Baylor Scheierman Scouting Report

Does shooting matter? Yes. But is it Scheierman's best attribute? No! He's in the forefront of a long NBA career as a two-way shooting role star. What's the intrigue? Find out below.

Scheierman built up his reputation as a shooter at South Dakota State, putting up 16.2 points at 46.9% shooting from three on over five attempts per game as a junior. His real growth has been at Creighton, where he emerged as a connecting wing, keeping his volume of attempts in his role as the Bluejays’ offensive engine.

In a system built on ball movement, Scheierman shows maturity in adjusting his role from a team’s leader in the Summit League, earning him Player of the Year honors, to a connecting piece on a high major in Creighton.

As a fifth-year senior, his turnover rate dropped to under 13%, while his usage spiked to over 25%. That is the first sign of his NBA readiness, as the production kept increasing while not being as heavily reliant on having the ball in his hands in bunches. This scouting report will solely focus on his NBA role and why Scheierman is at the forefront of a long career in the league.

Physical Profile

At 6’6.25” in socks, Scheierman has plus-size to serve as a two in the NBA. While he’s offering decent length with a two-inch plus wingspan, his physical tools stand out. Scheierman has good upper-body strength, and decently broad shoulders which could lead to him further filling his frame in the upcoming years.

With fluid hips, Scheierman’s mobility stands out. That’s a crucial aspect of his role as a connecting piece, helping him to get to his spots effectively. He combines his upper-body strength with his positioning, leading to him being one of the best rebounding wings in college basketball. As a result, he led his conference in total defensive rebounds for three consecutive seasons.

Scheierman is a good athlete, especially in terms of his speed and quickness. He doesn’t stand out vertically, but his value to an NBA team is in his ground coverage, work rate, and quickness laterally. His mobility helps him in his reactionary speed, opening a pathway to be a multipositional defender in the NBA.

Defense

One of his areas of development in the league will be on defending against closeout attackers. His defensive footwork is above average, and Scheierman worked hard on how he utilizes his pivot foot while closing out to the perimeter. He became much better at sliding his feet while keeping his habit of forcing ball handlers to beat him off the dribble. For five consecutive seasons, he’s at about two personal fouls per game, while logging over 1,000 played minutes in his last three.

That’s a testimony to his discipline, benefitting his overall defense on this end. In the first play below, Scheierman picks up his teammate’s assignment with a timely rotation, leaving Kalkbrenner in his strengths as a rim-deterrent, rather than letting him guard in an opposing five-out offensive scheme built to lure him away from the basket. An important detail that NBA decision-makers will use to grade a player’s feel for the game and basketball IQ, as the league is a scheme-heavy environment where a connecting piece’s success mostly relies on how they adapt to a variety of schemes.

Another important detail is Scheierman closing out, and following it up with a tag on the left shoulder, forcing the ball handler to drive into the strong side with not many opportunities to create angles. That shows his NBA readiness, as it’s likely this will continue while Scheierman has to face better athletes, using his decision-making to match the intensity level.

The area of development is in Scheierman’s footwork when he’s moving laterally. He’s vulnerable to hesitation moves and opponents decelerating to pull-up, as shown in the second and third plays below. For an NBA decision-maker, his contesting the shot in the second play is where there is a lot to gain. Despite a decent shot contest, Scheierman needed half of a second more to change gears and move back out to the perimeter.

Therefore, working on his upper-leg strength is something to invest in the early stages of his NBA career, as Scheierman has the physical tools in his fluid hips and good lateral quickness to improve on this end, opening the pathway to be an effective wing defender in the future.

A positive habit in Scheierman’s defense on closeouts is quick rotations when he knows he’s been beaten off the dribble. We see him pick up his big man’s assignment after the defense collapses, where the level of physical strength between the two led to the opponent picking up a second-chance opportunity, converting it to two points. Despite the outcome, that’s a positive sign due to NBA decision-makers focusing on how a player responds to a defense collapsing, as it’s a given this will happen to most NBA players. Being able to adjust quickly shows the maturity level of his game.

