David N'Guessan Scouting Report
David N'Guessan's enticing athleticism, rebounding and versatility on the defensive end easily puts him on NBA radars despite being a non-shooter. Here's why he'll find a roster spot in the NBA:
Introduction
After two years at Virginia Tech, N’Guessan committed to Coach Tang and the Kansas State program. His play-finishing nature fit well alongside their excellent guard play, and for N’Guessan, he found ways to influence the game with his rebounding, quick feet, and efficiency in the painted area. Despite the non-shooting nature of his game, he found himself minutes in vital parts of the game due to his defensive presence.
Despite it being a no-go for NBA teams to focus on non-shooting tweeners between the four and the five, N’Guessan offers many intangibles where he can convince an NBA decision-maker to bet on his niche role while developing his shot at the next level. His below 50% free-throw shooting makes it a tough sell, but the versatility on defense with enough room to score to support a team’s offensive rating is the main emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-9, N’Guessan is a great athlete. He has broad shoulders, a well-filled frame, and decent core strength. His verticality and light feet help him to elevate his role as a play-finisher, and his footwork has improved over the last few seasons. While playing above the rim, N’Guessan can defend in space while deterring shots effectively at the rim.
There is no official measurement available, but he should have a wingspan between 7-foot and 7’2”. Alongside the verticality, he has an excellent feel for rebounding, which is the main area where N’Guessan uses his physical advantage against his opponents. That will continue in the NBA, where his switchability and high-tier athleticism will intrigue NBA scouts during the process.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
N’Guessan is a dynamic pick-and-roll defender. His quick feet help him to go over screen, hard-hedge, or even blitz ball handlers. However, he tends to be cautious at times when he’s focusing on keeping both of his feet inside the arc. That’s a good thing when considering fewer spaced floors in college compared to the NBA. However, these flashes should convince an NBA scout that he can defend in a variety of ways where he’s comfortable going over screens, matching the need for more teams to slowly change their drop-coverage-heavy coverages.
One of the things N’Guessan does well is tagging his assignment. In the first play below, we see an example where his tag keeps the opposing play-finisher attached to him. But to switch against the well-covered ball handler gave away the dropoff pass, as N’Guessan had to keep his feet on the ground rather than jump. In the second possession, N’Guessan did well to cover the baseline to stop the drive, Hereafter, he switched back well to his assignment in the middle, using his upper-body strength well to not give away an inch against one of the more physical finishers in the game.
A vital intangible N’Guessan has is his screen navigation and awareness. He does well to see the incoming drag screen, which caught him off guard in the third play below, where he gave too much space for the three-pointer to find the net. An area of development for N’Guessan is that he’s too reactive after a shot to see if it goes in rather than immediately moving to his assignment to box out defensively. The fourth play led to an offensive rebound because of it. That has to change if he wants to improve an NBA team’s defensive rating.
Catch-and-drive
N’Guessan’s footwork needs to continue to improve if he effectively wants to defend against closeout attackers. He’s often not positioning himself well with his pivot foot, leading to him giving away angles and driving lanes to opposing ball handlers. In the first two plays below, N’Guessan is caught by not closing out at 180 degrees of his assignment, which leads to him getting blown by. Despite his good lateral quickness, he has a slower first step, which makes it a do-or-die to close out properly and keep driving lanes closed. If he’s willing to give away a lane, he should always see where help defense can collide properly rather than the weaker side, which was the opponent’s target in both plays.
However, one of his good habits is to not bite and step out when ball handlers attack him off the dribble. He’s forcing them to beat them with speed, giving N’Guessan an advantage to contest pull-up jumpers, with the third play as an example. Despite the ball going in, that’s a good defensive play on his part. In the fourth possession below, he drops too far into the interior, giving away an opportunity to shoot off the dribble. In the NBA, that’s a no-go. For NBA decision-makers, it’s vital to test his ability to close out with more space to see if his footwork has enough potential to improve to round out his positional defense. Inside the arc, he’s much more confident, but in space, N’Guessan is still not convincing enough. The fifth play gives an example where he’s blown by, and the defense collapses.
