Jackson McGuire

Would love if you checked out my new article! @ahead.of.the.game.2024/a-basketball-philosophy-part-2-c008318db833" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@ahead.of.the.…

DD age: 1: 21.2 2: 22.9 3: 22.3 4: 22.9

How would you rank these prospects?

On Ben McCollum's status as college's basketball's Mr. Game and Watch, for @basket_review basketunderreview.com/ben-mccollum-s…

I coached against Ben McCollum across six seasons. We built our roster and our defensive system with the goal of taking them down. While we beat them three times in a row, they always flexed greater winning four D2 National Championships and beating us a large majority of the time. There is no team we studied more as a staff than McCollum’s teams. Here is what he does better than most coaches in the country: *Point guard development: Ben McCollum is to college basketball what Andy Reid is to NFL football. Reid is widely considered the best QB coach developing Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith, and Pat Mahomes. If you think Bennett Stirtz is good for Drake, you should have seen McCollum’s point guard Trevor Hudgins (2x National POY) who signed and played with the Houston Rockets. Before Hudgins was National POY Justin Pitts. Simply put, McCollum always has the best point guard in the country. He develops them and they play the entire game. Stirtz leads the country at 39.4 MPG; Hudgins was at 37.7 MPG. McCollum’s methodical and controlled style of play protects them from injury and their team defense protects them from foul trouble. Stirtz was a second team all-conference player in our D2 league last season. He is now one of the best players in the country in NCAA D1 and a serious NBA prospect. No one develops PG’s better than McCollum. *Team Defense: No one gets players, who shouldn’t be able to guard, to be better on D than McCollum. Mitch Mascari should get blown by every possession. Daniel Abreu shouldn’t be able to guard 6’10+ big men. Bennett Stirtz should be attacked off the bounce constantly to wear him out and get him in foul trouble. Opposing coaches know these things and try them. But it doesn’t work well. McCollum’s best, and most underrated strength, is coaching team defense. His guys are tough, physical, legal, smart, play for each other in the gaps, take pride in winning their individual defensive matchup, and they don’t get tired. Plus, he always has one bona fide elite on-ball defender on his roster (see Isaiah Jackson and Diego Benard) to shut down elite guards. *Shot developer: Many college coaches don’t develop or change their player’s jump shots. Shots typically get worse for months at a time before they get better and most players are stubborn and/or not there long enough before transferring to their next school. McCollum develops shooters. One example is Mitch Mascari. Here is his shooting splits over the past five seasons: *Fr: 7/27 3PT - .259 *So: 20/60 3PT - .333 *Jr. 56/120 3PT - .466 *Sr. 82/171 3PT - .480 *Gr. 87/214 3PT - .407 (vs. D1 closeouts) It isn’t just Mascari either. A key reason Stirtz went from second team all-conference at the D2 level to the Larry Bird MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference is because of his improved perimeter shot. His last season in D2, Stirtz was 36/110 from 3PT (.327). This season at Drake he is 62/156 3PT (.397). He is perhaps shooting 80% from 3PT on “big shots” too. For perhaps McCollum’s best shot development job, see Ryan Hawkins, who starred for four years at NW Missouri State before transferring and being All-Big East at Creighton his final season. *Master in-game manipulator: As Ben’s former assistant Austin Meyer says, “You’ll play the game the way Ben McCollum wants you to play.” I’ve never seen, or coached against, someone who manipulates pace the way that Ben does. He can play his point guard the entire game as a result. Most players don’t want to play this way. It’s slow, sometimes boring, it’s controlled, there isn’t a lot of freedom, and the point guard usage rate is amongst the highest in the country (I.e. the PG gets to create in this system while others don’t). However, McCollum’s innate ability to identify selfless, no-ego players during the recruiting process allows him to get the buy-in needed to operate this way and at his pace. “Press them.. just speed them up”… Good luck with that.

