Wyatt Fricks Scouting Report
Skilled, floor-spacing forwards are always a plus value. That's where the Marshall all-time great has a clear path to earning a NBA contract. Here's all you must know about his NBA role and future:
#2 Wyatt Fricks, Marshall: Senior, 6’9”
Power Forward — Born: Nov 17, 2002 (23 years old)
Introduction
At over 15 points per game, Fricks ended his five-year tenure at Marshall in the strongest way possible. He earned All-Sun Belt honours while showcasing his game as a NBA floor-spacer that brings the extra value of skill and experience. He’s never been a flashy name by any means, but the grind of staying at one program for his entire college career is noteworthy. That’s a positive as he’s a loyal player who has shown dedication toward his academics by graduating at the same college where it all started for him.
The NBA is a shooter’s league nowadays where maximizing threes comes in handy for the Marshall-standout. He has a feasible NBA role to grow into while there are still some areas of concern in his profile. Combining both to a realistic outcome for the next few years is the main emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
He’s officially measured at 6’9” in shoes during Portsmouth Invitational. He has a slim body with thin legs while still needing to fill his frame at 203 pounds. Regardless, he’s super-athletic and stands out vertically while also having the foot speed and lateral pace to play against smaller guards and wings. At a confirmed 6’9.5” wingspan, his length doesn’t pop but that should not be much of an issue.
Fricks is a tough prospect but lacks true physicality. That’s the main area to focus on. However, his athleticism, feel for positioning and crisp footwork are clear positives. He has huge hands and that’s been a highly-positive factor for his touch. There are some physicality issues overall, but the physical profile shows positives for his role.
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Defense
Pick-and-roll
As mentioned above, the lack of physicality will be Fricks’ main challenge to overcome in the NBA. He slides his feet very well and moves with good pace, speed and balance. The first play shows an example as he’s giving the shooter signs of him matching his pace laterally which led to the jumper from above the break. The second play has Fricks in the second line of defense, immediately hunting the perimeter line and matching the driver’s speed well. However, he’s been bumped off his spot easily after the scorer attacked his chest. That’s the main issue in his profile. Regardless, in a perimeter-oriented game, Fricks moves his feet so well that his size becomes a big asset. The third play has him move his feet fluidly before using his vertical pop to contest the forced shot very well.
The fourth play has him play with composure before contesting the shot, but the fifth play is where his decision-making needs some improvement. He did well to plant that last step and keep his balance. On top of that, Fricks kept the scoring angle closed and the scorer had to seek a pump-fake to get a clean scoring angle. For Fricks it’s doing everything right but so well that he has to be prepared for scorers to fake him to catch him off guard. But the lateral pace is the biggest asset. He’ll be a reliable defender in the pick-and-roll, especially if he bulks up in the next few years.
At 1.5 blocks per game, it’s mostly a result of him using his pace and vertical pop rather than brute strength. The last play shows an example of him using his lateral speed to get the blocked shot from behind. The NBA is all about better spacing, and Fricks’ speed will lead to him growing his game as a defender. But that’ll take some time as bulking up is still the main priority in his profile.
Closing out on shooters
The best part in Fricks’ game is the composure. He’s calm and looks to make the right decisions consistently. That’s been a positive in his closeouts. He has the habit of giving shooters a tad more space because he can rely on his vertical pop and size to make up for that. On top of that, his pace and footwork allows him to close out and be balanced when the closeout decision-maker has to decide what to do. The first play shows him closeout that empty-corner to perfection, allowing the space and naturally making the shooter doubt if he’d attack him off the dribble instead. He’s been rotating fast, but not consistently. That’s another area for him to focus on in the next few years. But overall he’s making the right decisions more often than not, with the second and third plays showing good examples.
However, the biggest area of development is the positioning for rebounds. At 5.7 rebounds per game on a 10.5% total rebounding rate, it’s been sub-par numbers for his entire career. The fourth play shows an example. Good second jump and he’s contesting the shot cleanly, but the habit of relying on his four other teammates to secure the miss is a horrible one. That has to change. It’s not that he’s lazy or anything, but the positioning is just way off. That’s been the case on most of his shot contests where the scouting report against Marshall was for teams to just keep attacking the offensive glass. Overall, the value of his closeouts are solid because he’s so composed and has a good read on what scorers will do—shoot or drive. The fifth play shows another example. It’s just that he has to finish the job after misses; that’s been the major red flag so far in his profile in terms of what he has to improve before even touching an NBA floor.
