Darius Hannah Scouting Report
Role versatility, footwork and growth as a spot-up shooter make Hannah a wanted prospect for PIT. His physical tools and growth as a player make it feasible for him to earn an NBA deal. Here's why:
Darius Hannah (#35, Bradley): Senior, 6'9"
Power Forward/Center — Born: Aug 5, 2002 (22 years old)
Introduction
Every NBA season has a few unexpected role players carving out a roster spot. Hannah is the next one in line. The fifth-year senior spent his collegiate career at Bradley and grew into a niche role. His combination of feel for the game, quick execution, and physical tools make him a prospect to monitor in the summer. He’s set to join the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.
He finished his college basketball career in style by earning All-MVC honors. While averaging over twelve points and close to six boards this past season, Hannah added a three-pointer to his arsenal, completely fitting him into the mold of a switchable four who can scale up to a five while adjusting himself to play as a three as well. Painting a realistic image of his NBA role is the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-9, Hannah has a long and wiry build with broad shoulders. At 205 pounds, there’s enough room to continue to fill his frame in the next few years. Regardless, Hannah is a strong and tough frontcourt piece who doesn’t shy away from contact. He has the skills to beat his opponent, and he can also hunt and punish mismatches.
He has light feet, good footwork, and fluid hips. This leads to him sealing off opponents quickly. When defending against quicker players, he slides his feet well. The burst and lateral quickness are decent. Hannah’s verticality is at a good level as well, having enough functional athleticism to grow in his role as a versatile defending and scoring play-finisher. There is no wingspan measurement available, but it should be over seven feet.
Offense
Catch-and-drive
For Hannah, it’s vital to make plays out of closeouts. In the next few years, adding strength to his upper body is the way for him to continue to get separated when he’s attacking his opponents in the chest. He’s not fast enough to create separation off the dribble, nor does he stand out so far against similar-sized opponents. Regardless, Hannah shows a good and reliable touch around the basket. The area of development is balancing his feet before he finishes.
He’s often struggling to plant his last step to maintain his balance. The first play shows an example. Hannah doesn’t hesitate and immediately attacks his defender’s chest, but he loses his balance, trying to control his last step. In the second possession, he’s much more fluid with his jab step before launching to the basket. That’s a task he’ll have in the NBA. Hunting smaller closeout defenders with his decent handles and long strides is a good way to collapse the defense.
But there’s enough room for development. He’s often forcing his shots, with the third play below as an example. The help defender collapsing on him and Hannah not getting separation had to lead to the kick-out pass above the break, but the tunnel vision is an area NBA scouts have to focus on during workouts with Hannah.
Catch-and-shoot
Hannah had ten three-pointers in four seasons before last year’s 36.1% on 61 attempts. Adding a floor-stretching element to his game is vital to stick in the NBA. He’s an improving shooter with a smooth shot process. He’s focusing on a high-arcing release with his left, but the area NBA coaches must work on is Hannah’s habit of setting his feet after the catch. He has to either have his feet set before the catch or be able to make a one-dribble pull-up to use to correct his feet.
Often, this leads to an unbalanced shot or a lack of body coordination. In the first play below, Hannah is focusing too much on setting his feet while he’s not fully 180 degrees off the rim. On top of that, he bends his knees too far while having the ball at the level of his shoulders. In the second possession, he’s much more fluid with his ball placement, powering up while having the ball around his waist. His strength allows him to develop into a no-dip shooter, something floor-stretching versatile forwards are more often asked in today’s NBA.
The sample size is neglectable. Regardless, it speaks to Hannah’s will to get better and improve his game, and he embraced the development of becoming a volume shooter. In the fourth play, he’s much more comfortable to use motion on his shots. He got his right pivot foot well placed before actively asking for the ball and immediately getting into his shooting motion. These flashes make it imminent that Hannah will improve as a shooter in the next few years.
Post-ups
To fit into his NBA role, advantage creation out of post-ups is vital for Hannah. Especially when he’ll have to pass out of his advantages, which will be covered later. To build up leverage, he has to show a threat of scoring out of the post. He has good footwork and creativity to start with. His fluid hips help him find angles to attack and duck into the paint or to move and fade away when taking a shot. However, his handles are too loose, with the first play below being an example.
In the second play, he shows an example of creating a wide-open layin. But the issue with Hannah at times is that he’s not composed after these sequences. He rushed his finish. In the third play that’s the same issue after the fake underneath the basket. As a post-up threat, the game still has to slow down for Hannah, as he’s doing everything consistently until it’s time to finish his self-created plays. However, the fourth play shows how easy the game gets for Hannah. He’s great at using his arms and length to generate space. He’s tough, and physicality is a part of his approach to the game.
Passing, ball-moving and playmaking
At 49 assists to 58 turnovers, the numbers show a decent return. The negative assist-to-turnover ratio is not an issue, as Hannah plays a turnover-sensitive post-game, which naturally leads to more lost possessions. Evolving into a passer and potentially a short-roll playmaker is still a process. The vital part of executing passing reads is there. But he has too much tunnel vision to consistently look for others. That explains averaging under two assists per game this year at Bradley despite a fair amount of ball touches and usage at 21%.
In the first play below, Hannah places the high ball screen. Hereafter, he immediately uses his fluid hips to change sides and kick the ball out to the corner shooter. When creating his looks out of post-ups, the kick-out pass was again impressive in the second and third possessions. He played with composure and forced help defenders to come in after he got a foot inside the paint. These types of executions intrigue NBA scouts.