Catch-and-shoot
When N’Guessan is defending against spot-up shooters, he’s often not positioning himself well away from the ball. He’s too reactive to the ball handler, making unnecessary motions, which frees up his assignment against open shooters. He has to play with more composure to be able to position himself better, especially considering the context of much more motion and deception that NBA teams try to create space for open shooters. When closing out, he uses his length and speed well to not give away open looks. But when he’s positioning himself not well, he’s setting himself up for an uphill battle to effectively close out against shooters.
In the first play below, N’Guessan does well to recognize the extra pass to the elbow. Hereafter, he closes the gap with long strides. However, after positioning himself too far in the painted area, it was simply too much ground for him to cover. In the second possession, the ball handler’s pivot and one-second wait deceived N’Guessan to rotate to the middle to cover the play-finisher, where he left the corner shooter wide-open in the process and yet again had too much ground to cover to effectively defend the catch-and-shoot jumper.
In the third possession, he was much more comfortable staying at his spot, where he did a much better job contesting the shot. Despite the make, that’s a good defensive play on his end. This continues in the fourth play, where he’s rotating well to cover the elbow on the weak side after the opponent left the corner empty to run the set via the strong side. As a result, N’Guessan’s length and good bounce when contesting make it difficult for opponents to effectively shoot through the angles he’s closing. That’s a positive he’ll carry to the NBA.
Cuts
Stop jumping against dribble penetration. That’s the task for N’Guessan to work on. He’s often bailing ball handlers out despite his good positioning inside the paint as the help-side rim protector. However, at less than one blocked shot per game, N’Guessan’s main struggle is his tendency to bail ball handlers out by getting caught by the fear of giving away two points when teams find paint touches. However, with his size and length, he can afford to let opponents beat him by attacking him in the chest, where he has an advantage over any assignment he’ll face. Stopping his jumps will fix a main struggle N’Guessan had throughout his collegiate career.
In the first play below, N’Guessan shows his excellent rotations by keeping the play-finisher underneath the basket and his opponent in the mid-post busy. His presence as an extra body in the interior gives a team enough breathing room to protect their defensive rating against dribble penetration. However, in the second possession, the ball handler is already covered while dribbling into him in the paint. By catching himself in the air, he’s blowing the extra coverage and offering an easy out with the dropoff pass, which led to the easy dunk.
This continues in the third play below, where he does well to rotate after the backdoor cutter got fed, but if he keeps his feet on the ground rather than jumping up, he can completely close the lane in the middle and thus force the play-finisher to a contested shot. That’s the main emphasis NBA decision-makers have to focus on when evaluating him in workouts in their gym. The last play below shows what goes wrong with him jumping while effectively defending no space than just giving away the dropoff pass in the middle.
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Offense
Catch-and-drive
N’Guessan is an accomplished scorer when attacking closeouts. His decent handles make it possible for him to immediately pop and generate paint touches to where he can decide to either make the pass or finish the play himself. As the graph above shows, he’s incredibly efficient around the baskets, putting up an impressive 30 dunks on the season, averaging over one per game. However, at times, he tends to use his athleticism to try and dunk in traffic, which makes it harder for him to find the right angles to do so.
In the first play below, he keeps the dribble alive after attacking the baseline. Hereafter, he doesn’t waste any time to get in the paint on the weak side. However, he has some tunnel vision as a scorer, mainly when he’s not featured enough on offense. In the NBA, he has to continue to show his aggressiveness, as he did in the first play, where it was a good possession on his end despite the unbalanced finish. In the second play, we see another sequence where N’Guessan recognizes space well in the middle when catching the handoff at the elbow. The defense closed the gap in the middle. Hereafter, his enticing athleticism still kept the play alive, but he left the ground too early to effectively finish the play.
In the third possession, N’Guessan catches the entry pass in the middle and does well to use the shot fake first to clear the space in front of him. Hereafter, he cleanly and aggressively attacked the defender’s chest, drawing contact and finishing off the and-one play. The last possession below shows some signs of creativity where he didn’t find the paint touch with a shot clock winding down and giving some flashes of his developing jumper. Despite the unbalanced shot, that was an impressive finish on his part.
