Combine Scrimmage Review
Written by Joseph Nation
To minimize bias, Austin Reaves will not be discussed in this article given that it's unfair for me to compare him to other players. Beyond that, this is a summary of who I thought played well in the combine scrimmages, who I thought played poorly, and who I thought deserved indifference towards their performances.
The Good:
Isaiah Mobley
The main question for Isaiah Mobley coming in was whether or not he’d be enough of a threat at putting the ball in the basket to take advantage of his exceptional intelligence everywhere else on the court, and the answer was a solid yes. Mobley put up 18 points in his second game, a total he eclipsed a total of twice in his (hopefully finished) USC career. But he was also still his usual self in other regards, making well-timed defensive rotations and lots of little plays that add up. My personal favorite was this clip in which Mobley, #57 in white, sees the open shooter and rather than stopping play he shows that he’s thinking “What’s next?” and immediately boxes out Joe Wieskamp.
Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland
I was not as impressed by Bones Hyland as a lot of other combine reviewers were. He still struggled with mechanical consistency even as his 3's went in. Inside the arc he picked up a garbage bucket by cherry-picking and another by picking the pocket of the underqualified former handler Makur Maker. He also struggled as a defender due to his size limitations, struggled as a passer due to poor understanding of which angles he had available to him, and struggled as a driver due to his inability to create space. But to his credit, he communicated on defense (#4 in the play below) better than anyone who will be discussed here, and that's a big deal, especially for a guy whose lack of size means he’ll likely need some protection from switches. Plus it's not like the shots he was taking aren't shots that he's been making all year, nerve-wracking form inconsistency aside. He also passed the ball well out of hard traps and doubles when he could find the angle, though that certainly wasn’t an absolute. Overall I don't think he was as good as the praise he received, but he was definitely good.
Sam Hauser
Hauser made multiple movement 3's in Game 1. If you didn't know Hauser could do that, you haven’t been paying attention. It’s generally hard to be a shooter in a combine scrimmage setting between the extended line, stronger incentive to chuck, and for this year, the new ball. As a result, don’t overreact to the overall shooting numbers for one of the great shooting prospects in recent memory. More importantly, Hauser also showed the ability to slide his feet on defense, snuffing out plays from more athletic players like Julian Champagnie and Jericho Sims in very different types of isolation. The biggest criticism of Hauser has always been his inability to stay with more athletic players in space, and he didn't look out of place in that regard at all such as in the clip below wearing #46 in blue. While several players on Team 2 struggled, Hauser was its lone bright spot that we’ll talk about here.
Matthew Hurt
Matt Hurt was a guy who I thought received some weird criticism in his first game. Much like for Sam Hauser, the question for Hurt was largely if he’s just physically outmatched, and he was clearly not. He did a decent job of chasing Hauser around screens, plus he was also competitive on the boards even against much larger players like Makur Maker. He had a nice sequence below wearing #48 where he stalled out a post-up by holding his ground and then dug to create a turnover when the ball was kicked out. There was some weirdness -- he didn’t pull on any 3 pointers including a few that he probably should have, and there was a TO when he popped while the ball-handler expected a roll (though it’s unclear whose fault that was) -- but the shooting woes were just a matter of shots he’s made all year not rolling in, which will happen in small samples. Fortunately, his second game spoke much more cleanly to his scoring abilities, pouring in 14 points, but also doing so in a way that distinguished him from some of the other big shooters in the class. Where Hauser struggled a bit when he wasn’t able to knock down the 3 point shot, Hurt showed his ability to put the ball on the floor and get into shorter range shots while the 3 ball wasn’t falling
Trendon Watford
On the one hand, Watford’s ideal combine would’ve involved positively answering questions about his 3 point jump shot. He did not do that, going 0-3 in the scrimmages. But that wasn’t at all the only question about Watford, who also had questions about other non-scoring abilities like his passing and defense, and in those regards he was effective. Within his first 90 seconds of play he had both a pair of high-value assists (one of which he made in the clip below wearing 62) and a pair of defensive stops, both things that he would go entire games at LSU without managing. While it was an extremely low bar to clear, Watford also set some of the better screens in these scrimmages. He still made some errors, like a transition play where he collapsed Zegarowski’s Nash dribble resulting in a turnover, but Watford succeeded in general at showing off a more well-rounded version of basketball.
