Collin Murray-Boyles Scouting Report
The NBA struggles to find the new, modern four-men. The position and playstyle fit Murray-Boyles' strengths. But what else is there to like? What will his role exactly look like? Find out below.
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Introduction
Murray-Boyles’ status as an All-SEC Freshman makes it easy to understand the intrigue for the NBA. He took the reigns at an underperforming school and gave South Carolina their first SEC win since 2018. In a freshman campaign filled with intriguing stat-sheet-stuffing performances, Murray-Boyles has shown he’s one of the better forwards in college basketball.
Therefore, his decision to return and bring his team’s success to the next level speaks to his loyalty to Coach Paris and his hometown university. On top of that, the Columbia-born made a good decision by now preparing himself for the next level as well as possible. That is the emphasis of this scouting report, combined with what he has to improve in his sophomore season.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-7, Murray-Boyles has a game that relies on creating advantages by using his strength and length. With a rumored and non-official wingspan of 7’2”, he’s built like a rock at 245 pounds. He has incredibly broad shoulders and a well-filled frame, rounding out his upper-body strength. What immediately stood out was the combination of his fluid hips and strong legs.
Mobility becomes more important to match today’s need for positionless basketball, making it vital for frontcourt pieces to play on multiple parts of the floor. Murray-Boyles doesn’t stand out with his verticality, limiting his potential as a rim protector.
However, his combination of big hands, strong physique, and footwork make him an effective forward at the collegiate level. His ability to create angles and advantages with his timing-creation by exploiting his footwork and upper-body strength summarizes his presence in the post. With good lateral quickness and decent burst, it opens up the ability to guard multiple positions on an NBA floor.
Offense
Murray-Boyles carries a large chunk of the scoring load at South Carolina. At times, he’s getting carried away with his will to score. That especially occurs when making plays out of cuts. While an NBA decision-maker will use him as a play-finisher throughout his career, Murray Boyles’ active cutting combined with running off-ball screening actions will open up the floor to get himself into a scoring position while playing without the ball.
He needs to make the extra pass. Despite Murray Boyles’ excellent 67.6% rim-finishing outside of the 23 dunks he has made throughout the season, it’s vital to pass up good looks for a potential great look. That’s the base of how the new NBA is building up its offense, where ball movement and high-quality looks are what teams try to accomplish.
In the first play below, Murray Boyles is playing in a packed paint with three defenders, where the elbow and corner shooters are screaming for the ball. Instead of hitting the kick-out pass which could have resulted in a wide-open three, he went for the contested two instead. We see a similar play in the second possession, instead of immediately hitting the runner while being wide-open in the midrange, he attacks the interior, drawing the defense to him once again. With a wide-open shooter on the elbows, making the extra pass was the right play here.
What makes Murray Boyles’ amount of plays on volume feasible is that he’s moving excellently without the ball. He’s an active cutter who gets himself open, being a hub for his team on the interior to make a part of the offense, or simply serving as a bail-out pass option, as in the third play below. This leads to the defense immediately committing a double-team to him. For spacing purposes in the NBA, that’s what NBA decision-makers are looking for, as a traditional approach on an inside-out game is still applicable.
While Murray-Boyles doesn’t finish the third and fourth plays below, it presents the gravity of his interior scoring leading to great spacing for South Carolina. He generates many potential open threes, with an emphasis on “potential”. While Murray-Boyles often doesn’t make the extra pass, it speaks volumes to his interior scoring gravity helping to spread out the floor with defenses committing help early and in bunches. In terms of his finishing, the last play below is an example of the quick execution we often see when Murray-Boyles is finishing the play that’s set up for him.
At 49 assists to 34 turnovers, Murray-Boyles shows a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. Considering the high volume of his looks coming out of play-finishing and post-up attempts, it adds to the value of the passing numbers. However, Murray-Boyles isn’t a good playmaker yet. His lack of passing out of cuts as aforementioned is the main reason why. Despite his carrying of the scoring load, Murray-Boyles passed up on many potential assists throughout the season when looking for his production.
