Adou Thiero Scouting Report
While being 5'8" as a middle-schooler, Thiero grew to 6'8" and will likely continue to grow. He's a grown man in a sophomore's body with enough untapped potential. What's the NBA intrigue? Find out.
Before committing to Coach Calipari, Kentucky’s Thiero had played as a guard whose position and role kept changing due to him growing and growing as years passed by.
Prospects like Thiero are valuable commodities in a league that values positional versatility and physical tools. A team doesn’t invest in production but more in the idea of what their development can lead to in the long run.
Physical Profile
At 6’8” and 222 pounds, Thiero has the body of a bruiser-type frontcourt piece. While maintaining his ball-handling skills, he presents an NBA franchise with an almost clear blueprint they can fill in.
With broad shoulders, a well-filled frame, and fluidity he presents an NBA franchise with his multi-positional advantage on the physical end. With his body changing every Thiero will continue to learn how to utilize his body.
Thiero is dealing with back spasms due to him growing so fast in the last two years. Therefore production is valued less in this report, with most focus being on the type of player he can become in the long run.
Offense
Thiero is averaging under one three-point attempt per game in both seasons. In both instances, he shot 35.7% from deep. Looking at his jumper he’s consistently showing the same things. While he sets his feet quickly, the release is high.
Considering his NBA role, I don’t expect Thiero to play much as a spot-up shooter in the corner. Mostly due to a team wanting to utilize his physical tools inside the arc, thus making the three-point shot less important in his profile.
With 28 threes in two seasons so far, the sample size shows that Kentucky is utilizing him in the same way as Coach Calipari wants him to focus on his duties as a play-finisher instead.
What makes Thiero such an appealing prospect is his strength. He doesn’t need a mismatch to force his will to the defense. The three plays below show how convincing his finish ability is.
Whether it’s him using the jab step to get by the defense in the first play, or taking on the contact and winning the rebounding battle in the second one, Thiero is using his strength very well in creating scoring opportunities.
What makes it feasible for the NBA is that he can combine his ball-handling skill with simply playing bully ball at times while showing good touch at the rim. Thiero is more comfortable finishing with his right but has shown the ability to be a finisher with both hands. An area of development for him is to make himself more unpredictable by preferring his left hand to finish as well.
With Coach Calipari putting the ball in the hands of his guards, Thiero finds his production mostly on off-ball plays. He has a great feel for the game when it comes to reading the offensive scheme translating to how the opposing defense reacts.
As the son of a former basketball player, Thiero recognizes angles very well and is a smart off-ball mover who doesn’t move around too much to stay unpredictable for his assignment.
One of the things that makes Kentucky one of the better offenses in college basketball this season is their use of movement to force defenses to rotate, with Thiero having an important role in this.
Whether it’s him setting off-ball screens and pindowns, or simply reacting to rotations on defense, he creates open looks with his active cutting.
An important indicator of scoring potential at the next level is isolation basketball. Despite playing in a low-usage role we see Thiero getting the green light from Coach Calipari when the Wildcats need a bucket.
Rim pressure and being able to force defenders into adjusting what you want is key for a potential high-end scorer, which is what Thiero’s trajectory looks like. At 6’8”, and likely a few inches more until he stops growing, he has ball-handling skills combined with fluidity.
If we combine that with his strength it shows how good the building blocks are to become something an opponent has very little chance of stopping. While finishing at a 35.3% rate near the rim, the numbers aren’t important when considering how easily Thiero gets to his spots at the mid and low post areas.
What makes Thiero such an effective player in Kentucky’s system is his ability to play as the second screener next to a traditional big man. He sets solid screens that not only don’t force the defense into making a decision but also add to his screen that he’s a timely mover to make plays out of them.
With limited ball touches, Thiero forces his teammates to find him, and as the season goes on he’s growing more accustomed to playing as a pick-and-pop threat, where he either shoots the three-ball or attacks the closeouts to get himself to the foul line.
At almost three free-throw attempts in 22 minutes per game in a low-usage role that’s a great number to work with. This is an area where he can impact the game at the NBA level. Whether it’s a team wanting to take away momentum by lowering the pace or putting players into foul trouble, Thiero can be physical against all five positions on the court which makes him a tactical weapon for any coaching staff.