Joe Wieskamp and Quentin Grimes
So if, as we talked about with Sam Hauser, it’s very difficult to look good as a shooter in the combine context, what do we do with the guys who were successful as shooters? Well, by and large, you want to avoid looking at the shooting. As a general rule, it’s a bad idea to reject the large sample in favor of the small, and that’s applicable for good or for bad. Instead, you need to look at how they got to their shots and how they played when they weren’t shooting. Wieskamp and Grimes both played excellently in all facets of the game -- not just their shooting -- and so they deserve full credit even if they had shot neutrally. Wieskamp showed good understanding of where to be on both ends, including making good defensive rotations but also creating an easy basket on plays like this 45 cut. Grimes, meanwhile, was able to show his ability to run an offense while remaining competitive defensively primarily through his advanced physical tools. Grimes also showed the ability to use the shooting threat he established himself as to create a backdoor cut and an easy basket. So while both of them were among the best shooters results-wise, they also both were successful in their non-shooting plays, which is why they end up on the “good” list.
The Bad:
Greg Brown
The stat line looked bad. The actual play looked worse. Brown is hyper-athletic but didn't show any indication of understanding how to use that on the basketball court. He shied away from drivers as a rim protector, was deterred from a transition dunk and forced into a difficult reverse lay-up (wearing #13 in the clip below) by Matt Hurt, and just generally looked like even the few traits left for betting on him after a disaster of a Texas season weren't there. And of course the things he struggled with at Texas were there too as he seemed to have no idea where to throw the ball for passes, low-tagged from strong side when there was an appropriate weak side defender, and missed his only 3. While he did manage to pick up a couple of dunks in the second game, it was still an overall poor game. I don't know if he left the option to go back, but I can't imagine the perception of him is going to get lower with another season.
Josh Primo
Some other sources have had Primo as a winner here. That's baffling to me. He (wearing #32 in the clip below) nearly got put on his butt multiple times due to misplaying cuts, over-biting on dribble moves, and just generally not knowing where to be on defense. I'd also contend that the scoring was more about bad defense than good offense. His first drive featured Aaron Wiggins gambling for a steal and Sandro Mamukelashvili making a business decision even though no contract had been offered. By which I mean Primo wasn't going up for anything, but Mamu just decided to back off and give Primo a free open layup instead of, you know, actually protecting the rim. Overall, much like our next candidate, Primo had an unspectacular offensive game paired with shameful defense.
Carlik Jones
Look, Jones shouldn't have been there in the first place, and it's not his fault he was outmatched. But Jones might have been the worst player in a field with some major strugglers. Jones failed to keep anyone in front of him, to the point that on the double drag play below he was so late to the second screener that the screener just gave up and slipped because by that point the ball handler was just wide open and him being in the area actually hurt spacing. Jones had minimal impact on offense, throwing out a mix of good and bad decisions, but was just so outmatched on the defensive end that he couldn't end up anywhere other than “bad”.
Johnny Juzang
Much like Carlik Jones, Juzang really just didn't belong at the combine. Thus, I don't fault him too hard for his struggles, bad as they were. For some reason, in the 2nd half of their first scrimmage Team 2 attempted to run the offense through Juzang. It didn't work in the slightest. But also Juzang was the most egregious at a running combine tradition of "I'm going to get mine." If he caught the ball, he was almost certainly going up with it, even if the shot wasn't there or it was a bad shot. Furthermore, Juzang also failed to do the simple stuff. When he missed a bad shot that caused a carom into a fast break, he got back in transition, sure, but he didn’t stop the big man right in front of him who was clearly his primary responsibility. He even had multiple unforced out of bounds turnovers where he just wasn’t paying attention to where his feet were. Juzang was out there with something to prove, but unfortunately for him he just proved that he should be back at UCLA next year.
