Sion James Scouting Report
Sion James is a vital part of a historically good Duke team. The intrigue is that his role translates to almost every NBA team. But there's a brighter future than that. Here's why he'll get drafted:
Sion James (#14, Duke): Junior, 6'6"
Shooting Guard/Small Forward — Born: Dec 4, 2002 (22 years old)
Introduction
James’ college career is an example to many aspiring professional hoopers. His four years at Tulane helped him evolve to a niche role as a vital defender, both in the pick-and-roll and away from the ball. Growing to a double-digit scorer helped him maintain stability with his offense—that’s the main learning curve. The NBA seeks wing-sized ball handlers who can scale their roles up and down. As one of Duke’s main building blocks alongside Flagg, James has a clear path to be drafted this summer.
But what will be his role? Outside of some areas to improve, James has a clear role in the early stages of his career. More importantly, it’s feasible his role can be scaled up once he has shown his worth. The combination of the untapped potential and his value in the first two years of his career is the main focus of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-6, James is a strongly built multipositional guard. He has a well-filled frame with broad shoulders. On top of that, he has good core strength, making him both flexible and mobile with his hips. He has quick feet and improving footwork throughout the years. James is a good athlete with a decent burst but much better lateral quickness.
There is no official measurement available, but his wingspan should be around 6-foot-10. His length and decent verticality give him the base to defend up to three positions in the NBA. One of his main traits is his quick hands, on top of his hands being very large That’s what NBA scouts value. In an NBA game that moves toward positionless basketball, James’ physical profile will draw much intrigue around NBA front offices.
Offense
Passing, ball-moving and playmaking
At 105 assists to 41 turnovers, James has incredible metrics to start with. The best part is his consistent execution of his reads. His patience is the main asset. He’s often not forcing passes and playing within the flow of the game. That makes him a vital part of a connecting guard to use his experience and feel for the game to help the underclassmen around him thrive in their roles. James doesn’t shy away from high-risk high-reward passes, but his patience and leverage as a closeout attacker give him a solid base to continue to play as a connecting guard at the next level.
In the first play below, James seeks off-ball cutting from his teammates. But with all five Duke players on the perimeter, James had to utilize the screen at the top of the key to feed the freed-up spot-up shooter. The patience and playing within the flow of the offense are vital here. In the second possession, James shows yet again much patience. He used the defense, preparing for the drag screen to utilize the angle and hit the corner shooter on the weak side.
In the third play below, James shows his court vision, recognizing the double-stagger while hitting the cutter at the right time. The execution of his reads is consistent as he uses his size to see over the defense. In the last play below, that led to the timely alley-oop pass from the sideline. James’ playmaking is consistent but basic. Regardless, that should earn him reps as a secondary creator at the next level.
Catch-and-shoot
James’ 42% three-point shooting is slightly inflated. The lower volume of attempts makes it less feasible to sustain that level of shooting. But there’s a truth in the shot process of James being NBA-ready. He has a smooth shooting stroke while setting his feet quickly. However, as a senior at Tulane, he shot 38% on nearly four attempts, adding more value to the consistency of his process. In the first play below, James' body preparation makes sense. He’s planting his last step while combining it with setting his feet. His body stance was at 180 degrees of the basket and his ball placement and fluid rise for the shot all made sense.
In the second possession, James again relocates well while setting his feet with a strong last step. He caught the ball on the side but corrected his ball placement before fluidly rising for the shot. His hips and the stability of his shoulders show how much of a habit James has in his shot process. However, on the flip side, James needs to work on moving more to where he doesn’t have to correct the ball after the catch. In the third play below, that should have led to him either attacking the baseline driving lane or making the extra pass instead of forcing the contested three.
Regardless, James’ shot-making while being a smart ball-mover and playmaking gives enough confidence in his shot translating at the next level, especially considering he showed good returns in a more ball-heavy role during his years at Tulane in the AAC.
Catch-and-drive
Despite being a good passer, James struggles with tunnel vision as a scorer. His role makes it essential for him to be effective when making plays out of closeouts. His strength advantage against guards, alongside his burst, makes it feasible that he can thrive as a space-creator on drives in the NBA. Despite good efficiency at the rim, as shown in his shot chart above, he’s often forcing shots where he has less eye to bank on defenses collapsing by making the extra pass.
In the first play, he can’t shake off the tight defense while trying to finish through contact. That says a lot about his toughness, but in terms of decision-making, it was better to keep the ball moving. In the second possession, James shows a great isolation possession. His wide pivot is a strong weapon to catch defenders off guard. His sudden pop didn’t lead to a good scoring angle, but he found his sweet spot in the middle of the interior regardless.
That continues in the third play below. James collapses the defense with incredible footwork, pivoting far with his right to force the closeout defender in to suddenly move his hips and attack the rim via the weak side on the left. That led to the defense pulling the emergency break and fouling James before he hit his dunk home.
Cuts
James is an active cutter, which is a must, considering his role with fewer ball touches. Whether it’s him making quick decisions to hit other cutters, as shown in the entry pass in the second play, or him executing quick cuts to explode to the rim, which is shown in the first possession. James has a great feel for the game and his experience helped him improve his positioning throughout the years. That’s what makes him a vital defender while using his strength and toughness as leverage while moving away from the ball.