For the NBA, decision-makers will look at the quickness of his execution and the ability to see the floor being the two most vital parts of Murray-Boyles’ evaluation. While he’s still a non-three-point shooter, the effectiveness of his passing from the perimeter is another area to monitor. This is a result of teams being willing to leave him open on the perimeter while sagging off of him. What immediately stood out was Murray-Boyles’ composure while seeing the floor very well. He’s actively looking for purposeful passes when not in a position to score or attack the rim with his face-up game.
In the first play, Murray-Boyles immediately hits the backdoor cutter after the entry pass. An important detail here is that he fluidly moves his hips, with his mobility leading to a smooth spin and quick execution. The second possession shows that he’s not afraid to make mistakes. Often a positive assist-to-turnover ratio is assumed to lead to plus-playmaking, while the prospect in question avoids riskful passes and too often plays safe. In Murray-Boyles’ case, he’s not afraid to commit turnovers and often executes the reads he intends to. Despite the double coverage he hits the bounce pass with accuracy, opening up the room for the recipient to quickly turn and bank on the open painted area.
With his good size, Murray-Boyles sees over the defense and this helps him execute his reads. His active cutting leads to him having a nose in finding active cutters as a passer and playmaker. In the third play, he does well following the play and dishing the ball to where the cutter needs to be, rather than where he is before the backdoor cut. His plus value for the NBA is potentially serving as a short-roll passer and quick decision-maker. The fourth play below is a good example of his ability to generate multiple paint touches.
The NBA is changing. We see fewer post-up plays compared to a decade ago, but with the NBA’s trend to play more in four and even five-out settings, it will be a matter of time before teams experiment with this idea again. Playing the inside-out game requires a team to have a gifted post-scorer inside the arc. While we saw Murray-Boyles using his scoring near the rim as gravity to open up his cutting game, it’s feasible that NBA defenders will show him the same amount of respect when he receives the entry pass at the high or mid-post area.
The first possession below summarizes the composure and footwork Murray-Boyles plays with. While the defense sends in help, he shields the ball while strongly pivoting with his right. Before the reach-in, he relocates his left foot further out, which keeps him flexible to either spin left or right, in this play he spun left while finishing over his right shoulder. Granted: we don’t see the same level of physicality in college basketball compared to the NBA. Therefore, to make his physicality and toughness somewhat feasible, it’s vital to see how Murray-Boyles chases his dunks.
In the second play, he faced a fifth-year senior who’s now busy earning a full-time NBA contract in Williams. The drive to the rim after the second back-bump, making Williams lose his balance led to Murray-Boyles relentlessly trying to dunk it home. His ability to immediately try to make defenses pay is the type of toughness an NBA decision-maker will see as a positive while evaluating his profile.
At 3.1 free-throw attempts per game, that’s a number Murray-Boyles has to increase in his sophomore year. Especially since the majority of his trips to the charity stripe come via his shot-creation via post-ups or physicality inside the arc. The fourth play shows an example. The ability to draw fouls is a must for his profile to mitigate the lack of three-point shooting—a total of five attempts throughout his whole freshman season. An overall area of development for his post-up plays is experimenting with finishing over both shoulders to maintain an element of staying unpredictable.
This makes his plays out of closeouts even more vital. Defenses will know they can leave Murray-Boyles open as that’s a shot you’ll give away ten out of ten times if you’re an opposing team. Therefore, his amount of opportunities to attack the rim from the outside will occur on an NBA floor. He has the opportunity to partially mitigate the effects of a non-three-point shooter at the four in terms of his team’s offensive rating. And that’s by leveraging his physicality and strength advantage while serving as a face-up scorer via closeouts.
In the first possession below, Murray-Boyles aggressively pops the rim after the catch. His ability to pivot his left foot strongly before the drive helps him to mitigate a part of his average burst. An area of development for Murray-Boyles is to plan his last step much better. In the plays below, the focus was on his misses, and in the first two plays, it resulted in finishing against too much contact before the rim.
Despite the strength advantage, we still deal with a 19-year-old who’s playing against older opponents on any given night. Therefore, for his sophomore season, the focus should be to either pass out of the play when he’s under the rim or improve his ability to finish through contact. This doesn’t take away that an NBA decision-maker will be intrigued by his toughness as Murray-Boyles doesn’t back away from physical contact. In the third play that led to a questionable shot, while the fourth play below shows how his ability to punish interior defenders will remain one of the assets of his NBA profile.