When defending against cutters, Scheierman shows consistent rotations, helping him to make it feasible that this will continue in the NBA. In terms of his role, it’s likely that due to his shooting-heavy profile, being used on the weak side will be his role, especially early on in his NBA career. In that role, his rotations are crucial to stay on an NBA floor.

That’s what we see in the second and fourth plays below. In the second possession, Scheierman shows great awareness by already relocating when the offense lets to ball move toward the weak side, following it up with rotating to contest against the cutting big man in the middle. The same consistency is being shown in the fourth play below, where Scheierman already rotates to cover the big man down low after the weakside wing followed it up with an entry pass through the middle.

On both occasions, Scheierman lost the physical battle against the five. And that’s okay, in an advantage-seeking NBA game that’s built on schemes, his ability to respond rotational-wise is what matters in his role as a wing defender. Therefore, the outcome becomes less important and a vocal point for NBA decision-makers to prepare in their developmental plan to help Scheierman grow in the future.

His maturity is also seen in the third play below, where his teammate is around the level of the break. Scheierman picking up the assignment where his teammate had to rotate is another sign of him reading the game so well. That’s one of the reasons why Coach McDermott and his staff were so confident in giving him a larger role on both ends.

However, a large area of development for Scheierman in the long run is his help defense. That’s the reason why he can struggle at times in guarding against spot-up shooters. That’s the other side of the coin for prospects who are already rotating so well. Given Scheierman’s mentality of a winner, it’s a logical outcome that he's active with his help defense.

In the first play, the defense collapses after his opponents utilize the ball screen in the middle. With the big man dropping, Scheierman immediately comes to help as the weak side defender. However, positional-wise, he’s overcommitting to the ball handler who already picked up his dribble.

Therefore, his help defense bailed him out for the side pass to the corner, leaving Scheierman an uphill battle in terms of ground to cover for the closeout. The risk for the NBA is that the same possessions will lead to more ground needed to cover in a better-spaced NBA game. Regardless, the intensity of his close-out was impressive, showing his lateral quickness. And that’s why the improvement of the above makes it so much more appealing to Scheierman’s defensive value for a team.

There’s a similar outcome in the second play where Scheierman comes to help in the low post, in what was a favorable match-up for his big man. Losing balance on his next rotations led to the shooter being wide open, as the opposing big man was being bailed out with the easy kick-out pass opportunity. As mentioned earlier, habitually, Scheierman wants to generate winning plays, keeping him in help-defense mode in the third play. But with his assignment already relocating to above the break, Scheierman was late to respond. A rare lack of focus on his part, with the focus on helping defense being the emphasis.

The last play below shows a positive in Scheierman’s defense against spot-up shooters. With their opponent picking up an offensive rebound, Scheierman executes the easy read of already rotating out to the perimeter. The most important detail here is that he’s staying within 180 to 215 degrees of his opponent, forcing him to either shoot or attack his closeout to a packed paint via the strong side.

Another area feeding Scheierman’s potential two-way impact in the league is his pick-and-roll defense. What stood out is that as a screen navigator, he does well in slightly bending and using his arms to get a cushion of space to slide between the screener and the ball handler. This looks similar to what made Kispert so successful at Gonzaga.

In a switch-heavy NBA game, Scheierman’s size and excellent lateral quickness will lead to him being asked to operate as a pick-and-roll defender. With many teams still lacking size at their leading guard spot, picking up opposing ball handlers will be his line of duty. In the first play below, Scheierman does well to tag the ball handler upon the drive, whereafter he shows good balance with his footwork to heavily contest the midrange jumper. This is a result of Scheierman keeping the driving lane limited after recovering the lost space via the ball screen.

The area of development for Scheierman is in his decision-making after the ball handler successfully gets the separation he needs. In the second play, this led to Scheierman staying at the big man for too long, as his own big man’s strength lies in drop coverage, rather than picking up the ball handler on the perimeter. This play in particular is important in his evaluation, as most NBA centers still play a drop-coverage-heavy type of pick-and-roll defense.

