Earl Timberlake Scouting Report
We see more and more shooting created by more rim pressure. Timberlake is an automatic paint touch but barely shoots threes. How does he fit in the NBA? Here's why I am bullish on his NBA future:
Earl Timberlake (#0, Bryant): Senior, 6'6"
Shooting Guard/Small Forward — Born: Nov 4, 2000 (24 years old)
Introduction
Timberlake made the most of his fifth year of eligibility by winning AEC Player of the Year. He’s one of the best defenders at the mid-major level while growing in his role as a paint touch generator and interior scorer. He’s scoring over fifteen points per game while attempting less than three per contest. On top of that, earning All-AEC honors as a defender, Timberlake had a two-way impact, which gives him a clear role as a valuable piece at the next level.
As a four-star recruit, Timberlake was the highest-ranked player in Maryland before committing to Miami. Hereafter, he had a stint at Memphis before finalizing his college eligibility with three seasons as a Bryant Bulldog, with whom he has an NCAA Tournament appearance. His game scaled up to being the team’s star as a senior. The scalability and how feasible his NBA role is as a non-shooter are the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6’6.25” in shoes, Timberlake has excellent positional size to serve as a two or a three, while his interior game makes it possible to be a smaller four. While weighing in at 224 pounds, he’s built like a rock with broad shoulders and a well-filled frame. The intriguing part is his explosiveness and burst despite bulking up. His ability to switch from physicality to speed gives him various weapons to do what he does best: generate paint touches.
While moving fluidly, Timberlake improved his footwork. His lateral quickness gains value with his verticality. Despite being older, his physical tools have enough untapped potential. He rounds out his physical value with a 6’10.5” wingspan and huge 10.5-inch wide hands.
Offense
Rim pressure and pick-and-roll scoring
Timberlake’s potentially elite NBA trait is his rim pressure. Bear in mind that he has close to no leverage as a three-point shooter and still finds high volumes of paint touches despite being the top priority in the scouting report. His 4.5 free-throw attempts per game show the value of his pressure, although he has some areas to improve as a foul-drawer. Timberlake has tight handles and uses both craft and creativity to create angles. He has fluid hips and has mastered jab steps and ball-positioning fakes to create scoring angles. That’s the base to grow into a scorer with serious leverage at the NBA level.
The other side of the coin is Timberlake being too wired to score. He’s often not looking for the foul but prioritizes his balance to finish through the angle he creates when entering the paint with both feet. The first play shows an example. He gets downhill, and instead of crashing in the rotating five, he’s trying to score over the top, which leads to an unbalanced finish. In the second possession, he’s creating the angle by using his handles and smoothly moving to the strong side with the crossover. However, he has no attention for the extra pass when he’s putting his defender on an island. That’s an area of attention for NBA scouts.
The trait that makes Timberlake potentially elite comes in his last step. The third play shows an example of him pivoting strongly with his left to take his man out of balance before hitting the up-and-under finish. But when he’s drawing fouls, Timberlake must be more aggressive and initiate contact, as the fourth play shows a good example. The non-whistle is fair, as Timberlake didn’t draw enough contact but still managed to score on the acrobatic finish.
Attacking closeouts
Timberlake is a potential top closeout scorer. He has great positional size to be a slashing and passing wing, but the area of attention is the lack of physicality. Timberlake shows he has a high understanding of the game and creativity in creating angles. But he’s not making the most of them, which is underselling his closeout scoring. The reason is the lack of physicality. He barely attacks the defender’s chest and beats his man solely off movement and handles. That’s a great base to continue to develop into a much more aggressive scorer, considering the touch.
But the touch has some unfinished work as well. He’s not balancing himself out because the outcome of his plays often does not match the script. Timberlake looks surprised by the amount of ground he has before he finishes. That’s leading to him missing easy and open shots, which leads to a 57.9% rim-finishing number, excluding dunks. That’s below average. The first play shows an example where he’s avoiding the floater. The floater play gives him leverage if he’s not comfortable absorbing contact.
In the second possession, Timberlake barely makes contact with the defender’s chest before the unbalanced rise on his finish. The lack of balance was caused by not fully throwing himself at the defender. With his upper body strength, it’s surprising how many potential points Timberlake leaves on the table by simply not playing as physically as he should. The third play shows how easy the game gets for Timberlake when he does. Aggressiveness is the most essential trait for Timberlake to find more consistency in. That’s what NBA coaches must help him with at the next level.
Post-ups
To evaluate toughness and use aggressiveness to create scoring angles, post-ups are essential. However, Timberlake is one of the rare post-up scorers who doesn’t use physical contact to get to his spots. The fewer contacts, the better for him. However, from an evaluation standpoint, he has to embrace physicality and play aggressively to make defenders adjust to stopping his will, rather than Timberlake looking at how to find the angle without the least contact.
This is not a red flag in his profile, but rather a key to potential draft success. When looking at the last few draft classes, Timberlake is one of the best players at mastering creating and finding angles with body control and hip fluidity. But this concept can be thrown out the window if he’s not playing with more toughness. The first three plays below show an example of him barely initiating contact, which leads to him not creating the angle and settling for unbalanced finishes over the top. His prioritizing of finishes with a banking finish is evidence of how much he has been focusing on the fundamentals in his younger years, which is another positive indicator for NBA scouts.
The last play shows an example of how fluid Timberlake looks when he’s aggressive and forces defenders to adjust to his will. NBA coaches must challenge him to be more aggressive and test this during team workouts.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 4.7 assists per game, Timberlake posted a close-to 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio while playing in a phone booth most of the time, as he lives in a paint where the opposing team prioritizes keeping him out of there. That’s a great value that shows the value of his passes out of these advantages when he’s not prioritizing his finishes. Whether hitting cutters after post-entry passes like in the first play or keeping his composure in the ICE in the second possession, Timberlake is an excellent and calm ball-moving wing.
