Nassir Little Scouting Report from a UNC Homer

[skiz2]

Hey all! I am a giant UNC fan. After the draft I try to go to each teams boards that draft one of our guys and give my thoughts on what to expect and how I view their trajectory. Keep in mind my bias as you read on and know that I am doing my best to be as objective as possible.

With Nassir, I think strength wise beyond his physical profile, is his offensive potential. He scored at all three levels this past season. He hit some pull up dribbles from mid range, made some post moves on smaller defenders, even hit a few threes off the dribble. The framework is there for Nas to be a very lethal scorer. He put up more productive offensive numbers than Cam Reddish this season in a role off the bench. Nas shows a very good knack for rebounding the basketball. He grabs rebounds in traffic very well and can finish strong. He shows potential to be a very versatile defender and Roy sometimes would stick him on PGs to slow them down and would have him guard some centers depending on matches. In UNC's first game against Louisville where we got our asses kicked, he had Maye and Brooks guarding their center Enoch who lit us up. The second time around he placed Nas on him and Nas shut him down. In spite of giving up 4 inches and 30 lbs to him he had an impressive block where Enoch backed him down tried to do a hook shot and Nas jumped and swatted down to close to half court.

Now in terms of improvement areas, they have been well documented. I want to provide some additional background to these areas and how some may be surmountable and some may not be surmountable. When Nas committed to UNC, Cam Johnson was expected to go pro regardless as if it was to Europe or the NBA. Cam did not have the season he expected and loved UNC enough to return. No one could have predicted the type of historic shooting percentages Johnson would put up this past season at UNC. UNC had missed out on some big men prospects who would have backed up Luke Maye at PF and suddenly Nas was put into a position where he had to play both the 3 and 4. Nas bulked up and a lot of the wiggle he had before was lost and his touch was inconsistent. When you put on muscle in such a quick time, your touch suffers in the short term and he struggled finishing some plays he really should have finished. Nas was never a slippery player and never had much hip flexibility, but I believe a huge part of his success will depend on how flexible his hips can get. He is a little reminiscent of Harrison Barnes in that regard. If I am his personal trainer, I am telling Nas to stay away from the weights a little bit and to work on hip flexibility, as he is too predictable when he catches the ball in isolation at the moment. Off the ball, he will need to learn to come off screens harder and work a little bit more to get open.

Nassir is an excellent student who had close to a 4.0 GPA in HS and was on the ACC all academic team as a freshman. He has a bit of a perfectionistic personality and he earned the nickname Philosopher Nas from Coach Williams. Apparently in his free time he loves to read the philosophy of Soran Kikegaard (apologies for a spelling error). For an 18 year old coming into UNC with such a desire to do well in all aspects was trying hard to bulk up and learn the PF position, study and learn a complex offense, he often times would over think on the offensive end. In contrast to Coby White (who for better or worse does not think out on the court) Nas did not act instinctually on the court. When he did, the results were amazing! One thing that we UNC fans noticed was when he took less dribbles his game became deadly efficient on the offensive end. When he would catch the ball think and take multiple unnecessary dribbles, then that is where trouble would happen. For someone without the flexible hips and sometimes overthinking, this made anticipating where he was going extremely easy. That being said, without worrying about school and focusing only on basketball, him getting the right type of training will be tantamount to his success. Nas will eat up whatever is taught to him, it is crucial it is the necessary stuff and it may be crucial for Nas to get some mental training to slow down his mind and act more instinctually when he is out on the court. He also needs to work harder off the ball to get open more often as he drifts too much holding his hand out at the 3 point line. He had a lot of success at UNC when he would catch the ball around the free throw line area turn face and make a decisive move. When he would catch the ball at the 3 point line, it was not as successful.

At his best, Nas reminded me of a smaller Pascal Siakham. They move similarly and are best from free throw line in. He needs to have a cap on the amount of dribbles he can take in the half court, focus on ball handling and hip flexibility in his personal workouts. Only take catch and shoot 3s. He is far from his ceiling, but knowing his personality the only way I see him as a complete bust for the 25th pick is if he gets the wrong type of training moving forward.

Edit to add:

https://youtu.be/hJxTWdaLozo

I think the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney was where he was able to put all of his skills together the most. I still wonder if UNC would have made it to the final four had Coby, Nas and Cam not all been sick vs Auburn. Notice where most of his damage is done. The pull up from mid range is a shot he did not hit consistently, but you can tell the mechanics are there.

[d-train]

Nobody is going to set a screen for Nassir or give him the ball here unless he is supposed to immediately shoot it. To succeed here, he only needs to hone his animalistic desire to retrieve the basketball, work his arse off on defense, and shot it in the rare occurrence that Lillard passes him the ball.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Apparently in his free time he loves to read the philosophy of Soran Kikegaard (apologies for a spelling error).

OMG new favorite player.

My man gonna put some fear and trembling in our foes.

[Dame Lizard]

Thanks for the analysis Skiz - was an insightful read.

[Effigy]

That was an interesting read, thanks!