Dawson Garcia Scouting Report
Role scalability is the ultimate sell for Dawson Garcia. But what will he do for an NBA team? Here are 3K+ words on why he'll transform his high-usage role at Minnesota to a feasible NBA role:
Introduction
As a fifth-year senior, Garcia has developed into one of the nation’s best high-usage wings. His combination of ball handling, physicality, and scoring prowess made him the de facto leader of the Minnesota Gophers. As a highly-touted high school prospect, Garcia chose stints at Marquette and North Carolina. Hereafter, the Minnesota-born Garcia returned home to fulfill his last three seasons of eligibility in the Big Ten.
During his five college basketball seasons, Garcia has played several roles, making the case for flexible role scaling. With the NBA prioritizing plus-sized ball handlers in every position, Garcia’s raw profile puts him on NBA radars. Translating his skillset to a wanted and feasible NBA role is the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-11, Garcia is a strongly built, fluid ball-handling wing. He doesn’t have broad shoulders but instead has a long wingspan with a well-filled chest. He has fully grown into his body at 234 pounds, with his excellent hip fluidity and core strength being the main value of his physical profile.
With decent foot speed, Garcia plays with craft and footwork rather than relying on speed and power. He can be physical but prefers to throw in his craft and mobility when attacking the glass. Due to his size, he’s a constant mismatch threat, matching one of the NBA’s other criteria.
Garcia’s toughness is visible when he’s playing as an interior presence, with decent verticality and body control helping him thrive as the weakside helper while he’s an adaptable defender on the perimeter due to his mobility.
Offense
Catch-and-shoot
As a plus-sized perimeter scoring threat, Garcia’s must-have skillset is to be consistent as a catch-and-shoot option. That’ll add gravity and leverage to his interior-scoring skillset. For NBA scouts, his great footwork and fluid hips add positivity to his draft profile. While shooting 37.1% on over four attempts per game, Garcia shows good returns with the volume to prove feasibility.
Garcia widens his feet to ensure his balance before the shot. He has a good habit of immediately positioning his body at 180 degrees of the basket, which makes him adaptable to immediately set his feet on movement while he’s already putting himself in shooting motion when he’s standing still. By flexible usage of his pivot foot, he’s keeping the threat of attacking his closeout alive. In the first play, we see Garcia put up his shot in transition, while he’s immediately getting the shot off from a standstill in the second possession below.
In the third play, widening his feet makes him more effective in throwing in shot-fakes and jab steps to create more space for himself. He’s smartly selling the defense he’ll attack baseline, thus opening up angles on the stronger side for himself. The advantage of fully growing into his body leads to the good habit of Garcia not powering up too much for his shot, as he’s strong enough to keep the ball high. In the fourth play below, he brings the ball down to his waist, which is an area to work on, especially considering a quicker NBA game with less time to get his shot off.
When lowering the ball, it should be immediately followed up by aggressiveness as shown in the fifth play below, Garcia keeps his head down to sell the defense the attack on its chest, creating enough room with jab steps to get the shot off from the elbow.
Catch-and-drive
As a closeout attacker, Garcia has the must-have skillset of playing through contact and being tough and aggressive. He’s great at creating angles for himself but often suffers from tunnel vision, where he's dialed in on finishing on the advantage creation rather than making the extra pass. Regardless, as a closeout attacker, Garcia has enough creativity with the handles to match to help a team sustain its offensive rating.
In the first play below, Garcia stays composed and waits out the closeout defender's bad last step to blow by him with a simple relocation. He’s good at recognizing advantages and how to collapse defenses while finishing off the play strong and aggressive with a layup at the rim. This continues in the second possession below. Garcia immediately attacks the baseline after a jab step, whereafter he uses his physicality to create separation. Instead of finishing through traffic, he had to hit the two cutters on his right with the dropoff pass.
Garcia also has creativity in his arsenal. In the third play, he attacked the closeout via the weak side. Hereafter, he changed hands and nailed the three via the stepback. This continues in the fourth play. Garcia uses the reverse pivot to elevate his burst and immediately puts up the floater while attacking the baseline. His great understanding of angles while making the right decisions in lanes to attack is a feasible part of his plays out of closeouts that will help him in the NBA.
Pick-and-pop
At 6-foot-11, Garcia brings a valuable combination of physicality, size, and perimeter skills. That makes him a no-brainer option to make plays out of pick-and-pop sequences. Considering his reliable three-point shooting, he gives more options to help sustain an NBA team’s offensive rating. However, there are some areas to clean up for Garcia, where NBA decision-makers have to focus on when bringing into their gym for workouts.
Focusing on missed shots, Garcia often rushes his shots. He’s making it too clear that he’s popping away after setting the ball screen. His shooting and scoring heavy part of the profile makes him predictable for defenders, where they can afford to stay attached to him rather than dropping to ensure enough presence inside the painted area. In the first play below, Garcia caught his defender’s pivot foot out of position but still held to his shooting motion despite giving the defender time to close the gap. He has to execute much quicker in a faster-paced NBA game with more motion.
This continues in the third play below. After setting a good ball screen, Garcia could have chosen to attack the closeout or roll to the rim. By prioritizing the elbow, he puts himself on the strong side of help defense and gives them enough room to rotate. We see a similar outing in the fourth play below. Positioning his ball screens is essential to get to the right spot to ensure an open three. That’s an area of attention for his developmental plan for NBA scouts and decision-makers to keep an eye on.
Passing, ball-moving and playmaking
At about two assists per game, Garcia has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. Considering the high usage and many ball touches, that’s an early sign for his passing and ball-moving in the NBA. Regardless, he’s not used as a playmaker much at Minnesota, which is okay, considering the fewer ball touches he’ll have at the next level. His good handles and consistent decision-making are positives, and his ball-moving and playmaking duties can be scaled up if needed at the next level.
At Minnesota, Garcia mostly makes safe decisions and doesn’t take many risks. Regardless, there is enough evidence of Garcia showing good habits. In the first play below, he makes a good decision with his eye manipulation, faking the pass to the right to hit the cutter on the left. In the second play, Garcia shows a good example of making the right decision and not forcing his creation. He’s bringing the ball up the floor via the post-up, but after good coverage, he’s taking the most out of the five seconds left on the floor where he’s composed before finding the perimeter shooter above the break.
An area to develop is to be less predictable as a passer. In the third and fourth plays below, the recipients of his passes were clear for the defense. Despite good execution, Garcia is best at using deception and creativity, especially considering his experience and consistency in his decision-making. He’ll be more expressive in that role once he enters the NBA.
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