Cameron Matthews Scouting Report
As one of college basketball's best defenders, Matthews has a clear case for the league with his NBA ready body to add. But is it enough to get drafted? Find out in this 3K+ worded piece below:
Cameron Matthews (#4, Mississippi St.): Senior, 6'7"
Small Forward — Born: Dec 23, 2001 (23 years old)
Introduction
Matthews' intrigue for the NBA is easy to understand. We rarely see stout defenders with such strong frames while filling a much-needed wing position. NBA scouts were thrilled to see him up close at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in a context different from his five years at Mississippi State.
With two All-SEC Defensive selections, Matthews was one of the best overall defenders in a historically good conference. However, the main issue was consistency on the offensive end. Regardless, NBA scouts want to see how they should continue to approach his role. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6’5.75” in shoes, Matthews has an excellent length with a 6-foot-11 wingspan. More importantly, he has an NBA-ready chiseled body. He has broad shoulders with a frame ready to take on threes and fours in the league. He bulked up gradually to 235 pounds. Despite the physicality, Matthews remains quick-footed while offering good core strength.
He has small but good hands, which enable him to serve as a ball-mover. Matthews is not a vertical athlete but someone who’ll throw physicality while being a constant threat to put opponents out of balance. He’s versatile and can switch from guarding the perimeter to serving as a help-side defender.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Matthews has to improve his defensive footwork if he wants to translate his stout defense to the NBA level. There is a combination of passiveness and screen navigation that must be better. Regardless, Matthews embraces the physical aspect of the game well. He’s seeking tags and immediate contact to make scorers beat him physically. But everything starts with composure when responding to dribble penetration. In the first play, Matthews moves his feet too quickly, which makes him more vulnerable to getting beaten by the ankle breaker.
In the second possession, he doesn’t show the needed toughness to convince NBA scouts. With his frame, he must force the ball handler to beat him off the dribble rather than being passive and responding to the jabs to create the driving lane. Even with the live dribble penetration, Matthews allowed the scorer to get two feet in the paint without throwing in his physical advantage. But he’s compensating partially for it with good rotations, as shown in the third play below, where we see another lack of physicality and toughness in the play. That’s the main area NBA decision-makers should test during team workouts.
Closeouts
The toughness changes immediately when Matthews doesn’t have to worry about ball screens. He’s an excellent closeout defender who’ll throw in his physicality much more actively and better compared to his plays out of the pick-and-roll. At close to three personal fouls per game, he decreased his fouls by 20% compared to last year, but he’s still prone to committing fouls. Context matters here. In college basketball, that was the other side of the coin of his strength, whereas, in the NBA, referees will blow their whistle less often, with plays like the first one being less likely to be charged with a foul.
His last step needs work, but regardless, Matthews made his presence felt in the second play with good lateral movement after initially closing out well. We see a good rotation in the third play with a promising last step. Matthews’ heavy body made it difficult to pop out with his shot contest, but it was a good play despite the long three. How Matthews responds to getting beat on the dribble is another vital part of his evaluation. In the fourth play, he’s immediately blocking the inside finisher while showing a good defensive box out. That’s acceptable, and what NBA teams want to see. At close to seven rebounds per game in back-to-back seasons, that’s where the numbers support what he’s showing in games.
Catch-and-shoot
At times, Matthews struggles to make timely rotations. That’s because of a combination of offering help too early, while unnecessarily moving away in his response to ball movement. Those are common mistakes for freshmen and sophomores, but as a fifth-year senior, Matthews must show more consistency on that end. In the first play, the unexpected rotation led to the opponents being bailed out, as the team defense stopped allowing any dribble penetration. In the second possession, the positive effect of his toughness is put on display. He’s covering the weak side as the opponents loaded up the strong side. Hereafter, he had to locate himself closer to the basket to hedge the backdoor cut. But the closeout to stop the elbow shooter was impressive, considering his strong body and the weight he has to carry.
The third play shows a similar outcome, but with positioning issues this time. He’s too far away from the perimeter when he’s covering the weak side. Even with the empty corner, Matthews wasn’t prepared for the pass to the elbow. The shot contest was decent, but he could have made it less difficult. When considering this play in NBA spacing, that’s a potential red flag in his defense away from the ball.
Cuts and off-ball defense
Considering the above-mentioned positioning issues, defending away from the ball continues to be the most vital part of Matthews’ defensive evaluation for NBA scouts. Against cutters, it’s almost as if we’re seeing a different player. Matthews embraces his role as a lane-closer, averaging over two steals per game in back-to-back seasons, where he led the SEC this past season. That’s the role NBA scouts want to see in a role-versatile wing defender. His presence means that a team’s defensive rating will increase, as lane-stoppers with good positional awareness are what teams seek to add to their depth chart.
But to succeed in the NBA in this category, he must continue to embrace matchups, contact, and play the angles that ball handlers try to exploit. In the first play, he gets the stop in transition, calculating the dropoff pass to the play-finisher before shutting down the lane to force the turnover. In the second play, he takes away the angle for the kickout pass, where he plays to deflect the bailout pass to the weak-side cutter.
