Daniss Jenkins Scouting Report
With many teams still looking for a backup leading guard, the New York-style grit-and-grind style of play makes him a suited prospect. What's the intrigue? What will be his role? Find out below.
In a class lacking depth among its leading guard, Jenkins is one of the more underrated prospects. After putting up 15 points and five assists while starting every game for Iona the season before, he followed Coach Pitino to St. John’s, where he put up similar numbers. He earned All-MAAC First Team and All-Big East Second Team honors, crowning his great performances in both years.
The fourth-year senior has had experience in three different conferences. This gives him an advantage in terms of adjusting to a new environment, which is a natural thing for Jenkins. Furthermore, putting up double-digit scoring numbers in all three conferences adds to the value of his experience.
Physical Profile
At 6’3.25”, Jenkins is a good size to operate as a one in the NBA. His length is measured at 6’6.5” and toughness opens up room to guard both guard positions. He has a strong upper-leg area and great hip mobility. He’s fluid in his movement and brings a New York-style attitude to his game with his toughness.
His upper-body strength is decent but needs to develop more in the next few years. While Jenkins doesn’t have the broadest shoulders, he needs to compensate by putting up some more weight. Measured at 178 pounds, Jenkins has the lateral quickness and burst to keep most ball handlers in front of him, whereas he has the offensive creativity and craft to have to rely less on using his strength to get to his spots on offense.
Defense
As a pick-and-roll defender, Jenkins was one of the better guards in the Big East. He has good screen navigation and plays with toughness when he has to fight through screens. At 2.4 personal fouls per game, Jenkins plays in control while putting up over thirty minutes every night. He tends to keep ball handlers around 180 degrees when he’s defending them laterally. In the first play below, he looks to deter the shot at the rim, rather than committing too much contact and picking up an unnecessary foul. With Jenkins trusting his team's defense, it made sense for him to force the ball handler to the weak side and take away a good look despite his opponent getting downhill.
In the second possession, Jenkins uses his arms very well to detect incoming screens and limit angles for entry passes. He forces the ball handler to beat him off the dribble, whereafter he gives up too much separation before the finish. This feeds the need for him to develop his upper-body strength in the next few years.
The third play shows how Jenkins slightly bends to slide between the ball handler and screener, whereafter he keeps up with the play very well until the strength advantage his opponent has over him leads to the personal foul. We see a similar play in the last possession below, where Jenkins shows good defensive footwork in the process, forcing the midrange jumper against a less strong opponent. This makes it more feasible that Jenkins’ pick-and-roll defense will translate to the NBA level if his upper-body strength improves in the next few years.
When defending against closeouts, Jenkins shows good defensive footwork where his pivot foot keeps him at balance more often than not. With a decent burst, he can transition well from closing out to keeping his opponent in front of him laterally. For an NBA decision-maker, combining that with showing good defensive awareness in his rotations will give confidence in determining if it will translate to an NBA game with more ball movement. The first play is a good example of how Jenkins executes the defensive read while serving as the closeout defender on the weak side.
We see him rotating well in the second play, whereafter Jenkins defends in control and doesn’t commit too much contact against a stronger-looking opponent. That’s an area of development that will improve along with him getting stronger in the upper-body area. An important detail here is that Jenkins wasn’t in balance when setting his pivot foot, showing quick feet in recovering his balance whereafter using his burst to again stick to his closeout-attacking opponent.
In the third play, Jenkins is again left as the weak-side defender, where he gambles on the steal on the risky pass to the elbow. At 1.6 steals per game, his activity in impacting passing lanes with his length often rewards him. Despite the defense collapsing, that’s an acceptable play from his side, as the backline had enough personnel to rotate to the driving ball handler.
The last play below shows two other positives. With his fluid hips, he turns quickly to his assignment whereafter his good defensive footwork and decision-making lead to him not biting on the hesitation move while his opponent moved from east to west, contesting the shot hard at the rim.
As an off-ball defender, Jenkins’ strong feel for rotations makes it easier for him to recognize certain offensive plays. However, despite good screen navigation in the pick-and-roll, during conference play, we saw teams target Jenkins with off-ball screens and pindowns to create room for cutters, as shown in the first play below. With Jenkins picking up the foul while the backline was empty is a natural outcome of his toughness and grit in wanting to make winning plays on defense.