@Double_PG @FinnDraft The GOAT is back?

another versatile 4 type that i am a fan of vs consensus is Jacob Cofie - spoke about him on a pod with @FinnDraft before the season and am still high on him despite probably being a returner. tall, long, and fluid, can jump out of the gym and has a frame that can add weight/muscle - ~8% stk, 45% on non-rim 2's with a relatively unassisted diet, 30 dunks. shot looks good mechanically/confident, buying him becoming a better shooter despite poor ft sample this year. one i'd take a risky bet on.

@DeeFromCLT_ @FlemmingDa30605 @GoodmanHoops Boozer is just a winner. One of the greatest high school careers of all time and now dominating at Duke while being a year younger. Shooting, passing, rebounding, and defending all translate pretty well.

@FlemmingDa30605 @JHMBasketball @GoodmanHoops Boozer game isn’t what today’s nba is but he can also do everything they want out of bigs in today’s game he can shoot defend and rebound Caleb is exactly what the nba looks for I hate him and UNC but if he had a consistent 3 ball he would be the best player in the draft

UPDATED MOCK DRAFT: After talking to nearly a dozen NBA execs, here’s a mock first-round board. Many NBA execs are torn right now on the No. 1 pick.

@FoxScoutingNBA @hoopsdunker32 I agree that some players will develop more than others, but I don't think we have the tools to predict it outside of age and work ethic.

@JHMBasketball @hoopsdunker32 From evaluation standpoint it's not easy to identify though except through certain data markers and overall feel of who a player is. It's like trying to prove psychological abuse in a courtroom.

half the battle in propsect evaluation is figuring out their dev curve. things to look for in projecting improvement include: - feel - cognition - learning rate (have we seen sharp improvements in their play already?) - athleticism/anthros/biomechanics - age - work ethic

@FlemmingDa30605 @GoodmanHoops Why? Great young players usually translate pretty well. People said the same thing about Luka.

@JHMBasketball @GoodmanHoops Right. He’s an excellent college player! I am talking strictly about the NBA game. Wilson seems more suited for it than Boozer.

@FlemmingDa30605 @GoodmanHoops Boozer has a better ORB%, DRB%, 2P%, 3P%, FT%, TS%, AST%, AST/TO, STL%, and less fouls all while taking more unassisted shots at the rim, mid range, and from 3. Also the best player in the country and a year younger. They played AAU together and Boozer was the star.

@GoodmanHoops From an NBA standpoint, what exactly does Boozer do better than Wilson?

@FlemmingDa30605 @GoodmanHoops Aside from being a year younger… Boozer is an elite shooter, passer, interior scorer, rebounder, and probably will be a + defender in the NBA given his stocks, size, and intelligence. The only thing I don’t understand is why Boozer isn’t 1.

@Blk_Von Think it's important to note that A/TO, 2P%, and 3PA/100 have all increased over time. 1.4 A/TO in '09 is likely closer to a 1.8-2.0 ATO today.

Any thoughts about this query? Tried to be ethical Trae Young misses due to poor rim scoring. 52% at the rim Stephen Curry misses because he is 1.4 ATO + we don't have '09 rim numbers.

@hoopsdunker32 @mikegrib8 I was more wondering why those specific attributes lead to more development.

@mikegrib8 @JHMBasketball Could’ve missed stuff

@hoopsdunker32 Unless you believe certain archetypes or skills develop later.

@hoopsdunker32 Aside from age and work ethic why would one player have more room to improve than another?

@LoganH_utk Both play the 5 primarily (over 90% of the time).

@JHMBasketball So this is basically positive O/neutral D vs neutral O/positive D. I lean slightly toward top for most positions, but would flip to the bottom if I’m playing both at the 5. Interesting question!

Preferred Player?

@Tim_NBA Would love to see the optimization data along with how it is calculated!

There's a full 2.64 points per 100 possessions difference in our Offensive Optimization data between these two, comparing their O-LEBRON values with expected values based on talent data. #2 starting player at that position vs dead last in that metric!

@mikegrib8 Which player do you prefer?

@JHMBasketball DRIP is the other one i want to add.. but not a bad idea adding RAPM for the kind of "variety" aspect.. although those metrics are build ON TOP of RAPM

@roadto80pct Who's better?

you're trolling

Better Player