Tré Coleman Scouting Report
NBA teams need wing-defending shooters with role versatility. These often low-usage options are found via UDFA. Nevada's Tre Coleman is one of the non-discussed NBA prospects. Here's all you must know
Tre Coleman (#4, Nevada): Senior, 6'7"
Small Forward — Date of Birth: Unknown
Introduction
With two Mountain West All-Defense honors, Coleman has grown into the role of a wing and guard-defending shooter. His role is simple and effective. However, this didn’t stop him from gradually improving parts of his game and influencing his team’s winning with his handles and scoring prowess. At 7.6 points per game, Coleman’s value comes through his toughness and team-first approach.
As a fifth-year senior, Coleman added proven passing and playmaking skill to his game while continuing to show the same defensive versatility. His role is much-needed in the NBA, and every team seeks to add wing defenders to their depth chart. His current role fits into that box, and the emphasis of this scouting report is to determine what he’ll do at the next level and what the longer-term potential is for the Indiana-born.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-7, Coleman is a strongly built swingman who’s primarily playing the three. He has a strong upper body with broad shoulders. There’s room for him to continue to bulk up, but considering his strong footwork, his role is mostly suited to play as a three who can change to a two when playing in bigger lineups. Coleman is tough and aggressive but lacks good lateral quickness, which is his main area of concern.
There is no official measurement available, but his length stands out. I expect him to have a wingspan close to seven feet. That’s influencing his game as a defender, as, at 225 pounds, he can change toughness and physicality to use his length and be a pass disruptor. Coleman is a decent athlete who uses his physicality to his advantage but lacks true vertical leaping qualities.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Coleman is an active defender in the pick-and-roll who is showing decent screen navigation. Considering his wing size, that’s a skill NBA scouts actively seek. With his length, he’s seeking the tag on the ball screen immediately, helping him create a cushion to throw himself between opponents. When that’s impossible, he’s tagging the ball handler instead when trying to fight through the screen. However, the lateral quickness after that looks lacking, where Coleman focuses on being physical when the ball handler gets separated or tries to try and get the block from behind. There’s a lack of consistency in the execution of his screen navigation reads, which makes it an area of development for the next few years.
In the first play below, Coleman shows good awareness, rejecting the ICE and immediately pivoting far with his left to close the gap for the screener to place the wall. Hereafter, he kept good control of the ball handler, immediately putting his hand up on the pull-up three. One of the areas of development for Coleman is to stay within the lane when he’s not defending ball screens on the perimeter. He was lured outside the paint for the ball handler to try and exploit the weak side on the second possession, where he showed good length and active hands to put the hand in the face again. But NBA scorers will attack the rim relentlessly when they have such an open driving lane.
At under two personal fouls per game in back-to-back seasons, Coleman shows he can play in control. He uses his fluidity by using his jumps to close gaps. In the third play, his opponent got separated, and he immediately closed the lane. The foul call was easy, but fair considering the contact after the jump. The lack of lateral quickness when ball handlers get by him will cause issues at the next level. That’s a must for him to improve on.
Screen navigation and defending against hand-offs
We see more teams run plays via the five. Defending against handoffs becomes vital for wings to add to their must-have skills. That’s where screen navigation is essential. As a fifth-year senior, Coleman has shown maturity in his game while consistently making his rotations. That’s a promising start. The outcome is that it recognizes screens while keeping track of his assignment. However, the lateral quickness often gets in his way when it leads to dribble penetration, which will be a lot in the NBA.
In the first play below, Coleman doesn’t get lured to go over the screen, considering the opponent leading the weak side empty. With a push-off, he’s using his decent speed to stay in front of his assignment. But the lack of true lateral quickness leads to him using more physicality than necessary to keep up with his man. That’s leading to him picking a majority of his fouls on that end. Despite colliding with the screen, Coleman absorbs the hit with his strong frame and closes out well in the second play below. He’s showing he’s in control and recognizes what’s happening when he faces motion and ball movement around him.
