Donovan Clay Scouting Report

A do-it-all wing with an NBA-ready body is a usual riser around draft time. What's the NBA appeal for the two-time MVC All-Defensive Team member? Find out below.

After a five-year career in the Missouri Valley Conference, Donovan Clay is ready to become a pro. After being selected in the MVC All-Defensive Team twice, Clay saw his efforts on that end of the floor get rewarded. Despite his 12.8 points per game on 44.2% shooting, his value for Missouri State was mostly on the defensive side of the ball.

For most upperclassmen going pro, having to adjust to serve as a low-usage player is often a challenge. In Clay’s case, his value with fewer touches makes the transition much easier. This scouting report focuses on his role in the first few years of his post-collegiate career.

Physical Profile

At 6’8”, Clay is a bruiser-type forward who often plays the three, four, and five. He’s a surprisingly good athlete despite his bulky build. Despite being slow-footed at times, Clay shows good acceleration that opens the door to becoming a multipositional defender at the next level.

With his 230 pounds, Clay was able to guard against stronger bigs in college. This led to him playing as a forward more often than not. His role at the pros will be as a tall wing who primarily plays the three.

What stood out in Clay’s profile is his excellent timing when contesting shots. He’s not a vertical athlete by any means but makes up for it with the above-mentioned.

It’s worth mentioning that Clay grew up as a guard which led to him maintaining his ball skills. This gives him an advantage over most of his peers who play the same position. Combined with his footwork, he adds much-needed versatility that increases the chances of him reaching the highest level.

Defense

An NBA team will ask Clay to guard against closeout attackers. Despite his bulky build, he shows fluid hips helping him to maintain his balance when opponents try to shake him out of balance. Especially against stepbacks or spin moves, Clay slides his feet well. In the first and last play below, we see an example of how Clay uses his footwork and mobility to change sides quickly.

With over 150 games in college, the sample size of his habits on defense is good enough to make it feasible that certain parts of his game will translate. In the second play below, we see Clay tag the potential screener, which helped him react quickly to the pop toward the rim. After absorbing the contact, Clay does well in placing his pivot foot to launch quickly to contest the midrange jumper.

We see the same positives in Clay’s pick-and-roll defense. Despite Missouri State focusing on playing drop coverage more often than not, Clay shows that he can defend in several coverages. His slow first step could be a risk if he’s switched to much quicker guards. However, Clay shows that his footwork makes the limitations of his lack of burst and first step much less.

In the first play below, Clay drops just enough to challenge the ball-hander to beat him off the dribble. His good acceleration on his second and third steps helped him to keep his man in front of him to use his strength near the rim.

It’s crucial to guard in space to be a good pick-and-roll defender in the NBA. In Clay’s case, we see him show it in the second and third plays below. What stood out throughout the season is how Clay consistently uses his pivot foot well to react to ball handlers pulling up. In the second play, Clay steps forward to lure the incoming screener to set the pick behind him, creating room on the weakside, and forcing the ball handler to drive in that direction. His quick reaction to the pull-up is what an NBA team values.

Responding to offensive creativity is the appeal Clay makes with his pick-and-roll defense. In the last two plays, Clay shows that he can absorb contact from both the screener and ball handler.

Defending against shooters off the catch is another key element to Clay’s defensive profile. With his footwork, Clay makes it easier for himself to respond to shooters by controlling their drive, making it tougher for them to attack him off the dribble.

While guarding against the three-point shot, Clay shows that he’s a good decision-maker who rarely gets baited into biting on fakes. The first play below is an example of how he bites on the fake, but still finds himself in a good position to contest the shot. Clay expected his teammate to come off the big to contest to the perimeter, which was the correct read on this play.

The last play below shows how Clay reads his assignment in most cases, where he doesn’t bite on the fake. This led to him having the time to power up for the hard contest in the corner. An important detail in Clay’s game is that he’s very vocal on the court. He takes his role as a leader seriously and is continuously coaching and helping his team set their rotations, with an example in the last play below. Clay tells his teammate to rotate and finds himself covering the paint until the ball reaches the corner. An NBA decision-maker should be intrigued by how coachable he is.

As an off-ball defender, Clay has to improve his awareness. In the first play below, the play screamed that the big man would hit the cutter from the mid-post. Clay looked slow to react to the pass, and that’s something that consistently came back when he had to defend against cutters.

