Garwey Dual Scouting Report
The combination of high-end athleticism and scoring prowess makes Dual one of the top returners for 2025. How much is translatable to the NBA? What's his long-term potential? Find out below.
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Introduction
Despite high expectations, Dual has had a silent freshman campaign with just over three points per game at about nineteen minutes per game. For the NBA, his ball-dominant play caused some concerns before his college career started. It’s vital to mention that Dual is working on becoming stronger and diversifying his scoring package with fewer on-ball touches. The opportunity to play and adjust to fewer ball touches is vital to showcase potential to NBA scouts, and that led Dual to hit the transfer portal, whereafter he committed to Seton Hall and Coach Holloway, with the aforementioned opportunity to play is one of the primary reasons.
Another advantage is Dual knows the physicality of the Big East and will need little time to adjust. On top of that, the Pirates lost 87% of their scoring from last year, making it more likely Dual can earn the much-needed runway to get the on-ball reps that he needs. After a fantastic outing at the G League Elite Camp during the pre-draft process, Dual’s sophomore campaign will be a highly anticipated event for NBA scouts.
Physical Profile
At 6’3.50” in socks, Dual has a good size to play both as a one and two-guard. With a confirmed 7-foot wingspan, Dual adds to his valuable length by bulking up 15 pounds between his senior year in high school and the end of his freshman campaign at Providence.
Dual’s explosiveness and body control immediately stood out. He’s a good leaper with great verticality, who is continuing to fill his frame. This, combined with his broad shoulders, opens up the opportunity to strengthen his core. With a fantastic first step, Dual can use both his speed and physicality to create advantages as a scorer.
While serving as a paint-touch-generator in high school, the aforementioned lack of strength led to Dual struggling to get downhill. That’s the main reason for the reduced impact, as his offense was forced to adjust to a more three-point shooting diet. Becoming stronger is essential for potential NBA success, as Dual needs downhill drives to take the most out of his scoring potential.
Offense
Rim pressure is what will make or break Dual’s NBA potential. Therefore, to measure both the feasibility of increasing on-ball reps and giving more scoring responsibilities, Dual’s scoring while making plays out of closeouts is the most vital part of his evaluation. It’s immediately visible that Dual struggles to coordinate his upper-body strength with the level of intensity. In the first play below, he pivots his left foot well before hesitating with his right then elevating for the burst. However, he dives in too aggressively when looking for separation once getting downhill, leading to the offensive foul.
We see a similar outcome in the second play. Dual again elevates well for the downhill drive, whereafter he gets his body in well. Balancing out becomes an issue after that, leading to too much time needed to correct his stance and get back in balance. The defense was all over him after that. This leads to Dual being vulnerable to settling for midrange jumpers. The third play is an example. Despite the make, the floor was spaced out enough to attack his man one-on-one after the dribble.
In the open court, we see Dual more comfortable in getting to his spots for his shot. His floater game must improve in his sophomore season, as the lack of consistent rim pressure means that he has to defer to his floater or runner to compensate for the aforementioned. The shot itself is too much forced and leads to misses more often than not. It’s okay for now, but NBA decision-makers will carefully follow the progression. The eventual outcome is seen in the last play below. Smart side passes to force rotations lead to Dual finding the needed space to attack the rim and showcase his soft touch close to the basket. His touch being good is a promising outcome, especially useful when he’s more consistently generating paint touches in the future.
As a pick-and-roll creator, Dual tends to settle for midrange or three-point shots more often than not. This is an outcome of the aforementioned struggles to generate paint touches consistently. That makes it easier for defenses to force Dual to make a play on the perimeter. In the first play below, we see him not hesitating to take the pull-up three. Despite it not being a good weapon to consistently use, Dual showing confidence and a smooth shooting form will help him to defer to the aforementioned jumpers.
The second play is exactly what Dual needs to do more often. He’s excellent at decelerating once he comes off screens. In this particular play, it led to declarating with the defense dropping inside the paint, opening up the floater attempt. Despite the miss, that’s a shot he needs to continue to take. In the third play, we see a similar declaration followed by a well-executed hesitation move that gets him entry into the paint. He executes his self-created play well with a soft-touch finish with his right hand.
However, Dual needs to be cautious to not overdribble the basketball. The fourth possession was a forced pull-up three with the hand in his face, as multiple dribbles didn’t get him the driving angle he needed. Deferring to others and making the extra pass is vital to maintain on-ball reps, as misses as these will open up opportunities for the opposing team to find transition looks. Despite the aforementioned, the aggressiveness and patience Dual shows to get downhill and find room for his shot remains positive, with the last play below being an example.
Advantage-creation must be followed up by passing or playmaking. With 63 assists to 34 turnovers, Dual shows excellent returns early on in his career, compensating for the lack of production in his freshman campaign. What immediately stood out is that Dual defers to bail-out passes more often than not. He’s hitting three-point shooters who don’t get the best shooting angles with his passes. If his strength level improves, the likeliness of paint touches increases. That will eventually benefit Dual’s playmaking.