On the contrary, Hannah is a scorer he’s much more patient and composed as a passer. In the fourth play, we see another example of his great hips and mobility as he spins and ducks in the bounce pass after he finds the right angle. That’s the type of passing execution that will make it more feasible for NBA coaches to give him some ball touches at the next level. Hannah gives many signs of growing into an interior playmaking hub. His role is a vital part of making switchable and four-out-heavy styles of play work.
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Defense
Catch-and-shoot
Ball-watching has been an issue for Hannah throughout the season. He’s often missing rotations because of it. The compensating part is his long strides and length. He can still contest shots, showing decent bursts, but more importantly, a good closeout technique. He’s focusing on getting at 180 degrees of the shooter while using his length to take away vision rather than risking fouling as he has a habit of contesting shots too aggressively.
In the first play below, Hannah doesn’t recognize the need to rotate to the corner as he’s still focusing on his assignment on the elbow. In a motion-based NBA game, those are the basics to succeed. In the second possession, Hannah is again ball-watching but is lucky he’s already established well to contest the shot. That was a good hand in the face despite the made three.
In the third possession, Hannah makes a mistake that’s often seen. The ball handler relocates, and he moves toward the same side, bringing his second foot inside the paint. That’s what ball handlers look for to hedge their lack of running the set by hoping defenders will bail them out, which Hannah did. He’s much more dialed in in the fourth play below. But here the area of development for Hannah is to box out. He’s simply watching if his teammates secure the defensive rebound. That’s a sign of his rebounding numbers being a tad too low at about six per game.
Catch-and-drive
As a closeout defender, Hannah often gets burned off the dribble. His main issue is inconsistency in placing his last step. He’s pivoting too far out, which gives away a driving angle and bails ball handlers out with easy blow-by opportunities. Regardless, Hannah shows that he can slide his feet but doesn’t play with the same toughness as he does on offense. He’s basically light-tagging opponents rather than using his size and length to force ball handlers to beat him off the dribble.
In the first play below, he’s closing out too far. His size puts him in a position to gamble more to give away more space in case a catch-and-shoot three occurs. But Hannah got all the way to the ball handler, who easily got by him with one move to try and collapse the defense. In the second possession, Hannah doesn’t lose his positioning on the crossover while keeping the tag active to keep control of the ball handler. Despite the open drive to the basket, Hannah kept his influence on the scorer not getting the gather fully in balance.
The reality in Hannah’s closeout defense is that his last step and closeouts being too far hurt his chances to effectively grow into a good defender on that end. His lack of top lateral quickness can’t compensate. Despite the active tagging and decent footwork, Hannah doesn’t give flashes of improving his last step, as the fundamental basis to it is he rushes his way to the perimeter. Therefore, he has to learn how to play much more composed.
Pick-and-roll
As a pick-and-roll defender, Hannah can embrace hard-hedging or even blitzing ball handlers. But he often sticks to the comfort of drop coverage. He looks insecure when the ball handler attacks him after the ball screen. However, the other side of the medal is Bradley playing with a guard under six feet which makes it imminent opposing ball screens often succeed, putting Hannah in the position to defend most of the sequences.
He’s often found in the second line of defense, not looking to defend against primary ball handlers. Hannah has good enough footwork to slide his feet but struggles to recognize rotations. He’s often found still looking to pick up the assignment of the opposing five. But in the first play below, he navigates through the pick-and-roll action to perfection, forcing the ball handler to attack the weak side which had its entry locations to the paint closed.
In the second possession, Hannah shows his lack of toughness against dribble penetration. At 2.6 personal fouls in 29 minutes, he looks afraid of putting himself in foul trouble. That’s a recipe of more experienced NBA players immediately taking advantage of. Hannah has to use his length to keep lanes closed or force ball handlers to beat him immediately after they come off the ball screen. But sometimes, Hannah shows he has to return to the basics, with him sticking to the big man in the third play below, allowing an entirely open painted area.
Signs of improvement are there. But it has to be more consistent. Hannah shows in the fourth play that he can force opponents to beat him off the dribble. Regardless, as of now, his below-average pick-and-roll defense is a clear indicator of an NBA team’s defensive rating being worse with him on the floor.
Post-ups
Regardless, Hannah’s natural toughness is much better on display when he’s defending in the post. At under a block per game, the numbers lack context. He’s often not in the favorable spot from a strength perspective. However, his footwork, decision-making, and length are vital factors in him effectively getting stops inside the paint. He’s good at serving as a rim deterrent rather than a shot blocker, which is a much more coveted skill NBA scouts look for.
In the first possession below, Hannah positions himself well for the dropoff pass after dribble penetration. He’s smartly taking one step forward to fully absorb the opponent attacking his chest. Hereafter, his length was the deciding factor in getting the stop and immediate transition offense. In the second play, his quick feet allow Hannah to take the contact and immediately close the angles to finish over the top.
His stops as a post-up defender are fueled by his decision-making. That’s where the game has slowed down for Hannah. In the third possession, he executes his defense perfectly, sliding his feet quickly and keeping his arms active before he eventually recognized the ball handler picking up the dribble. Hereafter, he used his standing reach to stop the layin. Those are vital parts of a team’s defensive versatility and availability when they want to add shooting to the floor but still need that interior presence. But the vital part for Hannah is continuing to get stronger in the next few years.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Darius Hannah to be an undrafted free agent who’ll potentially earn a two-way contract after a productive summer. It’s imminent before he’s called up to the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, where he has the chance to convince NBA scouts to take him in for workouts.
His length, footwork, and quickness while emerging as a spot-up shooter in volume give him a clear role. The mobility, role versatility, and reliability around the rim, both as a finisher and as a defender, fuel the possibility of finding NBA minutes somewhere in his career.
Workouts are vital for Hannah, especially to convince that his defensive deficiencies are able to improve under the guidance of an NBA franchise.
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