Vladislav Goldin Scouting Report
While emerging as one of the nation's top centers, Vladislav Goldin has a case to be on an NBA floor next season. Here's everything you must know about his role and how likely he'll get drafted:
Vladislav Goldin (#50, Michigan): Senior, 7'1"
Center — Born: May 12, 2001 (24 years old)
Introduction
While scoring over sixteen per game, Goldin earned All-Big Ten honors while being crowned MVP in the Big Ten tournament. After spending three years at Florida Atlantic after his freshman year at Texas Tech, Goldin showed consistency and improvement throughout the years. His toughness, physicality, and great fundamentals made him emerge as one of the top centers in college basketball.
Physically gifted, hard-nosed interior scorers and defenders find their way to an NBA rotation. Goldin’s performance at the NBA Draft Combine keeps adding value to his draft profile. After being a high-usage option at Michigan, he won’t get the same role in the NBA. Therefore, the emphasis of this scouting report is on how feasible his role will be at the next level.
Physical Profile
As a true seven-footer in socks, Goldin is a long and fluid athlete. He has excellent core strength, and his good footwork is a consistent factor in keeping his balance. He has broad shoulders and a well-filled frame at 253 pounds. With his positional size and fluid hips, Goldin makes it feasible that he can play outside the painted area. That suits the need of NBA teams for size and length at all positions.
Goldin is built to play as a five, but can stretch the floor. On the defensive end, he has a slow first step but has the footwork to effectively play out of the paint and generate stops against smaller scorers. He’s not a good athlete vertically, but the size and length compensate for that, with an officially measured wingspan at 7’5.25”.
Offense
Offensive rebounding and putbacks
Toughness and composure help Goldin to be a second-chance opportunity creator. In a league relying on more three-point shooting, the traditional thought is that threes lead to long rebounds and fast breaks. That’s made most teams careful in crashing the offensive glass. However, we see more NBA programs using offensive rebounding to maximize their possessions in a game. Goldin’s impact on that end will be a large part of his role, especially in punishing smaller, shooting-heavy lineups.
Goldin has had over two offensive rebounds for four straight seasons. Garbage points are a part of his numbers, and composure and toughness are big reasons. As a true seven-footer with length, he can grab rebounds over opponents without committing over-the-back fouls. Goldin’s clever positioning is another factor. In the first play below, Goldin uses his elbow to create more room on the offensive box-out before his size advantage gives a clear scoring angle. Despite the miss, that’s the intrigue for NBA scouts.
In the second and third plays below, Goldin uses clever and active cuts to rotate himself to where potential misses land. He’s experienced and recognizes that jumping too early takes away his putback opportunity. However, the main area of development NBA coaches need to help with is not lowering the ball. While Goldin finishes over 73% of his attempts from the line, lowering the ball invites being hacked to hedge a surefire two points being given away. Goldin is a much better threat if he’s keeping the ball high and uses his size to ensure a higher odds of getting the second-chance score. The last play shows an example of him bringing the ball down and missing the bunny on an unbalanced layup. Those are the additions to a team’s offensive rating that he must add in the next few years.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
With 95 assists to 236 turnovers throughout his five-year career, Goldin does not give signs of a positive impact with his passing. As a dominant interior presence, Goldin was often the recipient of dropoff passes or banking on putbacks. The context behind a half-court-focused college game didn’t lead to Goldin showing consistent passing and ball-moving out of rolls or handoffs. That’s why the context matters much more, as Goldin shows enough promise as a passer to be a good ball-mover, which is a must to play most of the schemes teams run today.
One of the positives is Goldin’s footwork and keeping the ball high when passing out of the post. He’s selling a scoring move while he has the size to see over the defense and hit cutters. The first play shows an example. However, processing the game is an issue. Goldin often needs time and doesn’t take risks with his passes. Making the safe play is good to a certain degree, but NBA teams want to allow more creativity, and that’s where Goldin doesn’t show the willingness or quick execution of his passing reads. That often leads to a stalled offense, with the second possession as an example.
