Trenton McLaughlin Scouting Report
The league's need for more versatile volume-shooting wings is clear. However, you need more to stick in the NBA. Trenton McLaughlin is this year's prospect hiding in plain sight. Here's all to know:
Trenton McLaughlin (#24, Northern Arizona): Senior, 6'6"
Shooting Guard/Small Forward — Date of Birth: Unknown
Introduction
While scoring over 22 points per game, the back-to-back All-Big Sky honoree led his conference in scoring. McLaughlin has a great feel for the game and solely aims to make the right play each time. With a 7.9% turnover rate, the volume shooter’s decision-making matches the numbers and his impact on winning. However, adjusting to the NBA requires several skills when not having the ball in your hands or when shots don’t fall.
The positive factor is his growth from a rotational role in his first two seasons at Central Connecticut to being the star at Northern Arizona. With a fifth year of eligibility, McLaughlin hit the transfer portal while testing draft waters. With a small draft pool, his profile should be on every team’s watchlist. The NBA needs high-volume shooters who are creative closeout scorers. But McLaughlin must show more than that to earn a living as a pro basketball player. That’s the emphasis of this scouting report.
Thanks to Nathaniel Miller (@OranjeGuerrero on X) for putting McLaughlin on my radar months ago.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-6, McLaughlin is a good athlete with quick feet. He doesn’t have broad shoulders, but filled his frame well throughout the years. He’s stiff and relies on his footwork, which is consistent. The skill level disguises the struggle against better athletes at the mid-major level. Regardless, McLaughlin compensates for the lack of physicality with his decision-making and craft.
He’s not a vertical athlete, but is strong and consistent laterally, with the footwork showing room to improve. No measurement is available, but the best guess would be a neutral or 1-inch-plus wingspan. The area of development for the next level is improving his core strength to help him create a better balance when dealing with physicality.
Offense
Closeout shot-creation
McLaughlin doesn’t have a good burst. Therefore, his timing on when to attack the closeout is essential. He has decently tight handles and moves well, but often avoids physicality that leads to him settling for jumpers instead. The first play below shows an example where he’s using ball fakes to sidestep and create the driving angle, but does not make the extra pass or attack the closeout. Shooting unbalanced jumpers is bailing the defense out here.
At over five free-throw attempts per game, he’s making the most out of the paint touches he generates. Jab steps and timing are his two go-to moves, with the second play as an example. He doesn’t shy away when seeing the five already jumping up. The runway before drawing the foul made it easier to rise vertically. Creativity and ball handling are vital parts of being an effective closeout scorer. The third play shows this example. McLaughlin is solid with both hands, changing pace on his drives while fully relying on his craft. However, the challenging part is absorbing contact, which leads to an unbalanced finish.
Body control is the main investment to make in the long run. The fourth play shows an example of McLaughlin switching it to an isolation play. With a good reverse pivot, he gets deep inside the paint, but didn’t balance out well enough before the layup. That’s one of the main reasons why McLaughlin is a 56.5% finisher around the rim, as shown in the chart above.
Catch-and-shoot
At 8.5 three-pointers per game, McLaughlin is a true volume shooter. He’s comfortable shooting off the catch while also having one-dribble pull-ups. Shooting versatility is essential for the NBA, especially in playoff settings. That’s because sole catch-and-shoot options are easier to take away as a closeout defender can get in his space more easily. But with McLaughlin’s ball skills and footwork, he’s effective as a one-dribble shooter.
The unique selling point is the combination of quick feet setting and a fast shooting motion. His process is consistent, and McLaughlin wins time by not lowering the ball in his mechanics. The first two plays show an example. Despite the hands in his face, he’s shooting over defenders well with a decently high-arcing release. But the speed is the main intrigue for NBA scouts. An area of attention is that McLaughlin is not actively moving. Motion is essential in the NBA. The third play shows an example of him demanding the ball but not making it easier for a teammate to move toward his passing angle.
Regardless, the fluidity of his jumper off the catch is consistent and fluid. The high volume combined with a close-to-35% conversion rate makes it feasible that his shot translates to the next level. That's particularly the case when his shot process and its consistency are a confirming factor.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 3.4 assists per game, McLaughlin holds a close to 2.0 assist-to-turnover ratio while doubling his number of assists compared to his junior campaign. The numbers show a good return. He’s primarily executing basic reads as a ball-mover while showing NBA value in keeping his composure in dribble penetration while knowing how to create passing angles for himself. The decision-making and maturity in his game show why he’s taking good care of the ball with less than two turnovers per game.
Timely passes are no issue with McLaughlin, but the area of development is passing the ball ahead in transition. In the first play, it took him a second too long to deliver the cross-court pass after the rebound. The intrigue is McLaughlin’s fluidity out of handoffs. The third and fourth plays below show examples. His change of pace and patience help him to create angles as he anticipates how to help defenders move. This leads to more consistent executions of his reads.
NBA teams will gladly give secondary ball-handling duties to benefit from such playmaking skills. The reverse pivot in the last play is another example of how comfortable he creates angles to dribble or pass out of.
Pick-and-roll ball handling
A vital part of McLaughlin’s evaluation is understanding that specialists may sound good in theory, but sticking in the NBA is all about the number of tasks a prospect can handle. For McLaughlin, the key to succeed as a volume shooter is that his gravity must be good. Sole shooters are easier to take away from opposing defenses. But, with McLaughlin, there’s a serious gravity value if his handles and craft translate to playing as a scorer on top of his shooting.