Scheierman does very well in the third play to keep his man in front of him. Excellent awareness led to him avoiding the high ball screen, using his lateral quickness to his advantage in the amount of ground until the rim. The outcome was his big man rotating to Scheierman’s assignment, despite his good coverage. The maturity in his pick-and-roll defense is being seen in the fourth play. Great use of tags, after the screener intensifies the contact, leading to the opposing ball handler finding room to operate. However, Scheierman kept the tag along himself, leading to a good recovery.

Offense

As mentioned in the introduction, Scheierman’s role evolved to him being the connecting wing for Creighton. However, at a usage rate of over 25% and production, the numbers suggest him being a leading scorer, which is not the case in terms of his role. His biggest value for an NBA team is his connective passing, not his shooting. What made Scheierman come back to school after his first year there was to develop his total package, and to not heavily rely on his three-point shooting, which was then his biggest unique selling point.

In a class with not much depth in terms of shooters, Scheierman’s total package makes him more appealing. This is because his connecting style of play opens up to scale his role up in the future, with his shooting being the factor that can keep a team’s offensive rating at par.

At Creighton, Scheierman continued to develop his passing by utilizing his quick decision-making. The Bluejays’ heavy focus on ball movement helped him in that regard. In the first play, Scheierman picks up the entry pass at the elbow, whereafter he quickly launches the ball reversal to where the shooter needs to be, instead of hitting him at the elbow. In terms of floor spacing, that’s a crucial aspect that a connecting passer has to have.

In the second play, Scheierman again needs not more than one second to recognize the mismatch in the post, hitting his big man with the entry pass at his left side. With the lack of help defense on that side, it helps his big man to either spin or use his non-finishing arm to bump into contact as a post-up, lessening the odds of getting stripped. Simple, but elite execution in terms of the speed to which Scheierman executed the read.

Another crucial element to playmaking and connective passing is staying composed at all times. With the shot clock winding down, Scheierman attacks a crowded paint, showing good hip mobility and footwork to spin and kick the ball out to the elbow. An important detail is that he used his pivot foot aggressively to either force the big man to commit a foul or to stay at a distance. His composure led to creating an open look here despite being doubled.

The last play below is another example of how NBA-ready Scheierman’s connective passing is. Turns around quickly to recognize his teammate above the break cutting to the elbow. With the weakside defender at 180 degrees of his sight, he recognizes a potential wide-open three, instead of hitting the backdoor cutter via the wide-open passing lane at 270 degrees from his stance. That’s how NBA video scouts will help a player analyze to improve their connective passing, with Scheierman showing such maturity while coming out of college to enter his rookie year.

At 38.1% on 289 three-point attempts in 35 games this season, that’s absurd efficiency. Percentage-wise there are more efficient shooters in college, that’s a given. But what keeps Scheierman’s reputation as one of the best shooters in the country is his role as a shooter while being a connecting piece.

Similar to his passing, Scheierman doesn’t need much time to get his shot off. Mechanically he’s one of the most consistent shooters of the last few draft cycles. At 202 pounds and his upper-body strength, Scheierman doesn’t need to bring the ball down after having it up high as shown in the first play below. However, looking at how he keeps the ball around his waist while bending his knees to power up, his shooting form leads to a good high release.

He’s consistent as a motion shooter when he’s relocating to his spots. At close to 50% on 79 corner three-point attempts, Scheierman shows he’s shooting way above his average number on the shots that will match his NBA role. As mentioned earlier, a team will utilize his strengths to rotate so well by using him as a weak-side defender, making his corner threes much more important.

There are many philosophies around shooting mechanics. However, an NBA decision-maker shouldn’t even consider changing his jumper for the better. The numbers in his five-year career speak for themselves, where the quickness of how Scheierman sets his feet, with the first two plays being examples, is testimony to it being very feasible of his total shooting package translating to the NBA level.

Another translatable part for Scheierman is when he’s coming out of handoffs. That’s partially nitpicking, as the process itself is advanced for his age and experience level. However, an NBA decision-maker could hold a couple of things against him.

