defence is entirely ready for him, so the sometime-dithering is strange. Nevertheless, half-court decisions are a strength of Gillon’s game, and he pairs it with pushing in transition and some good shooting of his own. As an offensive player, he is solid, judicious and reliable, if not a game-changer. The same sort of thing is true defensively as well. Only able to defend the […]
John Dawson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
John Dawson PG – 6’2, 205lbs – Born 12th April 1995 Greensboro Swarm Dawson made the Swarm roster as a local tryout player in 2017, and after returning for this past season has now spent two complete years with the team. He has however played only 66 regular season games in that time, and averages only 13.8 minutes per contest. He is the backup point guard behind the starter of the moment, and his role is to provide some stability. He sort of does this, albeit with distinct limitations. On the offensive end of the court, Dawson does not do a whole lot beyond bringing the ball up. Without great speed or explosion, it is not easy for him to get to the rim at this level or to finish once there; he instead initiates the ball movement, is ready to spot up or come back up top for the reset, and executes simple passes while occasionally taking short floaters or driving and kicking. It is however a very undynamic offensive package; Dawson does not shift the defence nor shoot over it, and is an executor of the simple stuff. This is not merely a measure of the level he is playing at right now, either; he did this while an upperclassman at Liberty, too. Dawson’s better value comes on the defensive end. Again, he is not a speedster, and those that are can go at him. He also does not measure well with his basic defensive stats. But what he does do is understand position and play accordingly. Using the upper body strength that he has, Dawson competes to stay in front, providing some defensive stability off the bench if not a whole lot offensively. It is a limited package, and he plays accordingly. But it has […]
Sam Thompson – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Sam Thompson SF – 6’7, 200lbs – Born 11th November 1992 Greensboro Swarm The hope when Thompson joined Ohio State way back in the day was that he would develop the offensive and playmaking skills required to maximise his excellent physical profile. With good size for a wing, Thompson has the length, frame, athleticism and leaping ability to play anywhere, including at the very top level. What he hasn’t done is add much to that. Thompson has developed some skills, but not much, particularly in the way of offensive nuance. He handles the ball little – very little, in fact – and thus his offensive impact is capped by the quality of the players around him, his own level of movement, and his shot making ability off the ball. Thompson’s offensive game therefore as a result is all jump shots and dunks, and without having added shooting consistency to his sporadic outside range, this makes him inefficient offensively overall. You can run lob plays for Thompson, you can encourage him to run in transition, you can run the occasional curl play to the rim or the pull-up, you can stand him in the corners and you can prompt him to work the baseline. Yet in needing setting up offensively almost always, being streaky with his shooting and having questionable offensive flow – sometimes hesitating, sometimes taking bad ones – Thompson remains a specimen more than a reality on that end. That said, the above profile also makes for a player who can still play in any league in the world, as long as they can defend. Here, Thompson measures out much better. He can defend either forward spot with regularity and is a good option in switches at all five positions, and although he is thin, he compensates […]
Isaiah Wilkins – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Isaiah Wilkins SF/PF – 6’8, 205lbs – Born 23rd September 1995 Greensboro Swarm In Zach Smith’s profile two pages ago, I mentioned that he plays some technically precise defence. I stand by it. But no one plays as technically precise of defence on this Swarm team as Wilkins does. Raised in the endlessly disciplined defence of the Virginia Cavaliers’ Pack Line, Dominique’s nephew is a testament to the value of advanced statistics. Were you to look at his rebounding numbers and his stocks totals, you would not know him to be as good of a defender as he is. This is only true inside the arc, to be fair – when called upon to come out to the perimeter, Wilkins does not seem to have the ability to change direction quickly enough to stay with the play, and thus all his technical understanding is a bit meaningless if he is not fast enough to apply it. Yet on the interior, he makes good plays on the ball and reads the play very well, fuelled by an excellent hustle and some sneaky athleticism. Wilkins is built like a small forward and plays like a centre, which makes him something of a power forward by default. He left the Cavaliers, though, needing to be able to expand his perimeter game. Be it as a small forward or a face-up four, his future at this size is out there. Wilkins rarely shot from outside with the Cavaliers, and when he did, he did not do so well. Offensively, he was mostly a cutter and bit-part scrapper with no go-to areas of the court. In his season with the Swarm, Wilkins has sought to prove that he can become an outside shooter, and there have been some early results – 35.1% shooting […]
Roscoe Smith – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Roscoe Smith PF – 6’8, 215lbs – Born 1st August 1991 Greensboro Swarm Smith joined the Swarm to begin the season as a returning player, and appeared in 23 games, averaging 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, before being waived by the team in January. It is not clear whether that was due to injury, or simply whether they decided they would rather have Malik Pope, acquired in the corresponding move. Those averages are nevertheless less than half of what Smith averaged five years ago in the then-D-League back with the then-L.A. D-Fenders, after having signed for training camp with the parent club L.A. Lakers. Having been one of the nation’s best rebounders at UNLV and a national champion with Connecticut before that, Smith was once a prized prospect. The last few years, though, have seen him lose that status. When playing at his best, Smith is a tremendous rebounder, an offensive put-back merchant, cutter and occasional post who never much developed a jump shot or ball skill, but who had the physical tools to defend the both the interior and the perimeter, as long as he hustled. Inconsistency, though, came to define his game. And having regressed rather than progressed in his production across his five-year professional career, he needs a redux entering what should be his prime. – 20th June, 2019 This above is extracted from the following page in the The Basketball Manifesto, an entirely free 3,775 page, 1.2 million word-ish basketball reference book which contains reviews, strategies, ideas, opinions, and a whole lot of scouting on men’s world basketball. – View tons more player profiles like this from the Manifesto here.
Zach Smith – 2018-19 G-League Player Profile
June 20th, 2019
Zach Smith SF/PF – 6’8, 216lbs – Born 5th January 1996 Greensboro Swarm Zhaire Smith got all the plaudits and the NBA first-round draft selection last summer; he was younger, more athletic, was able to play more positions and was already better in terms of his basketball skill set than Zach. Yet there were two Z. Smiths that the Texas Tech Red Raiders rode the defence of all the way to the 2018 Elite Eight, and now that he too is a professional with the Swarm, Zach is transferring that strong defensive versatility to the G-League as well. A very good run-and-jump athlete in his own right, Smith has the body more of a small forward, especially considering that he does not have the length an athlete of this calibre would normally be assumed to have, yet his ability to leap like he does makes him quite the lob catcher and dunker. Indeed, very rarely does he catch in the post or create with the handle; there is no point. It doesn’t suit him. A man like this should be catching the ball on the move at every opportunity, and in crashing the offensive glass, cutting where he can and running the court, Smith does just that. Very occasionally, he will add a jump shot to the pile, but it is a marginal part of his game that needs developing in the future. As of right now, the offensive game is cutting, running, dunking, making some interior passes, adding vertical spacing and very occasionally dropping a hook shot. Polished, no. Powerful, yes. Smith’s best usage is on the defensive end. Not being strong or wide does at least make him light, and thus quite laterally quick. While Smith will overhelp as a means of compensating for the fact […]
