Basheer Jihad Scouting Report
NBA scouts actively seek well-screening floor-stretchers to add depth to their forward slots. Jihad fits the bill. But what else is the intrigue? What's his long-term role and trajectory? Find out.
Introduction
Jihad had a fantastic prep career, being one of the top players in Michigan. He averaged a double-double in his junior and senior years on a top-10 program in the state. However, Jihad was unranked and committed to Ball State from neighboring Indiana. He got selected to Second Team All-MAC as a junior—the highlight of a good career at the Cardinals.
After hitting the transfer portal, Jihad committed to Coach Hurley and the Arizona State Sun Devils. His promotion to one of the top conferences in the country with a pathway to play starter minutes was the deciding factor. More importantly, he’s in a position to play the role he’ll have as a pro after college. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-9, Jihad has a strong build, broad shoulders, and a well-filled frame. His last measurement is at 239 pounds. Despite the heavy build, Jihad has light feet and fundamentally worked on his footwork throughout the years. He’s a good athlete with decent vertical pop, opening up the opportunity to be a play-finisher at the five. He has decent hip fluidity, especially in combination with his footwork.
The strong build and verticality help Jihad to be an impactful rebounder. That continued in his three years at Ball State after showing stellar rebounding in high school. No official measurement is available, but Jihad’s wingspan is another plus value to his profile. I predict that he will get measured at about 7-foot-2. His value for the NBA is at his screening. He’s using his body well at setting strong walls instead of only forcing defenders to make a decision. That makes him a double threat in the roll to the rim and popping out to the perimeter.
Defense
Catch-and-shoot
Jihad’s footwork and quick first step are the base to effectively defend against spot-up shooters as a closeout defender. Teams run much more four, or even five-out sets in the NBA, which makes it essential for four-men to be good at positioning inside the arc, while always keeping enough distance to timely close out against shooters. With teams hunting switches and keeping the ball moving, that puts more pressure on forwards to be mistake-free in rotations and closeouts.
Jihad’s quick first step, while pivoting well, helps him to close out to the perimeter. In the first play below, the area of development is him putting one foot outside of the paint in response to the ball handler’s dribble. He has to stay within the interior at all times. His one step out made it harder to pivot and fully elevate for his shot contest above the break. The second possession below shows much better positioning. Jihad recognizes his assignment and steps out, ready to jump out to the perimeter to contest the shot near the elbow.
Another added value is Jihad prioritizing to contest shooters at 180 degrees. This decreases the risk of him fouling shooters while jumping into their arms and blocking the sight of the shooter better because he jumps right in front of them. At 2.4 personal fouls in 26 minutes per game this season, Jihad shows he can play in control. For the NBA, the last possession below is an interesting one. He’s serving as the five in the interior matchup the body movement shows Jihad seeing the empty corner, but he simply cannot leave his assignment before the side pass due to leaving the play-finisher empty near the rim. Hereafter, he’s using his long strides and vertical jump to contest the shot as well as he can.
Considering the miss, the analytical part of giving up a contested three versus a wide-open rim is a sign of his good decision-making in rotations on the defensive side of the ball.
Catch-and-drive
When scorers attack closeouts, Jihad has to prove the worth of his foot speed and footwork. Generally, he’s great at pivoting to keep his balance while trusting his burst and body control to maintain the advantage against the smaller scorers he often faces. Despite playing as a forward in college, that’s where NBA teams see value in using Jihad as a wing stopper—a highly-touted defensive skill.
In the first play, he gets burned after not closing out at 180 degrees of the scorer. He pivots his left foot too far out, costing him too much time to correct his stance. That’s not a red flag by any means; more a sign of his decision-making, where he’s anticipating movement from the opponent, while he has to focus on closing out at 180 degrees and force the scorer himself to move in a certain direction, favorably to the strong side.
In the second play, he’s much more active and within control. He’s correcting his stance well but avoids too much physical contact in not picking up the foul, as they would be one way of putting the opponent in the bonus. Regardless, he has to be more physical and show his toughness, as the post scorer had all the space he needed to create the right scoring angle. However, looking at the positives, Jihad can stop scoring guards and wings once he closes out the right way. In the third play, he’s getting close to the scorer, pivoting well while being in balance. That forced the scorer into the mistake of traveling while in full control of Jihad.