In the third play below, James shows another crisp cut after the entry pass, banking on the extra pass before drawing the foul. However, for the short term he should continue to focus on his play-finishing rather than actively seeking to execute reads as the main ball distributor. In the last play below, James failed to create separation, and when the help defense collapsed on him, he tried to bail himself out with a pass through the middle. His positioning is excellent away from the ball, but the same hasn’t translated to his playmaking game yet.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
James’ high level of fundamentals translates to his footwork. That’s a plus value in his profile. His strong upper body is another vital part of his game which helps him to effectively play as a screen navigator in the pick-and-roll. He will not be a full-time pick-and-roll defender, but a switch-heavy NBA game forces defenders in all positions to be able to face up against ball handlers looking to create advantages. James embraces toughness, which fuels Duke’s defensive rating with him on the floor.
In the first play below, James slides his feet excellently while keeping his strength advantage as he forces the ball handler to beat him off the dribble. Despite the made shot, that’s a high-quality defensive play on his end. This continues in the second possession below. This time, James shows consistency in his rotations. He gets burned by the spin move but keeps the tag on the ball handler until his teammate picks up the assignment whereafter he ensures he impacts the passing lane to take away any potential bounce pass through the middle.
In the third play below, James comes over the drag screen, but is too modest in staying in front of the ball handler, fearing a personal foul. At slightly over two fouls per game, he’s not aggressive enough. An area for James is to continue to use his body to make sure he takes the balance away from his attackers.
Catch-and-drive
As a closeout defender, James shows an incredible last step. However, his positioning isn’t always consistent. He’s good at closing out at 180 degrees of his man but often reacts to fakes and jab steps with some movement, effectively leading to him giving up a driving lane. As he’s reacting, he’s not stable and thus cannot rely on his burst when ball handlers blow by him. An example of this is shown in the second possession below. Regardless, James’ footwork forms the base for him to grow into a plus-defender with his closeouts.
In the first play below, he’s combining it with solid rotations. He’s gotten burned after the closeout, but James responded well by immediately rotating to the interior to at least take away a dropoff pass while he recognized the help defense in the interior ready to take over his assignment. In the third possession below, James recognizes he’s getting attacked on the strong side and thus uses a wide pivot on his last step to keep his balance while fully embracing the challenge of keeping his man in front of him. That led to an excellent defensive play with a good shot contest. Despite the foul, that’s the level of toughness he has to continue to show.
Hand-offs
For his NBA role, screen navigation will determine how many minutes James can play on the floor. With more NBA fives being used as hubs, guards often struggle to navigate through screens while opponents make plays out of handoffs. That’s an area where James can earn himself a niche role while keeping his defensive rating at par, if not improve it with his instincts, decision-making, and physical advantage, leading to him effectively fighting through screens.
The first play below shows a good example. James does well by taking away a dribble penetration from the elbow by tagging the handoff five. Hereafter, he rotates well while dodging the incoming ball screen to keep a hand in the shooter’s face. He’s well attached to his assignment most of the time despite multiple actions around him. That’s the first step in making his screen navigation feasible for the next level. In the second possession, James didn’t recognize the dribble penetration and lost a few feet which he couldn’t recover. The tag was good, but it wasn’t aggressive enough. He has to toughen up in these scenarios and either pull the brake and take the foul or fully try and take his opponent’s balance away.
However, when his footwork is good, James stays attached to his assignment. The third play below shows an excellent example. However, he’s often using his verticality and length, but NBA scorers with more creativity will be the first to utilize that and use a shot-fake to take James out of the play. That’s an area of development for the NBA coaching staff to help him within the next few years.
Catch-and-shoot
James’ rotations are consistent. That’s where he can hang his hat on at the next level. This helps him to thrive in defending against spot-up shooters. The potentially elite part is him barely overhelping on defense. It’ll add to the intrigue NBA scouts have in his game. His quick feet and timely recognition of how plays develop make him close out against shooters timely on a consistent basis.
In the first play below, James does well in moving with the ball handler to follow the line and make the kickout pass angle a bit tougher. This helps him to close out while focusing on his pivot foot without worrying about whether he can keep his man at 180 degrees. His excellent hip mobility led to a quick spin and him impacting the passing lane, getting a deflection. In the second possession, James keeps one foot inside the paint while closing the angle of the cutters in the middle. After the ball reversal, he again shows his flexible hips to close out before spinning fluidly.
James is excellent at recognizing his positioning. In the third play below, he kept one foot inside the paint but pivoted it further out, making him flexible to burst to rotate to the play-finisher in the paint when needed, but also to ensure to elevate his burst when he had to close out to the corner shooter. It’s imminent for James to positively impact a team’s defensive rating in the NBA. That’s the main sell for his qualities in the non-scoring side of the ball.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Sion James to get his name called in the 2025 NBA Draft. It’s no secret more NBA franchises seek to add versatile defensive guards with NBA-ready bodies to their depth. Despite entering the league as a 22-year-old, James has five seasons of experience under his belt, making his consistency even more translatable.
As a connective part on a historically good Duke squad, James has shown that his game and role translate to winning. The lack of true long-term potential keeps him out of the first round, but I expect James to be an early second-rounder where he will sign a guaranteed contract, opening the room for his second contract when he’ll be around 25 or 26 years old, just before his prime.
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