Brandon Stroud Scouting Report
Positional and role versatility and a top-notch defensive reputation form Brandon Stroud's case to continue impacting winning. But is it enough to convince NBA scouts? Here's all you must know.
Brandon Stroud (#5, South Florida): Senior, 6'6"
Shooting Guard/Small Forward — Date of Birth: Unknown
Introduction
While winning Defensive Player of the Year in the A-Sun Conference as a junior, Stroud continued to add to his reputation as one of the best defenders at the mid-major level. His combination of handles, ball security, and consistent rotations helped him to maintain his high level of play when he transferred up to South Florida, where his toughness and consistent defense enabled him to keep his impact on winning.
Despite not averaging a single season with double-digit scoring numbers, NBA scouts will look forward to seeing him at the G League Elite Camp. Production isn’t always a measure of success, and for Stroud’s role as a complementary, switchable guard with a great feel for the game, there’s a path to find minutes at the next level in the next few years. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-6, Stroud has a long and wiry build. Throughout the years, he continued to fill his frame. He has excellent core strength and fluid hips, but there’s room to continue to grow into his frame in the next few years. At 215 pounds, Stroud impacts the game with his strength and quickness. He’s reliable laterally, while he can switch and absorb contact against bigger and stronger guards. This adds to his role versatility.
There is no official measurement available for his wingspan, which should measure out at seven feet at the NBA G League Elite Camp. His length and twitchiness helped him to maintain a reputation as an impactful deflection generator on top of his quickness to fulfill his rotations.
Offense
Closeouts
Stroud’s best odds to maintain a team’s offensive rating are to be more effective in closeouts. He’s good at using reverse pivots to elevate his burst and find paint touches. But that's where it ends. Stroud suffers from bad touch around the basket, despite his length. At under 60% rim-finishing. That’s not a feasible number to succeed at the next level. On top of that, he’s a 61% foul shooter, which continues to add to the worrying level of touch. Regardless, he’s able to adapt to the next level and improve his scoring prowess.
The most vital area of development is composure around the basket. Stroud rushes his finishes and often tries to score when not in balance. His last step is the main thing NBA scouts should monitor. He’s often caught struggling to plant his last step, with the first play as an example. Instead of the deep three, Stroud attacks his closeout. He’s unable to find the driving angle to attack through the middle, with help from the weak side arriving. Therefore, settling for a midrange shot while his team ran five out is acceptable.
The second play is a promising one. Stroud does well to find his man out of balance and immediately explodes to the rim. I like how he ducked into the paint, but the follow-up is why he’s not succeeding as a scorer. A gifted scorer would pump-fake his way to draw a foul. Instead, Stroud bailed the defense out by jumping up to score while the rim protector was there to deflect the shot. He jumped right into the defender’s block. In the third play, we see a similar outcome. Stroud attacks the closeout and uses a pushoff well to respond to the help defender. He finds his target jumping up. That’s where he has to dive into the defender’s arms to grab that potential and one opportunity. Stroud has strides to make as a scorer, and the process is feasible to improve in the next few years.
Catch-and-shoot
While shooting under 24% in back-to-back seasons, the numbers tell most of the story in Stroud’s lack of consistent shot process and footwork. Despite the low volume, Stroud doesn’t create any leverage for his rim pressure if he’s unable to develop his shooting motion and consistency. Whether shots go in or not, the process must click if he wants to improve in the next few years.
The main issue is not setting his feet properly or positioning them at 180 degrees from the basket. The first play shows an example. Stroud does well to move to his shooting spot, but has to set his feet before he brings the ball down. By doing it at the same time, it's making it more complicated to balance out both. On top of that, he brings the ball down too far. That leads to time wasted in powering back up while facing a lengthy closeout defender, while Stroud does not have a high-arcing release to respond with. The slow shot process makes it difficult when combined with the lower release.
However, improvement looks possible. The second shot doesn’t fall, but there’s a promising shot process where Stroud pivots well with his left while decently placing his right foot. But it looks like he’s leaning more toward the side rather than straightening his body to ensure he’s 180 degrees from the basket. That’s why his shot looked off. The most vital area of development is timing his powering up for the shot with the last step. In the third possession, Stroud did well to move back when seeing the open elbow, but it took too long before he powered up for the shot after setting his feet.