In the first play below, spacing purposes make it a tougher shot than it is in reality. After the handoff, his teammate puts a timely screen to give Scheierman a cushion of space to shoot, despite the long range. His decision-making the launch the jumper instead of attacking the rim was a good one, as Scheierman helped bail out his teammate at the elbow.

The second play shows timely relocating after Scheierman sees the incoming pindown, whereafter he makes a smart play by selling the defense the dribble penetration after getting above the break. His trusting his pull-up shot when he’s open is a sign of his willingness as a shooter. However, Scheierman is less fluid as a shooter off the dribble compared to his shooting off the catch. It took a tad too long to pull up and in a fast-paced NBA game, those are crucial elements in either having a decently open three or a wide-open three.

At 63.2% as a rim-finisher, that’s a good number for Scheierman. However, throughout the season, and especially in the latter parts of the year, he was caught missing easy looks at the rim. That’s the disadvantage of having a three-point heavy shooting diet, as he has about 60% of his total attempts being threes. Despite the wide-open layup on this play, an NBA decision-maker could wonder if he's too dialed in as a shooter.

However, considering the good rim-finishing numbers, Scheierman needs to be alert of not being too heavily reliant on three-point shooting on an NBA floor, as it makes him much more predictable and takes all the value of the shot away in terms of leverage for his inside scoring.

Therefore, his self-creation out of closeouts will be a crucial factor in determining if his offense can be scaled up. While it’s true that great connecting wings who are consistent three-point shooters are due to make a lot of money in their career, going for the best outcome in terms of potential should be the way to go for NBA decision-makers.

Lastly, focusing on his play out of closeouts, Scheierman shows a few flashes that make it likely his self-creation on such plays will improve in the NBA. He has a good first step with a decent burst. His footwork in the first play before the launch is what gives him room to grow as a scorer at the next level. Sets his pivot foot in a way that helps him to get by his man to at least take away the contact with his dribbling arm. He doesn’t shy away from contact at the rim, which is a sign of playing hard and aggressiveness on his part.

However, his finishing through contact is what needs to improve. Despite having good upper-body strength, he needs to fill his frame to continue to absorb contact on an NBA floor. Therefore, getting stronger should be the emphasis to grow as an interior scorer.

Early signs of the above-mentioned can be seen in the fourth play below, where Scheierman uses contact before the tough finish very well to draw a potential and-one. While shooting at 87.6% on 3.2 free-throw attempts per game, the efficiency from the line is what partially explains how good his three-point shooting is. This helps him potentially compensate if the interior scoring becomes an issue. Due to a team’s importance to keep its offensive rating on par, Scheierman being aggressive in his self-creation via closeouts is what will give him more options to produce at the next level.

In terms of offensive creativity, that’s another area that makes it feasible the production will improve. At close to 45% on 94 attempts from the midrange, Scheierman shows his creativity by utilizing his footwork to get space for his jumpers. With his rim pressure and great passing as leverage, Scheierman can get shots up for himself from the interior. Whether it’s via a jump-stop in the second play, or using his craft and footwork in pass fakes in the third play below.

NBA Draft Projection

Scheierman is a lock to be a first-round selection. The combination of his connective role leading to such production is the outcome of him having a variety of weapons to impact the game on both ends. His connective passing and three-point shooting are at a level that makes it likely that Scheierman can be a team’s sixth or seventh option very early in his career.

With his quick decision-making, excellent rotations, and good footwork on both ends, Scheierman has many intangibles that project future growth. He’ll be 24 years old at the start of the season, and the NBA readiness is what’s important while entering the NBA at his age.

The areas of development are in his help defense, which is common for most prospects. However, in his case and with everything he has to offer, an NBA decision-maker will take that at face value. Especially since all the intangibles make too much sense in Scheierman in the role of a connective wing.

Combined with his athleticism, Scheierman has all the tools to be a two-way role star in supporting ball-touch heavy wings and guards around him with the quick decision-making and connective nature of his role.

Therefore, I project Scheierman to be selected between picks 18 and 24, with Orlando (18), Milwaukee (23), and New York (24) being my favorite destinations for him.

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