John Poulakidas Scouting Report
Shooting is the most essential skill in the NBA. But shooting alone won't bring you far. John Poulakidas has a well-rounded game that translates to the next level. Here's all you must know about:
John Poulakidas (#4, Yale): Senior, 6'5.5"
Shooting Guard — Born: Apr 4, 2003 (22 years old)
Introduction
With back-to-back All-Ivy League honors, Poulakidas ends his collegiate career in style. His shooting prowess is the unique selling point, but there’s much more needed to succeed in the NBA. The Illinois-born earned a reputation by scoring 28 points against Auburn in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
That’s where he put himself on more NBA radars while entering his senior year. He scored over nineteen points per game on a jump-shot-heavy diet. He’s a highly skilled floor-spacer who takes good care of the basketball with an eye-popping 4.4% turnover rate. This scouting report emphasizes how his shooting will translate to a scalable role at the next level.
Physical Profile
Poulakidas measured out well at 6’5.5” in shoes. He has good positional size to play as a two while switching to three in smaller lineups. He has broad shoulders and a decently filled frame. At 204 pounds, there’s room to add more muscle to his frame in the next few years.
He’s a decent athlete with good lateral quickness. Poulakidas can impact the game with his length at a confirmed 6-foot-10 wingspan. Despite the lack of paint touches, Poulakidas stands out with fluid hips and good core strength. Balancing out his body has been an area he has worked on throughout the years. It’s easy to assume he avoids contact due to his jump-shot-heavy diet, but that’s not the case, which adds intrigue to his physical profile.
Offense
Catch-and-shoot
While shooting 7.8 threes per game, Poulakidas makes his volume justified with the versatility of his shooting. He’s excellent at actively moving and cutting to get to his sweet spots on the elbows. On top of that, when he’s a stationary shooter, he has his feet set while not dipping the ball. The speed of his release is another area that will translate well to the NBA level.
In the first play below, Poulakidas switches to the strong side and immediately ensures his feet are set after the jump spot before the elbow three. Despite the miss, that’s the quick execution NBA scouts look for. He won’t have to shoot from a phone booth in the NBA, but the ball placement and jab in the second play gave him a small window from which to shoot. That’s the flash that you seek. Despite the miss, Poulakidas leverages his shooting threat while showing some creativity.
But the biggest sell in his profile is the no-dip shooting. Poulakidas sets his feet when shooting off the catch before he has the ball, and does well to catch while placing the ball for his shot without dipping the ball. His smooth release shows consistency and a decently high arc. The third and fourth plays below show examples. The volume shooting is a translatable part of the NBA and the base for his role.
Making plays out of closeouts
As the shot chart above shows, Poulakidas barely has attempts inside the paint. That makes it a must that his jumper is close to elite to compensate for the lack of paint touches and rim attempts. When Poulakidas makes plays out of closeouts, he must adapt and catch the defense that is focusing on taking away his three-point jumper. Regardless, with limited creativity and no blow-by speed, Poulakidis has his timing and footwork to rely on when attacking his closeout assignment.
In the first play below, Poulakidis times his pivot foot well before the blow-by. However, with his head down, he should have attacked the defender’s chest instead of pulling up after one dribble. These are the types of contested long twos that NBA teams try to limit. Tunnel vision is another issue to work on. Poulakidis did well to pick up his dribble by again keeping his head down and pivoting out. He was more comfortable attacking the defender’s chest, but with two defenders on him, he didn’t pass up the advantage in the second possession below. The selfishness on that end is an area of attention, as Poulakidis must focus on keeping the ball moving and limiting the number of highly contested shots from the interior.
In the third play below, Poulakidis shows his footwork, helping him to create an angle with the shot clock winding down. His recognition and creation of angles give important flashes to grow as a closeout scorer in the next few years.
Shooting out of handoffs
With more NBA teams playing four- or even five-out sets, the result is more plays created via fives that love to hand the ball off to perimeter creators. Poulakidis has a close-to-elite shot process where his footwork and last step immediately put him in the right shooting position. In terms of spacing and forcing help defenders to adjust to rotational pieces, makes life easier for the usage-heavy stars on a team. Poulakidis has the ability in his game to create a few field goal attempts per game.
The toughness is a big part of his compensation for the lack of athleticism. In the first play below, he forces the two feet inside the paint by putting his arm out and playing physically. Despite the missed step-back, that’s a good shot. The intriguing part is shown in the second possession below, where Poulakidas gets the ball from the handoff and pivots strongly with his left. That puts him in a position to immediately shoot or use the weak side to pressure the rim.
However, the other side of the coin remains that Poulakidas is too eager to immediately shoot out of handoffs. He’s often not focusing on making the extra pass, via the defense reacting to his shooting gravity and thus sending in help much earlier. But for him, it’s understandable why he’s relying on his shot so much. The process makes sense from the moment he sets his feet and immediately pulls up via the no-dip three off the catch. The fourth play below shows an example.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
The aforementioned issues of a lack of passing are confirmed by a 7.4% assist rate that led to 1.3 assists per game. In all fairness, Poulakidis does not need ball touches to make an impact. His shooting gravity mostly consists of him limiting his dribbles and getting the ball out of his hands quickly—whether it be a jumper or a pass. The gravity of his shot hasn’t led to Poulakidis improving other facets of his game, such as passing, ball-moving, and making the right closeout attacking decisions. That’s an area of concern for NBA scouts.