Transition scoring
He’ll have a much easier time translating to a faster-paced NBA game when considering how much Stroud likes to score in transition. Despite below-average finishing numbers, Stroud’s decent handles and twitchiness help him to continuously find his way to the basket. As mentioned above, the composure and decision-making not to throw in fakes before finishes make it hard to be a consistent scorer. Especially during conference play, teams weren’t afraid to approach Stroud with more physicality, considering his inconsistency from the free-throw line.
The best bet is to sustain a neutral offense. For that to happen, Stroud must not back away from using paint touches to find his scoring opportunities. Recognizing potential angles and creating them is the biggest flaw. For NBA scouts, that’s okay to a certain degree. In Stroud’s case, the consistent paint touches while relying on his physicality, long stride, and craft give him a potentially diverse enough scoring arsenal in the long run. In the first play, Stroud brings the ball hard and finishes against the rim protector.
However, in the second play, Stroud lacks the aggressiveness to simply attack the defender in the chest. Instead, he’s searching for the angle to finish, but underneath the basket, that’s making it easier for his opponent to stop him. The third possession shows Stroud using such aggressiveness to attack the rim despite the heavy coverage. The jab step before popping to the rim on the elbow also looked good. The tools to score are there, but a lack of touch, composure, and angle creation hurts Stroud’s shot quality.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
Stroud’s role is to serve as a connector and ball-mover. With a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, the career-high 2.0 assists per game gains value. His toughness on the boards makes him a threat as a transition passer. That’s where he holds the most value. Stroud does not stand out with difficult reads but tries to play a simple game of passing out to help defenders arrive. His skill of getting downhill with ease fuels Stroud’s potential to improve as a playmaker at the next level. That’s where he holds the most untapped potential.
His excellent boxouts as a rebounder on both ends led to most of his dimes. In the first play below, he’s banking on his miss and instead of the lay-in, he’s making the side pass to the midrange shooter with a much better angle. Stroud is not a natural passer. That’s visible in the high post-entry pass in the second possession, which didn’t help the big man in positioning his post up, as he had to bring the ball down while not immediately in balance.
But Stroud shows creativity in his passes, which fuels his value. The third possession led to him receiving a transition pass while immediately attacking the rim to fully lure in the entire defense. The jump stop created the passing angle for the shooter above the break. Another positive is Stroud using his size to see over the defense. The high post-entry pass in the fourth play below helped the five immediately bring the ball down and duck into the paint. The value NBA scouts see is Stroud using his rebounding to convert it into passing opportunities.
At six rebounds per game throughout his five-year career, his 'grab-and-go’ sequences form a go-to for teams at the next level. It’s good to be a great passer, but NBA teams are looking for passers who can pass out of their strengths, and with Stroud, it’s his rebounding that leads to fast-break opportunities. That’s the investment in a team’s offensive rating, aiming to increase the number of easy scoring opportunities.
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Defense
Closeouts
Defensive footwork and instincts are the two main selling points in Stroud’s draft profile. He’s a good closeout defender who is a constant threat because of his great feel for when to act as a help defender. On top of that, Stroud shows good rotations. However, he needed time to adjust to the higher level of play in the American League early on in the season. Regardless, NBA scouts will be left impressed with his overall defense, with the quickness of his closeouts being a standout factor. But there’s a serious area of development. Despite the fast closeouts, Stroud must work on his positioning, as he’s vulnerable to bite on the ball and pump-fakes. That’s where he’s not adding value to a team’s defensive rating.
In the first play below, Stroud must recognize the reverse pivot placement as an incoming shot-fake. Instead, he’s fully diving to the elbows. This bailed the shooter out, who launched the three after one side step. However, the footwork and body placement are two standouts in Stroud's closeouts. In the second possession, he’s taking the task of drop coverage, recognizing the unwillingness to shoot. Hereafter, he did well to use his reverse pivot to absorb enough of a wall to take on the charge while disrupting the scorer’s balance with his upper-body strength. The foul call was a cheap one.
