Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones Scouting Report
From New Zealand to the NBA. Tait-Jones' feel for the game and exceptional touch and efficiency around the rim gives him a clear role. But he's more than a slasher. Here's all you must know:
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (#12, UC San Diego): Senior, 6'6"
Shooting Guard/Small Forward — Born: Jan 5, 2001 (24 years old)
Introduction
After spending three seasons at the Division II level, Tait-Jones had won everything winnable. He was Freshman of the Year at the PACWest Conference and has two All-Second Team and one All-First Team honors to add to his resume. While averaging seventeen points per game, Tait-Jones transferred to UC San Diego.
In the Big West, his success and dominance continued. While scoring an efficient fourteen points per game, Tait-Jones was named Newcomer of the Year. Hereafter, he continued where he left off and scored over nineteen, crowning himself Big West Player of the Year in his final season of eligibility.
His rim pressure, craft, and fundamentals made him among the best mid-major scorers. His maturity and timely, good decision-making slowed the game down, and that’s his calling card for the next level. This scouting report emphasizes translating his strengths into a feasible NBA role.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-6, Tait-Jones is the ideal size for moving between the two and the three. He has a strong upper body and a good frame. As a 24-year-old, Tait Jones had a physical advantage in college, but his body developed well to prepare him for the next level. Length is a weapon he embraces, with a solid 6-foot-11 wingspan.
With his 200 pounds, there’s room to add muscle at the next level. Tait-Jones has his craft and decision-making to rely upon. He’s a good athlete but embraces advantage creation with his reads rather than relying on his physique. That’s a much more feasible solution, as the physical advantage largely vanishes when he’s facing NBA athletes.
With decent verticality and quick feet, Tait-Jones shows a promising physical profile for NBA coaches to work with.
Offense
Scoring out of closeouts
Slashing and generating paint touches. That’s Tait-Jones’ main task at the next level. The chart above shows a 70 %+ finishing rate at the rim. The numbers support his excellent two-handed touch, while his core strength and fluid hips help him to secure balance after planting his last step before the finish. Tait-Jones is a true slasher and will earn scoring opportunities with his gravity on that end.
Tait-Jones’ combination of physical, aggressive basketball and balanced footwork makes it imminent that he’ll get two feet inside the paint. His craft reaches levels of him using head-fakes to either catch defenders up or fully launch into their chest. He’s good at using his arms to create angles to slide into. He’s not forcing shots but does often suffer from tunnel vision. That’s an area of attention.
In the first play below, Tait-Jones doesn’t shy away from punishing the mismatch around the basket. He’s fully launching into the five’s chest, pivots strongly, and uses his hips to find the right angle for the finish. Another good body control in the second play. Tait-Jones reaches the paint but is too dialed in to finish his layup against the five. The corner was left empty, and in the NBA that’s an automatic kickout for the open three. Despite the angle creation being excellent, Tait-Jones makes it more than likely he’s the one finishing the play.
The separating part of his profile comes from how well he embraces contact and makes his finish move after he's put the defender out of balance. He’s good at keeping his scoring option a secret until he finds the right angle.
Self-creation out of the pick-and-roll
At 8.5 free-throw attempts per game, Tait-Jones’ ability to absorb contact and create angles makes him one of the best foul-drawers in college basketball. The touch translates at the line, with a conversion rate of 75.1%. For the NBA, drawing fouls brings a must to combine footwork with body control. Tait-Jones’ slashing gives him room to operate as a secondary creator with some pick-and-roll ball-handling duties as a result.
He’s not an explosive athlete. But for Tait-Jones it doesn’t matter because his change of pace and craft give him two vital weapons to find mistakes in a defender’s footwork. He won’t blow by opponents with speed but makes it easy for himself to get downhill, banking on players missing a last step or not pivoting well. The first play led to the gathering before the rotation was forced. Hereafter, Tait-Jones saw a non-set five on him and immediately punished the mismatch while not lacking any physicality in the process.