A positive is that his rotations are well above average, which makes his team’s defense look much better than it is at this point. However, an important nuance to the above-mentioned is that the level of play was often below Clay’s and that being surrounded by better players in a faster-paced game with more ball movement should benefit Clay’s defense style.

We see an example in the last play below, where Clay becomes the five at the rim after some switches. He rotates from defending against a potential entry pass in the middle of the floor to contest the play-finisher near the hoop after his opponent manages to find the cutter. His mobility and fluid hips are something that’ll help Clay to continue serving as an interior defender as he has the strength to handle contact from most NBA forwards and some big men.

Offense

At 32.6% on 2.6 three-point attempts per game, Clay is a below-average shooter which an NBA decision-maker will hold against him. With five seasons of sample size, Clay did show that he improved in the last three years, with an increasing volume in each of them being positive to the below-average numbers.

Despite setting his feet fluidly, he takes a tad too much time to power up for his jumper. Combined with his low-arching release, he won’t be able to serve as a spot-up shooter in his early career. In a faster-paced NBA game, the odds of his attempts being contested are too high to find consistent minutes. An NBA team should prioritize shooting drills in potential workouts they’ll have with him this summer.

However, Clay looks more ready to contribute to a team’s offensive rating with his play out of closeouts. An NBA decision-maker will be intrigued by how well he uses his pivot foot to help him launch on drives. His slow first step doesn’t hurt him as he positions himself to leverage the strength advantage he has against most defenders.

We see an example in the second play below. He’s crafty with the ball in his hands as he creates angles using his physical advantages. At a finishing rate of 63.2%, that’s a good number considering two of every three attempts at the rack are self-created ones. However, at the NBA level, he’ll have a much tougher time scoring at the rim with his current play style. He’s too right-hand dominant to be a real threat as a rim-finisher on self-created looks.

There’s untapped potential in Clay’s profile as a scorer via the pick-and-roll. Despite his position, he shows that he has good enough handles to put himself in a good position on that end compared to his peers. Despite playing in a role with not many ball touches, an NBA team will want to see long-term potential to invest

In the first play below, Clay shows his handles combined with his craft to get a look at the rim. He’s comfortable dribbling with both of his hands and combined with hesitation moves, he’s showing the offensive creativity that’s becoming rare in recent years among bruiser-type forwards and tall wings. Therefore, an NBA team will buy the potential in the long-term, making efficiency on the court less important in the evaluation of his profile.

We see the same things in two plays where Clay thrives on getting to the rack. This led to his free-throw attempts increase to almost four a game; converting them at a 68.8% clip.

Another area where Clay will be able to impact the game is to use his handles to improve as a playmaker. At 2.4 assists per game, he has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, which is an early sign of his passing positively impacting his team. At Missouri State, he wasn’t asked to be a facilitator, but it naturally became a part of his game throughout his career.

On an NBA floor, Clay will be asked to serve as a ball-mover when playing in smaller line-ups where he will fill in the four or five slot. However, he shows potential to serve as a secondary creator if other areas of his game pan out and he earns more on-ball reps.

As of now, Clay is keen on hitting cutters while leveraging his strength when he’s attacking the rim. Throughout the year, Clay shows that he can execute basic reads. What stood out is that he’s selling defenses that he’ll drive to the rim to find open teammates quickly. That part of his game is the base that’ll help him in his role as a ball mover early on.

In the first play below, the play ended in a dump-off at the rim. This is followed up by Clay again finding the cutter on the lob pass. In the last play, he hits the big man during the post-up action. He doesn’t stand out with executing complicated reads but gives confidence as he consistently makes quick decisions on easy executable reads. And that’s something an NBA team will look for when evaluating passing potential in their wing.

NBA Draft Projection

Clay will be an undrafted free agent. Despite it being a wide-open class, the league’s value in shooting efficiency and maintaining an offensive rating leads to Clay not being NBA-ready. However, his maturity as a defender, footwork and feel for the game still gives him a real shot at making it to the NBA.

His defense is the unique selling point, with his qualities as a leader, timely rotation, and footwork working in his favor on a variation of schemes. On the offensive end, Clay has to show he can improve as a scorer in the G League. As a fifth-year senior, production is a key element in predicting readiness in terms of contributing to offensive production.

With Clay still needing to up his offensive game, an NBA team will comfortably use a two-way slot to turn him into a rotational piece in the future. At 23 years old he has 160 games to his resumé in which he has shown he’s one of the more underrated players in this class in terms of fundamentals, skill, and versatility.