Passing and playmaking
At 37 assists to 29 turnovers, N’Guessan shows a good first sign when it comes to his decision-making as a ball-mover and passer. Considering the three-point shot not being an effective part of his game yet, that’s where he has to hang his hat on to support a team’s offensive rating in the NBA. In the first play below, he does well to keep his composure after the opponents clear the interior. Despite the pass being slightly off, that’s a good and easy execution on his passing read.
In the second and third plays below, N’Guessan chose the safe options to hit perimeter options when defenders closed the gap in the interior. His tendency to not choose risky passes is both a negative and a positive. The negative part is due to a lack of creativity as a passer, which is okay for now. But the positive is that he knows his deficiencies and embraces the fact that he has to make the right decisions when he’s getting ball touches. In both plays, he found the open shooter on the perimeter.
His success continues in the fourth play below, where N’Guessan forces the switch after the ball screen. Hereafter, he’s quick to use his incredibly fluid hips to find the play-finisher in the middle with good execution. That’s an important detail for NBA decision-makers to keep an eye on and use to continue to put him to the test during team workouts. His focus on finding open threes on the perimeter is an area he gladly hangs his hat on, with the fifth and sixth plays below showing an example of the degree of openness he can create with his leverage as an interior finisher.
Putbacks and offensive rebounding
His main value is on the offensive glass. N’Guessan is a tenacious offensive rebounder who thrives on collecting garbage points with putbacks inside the painted area. His combination of good feel for positioning on rebounds, physicality, and excellent verticality makes him one of the best rebounders in the Big 12. With more teams playing four or even five-out schemes, the value of offensive boards continues to give NBA teams more options to improve their defensive rating, while some teams are willing to bet on crashing the glass at the expense of giving up some more transition offense.
However, N’Guessan has to fix major areas, such as the tendency to bring the ball down after rebounds. Considering his reputation as a below 50% free-throw shooter, he’s giving away opportunities to defenders to hack him and make him earn his points on the charity stripe. Another vital part to develop is the lack of composure when he grabs the offensive rebound. Most of his finishes are rushed due to his fear of being fouled and leaving one or more points on the free-throw line.
Regardless, there’s much more potential for NBA teams to develop despite N’Guessan being a 2000-born. The age factor helps him as his body develops well throughout the years, and he can hang his hat on collecting a few offensive boards where he can even lead to opposing fives to pick up more fouls to defend him. All plays below show offensive rebounding, with often N’Guessan scoring on his misses due to a major lack of composure and rushed shots at the rim.
Cuts
As a play-finisher, N’Guessan shows incredible touch at the rim. That’s the main reason why he’s a 70%+ finisher at the rim on over six attempts per game. His ability to respond well to dribble penetration by making himself the forgotten man is essential to succeed in the NBA, as he does well to respond with proper cutting after helping the defense respond to the ball handler getting two feet inside the paint. That will continue to put N’Guessan in a position to collect these play-finishing points to support a team’s offensive rating despite the lack of three-point shooting.
In the first play, he receives the ball in the middle, where he shows flashes of his face-up scoring against rim protectors. His handles are a bit loose, but N’Guessan does well to hide the ball until he finds the right angle to finish the layup. In the second possession, the ball handler catches his assignment in the air. Hereafter, it’s an easy dunk in traffic for N’Guessan to raise the energy level of his team with a tenacious slam. That continues in the third play below. N’Guessan does well by keeping the ball high after the catch. However, his slight hesitation before the finish is unacceptable for the NBA level. He has to keep his eye on the big prize and dunk home these clear routes at the next level.
In the fourth and fifth plays below, we see N’Guessan again recognizing the right angles for the finish. However, making the extra pass instead of getting blocked on the last play below shows the tunnel vision he has to work on in the next few years. Regardless, his active cutting and finding the right angles are strengths in his draft profile.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project David N’Guessan to be an undrafted free agent due to the non-shooting aspect of his profile on top of being a 24-year-old who still needs others to create plays for him to score. However, NBA franchises are willing to bet on enticing athletes with a clear role at the next level.
I expect N’Guessan to be a call-up for the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, where he can earn the right to be at the G League Elite Camp while keeping the door open to find himself at the NBA Draft Combine. Even if that doesn’t happen, he’ll have many workouts with teams where he can earn a two-way contract later in the summer.