Julius Halaifonua Scouting Report
Skilled seven-footers who can play in multiple styles of offense are wanted commodities for NBA decision-makers. But what will Halaifonua's case be for his NBA future? Find out below.
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Introduction
After a fantastic outing at the 2024 Basketball Without Borders during All-Star Weekend, Halaifonua saw interest in him spike to an all-time level. Hereafter, Halaifonua returned to the US months later to participate in the NBA Academy Games, where allegedly North Carolina, Kentucky, and Georgetown were the schools with the most interest in signing the 18-year-old New Zealander.
He eventually committed to Georgetown, with Coach Cooley’s system to play through big men being the deciding factor. Good timing as the Hoyas strengthened their roster via the transfer portal to chase a winning record in the Big East. The opportunity to play is decisive for a prospect’s draft stock, as the emphasis of this scouting report will be on how Halaifonua performs in a system that values the big man beyond play-finishing.
Physical Profile
With an incredibly well-filled frame, Halaifonua weighs about 290 pounds. The seven-footer has broad shoulders and good length. His verticality is below average, which he compensates with great footwork, especially on the defensive end. Rapidly gaining weight has led to Halaifonua sacrificing some of his hip mobility. He’s slow to move his hips and spin consistently.
That’s an area of development in his evaluation. His body will likely continue to change during his freshman year, as an NBA strength and conditioning program to take the most out of the combination of his strength, power, and athleticism is much needed.
The physicality of the game is not new for Halaifonua, who’s set to adjust to a higher level of physicality in college basketball. Where the international experience with New Zealand’s U17 and first team are valuable reps that will serve him well to minimize the time needed to adjust to the Big East.
Offense
Halaifonua’s unique selling point for NBA decision-makers is his passing. He’s an excellent decision-maker who reads the floor very well. As a result, he’s making extra passes right after catching the ball, where he needs one dribble at most. The NBA is built around maximizing a team’s offensive rating and possessions per game. Ball movement and decision-making are the two vital factors that determine potential success. In Halaifonua’s case, that’s where he fits in perfectly as a connecting big man who accelerates the team’s fluidity of ball movement and execution of sets.
What will be essential to succeed in the NBA is to immediately decide to keep the ball moving or to attack his assignment in a split-second. The first play below is a good example. Halaifonua doesn’t hesitate to attack the interior with most of his teammates out on the perimeter. He’s using his physicality well but knows that the coverage would not lead to a favorable shot, hence the drop-off pass to underneath the basket.
The second possession below ends up in Halaifonua again leveraging his strength by posting this assignment up, scanning the perimeter for open shooters after the incoming double. His feel for the game and IQ as a decision-maker are beyond his years and simple executions as these show why. The level of decision-making has been consistent throughout the NBL One season. In the third play, the entry pass leads to Halaifonua deciding to either attack the rim as a face-up scorer or to keep the ball moving. While pivoting with his left, he positioned himself to elevate his first step and power himself to the rim. But the level of composure to hit the cutter in a tight angle has been impressive.
We see a similar execution in the fourth play below. This time the physicality looks to unbalance Halaifonua, who strongly pivots with his right to scan the floor for the extra pass. However, with motion around him, he kept his composure to bank on the wide-open interior as the team ran a four-out scheme. Yet again, good execution on the final pass. To give an example of how well Halaifonua scans the floor combined with quick execution, see the last play below. The incoming help defense led to Halaifonua trusting his instincts to find the wide-open shooter above the break.
The area of development for Halaifonua is to leverage his excellent passing and physicality in playing as a face-up scorer. Attacking closeouts off the dribble can be a difference-maker in how much he can contribute to a team’s offensive rating. What immediately stood out is that despite a good burst or first step, Halaifonua positions himself very well to attack as a face-up scorer. His footwork is essential for that to happen.
He has created a good habit of pivoting strongly before catching the ball on entry passes. This helps him to move his hips and leverage his strength in his attempts to get downhill. In the first play, he moves heavy-footed but still finds the angle for a tough finish near the basket. In the second play, we see him immediately come to action without hesitation. In college basketball, big men are often successful due to their ability to bank on mismatches or smaller assignments, as his role at Georgetown won’t be different. Therefore, his ability to set his feet correctly so fast on entry passes forms the base of his potential success as a productive Big East center.
The third play is an interesting one. He’s trying to finish against multiple defenders underneath the basket, deciding to not kick the ball out despite seventeen seconds remaining on the shot clock before the finish. Halaifonua giving a sign of dominance and that he plays tough with tons of aggressiveness is the only way for him to earn respect from the defense while successfully leveraging his strength and passing advantages.
What will keep him on an NBA floor is his jumper, both off the dribble and from a standstill. The fourth play below shows a vital part of his evaluation: pulling up from the midrange after entry passes. Halaifonua is mastering his strength advantage by looking to force defenders to adjust to what he wants, rather than trying to take what the defense is giving to him. That’s a draft-stock-rising part of his game, as the ability to pivot quickly and pull up for the shot while keeping the ball high will earn him reps as a shooter in the NBA early on in his career.