The value of his physical tools is shown in the fourth play below. Jihad reaches too far in the close-out but corrects his balance immediately before sliding his feet well to the rim. The value of his strong upper body came to display there, successfully putting the scorer out of balance while using his verticality to get the rebound high off the glass to initiate the transition opportunity. Jihad is also composed, forcing scorers to beat him off the dribble. The fifth possession below is an example where Jihad waits out what the scorer wants before attacking him after seeing a slight loss of balance. His physicality and toughness are shown in how hard he contested the tough baby-hook in the low-post area.
Pick-and-roll
An added value to Jihad’s profile is his ability to guard in the pick-and-roll. He can play against both the ball handler and the roll man. However, it’s more vital for NBA scouts to see other ways than drop coverage, which made me focus more on his ability to get stops against big men despite his need to stop guards—mostly shown in the earlier mentioned areas.
In the first play below, Jihad didn’t count in for the opposing big man to have the mismatch to his favor. His teammate correctly switched back to the ball handler, to whom Jihad had to cover his assignment earlier in the process. Despite actively looking for his rotations, Jihad’s area of development is the context of opposing teams hunting favorable matchups for themselves. There is no issue with his feel for the game, but the decision-making in pick-and-roll sets is an area to work on in his senior season at Arizona State.
Positioning-wise, JIhad has some minor flaws as well. In the second play, he’s dropping his coverage of the opposing five. However, after the entry pass, he’s far from 180 degrees of his assignment, allowing the scorer to get the full angle at the rim, where Jihad contesting the shot led to a bad foul picked up on his end. A good way for him to stop losing grip on the positioning battle is by tagging. In the third play, he tags the big man, ensuring better positioning inside the arc, where the shot contest was too heavy, again picking up the foul. However, that’s a better whistle to give up. NBA teams are okay with centers having to earn their two points as below-average free-throw shooters rather than giving up easy points to above-average play-finishers at the rim.
The fourth play is what NBA decision-makers look for. Jihad again tags his opposing screener hard while positioning himself to both cover the cutting angle for the roller and control the driving lane of the ball handler. He’s switching to the ball handler after he used the ball screen. Harassing the scorer early forced him to make decisions instead of focusing on the score, where Jihad also impacted the passing lane to collect the steal. However, it’s slightly nitpicking at this stage, but his ball-watching in the fifth play below has to gradually improve as he gets more reps in a power-five conference.
Cuts
His ball-watching often makes him more vulnerable against cutters around him. That’s the part in live-ball action, as in the previously mentioned part. Jihad is more comfortable away from the ball, thriving on using his length to impact passing lanes, as he's averaging over a steal per game in back-to-back seasons. One of Jihad’s good habits is his ability to be first back to stop transition offenses. That’s a must-have as NBA teams often try to play in a faster-paced style compared to a more half-court-focused college basketball game.
The first play below is an example. He’s guarding the upper side while picking up the assignment from a teammate, closing out with long strides, showing his athleticism with good verticality, and stopping the scorer near the rim. His instincts of angle closure for passers are shown in the second play below. Jihad does well by closing the baseline after the ball handler tries to find the backdoor cutter after the offensive rebound. Its basic stops like these add value to a defensive rating, as his verticality holds gravity near the rim, while his decision-making of movement makes it harder for opponents to find correct angles against him.
When he’s playing closer to his assignment, Jihad holds good control and limited backdoor cuts. In the third play, we again see an offensive board, but Jihad makes sure the simple drop-off pass isn’t there without him closing the angles. However, he’s still often tricked by hesitation moves from ball handlers in moving away from his right positioning. In the last play below, Jihad moves closer toward the ball handler with one step, fully opening the baseline area as the backdoor-cutting opportunity for his assignment. Hereafter, it’s the defense collapsing. It’s often only one mistake for elite NBA scorers to recognize what is happening. Therefore, Jihad’s main area of development to make him a plus-defender in the NBA Is staying composed, making sure he controls his area of coverage and assignment, and not biting against ball handlers looking for angles or mistakes by defenders to exploit.
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