The analyst who ranked Tadjo a high four star admitted that he ranks players on their potential to be NBA worthy. He also admits that Tadjo’s size & athleticism factor strongly. So, he ranked Tadjo higher than others. I should have capitalized potential.
Yeah, I indirectly challenged him a bit over there by giving my own take on Tadjo's tape and he responded (indirectly) with that explanation in an article.
He has him like Top 65 or so but on tape to me he looks like he will play like a Top 100-150 player initially. His skill level just isn't there although his strength and athleticism are NBA level:
- Ball handling: 4/10 - ok in the open court, very mediocre in the half court - can do the basics, nothing more. When facing up from 15-20 feet mostly just wants to straight line drive to the rim and overpower and outjump you from there. Isn't' going to cross you over, do a euro step or a spin move. Doesn't have a floater. All speed and power. Works good in transition for him, but the half court will be much harder against B10 defenses.
- Passing: 3/10 - not a high IQ player on offense that will make reads when help comes and immediately move the ball to the right spot and with the right type of pass
- Shooting: 3/10 - not much of a face up game, especially outside 16 feet, although working on it. A lot like Cook in that regard. Not floater or mid range off of a pull up.
- Post Moves: 3/10 - very basic moves, and doesn't really have 1 hand finishes where he can separate the ball from shot blockers like a half hook or something. He's going through you or over you basically. Has the basic turn middle, counter drop step but nothing too refined.
- Rebounding: 8/10 - pretty good here, when he gives all out effort to get position first. Athletic kids sometimes don't fight early for optimal position because they just like to out jump people. That does'nt work against Michigan State bigs, for example.
- Blocking: 7/10 - Defensively he sometimes has great blocks and other times you expect him to block and he doesn't even jump, as if he's afraid of the foul or doesn't know the timing. Sometimes he's good in rotation to help and other times seems a bit slow to read where he should be.
I think with 2 years at a college he should get A LOT better in terms of basketball IQ and awareness on both ends. How good his kill gets in the offensive half court will be the big question. Cook never really developed a longer range face up jumper, so if Tadjo doesn't have it yet I'm not optimistic on that part. But his game inside of 15 feet could improve a lot and he should be great on perimeter screen and roll and dump off passes, especially from Brock Harding, and of course dynamite in transition.
Koch grades out the highest on those skills, with Dembele next and then Traore, with Tadjo last. But if you ranked their athleticism it's exactly the opposite order haha. Lots of combos to work with.
Kids who are really athletic when younger aren't forced to develop skills as early on compared to others. But as they get to high school and college they realize they need them and so they just come a little later. This is often why (stereotyping) I think white players are seen more often in the Top 100 as Freshmen but tend to fall out by their Senior year as kids with more athleticism start to catch up in skill.