The first play is an excellent example. The slow pace to bring the ball upcourt didn’t lead to the defense closing the lane. After using the screen, Dual had a wide-open driving lane through the middle but chose the hesitation move followed up by picking up his dribble. The side pass was inevitable. But if he drives to the rim, a kick-out pass opens up with potentially a much more open shot than the one he got here.
In the long run, the patience and composure Dual plays with improve a playmaker imminent. He’s looking to make the right play out of the baseline out-of-bounds play, reacting well to motion around him to find the cutter through the middle. In the third play, the composure is again put on display. After coming off the screen, Dual sees the corner-shooter. Instead of immediately kicking the ball out, he’s driving through the middle to force help defenders collapsing on him. That opened up a wide-open shooter, leading to a well-earned three-point make.
The aforementioned struggles to get downhill are visible in the fourth play. Whenever he can’t get into the lane, it’s more likely than not to end up in a side pass. Despite the make, that’s not a good play by Dual as he bailed himself out here wide the pass to the elbow.
As a shooter, we don’t see good returns yet: 25% on 56 three-pointers in his freshman campaign. On such a low sample size, the numbers don’t matter much. In Dual’s case, the percentage is low due to issues with his three-point jumper. Instead of keeping the ball at 180 degrees after the catch, he’s catching the ball far left, forcing him to correct the ball and at the same time pull up for his shot. The first play is an example.
He’s strong enough to keep the ball high after the catch. And it’s a positive that Dual is experimenting with that. In the second play, he’s forced to catch in the corner with his far-right hand, correcting the ball much better than in the first play. But with the good closeout by his assignment, he’s forced into a tough shot that lacked accuracy. The fundamental wrong here is that he’s fading away too much before the shot. We see the same in the third play. The positive is that he’s setting his feet very well. But the process after that is where Dual’s jumper needs work.
Luckily, Dual is much more comfortable to shoot off movement. When coming off screens or relocating as an off-ball threat, he’s quick to pivot his left foot, giving him some extra time to get into his shooting stance. Despite the need for NBA teams to run schemes to set Dual up as a movement shooter, NBA decision-makers will find much more comfort and feasibility in improving Dual’s jumper by banking on his ability to move without the ball and quickly execute. His ability to set his feet quickly is the base for the aforementioned.
Defense
With his excellent guard size, Dual will find many reps to showcase his ability to defend in the pick-and-roll. He has decent screen navigation, but good awareness. However, the lack of strength is leading to some struggles when finding to get through screens. In the first play, the ball handler gets separated due to Dual struggling to get away from the ball screen. Nevertheless, he’s keeping up well with the ball handler, almost contesting the shot from behind by using his seven-foot wingspan.
In the second play, Dual has to be less reactive to the ball handler, as the hesitation move forced Dual to move away from the interior, right into the screener. Despite the scorer rejecting the screen, the big man had all the time to adjust his screen to Dual’s driving lane. The ability to set his feet and slide is there, but the navigation part is where the improvements are needed in his sophomore campaign.
As the second option in the pick-and-roll, Dual does well to cover the interior. He’s coming out at the right time, being when the defense is forced to adjust. Rotations are visible, but to the contrary the aforementioned, he has to be more reactionary as a second option in the line of defense. Jumping up further away from the basket led to a clean lay-up opportunity for the scorer. We see the same rotations in the third play, where Dual hesitates to jump directly to the pick-and-roll ball handler. With his assignment being wide open at the elbow, rotating back was the right call. Nothing more he could have done to stop the open pull-up three here.
The last play shows how well Dual uses his length to bother shooters. His excellent leaping ability combined with his wingspan will help Dual to more easily bother shooters as a primary and secondary pick-and-roll defender.
When defending against closeout attackers, Dual shows the base of setting and sliding his feet well. That will give comfort to NBA decision-makers who are intrigued by his excellent physical attributes that make it imminent that Dual will improve as a defender in the future. The main area of development is to position himself better when closing out.
In the first possession below, Dual pivots too far out. He’s getting to the perimeter, opening up a wide-open driving lane on the weak side. Despite his burst, there’s simply too much ground to cover after the dribble penetration to stop the layup at the rim. To improve as a closeout defender, hip mobility is crucial. And that’s where Dual has the physical tools to be a plus defender. He spins and moves his hips fluidly, but fails to get within 180 degrees of his opponent, again getting burned after the dribble penetration via the baseline.
The third play gives more confidence, he’s positioned himself well, forcing the ball handler to penetrate via the strong side. The bump before the finish was good, but not enough to unbalance the scorer, hence the aforementioned need to get stronger in the future.
What gives confidence in Dual’s closeouts is his excellent ability to defend on the help side. He’s covering the middle well while leaving him enough room to immediately respond to the kick-out pass to the corner. The majority of that stop is due to Dual’s covering the lane so well, with his length and speed being major weapons to both force the ball handler to a non-wanted pass and execute his defensive play with the solid stop as in the last play below.