In the second possession, Tait-Jones is caught driving without a plan. He pivoted strongly with his left, pushing his foot far out to create a driving angle. But the weak side was attacked without any dropoff options in the interior. As mentioned earlier, that’s where he struggles. Forcing finishes while not finding the right angles is a recipe for an NBA team’s offensive rating to hurt.
However, the foul-drawing is real and will translate. His ability to use his footwork and body positioning is close to elite. The third play shows an example. Tait-Jones takes the rotation and immediately squares up and forms his body in a straight line when picking up his dribble. That way, he’s forcing the defender to collapse on him, but he isn’t the one touching his opponent, and thus rightfully should have gotten a foul call there. The fourth play shows a similar outcome. Tait-Jones brought the extra by leaning toward the baseline so the defender couldn’t block him and had to reach in further, which led to the easier foul call for the referees.
Advantage creation via post-ups
Tait-Jones is reliable at creating advantages via post-ups. However, the other side of the coin is forcing actions when he goes to work in the post. Even when he’s badly positioned, he’ll be forced to find the right scoring angle. The aggressiveness demands its toll here, as it hurts a team’s offensive rhythm. In the NBA, teams use post-ups to draw help defenders and make extra passes. Not to feed a player’s two-point-heavy diet, sacrifice the shot clock, and potentially take fewer possessions in a game because of it.
There’s an advantage in his profile, regardless. Tait-Jones has great footwork in the post with fluid hips. He’s actively seeking to seal off his defenders and duck inside the paint by keeping his head low and immediately going for the finish. While finishing with either hand, the lethal touch around the rim makes him a priority for a team’s scouting report. The first play shows an example.
However, he’s also forcing shots. In the second play, he’s starting the post-up from an impossible angle to shoot over the taller defender. While moving to the top of the key, he must make the extra pass. Instead, he’s making it easy for the defender to simply deny any access. Another issue is that Tait-Jones does not immediately punish the created space. In the third play, he got separated by the pushoff, but instead of taking it to the defender for the potential and-one, he decided to post up. Regretting this decision likely led to him losing the ball in the same sequence.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At over three assists and a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, Tait-Jones shows promising numbers when it comes to the positive impact of his passing. He’s an interior-scoring slasher first and doesn’t need to pile up assists. In the NBA, his craft and paint touch generation brings many help defenders to him, and that’s where he must bank on making the extra pass. Therefore, his consistency in executing reads is a vital part of this scouting report.
Patience is the first essential building block. In the first play, Tait-Jones attacks the five after switching for the mismatch. However, when he didn’t get the separation he wanted, he remained calm in the mid-post and made the kickout pass to the elbow. He’s also reading the floor well. In the second play, he’s creating multiple paint touches by fearlessly hitting the weak-side cutter through the middle. Risky passes are a positive thing and show he’s not afraid to commit turnovers. With more space in the NBA, it makes it easier to adjust to the level of spacing.
The third play shows the playmaker in Tait-Jones. He’s on the strong side after the baseline out-of-bounds play. He aims for the ball reversal, but instead of throwing it crosscourt, Tait-Jones uses his slashing as his leverage to draw help defenders and make the defense ignore the weak side corner. That’s the level of decision-making NBA scouts seek. The fear of his paint touches continues in the last play below, where Tait-Jones remains patient when there isn’t an immediate dropoff possibility available.
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Defense
Closeouts
Defensively, Tait-Jones will struggle in his most vital task: closing out. He’s rushing his closeouts, with often a bad last step, and immediately making a decision before the ball handler does anything. That bails scorers out and makes it imminent that his defense is forced to rotate and likely collapses as a result. The composure and control Tait-Jones plays with on offense don’t translate to the defensive side of the ball, and that’s an early red flag considering the experience and expected NBA-ready game at 24 years old.
The first play shows an example of Tait-Jones pivoting with his left and biting severely on the shot fake. With the empty-side set, the opponents ran, and the anticipation of them hunting that weak side should have been recognized before Tait-Jones closed out. In the second play, Tait-Jones left the interior and still completely went all-in on the jab step. Even if the ball handler decided to shoot, any NBA defender would live with an off-the-dribble three from that far out. The lack of composure is telling and it undersells the footwork Tait-Jones brings on the offensive end.