Defense
Murray-Boyles’ quick feet help him to defend against most guards and wings. Defending closeout-attackers will be one of the main traits an NBA decision-maker will focus on. Maintaining a good defensive rating is vital to winning games, and with most teams struggling to find a long-term solution to the four positions, we often see forwards being exploited in switches by opposing teams. So in Murray-Boyles’ case, the lack of depth among versatile defensive four-men gives him an edge over most of his peers in the upcoming draft class.
The level of footwork combined with timing helps his case to defend against the more creative scorers. In the first play below, he completely shuts down the dribble-drive, forcing the pick-up of the dribble while his level of timing led to fully taking away the midrange jumper. In the second play, Murray-Boyles keeps his balance after the bump, while not responding to the jab step and fake. However, out of fear of picking up a potential and one-giving foul, we saw him being hesitant in the eventual shot contest, leading to the score.
At 2.4 personal fouls in 22 minutes per game, the numbers indicate that Murray-Boyles is vulnerable to picking up fouls in bunches. However, the contrary is true here. He has had three games with four or more fouls, while only fouling out once in his freshman season. The general idea here is that his physical advantage over his opponents makes it more likely referees will call fouls against him when he initiates too much contact.
That puts pressure on Murray-Boyles’ timing to be way above average. The third play shows that when he gambles on defense, it’s a well-educated decision rather than playing too loose. He reaches in to poke the ball away, using his excellent length at the moment the ball handler tries to spin and thus puts in his shoulder to Murray-Boyles, who then responds instead of launching in with the reach himself. That’s the level of decision-making and IQ an NBA decision-maker will be intrigued by.
Defensive versatility becomes more vital when serving as a pick-and-roll defender. In Murray-Boyles’ case, he can guard both against the roll man and the ball handler. So that’s a good entry point to evaluate the total defensive impact in the most common scoring play type of the NBA. In the first play below, we see him showing a good habit of making ball handlers beat him off the dribble. He trusts his plus-length to win some inches of space, while still being able to contest shots from the perimeter. Despite the pull-up three going in, the mindset here is the correct one, as Murray-Boyles was guarding the weak side, and had to cover a large chunk of ground the ball handler could have exploited when attacking the defender after the screen.
Another crucial aspect is Murray-Boyles’ screen navigation. He has the strength to fight through screens. With his active tagging and a great feel for positioning, Murray-Boyles responds well to incoming screens, actively trying to slide between the ball handler and the screener. This doesn’t lead to him avoiding separation being created by ball handlers, as shown in the second play below, but the level of tagging and overall physicality allows him to not get the ball handler to get loose, as the block from behind before the finish being one of the defensive traits he brings to the table. At a block per game, that’s a valuable number to work with because the numbers not being a result of his rim protection, but rather an outcome of opponents attacking the rim via him and Murray-Boyles often getting the stop from behind.
An area of development is his being too reactive when playing drop coverage. The third possession below shows Murray-Boyles guessing what the next rotation will be after three opponents touch the ball before the bounce passes to the cutter via the middle. Despite it being an acceptable mistake, the emphasis for the NBA is that these types of plays will be run often, as ball movement while playing a perimeter-dominant game is what summarizes the modern game being played in the association. The last play below is an example of Murray-Boyles’ aggressiveness when hedging or even blitzing ball handlers. He’s not afraid to attack ball handlers while coming over screens, which is something he has to continue to do in his sophomore season.
When defending against spot-up shooters, Murray-Boyles shows the habit of quickly setting his feet, but needing a tad too much time to use his verticality. The plus-length compensates for a lack of quickness in that regard. However, in the long run, it’s less feasible that he’ll be contesting shots on an NBA floor with the same amount of intensity, as the level of execution is much faster compared to college basketball. The first play shows an example of Murray-Boyles’ shot contest being a tad too late after setting his feet.