When defending against spot-up shooters, the most essential part is to position himself in the interior. In the first play, Dual does well to respond to his assignment, bothering him early in the process to force the side-pass to the elbow. What stood out is that he’s trusting his instincts, knowing the jumper off the catch was the play here. By elevating well and using his length, he contested the shot to the best of his abilities.
The second play is a tough evaluation. Dual positioned himself well to respond to both the elbow shooter and the one above the break who was originally Dual’s assignment. The vital part here is that he’s stationed between them, making it easier to simply choose who’s shot he’s contesting. Despite the make, that was a good play on his part. The third possession shows another example of Dual’s instincts. He’s not fully closing out on the corner shooter, simply to hedge for a potential side pass to the elbow. The extra passes make it hard to contest the shot. But the burst and great elevation on his shot contest are what NBA decision-makers will be left intrigued with.
Being a young freshman raises the margin for error. In the last play below, it was almost half-time, as Dual should have done better on leaving the middle open to respond as a help-side defender, rather than closing the middle lane and opening up an opportunity to kick the ball out to the corner. However, that’s not much of an issue, as his feel for the game improved throughout the year, and mistakes are needed to improve as a defender.
As an off-ball defender, Dual has a good feel for when to come in and serve as a help defender. He’s continuously moving to close passing lanes and gaps, forcing drivers to finish plays themselves, or to make uncomfortable passes with the shot clock winding down. Regardless, defense against cutters is set for team context, rather than putting it totally on Dual. Therefore, the flashes of good decision-making are what NBA decision-makers are looking for.
In the first possession, Dual took an active approach and gambled for the defensive rebound. His speed advantage helps him to get cross-court quickly, positioning himself ready to bank on transition plays. When that did not happen, he was too late to get back to the defensive line, leading to the late arrival and the play-finisher banking on the easy two underneath the basket.
When Dual’s in the interior, he’s much more comfortable impacting angles and passing lanes. The second play is a good example of his decision-making while seeing the floor well as a team defender. He’s first collapsing on the interior to respond to the dribble drive but gets one foot out of the paint quickly to bank on the bail-out pass leading to his interception. Deflecting balls by closing out angles is what Dual’s made his specialty as a team defender, which will help him to respond well to plays on much better NBA floors.
The third play is another example. He’s flying around the court, continuing to rotate and bothering opponents. The more playing minutes he’ll get as a sophomore, the better the odds we see Dual using his excellent physical tools to be a positive team defender. The last play is exactly what NBA teams are looking for. Dual is actively rotating to last-second serve as the pick-and-roll defender. He comes off the screen decently, and timely rotates to the big man underneath the basket, collecting the deflection and opening up his team’s transition offense.
NBA Draft Projection
For an NBA decision-maker, here are the above-mentioned areas summarized:
Strengths
Incredible physical tools. Dual has great length and leaping ability combined with improving footwork. That gives him the profile to be a plus defender in the future. In an NBA game where scoring is heavily relied on by guards, Dual can grow into a solid defender who can guard both a one and a two.
Dual can grow into a reliable team defender. His decision-making and improving feel for the game form the base for Dual getting better at mastering his physical tools when making the right decisions. That brings much-needed versatility, as he can serve as a pick-and-roll defender, while also giving confidence in the second line of defense, which is needed to play as a two-guard; his best NBA position.
Great angle creation as a passer. This helps Dual to serve both as a ball-mover and playmaker, as there are enough flashes of quick decision-making. However, overdribbling or being too slow to bring the ball upcourt might hurt a team’s offensive rating and clock management, making it an area of development at the same time.
Areas of development
The three-point shot needs work. Despite quickly setting his feet, Dual’s stationary shooting is not good. He’s catching the ball while not correcting his stance to 180 degrees before elevating for his shot. In a faster-paced NBA game, that makes it unlikely Dual will be a reliable catch-and-shoot option when the aforementioned doesn’t improve. And to earn more on-ball reps, consistently converting catch-and-shoot threes is what has become a must for guard prospects.
Dual needs to get stronger to succeed in the NBA. It’s visible in his screen navigation, which is good for the awareness part, but below-average when fighting through screens. This also hurts his ability to generate paint touches, as Dual tries to compensate for a lack of strength by playing much harder, which can lead to offensive fouls, thus hurting a team’s offensive rating.
Dual settles for three-point or midrange shots more often than not. Making the extra pass and not overdribble the ball are two areas of development for his sophomore season, as it will decrease the number of bad pull-up jump shots he’ll attempt in a game.
Based on the above-mentioned strengths and areas of development alongside the details in this scouting report, I project Garwey Dual to be a lock for the top 40 of the 2025 NBA Draft. That’s the bare minimum. If he continues to get stronger, while generating more paint touches, we’ll likely see him getting his name called in the latter stages of the first round.
While working on his three-point shooting off the catch without relying on play a movement shooter can continue to rise on draft boards. If the production comes along together with the improvement of the aforementioned areas of development, we might see Dual slide into the top 20 on draft night.
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Love me some Garwey! Wish last year went better but those tools are SPECIAL man.