Pick-and-roll
At two fouls per game in back-to-back seasons, Tait-Jones shows he can play in control. However, the aggressive side of his game is less present when he’s in pick-and-roll action. He’s much more comfortable playing aggressively and embracing physicality in the second line of defense when he must guard the forward, but is reluctant and careful when he’s facing ball handlers. Gifted NBA ball handlers and scorers will punish that type of defense without any hesitation.
The first play shows Tait-Jones not allowing the big man to find positioning inside the paint. That forced the ball screen and the switch. Tait-Jones was late to recognize and was too late to contest the midrange jumper. The second play shows him immediately seeking contact after the drag screen, and despite the toughness and clean contact, he was called for the foul. Those will be called much less in the NBA, as Tait-Jones closed the angle and did not attack the defender’s body.
Regardless, he’s hesitant and reactive when ball handlers get paint touches. The third and fourth plays show examples. The toughness must intensify at the next level, as Tait-Jones's difference-creating skill on offense shows the opposite when he’s defending. With the NBA’s focus on pick-and-roll creation, showing the capabilities to keep a defensive rating at par is the minimum he must show as an NBA-ready, experienced college player.
Catch-and-shoot
Tait-Jones doesn’t have great verticality. But that’s not necessary in how precisely he’s putting his hands in a shooter’s face. When he knows the three-point shot is more likely, it brings relief and calmness to his closeouts. That’s where he gains more confidence and makes it feasible that he’ll change open three-pointers into contested ones. He uses long strides on his closeouts and doesn’t jump up, but instead completely blocks the shooter’s vision on the rim. As a 6-foot-6 guard, that’s an advantage against most opponents he’ll face in the NBA.
The first play below shows an example. The transition dropoff pass led to Tait-Jones anticipating early. He’s focusing on closing out at 180 degrees while immediately hunting his hand to the shooter’s face as his main priority. This continues in the second possession. The baseline out-of-bounds play made it clear that the perimeter option was the recipient of the pass. Tait-Jones gave the passer a bailout as he reached the baseline.
That was to force the ball out and hunt the hand in the face. But the other side of the coin is Tait-Jones proving his lack of composure. He must take a more calm approach when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands and is forced to defend in spaces. The closeouts against shooters are good, but the composure could bring much more. That’s the main area of focus for an NBA coaching staff when they bring him in for workouts.
Defense away from the ball and against cutters
The value riser in Tait-Jones’ profile is the maturity and experience he brings to the table. That leads to confident and timely rotations and reliable defense away from the ball. Tait-Jones doesn’t gamble for steals but maps the court well and recognizes how he can maximize his number of deflections without gambling and giving away open scoring opportunities as a result.
At over a steal per game in back-to-back seasons, most of them were the result of him playing the passing lanes but not forcing it to generate steals for the sake of it. He’s influencing a team's defense positively and will bring value to a team’s defensive rating. In the first play below, Tait-Jones recognizes the trap and is a second too late in covering the passing angle to the cutter from the middle. Regardless, he compensates well from behind, deflecting the score that led to the miss.
In the second possession, Tait-Jones shows precision in closing the passing angle to the play-finisher who stepped back to be the recipient underneath the basket. He gave up the cut of his assignment. But with his fluid hips, Tait-Jones knew he could use his positioning underneath the basket to contest the play-finisher there instead. The positioning was vital here, and that’s an experience play that NBA scouts love to see when evaluating older prospects. Team defense compensates for the lack of composure and biting against closeout attackers, but it’s not enough to make it feasible. NBA defenses will improve with him on the floor.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones to be an undrafted free agent in the 2025 NBA Draft.
His slashing and secondary ball-handling duties are positives on top of his great touch around the basket. However, the defensive lapses that are needed aren’t small enough to give him the benefit of the doubt. I expect Tait-Jones to sign an Exhibit 10 contract and shine in the Summer League. It will be an uphill battle to earn a two-way contract.
Regardless of him not making the NBA, there will be offers from the NBL or European leagues to bring him over. His experience is a valuable asset, and his skillset makes it feasible for him can be a winning player outside the NBA.