However, his decision-maker against spot-up shooters is top-notch. Despite the made three on the second possession, Murray-Boyles doesn’t show any sign of biting on the pump-fake and jab step being thrown at him, as the standstill shooter was left with no room to attack his closeout. His decision-making against the fakes on top of the closeout will intrigue NBA scouts. We consistently see Murray-Boyles closing out in the right way, always looking to keep opponents at 180 degrees, while using his plus-length to not get burned by closing out too far.
The level of footwork is also at a good level. In the third play below, we see Murray-Boyles set his pivot foot while quickly following up with his right foot to level out his balance to either pop to contest the shot hard, or to slide his feet in case the opponent attacks the closeout. The only area of development that’s imminent to improve is to not position himself with two feet inside the paint. We see a similar example of overhelping and wrong rotations in the last play below.
When defending against cutters, the physical traits of fluidly moving his hips while spinning to respond to drop-off passes is what’s visible in Murray-Boyles’ draft profile. That’s what he has to show to give a level of feasibility to maintain a team’s defensive rating with him on the floor as an off-ball defender. In the first play below, we see him quickly turn while successfully stopping the scorer two times. In the second possession, we see a similar speed of turning around for the drop-off pass, but with Murray-Boyles being a tad too late in elevating to stop the play-finisher.
His lack of verticality and quick first jump is what’s an area of attention for NBA decision-makers. Due to his bulky build and strong upper-body strength, it’s up to an NBA franchise’s strength and conditioning program to utilize a part of his athleticism to where they can speed up the first jump by improving his upper-leg strength. However, to stop cutters and play-finishers, Murray-Boyles’ quick and fluid hips are what will be his primary weapon, as shown in the third play below where his ball-watching caught him off guard while quickly recovering and still contest the play-finisher from a few feet as good as he could.
An area of development for Murray-Boyles is that his positioning at times can get in his way. In the fourth play below, he’s located closer to the perimeter than his opponent who was ready to post-up before the entry pass. Another area of development is the lack of a first and second jump, with the last play being an example. Murray-Boyles was caught off guard with the drop-off pass after the opponent caught him in the air. It’s a good thought for NBA decision-makers that most of the improvements needed for his defensive profile are physical and that specific training programs can help Murray-Boyles utilize his functional athleticism even better.
NBA Draft Projection
For an NBA decision-maker, here are the above-mentioned areas summarized:
Strengths
Tremendous physical profile. Stands out both with his mobility (hips, lateral quickness) and toughness (strong frame, broad shoulders, and aggressive style of play). That’s what NBA decision-makers look for to make it feasible a prospect will offer the same amount of physicality against NBA-caliber big men while switching to smaller and quicker guards and wings.
Despite being a non-shooter, Murray-Boyles shows incredible efficiency near the rim. The emphasis of this scouting report has been improvement, thus making it harder to find suitable clips to use with misses in them. South Carolina’s top season in the SEC adds value to the efficiency they found in their freshman sensation.
Offers great defensive versatility by guarding both roll men and ball handlers in the pick-and-roll, while being able to switch to all positions when defending off the ball. The only area of development here is to not over help on the defensive end, leading to late rotations.
Areas of development
Murray-Boyles is a non-shooter at 6-foot-7. Despite his five attempts in his freshman season, three-point shooting isn’t a part of his game and there are no signs he will develop into a shooter. Regardless, the positives on the other parts of his offense should be considered mitigating effects when determining a team’s offensive rating with him on the floor. In the early phase of his career, a team might need more scoring around him to make it work, thus making it a value-lowering part of his profile.
He forces his interior finishes too often. This leads to Murray-Boyles missing potential assists, and that’s not acceptable for an NBA team trying to maintain its offensive rating. Making the extra pass is a must to develop in his sophomore season, as his large part in South Carolina’s scoring load was a big reason why he often passed up on open teammates.
Based on the above-mentioned strengths and areas of development alongside the details in this scouting report, I project Collin Murray-Boyles to be a top-20 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and one of the first three returning players to be off the board.
Despite his non-shooting profile, his ability to impact both sides in many ways is the level of versatility an NBA franchise wants to add via the draft, with areas of development and untapped potential of his physical profile being vital future value.
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