NBA Draft Scouting Report: Monte Morris Strengths, Weaknesses and Comparison
As we transition from the college basketball season to NBA Draft season I’ll be breaking down the scouting reports for various players across the country who are expected to be in the NBA Draft. We’ll focus on seniors and those with agents to start. If there is someone specific you want on here, please let me know @barstoolreags. All videos are courtesy of Synergy and the stats will come from Synergy and KenPom.
Monte Morris – Iowa State
6’3”, 175 lbs, 21 years old
Projected: No. 43 (DraftExpress) No. 48 (NBADraft)
Comparison: Devin Harris
Background: There was no one better over the last four years in college basketball at taking care of the ball like Monte Morris. It was absolutely amazing to watch him with a decently high usage rate commit just 165 turnovers in his career. On the flip side he is everything you want in your point guard as he entered college as a guy who would set up teammates, 768 career assists, and developed into your go-to scorer, who always shot in the high 30s from three. Morris is coming off a year where he was All-Big 12 and led the nation in assist:turnover ratio for the fourth year in a row.
Strengths: The biggest strength for Monte Morris isn’t going to surprise anyone. He can step in, play right away and be a guy who can take care of the ball and set up his teammates. He’s excellent in the pick-and-roll as he was in 358 PnR sets this year and ranked 84th nationally as Iowa State scored 1 point per possession. Watching him play as the passer in the PnR – which I want to focus on first – you notice a couple things. First, he dictates the screen and what I mean by that is he waits for the big to get set and knows when to push the tempo a little bit to the screen and when to use his hesitation dribble to set up the roll. From there he has an arsenal of passes to get to the roll man. He’ll beat you with a chest pass, bounce pass, has great touch of lobs and can swing to a spot up shooter. It’s honestly my favorite thing about his game – the different types of passes he can make. Here you’ll see three examples, two bounce passes to get his teammates going to the rim and a diagonal pass coming off the screen leading to a layup.
I’m focusing on him in the pick-and-roll, because that’s how NBA teams will use him. They’ll look to let him create off of there, especially in this small ball era where you can run pick-and-pops as well. On top of his passing, what makes him dangerous in the PnR sets is his ability to use the screen to get to the rim or stay above it and shoot from three. He’s a very effective scorer as he scored over 16 points on 13 shots per game. He’s a career 47.2% field goal shooter and a career 38.4% shooter from the 3-point line. You have to respect his shot no matter where it’s coming from. Even his advanced shooting numbers grade out as ‘very good’ per Synergy. He scored 1.172 points per possession on catch and shoots, .846 ppp from 17′-3-point line and .914 ppp on jumpers off the dribble. One of the things that makes him effective at the 17′-3-point range is his shooting motion. First he has good elevation off the dribble to go with his 6’3″ size. On top of that you’ll notice he cocks the ball back just a little bit to create even more spacing against a defender allowing him to continue to shoot over. Here’s an example in photo form:
Defensively, he’s not going to completely wow you, but he’s a really good off-ball defender. He knows where to be, especially when he’s one pass away and despite playing in a system where defense can sometimes be optional, he was able to create steals. Morris is better at shooting the gap and digging into the post than playing on-ball, which is something to watch at the next level. Another nice thing for Morris is he did run man pretty much the entire time, so scouts don’t have to wonder what he’s like defensively as opposed to those who play zone.
Weaknesses: He needs to become a better on-ball defender first and foremost. He gets beat a lot in the pick-and-roll set due to his frame as he’s relatively light and the fact he can get lost on the ball. While he has great IQ off the ball he often gets stuck making simple errors on the ball in the pick-and-roll. Most notably he’ll over compensate and use incorrect footwork to overcompensate for fighting the screen, which opens him up just enough to give the opponent a step ahead right off the bat. If he goes over the top of the screen he often gets stuck, breaking down the entire defense. The question is whether that’s an individual thing or just an Iowa State thing. While he does shoot the ball well, he does need to improve his range. Nearly all of his threes came toeing the collegiate line and he needs to back that up and be more consistent a few feet back from the NBA range.
Draft Stock & Projection: This feels like a Spurs pick doesn’t it? I know they took Dejonte Murray last year, but this just feels like the classic Spurs pick who ends up being their point guard for the next decade. He’s the ultimate back up point guard. It’s exactly what NBA teams looks for to run the second unit. He can go get buckets if he needs to, but don’t be surprised to see him start his career similar to what he did at Iowa State in setting teammates up. His game will translate to the NBA in the sense of him not turning the ball over. He’s not going to sneak into the first round, but look for him to go in the first 10 picks in the second round. While he is a senior and people will defer to the younger player he’s still relatively young for the class. He doesn’t turn 22 until a few days after the draft. I’d be surprised to see him start in the D-League next year as I think he’ll be one of those second round picks who catches on the roster right away. I’d be more than happy to bet he ends up with a 12-year career playing about 15-20 minutes per game.