RJ Luis Scouting Report
Multipositional defenders who can scale their roles up and down are much-wanted commodities in the NBA. RJ Luis, Jr. is the Big East's success story. But is the junior NBA ready? Find out below:
RJ Luis Jr. (#12, St. John's (NY)): Junior
6'6" — Small Forward — Date of Birth: Nov 27, 2002 (22 years old)
Introduction
After scoring double-digits at Massachusetts, Luis Jr. earned himself A-10 All-Freshman honors. His combination of craftiness to get downhill, physicality, and multipositional defense led to him committing to St. John’s and Coach Pitino in his first season in Queens, NY. Luis Jr. continued to embrace his hard-nosed defense to where he grew into getting more responsibilities on offense. He’s a team-first player who’s the first to take over a game when his team needs to.
Luis Jr. has an excellent feel for the game, especially as a defender. His profile doesn’t need the ball in their hands to succeed. With many intangibles fitting into different roles, Luis Jr. intrigues NBA scouts as a blueprint they can shape as they please. However, the ultimate NBA role is still a question mark. But this scouting report is here to answer what he’ll do at the next level. That’s the emphasis of this article.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-7, Luis Jr. has good positional size to play as a two or a three in the NBA. He has broad shoulders and continues to fill his frame while listed at 215 pounds. His core strength is on an NBA level and a big reason why he’s combining his craft so well with his physicality. Luis Jr. is a good athlete with a consistent motor and decent lateral quickness despite bulking up in the last few years.
He has long arms and decent verticality, helping him serve as a weak-side rim protector. He’s all about toughness and embraces physicality. His footwork improved over the past season, potentially adding the possibility of defending against ones, twos, and threes at the next level. He has fluid hips but looks slow-footed due to a weaker first step.
Defense
Catch-and-shoot
Luis Jr. is fantastic at recognizing and executing his rotations. That’s the biggest addition to an NBA team’s defensive rating. However, at times, he’s too modest at contesting his shots. That’s him translating to his bigger role compared to his sophomore year, where he’s now playing ten more minutes per game despite keeping his amount of fouls neutral at 2.2 per game. His fundamentals make sense, and he’s focusing on keeping one foot inside the paint, not follow the ball too much but react while focusing on ball reversals. He’s not waiting for the outcome but reads the game and anticipates when it’s time for him to respond to spot-up shooters.
In the first play below, Luis Jr. rotates to the paint to serve as the help defender, but after the kick-out pass, he immediately closes out to the elbow, anticipating the extra pass. His awareness is another value riser, simply dodging the pindown in the second play below, to where he’s again closing out timely. To add more detail, Luis Jr. follows foot movement a lot. He’s looking at how the pivot foot reacts to determine if his closeout will be attacked or if it’ll be a spot-up three. His last step is according to the outcome, where Luis Jr. closed out more closely, recognizing the feet set at 180 degrees of the basket.
Despite the made shot in the third possession below, Luis Jr. saw that the feet didn’t tell that it would be a shot or dribble penetration. That’s why he was more cautious on the closeout, leading to him giving a better angle for the spot-up shooter. Regardless, that’s a good play, considering the wide-open driving lane on the weak side. However, at times, Luis Jr. should follow his instincts more. In the fourth play, he took the guess on the closeout attack, already sliding his feet and bending his knees, whereas the elbow shooter took advantage and shot over the top.
Catch-and-drive
Luis Jr. purely focuses on closing angles when closing out. That’s the base. He’s not consistent on that end due to a lack of burst. Therefore, his footwork has to be perfect, combined with not allowing a driving lane and always keeping opponents at 180 degrees. However, despite being a strong team defender, Luis Jr. will struggle against quicker ball handlers at the next level. He’s unable to match the speed if he’s not winning the battle of the fundamentals.
His patience is compensating a lot for it. Luis Jr. doesn’t get caught overhelping, nor will he be late rotating-wise. The first play shows an example, despite the action around him. Luis Jr. kept the option of a kick out to his elbow side out of the equation by guarding the weaker side area. He’s also good at deciding when he’ll be proactive and taking away the plan of the opponent to where he’s reactive and leaves the initiative to his opponents. In the second play, Luis Jr. had his feet set and angles closed and simply challenged the ball handler to beat him off the dribble while anticipating a jumper. Luis Jr. spends a lot of time studying the opponent's scouting reports.
His recognition of angles is shown in the third play below. Luis Jr. isn’t faster than most, so he has to outsmart them. He’s often using his arms to tag and his feet to force ball handlers toward a direction when closing out. Instead of reacting to dribble penetration to the basket, Luis Jr. simply forces the ball handler to relocate to the strong side, making the odds in favor of Luis Jr. to avoid paint touches so that he can take over the assignment with his physicality. That eventually led to the tough hook finish. However, against quicker players with better bursts, Luis Jr. struggles, with the last play below being an example.
Hand-offs
As a result of a lack of speed, Luis Jr. has to differentiate himself from his peers with his screen navigation. Plays out of handoffs are a vital part of how the NBA game is played today. More fives are used as hubs on different spots on the floor. Luis Jr. has the feel for the game and physicality to avoid and fight through screens. That’s a vital part of his profile. Therefore, the defensive value mostly arises from his screen navigation. At 1.5 steals per game, the returns of his activity are a good indicator of his success.
Despite colliding with his teammate in the first play below, Luis Jr. shows good rotations, which form the base to consistently defend handoff plays in the NBA. In the second possession, Luis Jr. plays physical on-ball defense in the baseline out-of-bounds play. The essential detail here is his awareness combined with him throwing himself between two players. He’s good at snaking, with the positive being good upper body strength, ensuring he can fight through ball screens if avoiding them doesn’t work.
He’s also reading screeners well. In the third possession being the ICE, Luis Jr. doesn’t follow his assignment who ghost-screened at the corner. Instead, he trusts the team's defense and rotations, leading to his decision-making becoming a good shot contest on the elbow three. The same applies to the last play below. Luis Jr. tags the screener well, using his arms to create a cushion between both players. Hereafter, he pivots strongly with his right foot out, immediately finding his opponent in his face while giving no inch of space for the dribble penetration as the opponent designed the set for.
Pick-and-roll
The physicality aspect of the game makes it feasible for Luis Jr., who will be asked to defend in the pick-and-roll. More NBA games look for size and strength in their backcourt without sacrificing offensive creativity. Regardless, with the game being more focused on switches, Luis Jr. will get his fair share of these assignments. As mentioned earlier, the screen navigation is solid. It has the potential to be top-notch in the NBA, considering how well he’s combining screen navigation with how he’s pivoting out his last step after fighting through the screen.
Luis Jr. is a pesky defender, and that’s a result of the gritty and hard-nosed style of play the Johnnies identify themselves with under Coach Pitino. Luis Jr. fits in well, considering the level of his fundamentals. In the first play, the awareness stands out, as Luis Jr. feels he’s lured into the high pick-and-roll, smartly deciding not to get too close to the ball handler and trusting his length. Despite the made basket, that’s a good play. However, he’s not consistent with his last step, where the focus is too much on the screener at times. In the second play, Luis Jr. tried to create the cushion by pivoting far out with his left, but it opened the driving lane on the baseline side.
In the third play below, Luis Jr. shows a strong last step as the ball handler rejects the screen. He’s pivoting out wide to balance himself out and compensate for a lack of burst. His awareness to immediately throw his chest in and force physicality is the only option he can hang his hat on. And in a physical Big East conference, he has grown on that end this season. That makes it more feasible for Luis Jr. to continue adapting, even when entering a faster-paced NBA game with more ball movement.
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