The second possession is an interesting one where Jenkins wants to gamble for the steal on the pass fake, but impressively recovers his loss of ground to the cutter through the middle, forcing the fadeaway jumper from the midrange while initiating contact around the rim. An NBA decision-maker must pay attention to his habit of gambling for steals to determine if that will continue to be his role where the risk of a defense collapsing is accepted, either to adjust his play style for the NBA in ensuring to keep the defensive rating on par.
On switches, Jenkins has a good feel for the game in determining when he has to come up for help defense. It’s easy to attack the ball handler who separates himself with dribble penetration being the outcome, but that allows a bail-out pass in dropping it off near the rim. Jenkins did well in deciding to keep protecting the paint and forcing the ball handler to make a decision instead, leading to the steal and transition opportunity.
In terms of Jenkins’ toughness, the fourth play is an excellent example. He’s not shying away from contact and defends his ground at all times. Despite being posterized on the dunk, his switching from the big man who wanted to execute the mismatch shows his great feel for the game, whereafter he’s not afraid to go for the contact in contesting the dunk attempt at the rim. An NBA decision-maker will be intrigued by the outcome despite the dunk in his face.
When defending against spot-up shooters, we see Jenkins putting all his energy into every defensive play. He contests shots hard and on a better-spaced NBA floor, that’s the type of defense that will keep him on the floor. It’s a given that teams give up open threes in the NBA. However, the crucial area where good defenders can become great defenders is leveraging their toughness in shot contests. Jenkins doesn’t give comfort to opposing shooters, as he’s haunting them off the line, rather than accepting the three-point shot.
In the first play, Jenkins tries to pick up the deflected pass around the mid-post whereafter he quickly rotates to the spot-up shooter in the corner. Despite the make, that’s the level of rotations and effort you look for in a leading guard. While being the orchestrator of the offense, Jenkins will earn his teammate’s respect with the above-mentioned effort. The second play is another great example where a wide-open three still ends up in a good contested three despite both attempts going in. When looking for his toughness in creating opponent turnovers, the last play is an excellent example of how Jenkins’ reputation in the Big East can impact an opponent’s stance on the floor.
An area of development for Jenkins is not overhelping on defense. Whereas his excellent positioning in front of the kick-out passer kept the passing angles limited, he bailed him out by going for help defense while his teammates were already disrupting his offensive stand, leading to the kick-out pass, and Jenkins being late on his contest despite the effort on the closeout.
Offense
On the offensive end, Jenkins’ connective passing and playmaking will lead to him serving as both a primary and secondary ball handler for the NBA. While he has the positional size to play both guard positions, that will open up his game as a passer. In the first possession, Jenkins leads the offense in transition whereafter he leverages the roller out of the pick-and-roll to deceive the defense whereafter he dishes the backdoor cutter with the finish at the rim. His eye manipulation is a big reason for his assists to pile up to 5.4 per game.
In the halfcourt, Jenkins doesn’t force his playmaking. He plays within the flow of the offense and shows confidence and quick execution as a ball mover, as shown in the second play below. With Coach Pitino valuing ball movement, having a point guard like Jenkins makes it easier for a coach to implement his offensive schemes. Along with his natural feel as a passer, his coachability and quick execution make Jenkins an effective option as a ball mover, with the second play below being an example.
In the third play, Jenkins again doesn’t force things as the defense packs the interior, leaving him with the side pass to the area above the break. On a less-spaced college basketball floor, Jenkins often struggled to find angles to get downhill as a creator, which is less of a worry with better spacing on an NBA floor. Furthermore, it adds to his maturity in not blindly attacking the rim but staying composed in executing his offensive read.
Jenkins makes good decisions when attacking the rim, as shown in the fourth play below. The pump-fake catches his opponent in the air, whereafter the defense gets in help mode on Jenkins’ attack through the middle, leaving a packed paint and an easy kick-out pass to the wide-open shooter in the corner. Clean and quick execution of basic reads is what will continue to translate in the NBA.
As a pick-and-roll ball handler, Jenkins is a smooth shot-creator who combines getting downhill while playing in a more old-school type of midrange game. He’s a fluid movement shooter who elevates well and shows a good high release point. The second play below shows a good example, where in the first possession the toughness of his game is again confirmed.
To earn on-ball reps in the NBA, guards often need to prove their offensive creativity leading to good shots. In Jenkins’ case, his good handles combined with his feel for the game in recognizing defensive stances led to an excellent play in the third possession below. He snaked the pick-and-roll, whereafter he bumped for the contact and showed good touch on his fadeaway jumper from the low post, cashing the and-one play.
