Javon Small Scouting Report
His play- and shot-making were separating factors in Big 12 play. That fuels Javon Small's NBA future. But what'll be his role? What's the long-term potential? Find out below:
Javon Small (#7, West Virginia): Senior, 6'3"
Point Guard — Born: Dec 19, 2002 (22 years old)
Introduction
While scoring over eighteen points per game, Small earned All-Big 12 honors. His top-tier playmaking, on top of his reliable three-point shooting, gives him a feasible role as a backup point guard in the NBA. However, there’s more to his game. While being a decently young senior, Small shows untapped potential to grow into a bigger role in the next few years.
He earned more feasibility of his jumper as he developed into a volume shooter with East Carolina in the AAC. On top of that, he continued doing so in a power-five conference, with improvements in his angle-creation as a scorer and passer to show for it. The emphasis of this scouting report is to picture a realistic role while showing the improvements Small has had in the last few years.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-3, Small has decent size to play the one and two in the NBA. Throughout his college career, he filled his frame. He doesn’t stand out with broad shoulders, but has a good frame. The main sell for NBA teams is his core strength. Combined with good footwork, Small is crafty in tiny spaces where he’s maintaining his balance well. On top of that, he has big hands and good upper-leg strength.
He’s excellent vertically with a decent burst. Small shows decent to good verticality, which helps him defend against quicker players. He doesn’t go through physicality, but it doesn’t take anything away from his toughness and aggressiveness, which are vital intangibles that NBA scouts seek. To add to his physical value, Small has long arms. There is no official measurement available, but it should be around 6’6” or 6’7”.
Offense
Catch-and-shoot
At 35.3% on over seven three-point attempts per game, Small shows he has the sample size to grow into a volume shooter off the catch. He has great positional awareness and shows improved footwork. The positive of his shooting is how well he sets his feet. He’s pivoting strongly while powering up for the shot from his chest. Despite lowering the ball to his waist, he enters his shooting motion higher, and that’s much better translatable to a faster-paced NBA game with quicker closeouts to respond to.
Small shows a reliable shooting release. His arching point is high enough to ensure he can shoot over taller defenders. He positions his arm in a V before rising for his shot. Considering the strength he added to his frame in the last few years, that’s another area that’ll serve him well. The first play below shows an example. In the second possession, Small does well to move to the elbow after the post-entry pass, recognizing the help arriving early. However, his decision-making on his shots is often too rushed. In the NBA, he’ll have to shot-fake that closeout to make the extra pass to the opposite corner to ensure a great open look instead of taking the decently open one.
Regardless, Small’s an excellent shooter who’ll be able to contribute immediately, especially considering he can pivot with both feet on catch-and-shoot threes via off-ball movement. He pivots with his right in the third play, showing great balance while doing the same with his left in the fourth play below. Those are the intangibles NBA scouts value.
Catch-and-drive
As the graph above shows, under 21% of Small’s attempts come at the rim. And that’s an issue considering his NBA value. He’s not making the right decisions out of closeouts, often settling for jumpers rather than attacking the glass and creating open teammates or finding the right scoring angles inside. That’s something NBA scouts will try to address during team workouts. The surprising part is that Small has the footwork and foot speed to find looks around the basket. His ability to maintain balance on top of his craft should have led to more paint touches in the Big 12. That’s one of the potential red flags in his profile.
We see bad decision-making in the first play, where he’s overplaying the ball, and the opponent can load up to close any passing lanes for a ball reversal. In the second play, Small doesn’t benefit from the wide-open straight-line driving lane his shot-fake produced, settling for another one-dribble pull-up. However, NBA scouts must remember his creativity off the dribble. In the third play, Small recognizes the driving lane and finds himself at the right angles by generating two feet inside the paint via the eurostep. But the most vital part here is shown in the fourth play below. Despite the made three, the right play here was to make the side pass to the corner cutter, who had a free route to the basket. Passing out of closeouts remains one of the issues in his profile.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 5.6 assists per game, Small was top-3 in the Big 12 in this category. He has the reputation of a good playmaker, which is partially correct. As shown above, when he’s wired to score, the tunnel vision is still there, as he’s not always making the right decision to either pass or take his shot. Regardless, passing, ball-moving, and playmaking will be Small’s strong suit for the NBA. He’s a good angle-creator for others while executing his plays well. His court vision helps. In the first play, Small comes out of the pindown and immediately moves his hip when receiving the entry pass at the elbow to make the quick decision to hit the option in the post.
With decent size, Small continues to see over the defense and has a great connection with his four and five-men. He’s great at using his change of pace to draw the attention of help defenders to activate cutters around him. In the second play, he rejects the screen and shifts gears before finding the backdoor cutter with the lob pass. Passing right out of screens remains one of his strengths, coming excellently off the stagger in the third play below. The art of screen-and-roll is to utilize screens immediately via angles by drawing attention from help defenders. Small’s change of pace makes him such an effective playmaker on that end. These skills are highly regarded around the NBA.
Pick-and-roll scoring
A part of evaluating guard talent is NBA scouts seeking how they express their creativity as creators via the pick-and-roll. For Small, the tough shot-making is one of his strengths. But the volume is simply not sustainable enough to make it anywhere near feasible that he can contribute to a team’s offensive rating when being facilitated with the ball touches a leading guard needs. While over 50% of his field goal attempts are threes, the number of shots off the dribble is too high. If it was a healthy mix of paint touches and generating the leverage of getting downhill easily with timely off-the-dribble shots, there’s a fair conversation of Small being a legitimate first-rounder in this class. But that’s not the case. NBA teams will, unfortunately, not facilitate volume shot-making off the dribble when there’s zero to no leverage of defenders fearing his rim pressure.