On the other hand, flashes of executing passes are there. In the third play below, Goldin gets the ball in the low post and immediately delivers the jump pass over his defender to the play-finisher inside the paint. The multiple paint touches make it easier for him to execute. In the fourth play, Goldin launches the transition break by passing ahead quickly. These are basic plays, but Goldin has to show more consistency before he can improve as a ball-mover and a playmaker in the NBA.
Creation of out closeouts
While being a 72.0% rim-finisher without dunks, Goldin struggles to create clean scoring angles out of closeouts. His handles are loose, but decent for his size. The struggle is caused by his forcing paint touches with his physicality and not able to plant a good last step and enter a balanced finish. He’s often forcing finishes and not showing creativity like pump or pass-fakes before finishing a play. That’s one of his areas of development.
Against one of the toughest interior defenses in college, Goldin shows the skill to play bullyball and force his way into the paint in the first two plays. However, the short steps and the decent pivot in the first one didn’t lead to the correct angle, as Goldin tried to power up for the shot through contact when he wasn’t fully in balance. In the second possession, Goldin fakes the handoff while using the smooth spin move to create a much better angle for the score. He didn’t look comfortable finishing against strong defenders inside the arc, which will take away some of his scoring prowess for the NBA. On the other hand, we see fewer one-on-one matchups between fives. Therefore, Goldin’s will and aggressiveness to play bully ball should benefit him when he has a mismatch.
The touch at the rim looks decent, but Goldin’s traditional approach of using banking layups might lead to some struggles as well. In the third play, Goldin explores to the rim after the fake handoff while using his arms to keep it in the defender’s chest. The high finish on the glass looked forced. With a strong last step and fakes that he can force and-one opportunities, rather than trying to force against the defense being physical against him. The lack of creativity is an area of attention for NBA scouts.
Catch-and-shoot
After four seasons without a single three-point attempt, Goldin increased his volume to close to one three per game. The low sample size makes the 33.3% shooting not relevant. The process and consistency are vital, and for the evaluation, we’ll focus on these instead. For NBA teams, physically strong interior presences who can stretch the floor add much-needed versatility. Goldin will shoot in the NBA. That’s a given.
The positive in his form is that he’s not putting much pressure on his knees. He’s not jumping, but has an Andre Miller-esque form of his feet barely leaving the ground. He’s good at pivoting with his left and keeping the ball high. Goldin understands that he’s too strong for the need to power up. Therefore, no-dip shooting becomes one of the opportunities. Goldin is slow in his decision-making to shoot, showing hesitancy. The first play shows an example. He’s correcting his feet and stays away from a quick trigger. In the NBA, he’ll be less comfortable taking his time.
The third play shows Goldin following his shooting script. He’s strongly pivoting with his left, but needs time to correct his feet. That’s a positive to start with. The mechanics are consistent, and Goldin shows a high-arcing release. Even if he’s bothered by a quick closeout, he can shoot over the defender with ease. I expect NBA coaches to steadily add volume to their role. Regardless of a non-shooting collegiate career, Goldin’s floor-stretching on top of his physical interior presence makes him a viable option to fit into four- or even five-out schemes that NBA teams like to run nowadays.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
Goldin’s comfortable and mobile, so he doesn't have to rely on drop coverage. That’s the base to make his pick-and-roll defense work in the NBA. He’s good at using long strides in his movement. At worst, hedging ball screens won’t be an issue. But the other side of the coin is that when Goldin plays drop coverage, he becomes passive and late responsive to what happens around him. The second play below shows an example. Goldin drops and doesn’t take the switch. On his right, the roll man cuts through the middle, and Goldin takes the assignment. But the midrange hook was not contested. That’s a bad play. Goldin has to get close to his assignment and worry less about the pick-and-roll set that already led to the entry pass.
