Elias King Scouting Report

With a group of undiscovered ball-handling wings playing for mid-majors, we might see some of them becoming NBA players. Elias King is on that list. What's the intrigue? Find out below.

After a good season at Middle Tennessee, King was selected as an Honorable Mention All-Conference USA. While finishing the year at 12.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, he had his first double-digit scoring season in his four-year collegiate career.

However, King struggled to be efficient at times. While finishing 12 of his 33 games above 45% shooting from the field, he contributed to winning as his team won nine games in the same span. Regarding his future, King shows scalable parts of his game that will translate well at the next level. This scouting report serves as a breakdown of his profile, combined with projecting his role as a professional basketball player.

Physical Profile

At 6’8”, King has excellent positional size to play as a full-time three. He bulked up from 185 pounds as a freshman to 215 pounds last season. With a strong frame and good upper body strength, King thrives on exploiting mismatches inside the arc. He has an aggressive style of play with the ball, which translates well to a serve as a ball-handling wing.

On the defensive end, King sometimes looks heavy-footed, leading him to struggle against quicker guards. However, his versatility on that end of the floor comes to switching to frontcourt players and guarding against forwards and some big men. Combined with his bulky build, King kept his vertical pop compared to his earlier seasons. This allows him to serve as a help side defender as well.

Offense

As a pro, King’s primary task will be to play off-ball to exploit closeouts. With a finishing rate of 60.2% at the rim on almost three attempts per game, that's a good number to begin with. However, his touch at the rim isn’t consistent. The numbers look deflated as he tends to settle for jumpers instead of utilizing his strength advantage to get downhill.

In the first play below we see an example. Instead of kicking the ball out to open shooters on the perimeter, King settles for a contested midrange shot instead. In the fourth play, we see a similar play where he forces his shot inside the arc, and gets lucky to collect the offensive board in a crowded paint.

To find consistent minutes at the next level, King has to show that he can make the right decisions in the scarce ball touches he’ll get. He’s able to make the right reads and detect when it’s best to finish at the rim himself, as shown in the second and fifth plays below. However, a decision-maker should make his shot selection one of the priorities to help develop.

At 32.7% on 6.1 attempts per game, we see a below-average number as a result of his shot selection. Just as in his shot selection near the rim, King forces his jumpers at times, instead of making the extra pass.

When focusing on his shot, the consistency of his form stands out. He has a decent release point, but the fluidity in setting his feet and moving toward the ball upon receiving passes stands out. He also doesn’t shy away from letting it fly. Misses don’t hurt his confidence.

King is a streaky shooter who has the heat up. One of the things King has to improve on is finding his rhythm from the free-throw line. At 2.4 attempts per game, that’s a low number considering the strength advantage and King being able to absorb contact and create finishing angles. He should improve as a foul-drawer in the next few years. It will help his development as a shooter if he can get confident at the free-throw line before impacting the game as a volume shooter.

Without the ball in his hands, King is a good cutter who leverages his strength advantage to distract defenses by putting them in help mode. He’s an active mover off the ball and communicates well on the court. A translatable part of his pro career is that he can find rim attempts without the ball in his hands, helping his teammates collapse defenses with his movement.

His inconsistent touch at the rim did cost him some points throughout the season. As mentioned earlier, he’s too focused on getting his production instead of making the extra pass. Therefore, an NBA decision-maker will question the fit of their style of offense, with most teams running motion-based offenses in recent years.

In the three plays below, we see King going to work near the mid and high-post areas. At the next level, this helps him to force defenders to focus more on the interior, opening space on the perimeter.

A game-changer for King’s potential as a pro is his passing. He must improve as a connective passer to find consistent minutes on any level he’ll play. What stood out is that King can execute basic reads or find open teammates after drives. But hunting his offensive production is what got in his way more often than not.

A positive is that King isn’t afraid to make mistakes. His self-confidence in his game will keep his morale high even after mistakes. In the first play below, we see King hitting the cutter near the dunker’s spot. However, his pass wasn’t fast enough. At 1.7 turnovers, that’s a good number considering he’s hovering around a 10% turnover rate in his whole college career while being on double as much usage.