Regardless, teams want shot-makers in every position. There’s room for Small to grow from his role as a complementary guard to earning more leading reps. However, he must convince NBA scouts that he can attack the rim more often. With his handles, core strength, and balance on top of the craft and recognition of angles, there’s potential for that. But to earn more feasibility, the earlier-mentioned passing out of closeouts and advantages created from the second largest area of development. Small’s offense is intriguing but needs work to make it fit an NBA offensive scheme.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Small’s defense is promising. He’s a tough and gritty stopper who uses his length well in throwing himself between the ball handler and screener. The screen navigation is good despite struggling against much stronger forwards at times. That’s where his toughness and grit compensate for most of it. Regardless, his active tagging on ball handlers while wrapping his arms around the screen to create a cushion to throw himself in between is impressive. Teams tried to hunt Small in pick-and-roll action, but that’s where he made West Virginia’s defense stronger.
This is a positive to counter possible issues teams have with a non-plus-sized guard and its impact on a team’s defensive rating. In the first play below, Small looks to be shaken out of balance after the ball handler rejects the ICE. But that’s where his strong footwork comes into play, decently compensating for getting blown by with the toughness from behind. In the second possession, Small does well to get through the double stagger to keep the contact against the ball handler. His skill to not foul there while putting the scorer out of balance is impressive. While playing over 30 minutes per game for three straight seasons. Averaging below two fouls per game in the same span. That’s impressive and supported by how well he can control his toughness.
In the third play, a vital part of an NBA evaluation comes into play. The ball screen creates separation for the ball handler, but Small doesn’t give up. He keeps his defense alive with his active tagging and timely shot contest. Despite the made shot, that’s a good play. Another vital part is using push-offs to add speed to his burst. In the fourth play, Small gives up separation but compensates again by a push-off against the screener to keep track of his assignment while contesting the shot well.
Handoffs
Despite the good screen navigation, Small struggles with his positioning when he’s playing against screeners. He’s often lured to step outside the interior, which is an automatic collapse for his team’s defense. That’s where Small has to focus on being less reactive to what ball handlers do while forcing them to beat him when he’s holding ground in the area he must guard. The first play shows a good example. The five fakes the handoff at the top of the key. If Small stays in the interior, he can always opt to go over the screen to respond to the ball handler with the ball in his hands, rather than the ball handler moving off the ball. His exit from the interior made it easy for the opposing five to hand the ball over in the interior, seeing only one opponent inside the lane.
However, there is promise in Small’s off-ball defense. He’s good at recognizing what’s happening behind the screener to act accordingly. But he needed help for this, as in the second play, the screens completely blocked his defenders, while in the third play, the ball handler made it clear he was moving on the perimeter rather than attacking the rim. For Small it’s imminent he’ll be responsive and thus more vulnerable when he's stepping out of the interior. Instead, he must stay inside and bet on his length and verticality to make the necessary shot contest when ball handlers decide to shoot threes off the dribble.
Catch-and-shoot
Small’s over-helping on defense often hurts his team’s defensive rating. That’s an issue in his draft profile. He’s often lured into rotating or helping when he sees post-up actions or dribble penetration. That’s an issue. The NBA is built on motion offenses and passing out of advantages created to shoot many threes. Therefore, Small’s help-defense issues won’t help a team sustain its defensive rating. Regardless, there’s no perfect prospect, and it’ll always be give and take. NBA teams value toughness and activeness, which helps Small while improving decision-making to help defense look fixable under NBA development.
In the first play below, Small sees the bailout pass to the elbow and tries to intercept it for a pick-six in transition. Considering the shot clock winding down, that’s an acceptable decision. But in the second possession, the opposing five begged Small to help as he wasn’t strong enough to generate space or angles via post-ups. Small eventually bit, and the five immediately used the bailout play for the pass out for the deep three. That’s a read a fourth-year senior must make on the floor. In the third play, Small lost focus and was coached by his five to take the assignment above the break.
But for NBA scouts, it's vital to know that these things don’t happen occasionally, while gambling for the pass deflection he had in the fourth play might hint otherwise. Decision-making looks lacking, and that’s an area NBA coaches need to help Small improve.
Catch-and-drive
Small’s decision-making in closeouts undersells how good his last step is. That’s an issue, but the last step being good makes it feasible for improvement. As mentioned earlier, he helps too early. On top of that, he’s vulnerable to pump fakes and jab steps. At times, it looked like opponents tried to utilize plays where Small was the main defender. That was one of the issues he faced during Big 12 play. Regardless, more reps at the G League level will help him improve on that end. Playing among much better scorers gives him valuable reps to improve his decision-making.
In the first play below, Small rotates well to meet a potential entry pass. However, with the ball reversal and the last step, Small struggled to maintain his balance by not using the reverse pivot when the scorer initiated contact. But it wasn’t a bad play, as Small tried to take charge. This changes in the second play. Small overhelps and does the opponent a favor by opening the side pass for a wide-open weak side. This forced Small to rush his closeout, where he had to gamble for the three off the catch. This play went wrong the moment Small helped way too early.
Biting on fakes remains an issue, as we see another possession in the third play below. Decision-making as a help defender takes away all the value Small has in his closeouts, as he can close out at 180 degrees while showing a good last step. Regardless, his presence on the floor will hurt a team’s defensive rating, and that’s where his draft value goes down.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Javon Small to be an undrafted free agent in the 2025 NBA Draft. Regardless, he’ll garner interest from teams who look for shot-making, reliable shooting, and creative playmakers. The screen navigation and footwork are promising tools he can use to improve his defense. That opens the room to potentially earn a two-way contract after a stellar summer.