The positive in Halaifonua’s shot is that he’s a willing shooter. As the season progressed, he got much more comfortable in taking the shots when he was open on the perimeter. The sample size is neglectable with twelve attempts in twenty games in 2024. This doesn’t take away the focus on how Halaifonua’s shot process looks to project if plus-shooting is possible in a college basketball or NBA setting.
Shooters need to get into their motion as quickly as possible. In Halaifonua’s case, he’s excellent at keeping the ball high after the catch while pivoting his feet strongly before the ball reaches his hand. This makes him flexible in the decision to either shoot or attack the closeout. While focusing on his shots off the catch, keeping the ball around the area of his chest helps Halaifonua to get into his shooting motion quickly. With a decent release point in terms of height, he has the base to grow into a volume shooter in the future.
In the first play below, Halaifonua’s active screening leads to the popping opportunity to where he’s a tad too slow in moving his hips to face the basket from above the break. Regardless, the shot mechanics look fluid while he’s getting off to his shot while keeping his feet close to the ground. That’s a fundamental part of his shooting, that will help to put less pressure on his knees and thus increase durability. That’s the struggle with most seven-footers long-term, as knee injuries make it an uphill battle to recover from; Halaifonua has the precautionary measures by adjusting his shooting mechanics to raise future durability.
Looking at the second and third plays below, that’s the type of shots NBA teams are looking for. In four or even five-out offenses, floor-stretching big men need to respond to drop coverage by immediately pulling the trigger. That’s what Halaifonua did in both sequences, where his high release point is what will be considered a positive. Considering his bigger role at Georgetown, these types of shots should be available throughout the season, making it likely that there will be a feasible sample size to give more value to the outcome of his shooting.
Of course, Halaifonua has to showcase the basics of his role and serve as a play-finisher. Active cutting and making good reads off the ball are vital to open up scoring opportunities. The first play below shows a sequence of Halaifonua serving as a screener, where the off-ball threat gets separated after he blocks two defenders to keep them inside the interior. This forced the defense to gamble on the decision, thus opening up the wide-open driving lane in the middle.
The ability to put strong and good screens is what will keep big men on an NBA floor. That’s the ability for others to create separation and get Halaifonua some runway to relocate more smoothly in the interior. In the first play, he’s able to get downhill but gets stopped with the hard foul, forcing him to earn his points via the charity stripe. At 72.5% on 69 attempts, the sample size is reliable as the free throws themselves are consistent in terms of form and shot mechanics.
The potential to differentiate himself from his peers is in two areas, his physicality on the offensive glass, as shown in the second play below. He’s generating second-chance scoring opportunities for himself and others, positively impacting a team’s offensive rating. The other one is the ability to keep the ball high after the catch. Play-finishers in general have the bad habit of bringing the ball down to power back up.
That bails the defense out who can hack and foul the scorer to make him earn two points from the line instead of banking on the high-quality finish from underneath the basket. In the third play below, Halaifonua does well to keep the ball high after the catch around the rim. It looks similar to how the Gasol brothers operated around the basket.
Defense
Halaifonua is an aggressive pick-and-roll defender who uses his physicality well to discomfort ball handlers before making a decision. What immediately stood out is that he’s not relying on drop coverage, as he’s actively going over screens and hedging pick-and-rolls. In the first play below, he’s looking to immediately attack the ball handler who was set to utilize the screen. However, Halaifonua was too aggressive by moving out of the paint, opening up the angle to hit the big man who dove to the rim after the ball screen. This led to a late rotation on Halaifonua’s part.
We see him actively tagging against screeners, but at times executing his pick-and-roll defense by moving too far out of the perimeter. The second possession shows a similar outcome. The rotations after ball handlers pass the ball rather than attack themselves take Halaifonua out of the game. The aggressiveness to attack ball handlers often led to teams targeting Halaifonua via inverted pick-and-rolls, as his screen navigation is below average.
The third play below is a good example. The disadvantage here is that in an NBA game where teams are looking for weak areas of an opposing defense to decide what they will exploit during games. In Halaifonua’s case, going back to the basics should be the way to go at Georgetown. The base to be a versatile pick-and-roll defender who doesn’t rely on drop coverage is there. But in college, serving as a reliable drop-coverage big man in the pick-and-roll should be the base to expand on that, and eventually do what Halaifonua loves to do most: showing aggressiveness.
We see him give much more confidence while closing out to the perimeter. That is exactly what NBA decision-makers want to see from him in the Big East. Halaifonua doesn’t have the burst and lateral quickness to keep up with small and explosive guards. However, he built a good habit of using physicality to force scorers to decisions to early decisions. On top of that, the high level of footwork keeps Halaifonua in balance consistently. His decision-making against jab steps and fakes are consistent, as it becomes easier for Halaifonua to get stops with a clear mindset of him forcing scorers to beat him off the dribble.
