Clarence Daniels Scouting Report

After a stellar performance during the Portsmouth Invitational, Daniels earned a call-up for the G League Elite Camp. Will the NBA Draft Combine be next? What's the NBA intrigue? Find out below.

He was one of the standouts that was covered in one of my earlier posts this month, where I predicted that the NBA Draft Combine would be next to follow. Daniels earned a call-up to the G League Elite Camp via a stellar performance during this year’s Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.

He finished the season at 19.4 points and 9.6 rebounds while shooting 45.8% from the floor. This earned him the America East Player of the Year award after being selected in the All-AEC First Team for two consecutive seasons.

His rebounding and midrange scoring made him one of the more effective wings in mid-major conferences. While improving as a foul shooter, Daniels managed to add an improved game inside the arc to his arsenal, making him a reliable all-around interior scorer.

Physical Profile

At 6’6”, Daniels has a bulky build. He’s listed at 210 pounds and plays the three and four positions in college. He has a strong upper body and added strength throughout his five-year college career. With good upper leg strength and fluid hips, Daniels projects to play as a big wing at the next level.

With a plus wingspan, his length allows him to continue to play multiple positions at the next level. He has decent lateral quickness, but a good first step that helps him to guard against smaller guards and wings.

He’ll likely continue to fill his frame at the next level to expand his defensive opportunities. While averaging over nine rebounds in the last three seasons, his value for a team’s offensive rating is partially granted by the extra positions his activity on the glass generates.

Defense

At the NBA level, Daniels will be asked to defend against closeouts. Due to his size and strength, he’s a good matchup against most guards and wings he’ll face at the next level. As a fifth-year senior, Daniels shows good defensive footwork that helps him contest shots and maintain his balance against the more creative interior scorers.

In the first play below, he gets blown by after the opponent’s well-timed jab step. While finding a teammate in his way, he doesn’t recover on the play but shows his lateral quickness that could have led to contesting the shot near the rim.

He looks much better in the second and third plays below. However, what Daniels has to improve is to reward sliding his feet and absorbing the hit. On both occasions, he takes on the hit, forcing the ball handler to midrange pullups. But he doesn’t follow up on the contact to contest the shots. Instead, he watches his opponents take the open ones. At the NBA level that’s a crucial part of his defensive profile to improve.

While defending against spot-up shooters, Daniels does very well in using his pivot foot to avoid shot fakes followed by drives. Controlling drives by opponents by using a pivot foot is a crucial part of effective closeout defense, which Daniels consistently shows to master in his craft.

Another added value is Daniels using his fluid hips to change from help defense mode to contesting the three, as shown in the first play below. However, at times, he commits too much leading to him being located too far in the interior, as shown in the third play below.

In the second and fourth plays below, Daniels shows an area of development that consistently comes back. When he’s contesting shots, he doesn’t stay 180 degrees in front of his man but seems to slide to his opponent’s left or right side. At 1.7 personal fouls per game, he’s not a threat to pick up many fouls, which is a reason why he does it. But for the NBA, he should be focusing on staying in front of his man on contesting shooters, instead of sliding left or right.

In a switch-heavy NBA game, pick-and-roll defense becomes much more important in a wing’s profile. Daniels’ strength allows him to guard against both the ball handler and roll man.

He’s a decent screen navigator. Not good, but well enough to detect incoming screens using his strength to fight through it without fouling. In the first play, the ball handler’s creativity leads to him losing his balance, committing too far to the perimeter leaving the driving lane open for the drive. That’s an area he should work on improving.

In the second and third plays, Daniels shows the ability to play drop coverage as the main pick-and-roll defender or come for help from the weakside. His interior presence is intimidating to most ball handlers he’ll face, as he’s deterring shots at the rim. At 0.5 blocks per game, that’s a good number as Daniels is mostly focusing on the miss to ignite a transition opportunity. The last play is an example. To be able to keep up with NBA pace, that’s the way to go as he’s showing that he wants to play fast, as he was accustomed to in his junior year while playing at the JUCO level.

As an off-ball defender, Daniels is mostly used as a weakside defender by New Hampshire. And that’s where his most crucial area of development comes. Daniels tends to jump too often, leaving his below-average second jump in terms of quickness to giving up wide-open looks at the rim after the opponent throws a dump-off pass.

In an NBA game with much more ball movement compared to college, that’s an area opposing teams will exploit in their scouting report. Realistically, Daniels plays as a four or five in shooter-heavy smaller lineups. Therefore, his value as a weakside defender becomes more important to evaluate for NBA decision-makers. Examples of the above-mentioned are shown in all three plays below.

Offense

As an upperclassman, the value of production and efficiency become more important in evaluating NBA readiness. For his next team, being able to maintain an offensive rating is crucial in determining how many minutes Daniels will play.

While shooting 36.3% on 4.7 three-point attempts per game, Daniels shows consistency as a spot-up shooter. That’s his main value as a wing for the next level. As he shot close to 40% before this year, Daniels’ numbers went down as he received a bigger offensive load. That’s an important nuance when considering his productivity.