With the ball in his hands, he’s using deceleration and gathers to create angles and separation against his defenders. The third play shows an example. Creative and interior-scoring wings with playmaking potential add a new dynamic of offensive production for NBA teams. His timely and quick decision-making as a passer helps teams sustain their offensive rating, as Timberlake can always defer to his passing reads and execution when struggling to get downhill on an NBA floor.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
Timberlake struggles as a pick-and-roll defender as a result of the aforementioned lack of physicality. He often dies on screens and looks to show an inconsistent motor after dealing with physicality against screeners. That’s not a good outlook for NBA teams trying to prioritize rookies who can help sustain a team’s defensive rating, as that’s key for future success rather than simply having enough offensive juice to outscore opponents. This makes it essential for upperclassmen to bring certain skills to hang their hat on as defenders.
For Timberlake, the potential success is the physicality and size that helps him to defend in the second line against the screener or to play the ball handler with his fluid hips and footwork. As of now, Timberlake is a tweener between both, which is not a good thing. As a drop coverage option, he lacks assertiveness in picking up shooters off the screen, as shown in the first play below, with no hand in the midrange shooter’s face. Against ball handlers, Timberlake had to show grit after colliding with the screen and stopped moving before a foul was called. He looked in need of a breath, which brought motor questions.
NBA teams are relentless and will benefit from any option to find a weak spot, and Timberlake’s lack of physicality and motor could hurt him at the next level.
Closeouts
As a closeout defender, the lack of toughness and pivoting out too far with his last step are two issues that might hurt him on an NBA floor. He looks passive as a defender, often gambling on closeout options, attacking the interior by not closing out until he reaches his assignment. That’s a bad thing as it opens the path for teams to shoot threes, and together with rim pressure, that’s what NBA teams try to take away when defending. The first play shows an example.
In the second possession, Timberlake gets blown by and barely boxes out for the defensive rebound after the miss. The lack of physicality and effort is an extreme undersell of his skill. When he shows great motor and toughness on the defensive end, on top of the toughness as a scorer, Timberlake has the natural talent to be an NBA starter. However, all value vanishes when he’s playing passively, leaving the initiative to the opponent to try to score. The third play shows an example of how tough he can be and how this leads to winning plays. Timberlake averaged 1.8 blocks per game, but these numbers hold no value if the level of toughness and aggressiveness is inconsistent.
On top of that, he must work on his last step in closeouts, as he pivoted out too far on the last play, leading to the blow-by in the third play. In the fourth play, he’s not absorbing contact well despite being much stronger than his opponent. Hereafter, the opponent had a wide-open shot as Timberlake gave up on the play. It’s extremely frustrating and upsetting for me when I write this, as there’s a clear NBA starter in Timberlake who’s not making the most out of his talent because of the lack of a consistent motor and toughness.
Catch-and-shoot
However, there’s a promising side effect, as his experience helped Timberlake to be more in control and aware when defending away from the ball. He’s prioritizing to stop backdoor cutters while he’s barely staring at the ball. That’s a positive trait and habit to bring to an NBA floor. When he knows that the three-point shot is imminent before closing out, Timberlake is more comfortable giving everything in his closeouts. That’s showing his athleticism to be functional in closeouts, in contesting as many threes, barely leaving open ones.
In the first play, Timberlake was forced to stay at the weak side elbow because of a lack of rotations around him. However, his body positioning and pivot foot tell that he was aware of having to defend against two players with his defense collapsing. Not closing out the above-the-break shooter fits the aforementioned points, but should have been a reaction out of instinct rather than gambling on a miss. In the second play, Timberlake responds to the cut and has the chance to jump up and close the shooting angle after the entry pas,s but instead shows a passive reach out with the hand after the runner.
Regardless, when he’s dialed in, it’s almost like seeing another player on the floor. Timberlake is an active and communicative teammate. Perhaps the context of playing in the NCAA Tournament changed the importance, as he shows active rotations in the third play below, picking up mistakes from teammates while doing well to stop backdoor cuts in the fourth play before being a step too late on the smart relocation to the far corner. Both were good defensive plays, regardless of the outcome.
Transition and fast pace
The beauty of the NBA is that teams that push the pace and play fast are now having success in the playoffs. Therefore, Bryant’s matchup against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament gives a fantastic sample size of how Timberlake performs in this environment. Throughout that game, it made me more sure about the lack of conditioning leading to motor issues. The first two plays show examples. Right after halftime, Timberlake didn’t look like himself after the closeout to the elbow in the transition pass ahead. He got blown by easily and showed a lack of effort in the boxout.
The frustrating part is the jogging on the floor, with the second and third plays as examples. Timberlake isn’t doing himself any favors by taking possessions off. That’s the main indicator of legitimate conditioning issues, as the will to be good is there, but it takes a while before contextualizing it. That’s something for NBA coaches to pay attention to, as Timberlake should prove his value in more exhausting drills, rather than showing his skill, where it’s already a given that he’s an NBA-caliber player.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Earl Timberlake to be an undrafted free agent in the 2025 NBA Draft. He’s an NBA-caliber player when everything clicks. In terms of skill and value of his role, I would put him in my top 40 without any hesitation. However, legitimate motor issues and a lack of toughness lower the value of his draft profile. Regardless, I expect Timberlake to sign a two-way contract with a franchise to work on his game via the G League. There’s an NBA player here, but it might take a moment before the potential is fully tapped into.