Despite the make in the first possession below, Halaifonua pivoted well with his right foot to maintain balance, whereafter he didn’t bite on the jab step. In the second possession, his teammate hit the deck whereafter Halaifonua followed the scouting report by letting his assignment open on the perimeter. When he was eventually challenged near the rim, the lack of proactivity cost him two points. It’s good to force scorers to beat you off the dribble, but when the scoring threat becomes too high, the defender has to step in and take over the reins, and that didn’t happen in the second play below. Halaifonua leaves a better impression in the third possession below, but the main difference here is that he’s meeting the ball handler inside, rather than it being a live dribble play where he had to slide his feet and move laterally.
NBA decision-makers will put value in the fourth play below. The long-term concern with Halaifonua is that when he’s beaten off the dribble, he doesn’t have the burst and lateral quickness to compensate. That will lead to help defenses having to step in and thus a defense to collapse. The threat of the aforementioned is especially the case when opposing teams run four- or five-out types of offense, making Halaifonua’s decision-making on fakes and jab steps vital to not hurt a team’s defensive rating too much early on in his career.
The area where Halaifonua can earn himself a long-term spot as a defender is his ability to respond to standstill shooters. The essential part here is his decision-making as a help defender. He’s rarely caught overhelping. What immediately stood out is that positioning on the floor is very important for Halaifonua, and he’s too busy to be in the best position for himself consistently. In the first play, we see an example. After the entry pass to the mid-post area, the opponent looks for the angle to pass or finish the post-up play but is getting bothered by Halaifonua’s attempts to double, while following his assignment and positioning of himself closely. Eventually, the opposing shooter relocates slightly, making the gap of contesting the shot too large for Halaifonua.
The process itself makes a lot of sense. But as mentioned with his pick-and-roll defense, Halaifonua’s aggressiveness in attacking ball handlers can lead to him making mistakes. In the second play, we see him taking over the assignment of the ball handler to where the original assignment simply relocated to the corner on the weak side, exploiting the wide-open three, with Halaifonua in no position to quickly turn contest the shot, due to a lack of lateral quickness and burst.
In the third play below, we see Halaifonua pivot strongly with his left, daring the ball handler to shoot the pull-up three. He keeps enough of a distance, allowing the gap to shoot, but solidifying his stance in case his closeout gets attacked. For the NBA, that means shooters who fake the catch-and-shoot motion always find a well-prepared Halaifonua who’s ready to respond to the dribble drive. We see a similar outcome in the fourth play. That’s where he plays beyond his years because Halaifonua knows that if he responds to a scorer catching the ball, he’s less able to balance himself on the move, opening up a scoring angle for his opponents. The defensive stance of forcing players to beat him off the dribble or to take the shots that he’s giving them is what above-average NBA defenders excel at.
The struggles mentioned earlier with burst and speed, on top of the below-average hip mobility, lead to Halaifonua not optimally defending against cutters. We see an example in the first play below. Halaifonua does well to move together with the dribble penetration, but after the dropoff pass, he’s too late to respond, thus allowing the wide-open layup at the rim. In the second play, the below-average hip mobility is put on display. Halaifonua’s assignment launches the backdoor cut, whereafter he’s too late to respond to the dropoff pass.
Mobility is a must-have intangible value to have for prospects. And NBA decision-makers might struggle to maintain their defensive rating with Halaifonua on the floor. In the long run, improvement is imminent, as for someone who weighs 290 pounds, it becomes harder to maintain a high level of burst and lateral quickness. That’s why NBA decision-makers must research what the most optimal weight is for Halaifonua, as a strength and conditioning program at the next level is a must to make the most of his physical tools.
NBA Draft Projection
Here’s a summary of the aforementioned strengths and areas of development:
Strengths
He’s an excellent passer with quick decision-making. Halaifonua has no issues with making split-second decisions with his ability to read the floor well while showing great footwork. Setting his feet is the base for success in the NBA, as his playmaking and passing fit the league’s faster-paced style with more ball movement.
Halaifonua is a willing shooter who takes advantage of his strength by keeping the ball high after the catch. Whether it’s after a rebound or when receiving passes, he doesn’t bring the ball down to his waist. On top of the value of his quick decision-making, Halaifonua can immediately decide to either dribble, pass, or shoot. The process of him keeping the ball high will translate well to a faster-paced NBA game.
Areas of development
Halaifonua has some mobility issues which may cause concern for his long-term potential as a defender. His hips are not fluid enough to quickly spin to rotate or switch to a new assignment. At times, he’s also too reactive to what the offense will do, rather than being proactive and forcing scorers to decisions they don’t want to make.
He doesn’t have the burst or lateral quickness to respond to getting beat off the dribble. Considering the perimeter-heavy role he’ll have in the NBA, that’s a threat of opposing teams targeting him on the perimeter to create better angles and driving lane for rim pressure. That makes Halaifonua’s decision-making as a closeout defender vital.
Based on the above-mentioned strengths and areas of development alongside the details in this scouting report, I project Julius Halaifonua to be a potential late first-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, with ending up in the top 45 being the bare minimum.
The main reason for this is the playing style fitting to a fast-paced game that relies on ball movement allows him to develop via an NBA system while finding playing minutes. That increases the odds of being a one-and-done prospect out of Georgetown.
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