The area to work on is decision-making when utilizing ball screens. McLaughlin settles for jumpers too often, and that’s not healthy for a team’s offensive rating. This effect trickles down to fewer ball touches, as paint touches are the base for pick-and-roll ball handlers. But there are good flashes of his change of pace leading to him getting downhill. The first play shows an example.
The other side of the coin, however, is his not embracing contact, which is the main reason to rely on his one-dribble threes or stepback jumpers from the midrange. Despite his excellent shot process, McLaughlin must stop preferring too many jumpers over paint touches and layups.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
Despite the lack of physicality on the offense end, McLaughlin embraces that he must be aggressive to compensate for his lack of athleticism. He’s a decent screen navigator with good awareness. He’s recognizing incoming ball screens but struggles to fight through contact. Regardless, he’s making the right decisions while showing proper footwork. His size helps him to be in the second line as well, giving his team options to hedge ball screens.
The positive part is the composure. The first play shows an example. McLaughlin slides his feet well and doesn’t bite on jab steps or fakes. Despite him opening the angle at the end, it was a good defensive play where he used his size and length to close the lane while forcing the unbalanced shot. He’s also smart in using gentle pushes to play with an opponent’s balance. In the second play, he’s sliding his feet again well. But when recognizing he gave separation, he flirted with the foul by being aggressive but in a passive way, taking away balance before the finish.
To compensate for the lack of touches, McLaughlin gambles for steals when hard-hedging or even blitzing ball handlers. The fourth play shows an example. He’s timing his actions well, leading to back-to-back seasons with over 1.5 steals per game.
Screen-offs and screen navigation
Regardless of the good feel for ball screens, McLaughlin doesn’t stand out as a screen navigator. With the lack of athleticism, that’s a must to survive against NBA athletes. However, the positive part is that he’s not forcing his aggressiveness either. He’s playing in control and in rhythm. He’s averaging two fouls per game in three straight seasons, showing he can play in control. But the issue is him dying on ball screens which leads to the opponent finding wide-open threes.
The first play shows an example. McLaughlin didn’t use his arm to create a cushion to dive between the screener and ball handler but played it safe with the soft tag. It continues in the second possession below. Here we see the ball moving above the break, and McLaughlin had enough room to dodge the pindown at the top of the key instead of running into it. Despite flashes like the third play where McLaughlin recognized the passing lane to intercept for a pick-six, NBA-caliber players won’t commit such sloppy turnovers.
Closeouts
McLaughlin has a bad last step, which often leads him to get burned by closeout attackers. He’s showing the right process as he’s focusing on closing out at 180 degrees. However, the lack of speed and quickness leads to the must to rush his closeouts. The effect trickles down when considering he’s not pivoting well on his last step, which causes struggles to maintain his balance. That makes it easier for scorers to blow by him and utilize the weak side to completely collapse a defense.
The first play shows an example where McLaughlin stepped on the perimeter line to close the baseline. However, he closed out too far and got burned by the strong side with no balance to rush back. The second possession shows a much better last step with the bump to absorb contact. That’s a flash of him using his hips decently. But his core strength isn’t good enough to use his hips more fluidly, which puts a cap on his defensive potential. In the third play, we see another example of him closing out too far. He’s not forcing ball handlers to beat him off the dribble. Therefore, teams will prioritize to move the ball until they force either the switch or the closeout by McLaughlin.
Catch-and-shoot
The positive part is McLaughlin showing a mature game in his rotations. He’s reading the floor well and doesn’t stare at the ball. This helps him to pick up rotations when teammates won’t do it. That’s the leadership role he embraced at Northern Arizona. His style fits the motion-based game NBA teams love to play, where ball movement is key. He’s much more comfortable closing out against spot-up shooters when it’s likely his closeout won’t get attacked.
The first play shows an example. McLaughlin guards the weak side corner and recognizes that the kick out above the break would lead to the extra pass to the shooter on the elbow. His timely rotation and decent shot contest led to the miss. We see a similar outing in the second possession. However, the issue here is the lack of a defensive boxout, where McLaughlin didn’t show effort to crash the interior while two opponents crashed the offensive glass. That shows why he’s averaging under four rebounds per game despite having the size to box out harder.
When the effort is there, he’s a commanding rebounder. The third play shows an example. First, he rotates well to the corner, albeit he gambled on the opponent not making the extra pass. But compensating well for it, he crashed the interior and picked up the high rebound in traffic. For NBA scouts, it’s a must to focus on how reliable his motor is when he’s in a team’s gym for workouts, as it’s a key for him to show he can partially compensate for the lack of athleticism and closeout technique.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Trenton McLaughlin to be an undrafted free agent after the 2025 NBA Draft. However, his skill set as a high-volume shooter is a much-wanted commodity. Especially considering how well he’s mastered shooting both off the catch and after one dribble. He’s a good playmaker with a great feel for the game, while giving a decent outing as a team defender. He’ll have to prove his worth with an Exhibit 10 contract. Hereafter, we’ll likely see him in the G League if the NCAA doesn’t grant him a fifth year of eligibility.
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