When looking at the mechanics, Daniels is a tad too slow to set his feet but follows it with a natural release. At times, he’s pushing the ball on his shots, making it seem like he’s forcing his shots. While his release could improve, the key to becoming a better shooter for Daniels is to be quicker while setting his feet. Shooting drills at the G League Elite Camp will likely be one of the key factors that determine his odds of getting drafted.

While playing out of closeouts, Daniels shows creativity as a two-handed ball handler who uses hesitation moves and footwork to get by his opponents. He’s not a blow-by type of offensive player. Regardless, Daniels gets downhill for a lay-up finish using his strength advantage, and craft.

An area of development is Daniels forcing his offense at times. It’s a result of having to carry the scoring load on his team. But at the next level in a reduced role, that’s an area for Daniels to improve his passing while leveraging the threat of exploiting a mismatch to his team’s advantage.

In the first play below, he gets the benefit of the doubt after his opponent hits the deck. But more often than not, he’s having to take tough finishes at the rim, as shown in the three plays below which lead to a 54.1% rim-finishing rate. Having only six dunks on the year shows that he isn’t getting many open finishes at the rim while having the strength and craft to do so. That’s an area of development an NBA decision-maker should add to his developmental plan.

As a passer, there’s a lot to gain for Daniels in summer workouts. At only 0.4 assists per game, he doesn’t stand out as a passer or playmaker. Adding his low finishing rate at the rim to the mix will lead to an NBA team having concerns over his potential to maintain a team’s offensive rating.

However, when looking at his passing opportunities, New Hampshire relied on its guard play more often than not in terms of facilitating for his team. While having enough on-ball reps, Daniels should have produced more assists throughout his last two years.

In the cases he did try to make plays, his passing accuracy stands out. In the first play below, he hits the cutter with a timely pass. Executing basic reads is what he could do consistently, but a lack of sample size makes it harder to determine the feasibility.

In the second play, he leverages his interior presence with a kick-out pass to the spot-up shooter. In the third play below, he shows his composure by staying patient after the double team to find the open teammate. These are crucial flashes that he has to show to convince an NBA decision-maker that his passing could improve at the next level.

His footwork makes it feasible that Daniels will improve as a scorer at the next level. This stood out when he made plays out of post-ups, which was a large chunk of his field goal attempts this season. His strong upper body helps him to win ground when posting up other defenders, forcing help defense to collapse on him.

As mentioned earlier, this doesn’t lead to Daniels making the extra pass. Instead he forces his offense due to the nature of his scoring role. His feel for the game is good enough to improve his shot selection in the future. That doesn’t lead to a risk in his profile. However, if Daniels doesn’t make the extra pass at the next level, it could lead to him not playing as many minutes as he potentially could. This is mainly a result of the team’s not putting the ball much in his hands and post-ups are becoming a playstyle we see less in today’s NBA.

In terms of his long-term potential, Daniels’ isolation scoring is a good measurement to determine what’s realistic. He’ll be 23 years old when the season starts. When looking back at his last two seasons, he improved in each area of his game, especially as a three-point shooter.

Despite his willingness to produce and not lose confidence after a few misses, Daniels shows that he prefers to dribble with his right hand, despite being able to handle the rock with both hands. That’s a personal preference an NBA team might do well in encouraging him to expand his offensive creativity by using all of his tools.

In the three plays below, Daniels manages to get downhill. That’s a summary of his drives throughout the whole season. Therefore, his touch at the rim is an area he has to work on this summer to convince NBA teams that he can be a rotational piece on their wings.

NBA Draft Projection

Looking at the outcome of Daniels’ career, he spent two years at the Division 2 level, followed by a year of JUCO basketball. After transferring to Division 1, he’s one of the top players in the America East Conference, while winning Most Valuable Player this season.

He continued to bank on that during the Portsmouth Invitational, where he earned a call-up to the G League Elite Camp. His desire to improve as a player has brought him to the NBA’s doorstep, while all odds were against him throughout his five-year career.

An NBA team finds a solution for their wing depth by adding a strong bulky player who filled out his frame well in recent years. His physical tools, footwork, and interior presence give a franchise many tools to work around. What makes the odds that he’ll continue to improve feasibly is his consistent three-point shooting.

Near the rim, he’s creating looks but has to be more willing as a passer to succeed. On the defensive end, Daniels does well in not allowing opponents to get downhill against him but fails to follow it up with good contests most of the time. These are his two most crucial areas of development that’ll determine how long his NBA career will last. If he gets better, we’ll likely see the 23-year-old in the league for many years to come.

Based on the pros and cons of his profile, I project Daniels to be one of the first players to land a two-way contract as an undrafted free agent. I expect him to earn a call-up for the NBA Draft Combine after a good outing at the G League Elite Camp where he’ll show NBA teams that he’s worthy to play in one of the league’s 450 jerseys.