Yves Pons
If Yves Pons is going to make the NBA, it’s going to be as a guy who translates his exceptional athleticism into being a jack of all trades defender. And if that’s the case, then it’s a major problem that Joe Wieskamp, admittedly a better defender than often given credit for, had to clean up his mistakes rather than the other way around. Similarly, he’s not in a position to force Trendon Watford and Joe Wieskamp to switch onto opposing centers on an island. He (#59 below) just seemed constantly a step behind, and for guys who are already physically weird to begin with that step can end the possession. I would contend that Pons actually looked like the worst defender on the floor more often than he did the best, so while he still displayed his jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism and actually made a few jump-shots, he probably cemented himself as nothing more than a gimmick player.
The Indifferent:
McKinley Wright IV
McKinley Wright is a guy that received a lot of praise, but it was for reasons that I hope wouldn't fool an experienced scout: Wright played aggressive defense. Wright did not play good defense. Basically he was getting up into guys, but largely he was just fouling them without actually providing real pressure. Offensively, meanwhile, he struggled to create pressure off the dribble, and while he did rack up 9 assists, none of them were particularly high-leverage passes that required a great read. For example, one of the assists was on a Moses Wright 3 where McKinley Wright threw the pass 4 feet to his right, Moses caught it, set, and then after 2 seconds of jab steps Moses Wright finally fired. That assist could not have said less about McKinley Wright’s passing ability. He didn’t answer any of the questions about his athletic ability, and while he didn’t play poorly, he didn’t really do anything strongly positive either.
Makur Maker
Maker’s play was difficult to be sharply critical of, as he did hit some relatively high skill looks. But at the same time, he’s still very clearly far, far away from being an NBA big man in many regards. He doesn’t appear to understand how to leverage his size or how important guys at his size tend to be to defensive schemes. During his one true short roll opportunity, he bobbled the pass and ended up far too close to the defender, though due to some nifty off ball movement from Aaron Wiggins as well as a good pass from Maker the possession turned into what should’ve been an and-1. Overall, Maker was a guy I expected to get lumped in with Juzang and Carlik Jones for not belonging, but while he wasn’t good he wasn’t just clearly outmatched. Mostly I’d say there was a disjoint in what his skillset needed to be and what it actually is -- he flashed passing and some degree of shooting, but Team 2 needed him to use his body inside, and he simply couldn’t do that. #88 in the clip below, Maker positions himself too far forward on the drop coverage, gives up the pass over the top, and then doesn’t have the strength to pin Queta under the backboard, turning a run-of-the-mill pick and roll into an and-1.
Neemias Queta
It’s hard to be a big man in a combine scrimmage, and Neemias Queta certainly didn’t perform poorly. But if you were looking for proof that his college production was translatable to the NBA level, what was actually on display? Queta’s production mostly originated from the disorganized scrimmage setting, and while he did show some excellent hustle for the largest man at the combine, a lot of the things he did only work at the college level. Take his lone steal and block in his first game. For the steal, he hard blitzed a pick and roll in a way that someone with his footspeed is never going to in the NBA. But it worked because D.J. Steward is not an NBA-level ballhandler. Queta knocked the ball away, got up and on the court, and from the ground managed to knock it to Jason Preston for an easy uncontested lay-up. But nothing epitomizes the untranslatable play more than his block shown below. Isaiah Mobley covers down before the drive has even happened, and Queta takes advantage to cheat off into the middle of the lane. In the NBA Yves Pons would be expected to identify this and turn for a floppy-adjacent screen. In an unorganized combine setting or in college, however, this is an easy block because that coordination isn’t there.
Jason Preston
Jason Preston, for other reviewers, seemed to be a big winner. And I understand to some degree why. His team was effective, he showed off some dribble moves with good touch and finesse, and he was never just openly outmatched on the court. At the same time, while he may have never been totally physically outmatched, there were definitely numerous times when he was at least at a disadvantage due to his lack of physical tools, resulting in defensive lapses and missed transition lay-ups. But most crucially, he struggled significantly with accuracy on his passes, throwing alley-oops 5 feet away from the target. In the clip below, he (#5) turns an easy pocket pass into a transition lay-up going the other way because he puts the ball at Mobley’s knees. Most NBA big men can’t catch that either, and if that doesn’t improve, his passing, which should be his strongest skill, will be a weakness at the next level.