Malique Lewis Scouting Report
Physicality, toughness, and top-tier athleticism bring butterflies to every NBA decision-maker's stomach. It gets better for Lewis and his chances to succeed. Here is his NBA role and potential:
Introduction
As a part of the NBL’s Next Stars program, Lewis transferred from the G League’s Mexico City Capitanes to Australia, where he plays for South East Melbourne. For a prospect to put himself in the best position to succeed, the opportunity to play and role parity for the NBA is the most essential. For Lewis, he made a homerun decision by moving to the other side of the world.
Lewis’ complementary scoring, while carrying a heavier duty defensively, puts him in the best position to showcase what he can do for an NBA team. At 9 points, 6 rebounds, and over two stocks per game, the outcome doesn’t look flashy. But that doesn’t matter, as it’s all about the substance. It fits seamlessly with what he’ll do at the next level. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-8, Lewis is a strongly built combo forward with broad shoulders. He has decent core strength but much better improved upper-body strength. With decent hip fluidity and footwork, Lewis has good mobility, which helps him to defend against different positions. He’s a good athlete. The combination of twitchiness and strength help him to change from playing more physically, while also matching up against quicker guards and wings.
Lewis has excellent verticality and big hands. His body changed rapidly throughout the years, leading to his frame falling behind. He’s making up for lost time as he’s improving his strength level in his chest, which helps him maintain better balance when he’s operating inside the arc. On top of his much more feasible role as a help-side rim protector, his physical profile continues to add value with his 7-foot-1 wingspan while bulking up to 209 pounds.
Offense
Transition
Lewis’s best skill is composure combined with speed. That makes him a constant threat on the open floor, whether he’s initiating ‘grab-and-go’ sequences after defensive rebounds or when he’s sprinting ahead in transition to finish off plays. His incredibly quick feet and body control help him to use his craftiness to get to his spots around the rim. The improving upper-body strength increases the threat of him drawing fouls, which he converts at a 68.4% rate this season.
His change of pace is an important weapon, as shown in the first play below. Defenders know they have to step in and contest when he’s decelerating, which Lewis smartly uses to find the right angle to get fully open at the rim. His balance and footwork stood out on top of his soft touch around the basket. Another value added is his composure when he doesn’t have the right options to drop the ball off, as shown in the second play below. He’s calm and knows that he can leverage his speed to make defenders adjust to his will, where in the second possession, he drew a foul to get himself to the charity stripe.
In the third play below, Lewis shows how well he understands angles. He’s positioning himself to attack the baseline, where he’s catching the ball toward the strong side, initiating an immediate response from the defender. Hereafter, his hips move fluidly to attack the other direction. This continues in the fourth play below, where his teammate passes the ball ahead for Lewis to again use his long arms to lure defenders to react in one direction while he’s using his quick feet to find the right angle in the other direction. His profile fits the NBA’s will to play much faster while avoiding halfcourt-heavier gameplay to improve their offensive rating.
Catch-and-shoot
Lewis’ jumper has been the issue in his development over the last two years. He’s often forcing his shots rather than relying on his natural shot release. A drop in morale after a few misses is visibly there. Therefore, an NBA decision-maker must make that one of his most vital things to improve. It’s not an issue of mental toughness but more the response to missing shots not fitting his incredible desire to win games.
When looking at his jumper, the process is rushed. He’s good at setting his feet, but the biggest struggle for him is to correct the ball. He’s also bringing the ball down too far, where it’s impossible to fluidly power up for his shot. He doesn’t need to power back either, as he’s strong enough to shoot shots where he keeps the ball around the level of his chest. There’s also a gentle push on his shot, where the high-arcing point is good, but it often doesn’t find the target, as shown in the first play below.
As a result, Lewis hesitates on his jumpers. That fuels defenders to fully close out on him, as it’s certain he’ll shoot after taking half a second longer than he should. The second play is an example. He moves his feet well before the catch while putting himself ready in a stance to land a fake and attack the closeout or shoot. But waiting it out didn’t benefit either. In the third possession, we see another area of development. For Lewis, winning time on his jumpers is the main fix. The key to fixing it is to hold the ball closer to his chest. With the defense closing out already, Lewis brought the ball down while powering back up for the shot.
Another area to work on for Lewis is to place his body, feet, and the ball at 180 degrees of the basket. In the last play below, he caught the ball from the side and didn’t correct his stance despite being left wide-open. For NBA scouts, the improvements of his jumper off the catch is the main area to focus on in his developmental plan.
Cuts
Despite being undersized to play as a true play-finishing five, Lewis’ enticing athleticism makes it possible for him to feist off paint touch generators who can break down defenses. He’s mostly thriving on his role as a weak-side option, where teams can afford to sag off him as he’s an underwhelming shooter. But that’s compensated through Lewis’ active cutting that places him in good positions to collect dropoff or bailout passes.
In the first play below, we see Lewis coming through the middle after dribble penetration collapsed the interior defense. Despite the rough pass, he caught it well. He has good and big hands, which is another value adder to his draft profile. However, at times, Lewis struggles to utilize these. In the third play below, he caught the pass but needed to correct it, costing him his balance to finish the play underneath the basket.
Regardless, NBA teams will help him develop to ensure he can put himself in the same scoring position with fewer ball touches. Knowing that teams are hesitant to feature underwhelming shooters, Lewis has enough counters to compensate, with his scoring prowess in transition and via cuts.
Passing and playmaking
At 1.2 assists to 0.5 turnovers per game, Lewis’ passing doesn’t stand out at first sight. However, he is a good connective passer and ball mover for NBA teams to utilize. Despite not playing as a playmaker at South East Melbourne, Lewis recognizes angles and uses his plus size to see over defenders. In today’s NBA, there’s much more ball movement and motion while the game is played at a higher pace. That helps Lewis to get more ball touches while his leverage as a cutter and athlete makes it feasible for him to draw attention from defenders.
That will lead to him executing reads consistently. In the first play below, Lewis fakes the three to attack the closeout. After getting two feet inside the paint, he bumps into the interior defender. Hereafter, the angle to hit the backdoor cutter is wide open. However, he fools the entire defense by hitting the corner shooter while seeing the help-side defender rotating to him. That’s a high-level read. He’s also a timely passer. In the second play, he’s executing the two-to-one transition play to perfection. Instead of passing the ball ahead, he makes sure the defender gambles and rotates to him before leaving the play-finisher with a wide-open path to the rim.
In the fourth possession below, Lewis attacks the closeout before again bumping into his defender after getting two feet inside the paint. The hangtime while passing the ball to the cutter in midair was impressive. Especially considering he kept his eyes on the floor while pulling up for a midrange jumper. His quick decision-making is fueled by details such as touch-passing, as shown in the last play below. These types of flashes make it more feasible that he’ll be comfortable in a similar role in the NBA.
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