In the first play below, Goldin takes the switch after the ball handler switches sides. However, he’s not pivoting well with his right, causing him to be out of balance when the scorer snaked the pick-and-roll and collapsed the defense. Despite good mobility, the footwork often gets in Goldin’s way. However, Goldin has good spatial awareness. Despite the passiveness when playing drop, Goldin understands how well his rotations must be to ensure that he can contest against either ball handler or play-finisher. In the third play, he doesn’t bite and forces the extra pass.. Hereafter, the rotation to the five was made much easier. The last play shows a similar outcome where Goldin closed the angle inside the paint and forced the side pass. Hereafter, Goldin immediately piled up the physicality, forcing the unbalanced finish.
Closeouts
As a closeout defender, Goldin will struggle in the NBA. He has a slow first step and doesn’t look comfortable playing on the perimeter when he’s put against a scorer. On top of that, the slower lateral quickness makes it feasible that NBA teams will force a switch to put Goldin on an island against ball handlers. Regardless, that’s the nature of the game. Long and heavy seven-footers will naturally move differently. In terms of mobility, there is no issue as it’s one of his advantages. But the pace and speed give Goldin trouble. That’s what NBA scouts must address during their workouts with him.
The first play shows an example. The ball handler steps out of the paint to lure Goldin away from the paint. Goldin is hesitant and takes slow steps to maintain his balance when he has to use his burst. By staying composed and forcing ball handlers to beat him, he’s compensating for the lack of speed with good decision-making. In the second play, Goldin shows the same in the post-up, as he made the right decision not to allow the scorer to seal toward the baseline while Goldin forced the unbalanced finish.
The area of development for Goldin is to be more composed when he’s facing jab steps or shooters already spotting up. In the third play, he heavily bit on the shot-fake, which forced the rotation. That’s the type of decision-making NBA scouts will focus on, as responding to creative angle- and space creators is the essential weapon Goldin has to possess if he wants to compensate for the lack of burst and lateral quickness.
Catch-and-shoot
With his 7’5.25” wingspan, Goldin has the length to effectively close out against shooters. Often, closeouts are pushed too close to the shooter, making it easy to get blown by with dribble penetration or even draw a potential four-point play. For Goldin, as mentioned above, he’s slow-footed with a lack of burst. Therefore, he has to make the right decisions when closing out, as scorers will gladly attack him off the dribble to take away his length and collapse the defense for a paint touch or a much better shot via another kickout pass.
Goldin’s presence will put pressure on a team’s defensive rating. He’s most comfortable inside the paint. This often leads to late closeouts against shooters, with the first play as an example. The faster-paced NBA game demands immediate decisions, as Goldin was a second too late before sprinting out to contest the shooter. The second play shows a similar outcome. With extra passes to the elbow, Goldin should have seen that open three coming much earlier than he decided to close out. That part of his game will put immense pressure on a defensive rating and should be considered a red flag.
Defending away from the ball and against cuts
Goldin has great spatial awareness. He’s using tags and quick checking to control his assignment to avoid backdoor cuts. That’s a recipe for success when considering NBA motion-based offenses. On top of that, Goldin is good at using his length to close angles against passers. Even when he has his assignment under control, he’s looking to close angles and shrink the interior. That’s the recipe for success for the next level.
In the first play below, Goldin keeps the ball-handling five at 180 degrees, repositioning his body to force his man to the weak side. That helped him to close the passing angle much better. Eventually, Goldin led to the high-risk pass that led to the steal. In the second play, Goldin doesn’t close out hard against the entry pass to take away the touch pass to potential backdoor cutters from the corners. However, he should have been more aggressive when the opponent took it hard to the rim.
The third play is an interesting one. Great awareness by Goldin, who sees a potential backdoor cut and moves closer to the rim. Hereafter, he keeps his assignment in check before the mid-post move occurs. That put Goldin in a much better position to immediately force physicality and generate the miss from close range. Goldin’s overall defense against cutters will help boost a team’s defensive rating.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Vladislav Goldin to be a second-round pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The interior dominance on top of the much-improved floor-stretching is a unique selling point. His toughness on both ends, plus the clear role, makes it imperative for teams wanting to boost their inside presence with a fundamentally sound, long, and mobile five. He brings experience and has worked himself up from the mid-major level while showing he contributed to winning basketball at Michigan.