Defense
When it comes to Thiero’s defense he can ultimately be one of the rare players who guard all five positions. The context that has to be added to his profile is that he’s dealing with back spasms and has grown more than 10 inches since middle school. This leads to him looking clunky on the defensive end at times, which is fully related to his growth spurt and Thiero still getting accustomed to his body.
He has all the tools to be a reliable isolation defender at the next level. This is an important indicator to project the overall defensive impact and long-term value an NBA franchise will give his profile.
However, there are certain areas Thiero needs to improve in the coming years with matching the physical intensity he has on offense being the most important one.
While averaging two fouls in 22 minutes per game, Thiero shows he’s already handling the responsibility of guarding the opponent’s top scorer in more isolation-fashioned plays, mostly at the end of the shot clock.
The first play below is a good example of what Thiero can become and where he stands at the moment. He lost his balance after the ball handler picked up the dribble, but showed great recovery speed by using his long wingspan to still contest the shot.
Another area Thiero has to improve after getting more playing minutes is his ability to rotate timely. He’s getting caught ball-watching at times, leading him to give up unnecessary space inside the arc. In a faster-paced NBA setting with more ball movement, that’ll harm a team’s defensive rating which will make it harder for Thiero to find minutes.
One of the things Thiero does well but doesn’t follow up on yet is his ability to fight through screens as the third play below shows. At times he’s aggressive in generating a stop, and at times he stays passive in a shot contest with the second play being an example. A player with his physical gifts should remain aggressive at all times.
The above-mentioned usually leads to issues regarding a prospect’s motor. But in Thiero’s case, the back injury leads to him playing through a lot of pain, which leads to not questioning his motor at all. He’s usually rather passive on the defensive end, especially near the rim.
That’s a combination of ball-watching and simply not showing the same reaction speed that he does on offense. In the remainder of Kentucky’s season, Thiero should work on consistently showing his will to play winning basketball, which is something he is doing when he’s not defending.
The first two plays are examples of how he can save points on Kentucky’s defense by simply reacting quicker.
When defending closeouts Thiero is getting caught to move toward the weak side too much, leading to his opponents finding open driving lanes. Instead of using his footwork to force his man to beat him off the dribble, he’s bailing his opponent out by already deciding which way they should attack his closeout.
The first play is an example where his pivot foot makes it tougher for him to react to his assignment moving toward the baseline to find a clean runway to finish at the rim.
In the second play, Thiero does well to force his opponent to the strong side but fails to follow up by showing slow movement through his hips to change direction and keep up with the driver. Working on loosening his hips is something an NBA franchise has to consider when preparing his developmental plan.
When it comes to Thiero guarding the perimeter he’s making it tougher on himself by simply overcommitting with his help defense. The first play is an example where he reacts to the defensive breaking down by relocating under the basket, instead of roaming around that mid-post area to make it harder to feed the spot-up shooter near the elbow.
The general thing that consistently came back when evaluating his defensive plays is that Thiero makes it harder on himself by two major errors:
Late rotations lead to gaps others have to fill in;
Ball-watching leads to him losing track of the execution of their defensive scheme.
An NBA franchise should invest in giving Thiero as many reps as they can, which will likely mean that he’ll see the G League often in his first two seasons. This is a trend we see with most underclassmen being drafted in the last few years, with the three two-way deals and more quality players having to prove their worth to NBA teams in a G League environment.
NBA Draft Projection
An NBA team is buying versatility and physical tools with Thiero. He’s already so strong and well-developed in terms of his body makes it appealing to what he can become when he’s done developing.
The production is less important in his draft profile but his 5.5 rebounds and 80.4% on almost three free-throw attempts per game are important numbers that make it feasible that he can continue to develop while still seeing an NBA floor at times.
The ball handling skill and being able to play bully ball against college forwards and big men is something that’ll draw the most intrigue from NBA front offices. That combined with his great feel for the game as an off-ball player makes him a scalable multi-positional weapon teams can utilize. His ability to screen combined with his strength can lead to him playing as a five in smaller line-ups.
As a defender Thiero has things to clean up with his rotations and dropping the ball-watching being the most important ones. In general, the back injury plays a large role in his performance, which is something an NBA decision-maker has to consider when evaluating his profile.
In a class with much depth and less competition at the top, there’s room for Thiero to be a surefire first-rounder a team is willing to bet on. Based on the above-mentioned, I project him to be a top 25 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.