However, he shows areas of improvement and some flashes of playmaking skills that are much needed in his role as a shooting guard. In the first play below, Poulakidis sees the roll timely, which he used to create the shooting and passing angle on the elbow. The high entry pass helped the five to duck in the paint much easier, as he could keep the ball higher. However, when looking at how Yale used him, his active cutting to the paint led to Poulakidis making plays out of paint touches.
He’s good at positioning himself for post-ups after entry passes but often steps out of the way of physicality and immediately seeks to kick the ball out. The third and fourth plays below show examples. The passing does not stand out, but there’s potential for Poulakidis to improve his decision-making by leveraging his shooting gravity. That’s his main area of development for the next few years.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
Poulakidas is a decent screen navigator. His toughness and aggressiveness are on display, and he’s actively fighting through screens or uses tags to create gaps to throw himself between the ball handler and screener. At under two personal fouls per game in three straight seasons, Poulakidas shows he plays under control despite his aggressive style of defending. He has a good feel for what ball handlers will do, and the footwork is beyond his years. Despite growing up in the United States, he shows fundamental similarities to many other Greek guards.
The first play below is an impressive one. Good screen awareness by Poulakidas, who decently fights through the double staggered screen before finding a way to contest the midrange jumper. The high level of footwork is on display in the second possession below. Poulakidas lost his balance after the opponent’s stepback but slid his feet well, showing a solid pivot with his left that helped him elevate his vertical jump to contest the shot out of balance. However, one of the areas of development is that he’s reliant on drop coverage.
The third play shows an example where he’s adjusting to the incoming drag screen, bailing the ball handler out who had a wide-open shooting angle from the elbow.
Closeouts
With the combination of rotations and good reading of his opponent’s footwork, Poulakidas shows out with his closeouts. That’s an area where he can hang his hat on defensively. He’s not fast enough, but compensated well for it with his early physicality by forcing opponents to either beat him off the dribble or physically. His toughness on that end helps his NBA role as he manages to stay away from picking up unnecessary fouls. The other side of the coin is that NBA teams favor athleticism.
Poulakidas shows his solid footwork in the first play, where he had to rotate and pivot strongly, which helped him get back to the corner. He gave away the baseline, and in the reaction after the ball went in, the disappointment was visible. That speaks volumes about his will to make winning plays. In the second play, he’s taking away shooting prowess by being physical with his man in the corner. His jump back had Poulakidas focus his eyes on the opponent’s feet. When it didn’t move, he knew he could fully bet on the jumper rather than a closeout attack.
The feel for the game and decision-making on that end will help Poulakidas help a team improve its defensive rating via his closeouts. He’s keeping his distance, reading feet, and when he’s unsure, he’s ensuring to take away dribble penetration. The fourth play shows an example. Poulakidas could be more physical when he gives away paint touches. That’s an area of development for him, as he fears being baited into fouls. The third possession shows an example.
Catch-and-shoot
Poulakidas doesn’t have good vertical pop. But his lateral quickness and length at a confirmed 6-foot-10 wingspan give him enough weapons to close out effectively against spot-up shooters. However, at 3.3 rebounds per game, he’s leaving rebounds on the table. In the NBA, he’ll face more long threes. These often lead to long rebounds, where Poulakidas has the habit of not boxing out actively for the defensive rebound. Most of his rebounds fall his way, like in the fourth play below. That’ll lead to worries for NBA scouts in their evaluation.
His closeouts and last steps are reliable. Poulakidas does well to hedge if he’ll either be blown by or must jump out to contest the shot. In the first play, Poulakidas sees the wider pivot, which could have led to him getting blown by. Therefore, he couldn’t get too close to his assignment. The prevailing factor here is the solid length, which helps him hedge his decisions in closeouts much more easily. Another positive is his rotations. In the second play, he sees the opponent pressuring the strong side, and he immediately rotates to close the passing angle to the dropoff option to the cutter in the middle. Despite the made three, that’s a good defensive play as it helped him to close out and get back to the above-the-break shooter.
The help defense, however, is too early. The third and fourth plays below show examples of him making correct reads as a rotating defender. But in the NBA, that’ll play out to teams exploiting the open man much easier. For Poulakidas, finding a healthy balance in the next few years is one of the things NBA coaches must help him with.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project John Poulakidas to be a late second-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. He’s one of the top shooters in the class and has good measurements and decent athleticism. He has a clear role, but he must learn to leverage his shooting gravity better to impact winning outside of his shooting. In his evaluation, there is no clear answer to what he can add to a team if the shot doesn't fall; that's hurting his draft stock.
Regardless, his skill is needed on all NBA teams, and I expect a team to sign him to a two-way contract later in the second round.