In the third play, Matthews shows that he can expand his role to serve as a smaller five with his interior presence. Physically, he can match up against stronger forwards, while his excellent feel for angles helps him to limit dropoff passes inside the lane. That’s the role versatility NBA scouts seek. Despite the make in the fourth play, Matthews shows he reads offensive plays well enough to get potential deflections and stops against dropoff passes. Positioning issues in closeouts and pick-and-roll defense are fixable. But natural instincts playing away from the ball and sets still make Matthews’ defensive profile worth paying a premium.
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Offense
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
Matthews is consistent with his passing. He has an assist-to-turnover ratio of close to 1.5 over the span of his five-year career. That’s a good and a bad thing. The bad part is that he’s limited to ball-moving and some creation off the dribble, which doesn’t make it a good sample size. The good part is that he’s keeping good care of the ball, which is a must to serve as a ball-moving complementary wing in the NBA. He doesn’t execute difficult reads, as he tries to play simple. Most of his assists come in the flow of the offense rather than him executing an angle created out of his active playmaking for others.
Regardless, he’s a translatable passer with potential left. For the NBA, he has to earn leverage as a passer-by using his excellent secondary screening ability. In the first play below, he’s cutting to the elbow after the pick-and-pop sequence. Hereafter, he stays composed for the side pass to the corner. As a ball handler, he won’t get premium defenders on him, which leads to Matthews executing some self-created looks. In the second play, he’s smoothly handling the ball, finding the angle to attack the rim. Hereafter, a quick kickout punishes the help defense that came too late.
However, an NBA team won’t actively ask him to create as an initiator. Therefore, he’s thriving in his role as a connector, where his post-entry passes are the ones that led to most assists. These aren’t ‘real’ assists, which adds context issues to the numbers, which paint a too bright picture. Regardless, he’s an effective passer who doesn’t seek to collect assists if they aren’t in the flow of the offense. That’s a positive sign for his role.
Catch-and-shoot
As a shooter, it’s been an area of development for years. At 24.0% on less than one attempt per game, it’s not relevant to say if these are good or bad numbers. The sample size is limited, even taking multiple seasons into account. Therefore, NBA scouts must put the right context to his situation. He’s a non-shooting wing because of not having the right mechanics for it, and the role he fills doesn’t need him to be on the perimeter, whereas he’s much more effective inside the arc with his strength and physical tools.
That doesn’t mean he can’t develop into a shooter at the next level. Matthews has to seriously reassess his shooting mechanics for that. There are two major issues. He’s keeping his legs too close to each other and brings the ball down to the degree where he’s almost bending over to reach his knees. He’s slow to set his feet and brings the ball down too far, costing him too much time to power back up.
NBA teams need to develop him into a no-dip shooter, as he’s strong enough to do it in volume, and the speed of his shot would be the most effective. The most vital part that shows a feasible development curve is his high release, with the first play below showing an example. But his positioning isn’t at 180 degrees of the basket, which led to horrendous misses, like the second possession below.
Cuts
The lack of shooting puts more importance on his play-finishing to keep an NBA team’s offensive rating at par. The positive here is that he’s an active cutter who’s immediately punishing rotations around him. Matthews is great at ducking into the paint, using his strength to create angles to finish underneath the basket. He has steady footwork and immediately bends and powers up to try and draw fouls in volume. The third play shows an and-one, and he’s brought his average up to three attempts per game. As expected, the numbers hover around 50%, which is another reason he’s a below-average shooter at best at the moment.
That’s making it difficult to close games with him on the floor, which puts a serious cap on his long-term potential. The most vital part to understand here is that NBA teams won’t use college teams to fully develop their player. Development starts in the NBA. And for Matthews, it’s convincing NBA teams during workouts that his shot is anywhere near developable.
Pick-and-roll
To determine long-term potential, Matthews has to convince NBA teams that he can run offense and create via the pick-and-roll. That’s a large chunk of how teams find their offensive rating, and everyone has to dribble, pass, or shoot from all positions. Matthews isn’t the best candidate to put a checkmark on this category. He’s never asked to create and thus never developed that part of his game. His handles are too loose when trying to beat opponents off the dribble. On top of that, he has composure issues, which leads to him making mistakes when he’s facing help defenders or teams decide to hedge or even blitz him.
This makes it more likely teams will give him time to play in the G League and find himself comfort in developing scoring off the dribble. The four plays below summarize the lack of volume and experience as a creator. He’s changing pace decently after utilizing the ball screen. But everything after that needs a lot of work. Regardless, it feeds his role as a connecting wing a lot more. Not every prospect has to develop into a star. Matthews’ lack of self-creation only hurts a team as it takes away any switchability a team has, as opponents will gladly put their worst defender on him. That combined with his shooting puts a team’s offensive rating under pressure.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Cameron Matthews to be a late second-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. NBA front offices won’t take any chances and will convince him to sign a guaranteed deal without testing undrafted free agency. He fits the mold of more teams seeking complementary stout defenders to support their stars. His NBA-ready body, mature defensive game, and sample size of playing in a limited role make it easier to convince front offices this summer.