On top of the closeouts, Stroud does well to react as a help defender. In the third play below, we see a good rotation as a response to the opponent’s ball reversal. When recognizing the dribble penetration from the corner, Stroud immediately dove in to bank on the opponent’s weak handle. His top decision-making led to 1.6 steals per game—an excellent number considering the 24 minutes per contest.
Team defense away from the ball
Recognizing angles and knowing how to close them is the key element to succeed as a team defender. That’s where Stroud immediately stood out. His reliable rotations inside the arc often led him to switch against bigger and stronger players. Therefore, NBA scouts must not focus on the outcome, but instead trust how Stroud processes the game when defending away from the ball. Wing-sized switchable defenders grow into their niche, and their addition to a team’s defensive rating is why NBA teams are willing to invest in them.
In the first possession, Stroud does well by not allowing his assignment to seal off him before he’s immediately switching to the recipient of the post-entry pass. That was followed by a timely and good shot contest around the rim. Stroud’s game is built on instincts and making quick decisions. In the second play, Stroud immediately moves to close the angle for the high pass to get to its target after seeing his teammate take on the assignment in the low post area. Executing these quick rotations makes it feasible that Stroud is due to improve in the next few years.
Pick-and-roll
Stroud continues to impress with his excellent screen navigation. That adds extra value to his help defense in collecting steals. Prospects playing the passing lane is an overused term for players piling up steals. But in Stroud’s case, he’s punishing dribble penetration after ball screens on top of his screen navigation. That gives true role and positional versatility that NBA teams try to add and counter to their opponents running more pick-and-roll.
The NBA is a pick-and-roll league, and with ball handlers and skill on all positions, teams find new ways to support their offensive rating. As a response, especially to winning games in the playoffs, teams try to find defensive stoppers who can thrive as screen navigators and disruptors to help defenders. That’s Stroud’s value in a nutshell.
In the first possession, the opponent denies the drag screen, and instead, they try to ICE Stroud. With strong defensive footwork, Stroud pivots well with his right and bends his knees to either pop over the ICE screen, while keeping his posture to elevate his burst when the ball handler goes to the strong side. When that happened, Stroud immediately recognized the angle to collect the steal, responding to the ball handler’s weak handles. In the second possession, he’s showing the same footwork and awareness where he’s immediately cutting off the dribble penetration after the opponent came out of the ball screen. That’s the level of pick-and-roll defenders where NBA scouts feel comfortable taking the added value to the defensive, while the offensive needs work.
Catch-and-shoot
When stopping spot-up shooters, Stroud has to areas of development that stop him from further developing his defensive reputation. He’s often flirting with keeping two feet inside the paint while gambling he can close out against the spot-up shooters. That’s not good. He’s giving ball handlers an easy bailout option when they fail to run a set. On top of that, Stroud doesn’t fully raise his arms on his shot contest.
That takes away ball-fakes, but makes it easier for opponents to shoot over him. It gets worse when considering he’s not boxing out while following the shot. Three-pointers often lead to long rebounds, and the longer the rebound, the higher the odds that it turns into an offensive rebound. Therefore, Stroud has to focus on adding to his already solid defensive rebounding numbers by always boxing out, or making the decision to pop out in transition when it’s feasible that the other four teammates can grab the team rebound.
In the first play below, Stroud is positioned too close to the perimeter. He’s taking away rim pressure, but is bailing out the ball handler while leaving the corner wide open. That’s not a good decision on his end, especially considering the weak closeout. The second possession is interesting. After dribble penetration, Stroud knows the kickout to the corner to complete the ball reversal is on its way. But he still chooses to clog the painted area, where he’s betting on his speed and long strides to effectively close out when the inevitable corner pass happens.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Brandon Stroud to land an Exhibit 10 contract after a good pre-draft showcase. He’ll be at the G League Elite Camp, where I think he’ll be one of the standouts no one saw coming. His positional size, top defensive value will convince teams to take a chance on helping him develop an average offense in the next few years. In terms of end-of-the-bench players, Stroud can use that to elevate his career and continue to grow into a defensive niche. These are the prospects who find a way to stick in the league.