When he has to bail a stagnated offense out, Jenkins did well to use a combination of hesitation moves before attacking the rim with less than 50% of the shot clock left. His floater finish is an area of development for Jenkins. Especially when considering he’s a 51% rim-finisher, where defenses can dare him to shoot from the midrange. For his NBA future, his touch on his floater must improve in the next few seasons.
As a natural scorer, Jenkins often earns a trip to the free-throw line. At Iona, he got there over three times per game. However, he played more in control during his St. John’s days, where his scoring game was mostly reliant on threes and midrange jumpers. To take away an analytics-driven approach for his shot chart, the last play below shows that Jenkins can get downhill in an effortless way while knowing how to absorb contact and not forcing him to get fouls. As an 85.1% shooter from the line, the touch is there.
In a reduced role, Jenkins won’t always have the ball in his hands. Therefore, his offensive creativity out of closeouts will be a crucial part of his ability to get his production and keep a team’s offensive rating at par. Despite his midrange-heavy game not being in sync with this NBA era, the above-mentioned nuance had to be made Jenkins can get downhill, but his importance in St. John’s’ offensive production led to him being more free in deciding how to get his points, having proven himself to Coach Pitino during his Iona days.
While Jenkins shows great footwork in decelerating and quickly pulling up for the midrange jumper in the first play below, we see him play with more aggressiveness in the floater in the second possession. For an NBA decision-maker, his offensive creativity and scoring arsenal make Jenkins a good option in knowing that he can get his production while not having to facilitate him on the floor. This gives room for an NBA team to hand him more usage, whether it’s by attacking closeouts as an off-guard or by putting the ball in his hands in the future.
Knowing how important pace is to an NBA team, the third and fourth plays below show how quick Jenkins’ execution is when making self-created plays out of closeouts. His offensive creativity is a good separator among a scarce group of leading guards in this class who show a total package of playmaking, passing, and scoring.
While shooting 35.4% on over six three-point attempts per game, Jenkins is a reliable shooter. With Jenkins playing both as a movement shooter and off-the-catch, naturally, his numbers are below the more-wanted thresholds of 38% to over 40%. A value-adder for him is that with Jenkins at the helm, St. John’s was in the top 90 in both shooting off the catch and off the dribble, as per ShotQuality.
What makes it more feasible that the shot will translate is how quickly Jenkins sets his feet combined with his good follow-through and high release. This matters, especially off the catch. Furthermore, when considering his lower usage in the NBA, he’s forced to be consistent from the elbows or corners, as shown in the first and third plays below.
In the fourth play below, we see how well Jenkins sets his feet off movement while immediately pulling the trigger after the kick-out pass. In terms of shooting versatility, he will have to prove his value as a catch-and-shoot option, before being able to add more reps and usage to his pull-up shooting ability.
NBA Draft Projection
At 22 years old, Jenkins is a young senior, while playing a mature leading guard’s game. For an NBA decision-maker, here are the above-mentioned areas summarized:
Strengths
Plays with intensity and toughness. He matured his game so that he could impact an opponent with his presence while not piling up personal fouls to backfire on his aggressive style of play.
A good screen navigator with the footwork to match. Jenkins slides between screener and ball handler with ease but can be overwhelmed against stronger players, adding the importance of him getting stronger in the next few years
A creative scorer with good offensive creativity. For a guard, he doesn’t force his shots and plays within the flow of the offense while having a good feel for when to take over the game. As a result, he’s a good playmaker by making decisions out of his advantage-creation to either pass or shoot.
Takes great care of the ball. Jenkins had over 25% usage in back-to-back years while having a turnover rate under 15%.
Areas of development
A below-average rim-finisher who plays a midrange-heavy scoring game at times. He makes it easier for opposing NBA scouting reports to force him to shoot, with a risk of getting him out of rhythm quicker as a three-point-heavy shooting diet is not a good strategy to have for a leading guard.
Often gambles on steals on the defensive end. In most cases, the effort is justifiable. However, it’s up to an NBA decision-maker to accept the risk of the defensive rating going down in exchange for transition looks and potential points off turnovers.
Based on the above-mentioned details of the scouting report, I project Jenkins to be an NBA-ready backup point guard who will get his name called on draft night. His experience alongside toughness and maturity will have NBA decision-makers intrigued. He will likely sign a deal that involves guaranteed money to immediately help a contender with their guard rotation.
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