At almost one assist per game, King mainly focused on hitting cutters or kicking the ball out on drives, as shown in the second and third plays below. An NBA decision-maker must take improvement as a shooter as one of King’s top priorities in his profile.

Defense

On the defensive end, King shows that he can handle a faster-paced game. He’s a good defender in transition but looks too careful at times in initiating contact. With only 1.7 fouls in 32.4 minutes per game, he can afford to be more aggressive and force his opponents to earn their points near the rim.

In the third play below, we see King allowing the lay-up in the fast break as a result of the above-mentioned. While he’s showing good decision-making on the second play to stop his opponent near the rim, his energy level at times isn’t consistent. In the first play below, King allows the two points to happen, but it would look wholly different if King gave it all in terms of hustle before the wide-open dunk in transition.

We see a more aggressive King when he has to close out against spot-up shooters. The first play below is an example of King closing out quickly and using his length to contest the spot-up shooter. However, at times he isn’t consistent in his defensive rotations. In the second play below, instead of rushing to the elbow, he tags the big man before realizing he has to close out.

In the last play below, King does well by not over-contesting the far-ranged three-point shot. An important detail is his already positioning to score in transition with a large chance his team gets the defensive board. That’s a good play on his part that will translate well at the next level.

Against closeout-attackers looking to score in the interior, King uses his pivot foot well to react fast to drivers trying to blow by him. That’s an NBA translatable skill. His defensive footwork overall looks above-average in how he slides his feet and uses his pivot foot well to keep defenders in distance or use his fluid hips to react to fade away or spin moves.

In the first play below, King uses his pivot foot to force the ball handler to dribble toward the weakside. That’s an important detail of him executing defensive reads. In the second play, we see King again use his pivot foot in an aggressive way to control the ball handler’s drive to the rim. He controls his balance well using his hips after forcing the pickup of his opponent’s dribble.

In the last play, we see King utilize his length as a help defender. His timing as a weakside defender is what’ll earn him consistent minutes once he figures out to be less shot-focused on offense. There’s a lot to like in King’s ability to defend against closeouts.

In a switch-heavy NBA game, a crucial part for wings to influence is to be able to guard in pick-and-roll sets. King can slide his feet well on the defensive end. Although he struggles at times against quicker guards, his strength advantage and screen navigation give him the edge in fighting through screens. It’s everything else after that that needs work in this part of his defense.

In the first play below, King uses his length to limit the lane for entry passes and to detect incoming screens. He slides well to dodge the ball screen, but instead of reacting to the ball handler, he bails him out by dropping which leads to the pull-up three.

In the second play, King goes over the double stagger to pick up the ball handler and stop the drive to the weakside. He switches sides well and uses his vertical pop to come up with the block near the rim. In an advanced NBA type of defensive scheme compared to most D1 programs, King shows important flashes of sticking early and using his experience to his advantage.

An area to work on for King is to try and stay at 90 degrees from his ball handler. If he doesn’t, forcing drives to the strong side should be the priority. What came back consistently in his defensive plays is King subconsciously bailing out offensive players by opening the driving lane for them, as shown in the third play below. An NBA decision-maker must value that in their developmental plan for King.

NBA Draft Projection

At 23 years old, King shows readiness to play G League basketball after college. His size, ball skills, and strength open the room to earn a call-up to the NBA in the upcoming few years.

On the offensive end, King has to show that he can play within the flow of the offense instead of chasing his own looks. He’s good at leveraging his strength advantage to get downhill, but inconsistent touch near the rim and the tendency to bail defenses out with midrange jumpers cost him a few points per game at Middle Tennessee this season.

On the defensive end, promise as a pick-and-roll defender or mitigate plays out of the closeouts will lead to him being one of the better G League defenders early on in his career. This combined with improved shot selection could lead to him becoming an end-of-the-rotation type of wing for the NBA.

I expect King to be undrafted this summer. However, his physical tools and role could lead to him earning an Exhibit 10 deal and playing within an NBA team’s G League affiliate.