The third play confirms this. He’s actively seeking to see if rotations are followed up and uses tags to keep his lane clean. He didn’t fall for the switches being forced with the pindown, leading to the roller finding his cutting lane. The experience leads to good defensive decision-making—a value adder to Coleman’s NBA profile.
Closeouts
Coleman is physical and forces ball handlers to beat him off the dribble. That’s helping him to grow into a decent closeout defender. His lack of lateral movement leads to his struggling against dribble penetration. However, other facets of his game are positive, which makes it feasible that Coleman can grow into a better closeout defender in the future. Despite his will to actively rotate, it often leads to Coleman offering help defense too early in the process. This leads to him covering more ground to make up for extra passes after the help defense.
The first play shows an example. With the strong side clogged, Coleman lost track and had his feet deep into the strong side of the paint, leaving his assignment on the weak side wide open. The compensating effort was decent, but in the NBA, these are the types of plays teams hope to get to collapse a defense. Therefore, Coleman must take his assignment and stay away from offering help to that degree. Despite the block and transition opportunity, that’s not a good play for NBA scouts. The second play shows him being too reactive to close out defenders using their creativity. He was shaken out of balance by the hesitation move but showed a good follow-up by using his toughness inside the paint to unbalance the scorer at the rim.
Another area of development is that Coleman is focusing too much on playing the passing lanes. At 1.1 steals per game, that’s a decent number. But it loses value when considering the number of possessions he’s giving away, a collapsed defense with the third play as an example. Overall, the closeouts are reliable, but the decision-making is where Coleman needs to show improvement.
Catch-and-shoot
Coleman’s rotations help him secure good closeouts against spot-up shooters. His game matured throughout the years, and he’s good at reading the opponent’s footwork to decide to hedge the closeout by the amount of space he’ll leave between himself and the ball handler. That’s a vital intangible for closing out at the NBA level.
One of the advantages of playing in the Mountain West is the combination of programs using athleticism and size to compete against each other. I don’t have data to back this up, but when comparing the Mountain West to other mid-major conferences. That is one of the reasons why the number of NBA players from there keeps improving throughout the years.
The first play shows Coleman following the play with one foot inside the paint. With long strides, he’s closing out and sticking close to the ball handler, contesting the shot well. However, an issue in his game is that he’s not actively boxing out in these sequences. That’s leading to him averaging between three and four rebounds for his entire five-year collegiate career. To improve as a rebounder, his boxouts when forcing tough threes are essential because it’s a given that these threes often lead to long rebounds, adding importance to his boxouts.
The second possession is a vital one, showing Coleman’s good understanding of the game. His feel as a defender is not getting enough appreciation. After dribble penetration, he recognized the empty elbow and relocated to close the lanes on the weak side with one foot inside the paint. He followed it up with a good rotation. That’s a strong play, regardless of the shot going in. Another physical attribute is hip fluidity, shown in the third play below. His spin move after the kick-out pass is another value adder to his draft profile.
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Offense
Catch-and-shoot
At 33.7% on 2.8 career three-pointers per game, Coleman shows average returns. His game is built through a combination of steady shooting off the catch but a lack of decision-making, and settling for pull-up shots. His shot selection is essential to improve his shooting and to help an NBA team sustain its offensive rating with him off the bench. However, for his evaluation, the shooting of the catch is the most essential, hence the focus on that.
Coleman is great at setting his feet before the catch. He’s an active mover and communicator and makes sure he’s positioning himself in the passer’s angle. He’s often used as a corner shooter, which fits what NBA coaches will use him for. Despite the low-arcing release on his shot, Coleman shows essential skills of placing the ball right after the catch and having his feet set. He’s rising smoothly, but the release is inconsistent. He’s often pushing the ball rather than having a natural release. He brings the ball too low before powering back up and releases the ball too early in the process. His shooting mechanics allow him to use later releases to ensure he uses his length well and avoids the lower release point.
All four plays below show his fluidity off the catch, but the lower release and bringing the ball down cause concerns about his shot. Regardless, the promise to improve as a shooter at the next level is clearly there.
Making plays out of closeouts
The charts above show the majority of Coleman’s attempts being threes. That’s in line with the expectation for the NBA. However, to earn shooting gravity, he must show creativity and scoring prowess by making plays out of closeouts. When operating with fewer ball touches, that’s a must to make it likely for a team to feed him the ball more. Despite a clear boundary to his role, the goal is to improve and make it harder for opposing scouting reports to take away Coleman’s strengths.
The lack of paint touches trickles down to Coleman settling for shots. That’s an area of his game that he must improve. The first two plays below show examples. Coleman makes the right decision to attack the baseline in the first possession, but when he can’t blow by his defender, he's not looking to make the extra pass and hail-maries a midrange jumper. In the second play, Coleman looks to make the pass out of the jump-stop to the paint, but the issue here is that he’s driving into clogged paint. The decision-making before the closeout was lacking.
On the other hand, creativity compensates for a part of it. Coleman shows decent handles, good footwork, and creates angles and advantages off the dribble. In the third play, he makes the right decision to prioritize the weak side. His last step led to a wide pivot where he immediately pump-faked his opponent to create a wide-open midrange jumper. That’s the scoring prowess he must continue to show. In the fourth play, Coleman shows good cutting and body control when attempting to finish the runner of the catch. At under two foul attempts per game for his entire career, Coleman’s area of development is to improve as a foul-drawer, as his creativity doesn’t lead to him initiating contact to get himself more potential and one opportunity.
Advantage creation out of post-ups
One of the separating parts compared to his peers is Coleman’s will to make plays out of post-ups. He’s good at creating angles to execute as a passer. We see more NBA teams value skill and toughness, and that’s often expressed in post-ups. With his advanced footwork, Coleman can create the right angles. However, the part leading to him being a below-average scorer on that end is his simply forcing shots. He’s not used to many ball touches. That’s leading to his will to make the most of the touches he gets. However, even when he’s converting tough looks, it might confirm his touch, but an NBA team won’t ask him to be a post scorer.
Therefore, context matters, and the focus is on possessions where he’s making mistakes. For NBA teams, his size and toughness could lead to him bullying opposing guards in the paint. But to make it work, he must prioritize passing out of help defenders collapsing on him. The first play shows an example with the above-the-break shooter screaming for the ball. The second play shows a similar outcome in transition. He successfully draws in the help defender and has a wide-open shooter in his passing angle. He again prioritizes his finish. That’s a no-go for NBA scouts.
With his touch and footwork, Coleman gets inside the paint. His craftiness prevails, with the third play as an example. Despite not being taller than most frontcourt players, Coleman’s upper body strength often overwhelmed defenders when attacking their chest. His passing out of post-ups makes a big difference in his future potential and role versatility. That’s something for NBA teams to monitor when he’s in their gym for workouts.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 1.5 turnovers per game, Coleman shows he’s playing in control, considering the 17.8% usage rate. His 3.6 assists per game confirm his added value as an additional playmaker. The handles are the prevailing factor, combined with his maturity and consistency in executing his reads. He’s not making advanced reads, but recognizes passing angles very well. This opens the floor to play as a playmaker on top of his ball-moving duties at the next level.
He’s mostly a connective passer and inbounder. He’s good at using fakes to see how defenders react before dishing the ball out. His assists are mostly a result of ball-moving, with the first two plays being examples. Often, he’s using timing to his advantage in transition. In the third possession below, Coleman fakes the downhill slashing before immediately kicking the ball out once the defender commits to him. Fakes show his creativity. The fourth play is another one where he’s in the angle of the blitzed ball handler before using a fake to return the ball to the leading guard as he’s using a side pass creatively to hit the shooter at the top of the key.
It’s essential to approach his game from the standpoint of a ball-mover—a role he’ll likely have at the next level.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Tré Coleman to be an undrafted free agent but one of the premier targets to land an Exhibit 10 contract. His path to a potential call-up to the NBA will be through the G League, as his struggles as a defender in the lateral quickness is a factor that’ll keep him from the floor despite his clear role and skill. Regardless, I am confident in saying Tré Coleman will have a good pro career where he’ll be on an NBA floor in the next few years.