Cuts and defending away from the ball
The calmness in his defense is also visible when he’s guarding away from the ball. He’s trying to focus on the decision he has to make while keeping good track of the ball and his assignment. The first play had him in the air, biting but he recovered well with a solid second jump to get that block at the rim and ignite his team’s transition offense. We see a similar outcome in the second possession as his team’s defense collapses and Fricks goes for the timely help-defense. Another quick second jump at the rim—but this time he’s getting the personal foul. At 3.0 per game as a senior, that has been one of the negative indicators, fouling out in four games this season.
But there’s a limit to how fast that second jump can bail out his team’s collapsing defense. The third and fourth plays show that he’s choosing not to get posterized at the rim. Some will say it’s “a lack of toughness”, but I see it as Fricks just takes the two points and makes sure he can move quickly to turn the next possession to an advantage.
He’s taking a business approach as in his role as a reliable defender in terms of rotation that he found himself cleaning up a lot of teammates’ mistakes—as they mostly were beaten off the dribble. The NBA and G League context will be different on that end. Overall the away-from-the-ball defense has been a positive in terms of his decision-making, with his second jump being a clear positive while there’s also been a degree of toughness at the sequences where he did choose to fully focus on the stop at the rim which mostly covers the 1.5 blocks per game.
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Offense
Screening and play-finishing
The best way for Fricks to impact and support a team’s offensive rating is to maximize his mind-boggling 80.1% rim-finishing rate that does not include the 51 dunks he made this year. He has close-to-elite touch around the basket and his composure is a big reason why that’s the case. He’s a decent screener for American standards. He’s great in moving off of a ball handler’s gravity. The first two plays show good examples to where he’s quick at planting the pivot and moving up for the score. That’s right after the catch. That’s been the reason why he’s such a effective scorer.
The fundamentals-101 behind screening is that the screener has to adjust to what the ball handler needs. The reason to defer from that is when the defense is focusing on doubling the ball handler, like in the third play to where Fricks dives to the rim to serve as the bailout option for the passer leading to the lob pass and finish. The signature move is to make a hesitation move and then dive to the rim, like in the fourth possession. That’s been his M.O. in punishing the defense and making it easier for passers to find him on rolls. The main area of development is that Fricks must pass out of doubles and maximize his gravity as a finisher. The last play shows an example to where there’s a shooter popping to the break but Fricks decided to finish the play against two defenders.
Shooting off the catch
At 4.6 attempts per game, a more than 50% increase from his junior year, Fricks has taken the much-needed leap to be a volume shooter. The returns at 34.7% are sustainable. Fricks major leap in production has been a result of him being the recipient to take some tougher shots as well, whereas his NBA role would be to screen-and-pop or play with motion and bank mostly catch-and-shoot threes. The mechanics are decent and the form is consistent. That’s a good value combined with his 6’9” size on top of playing more as a second forward and a screen-heavy game. For NBA teams it’s maximizing teams and sustaining the offensive rating at worse, and Fricks has a feasible case for that to happen in the next few years.
The first two plays has Fricks shoot with a hand in his face. But that strong pivot and keeping the ball high are the positives despite the misses. He’s also barely jumping on his shots which is good news in terms of limiting the pressure on his knees. But the bad part is that Fricks had to drive the baseline before he attacked the closeout via the strong-side before getting the ball in the opposite corner. For someone who’s that composed that’s a rare mistake. But the quick-fire release is the signature move in his end with the third and fourth plays showing purposeful cutting and immediately launching his shot. The shooting potential is limited because he’s not a real off-the-dribble shooter, but for his NBA role that won’t be much of an issue.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 44 assists to 38 turnovers it’s been a good season for Fricks. He’s been taking great care of the ball at a 8.8% turnover rate. As mentioned above, the gravity of his screen-and-dive game has to lead to him having more passes out of the post. That’s been the case in the first play below with two defenders committing to him underneath the rim and he’s kicking it out for the wide-open corner three. The second possession shows him being composed in the corner before moving the ball to the cutter in the middle in transition. Overall, he’s not a real playmaker by any means, but his ball-moving and patience has been the main positive value. The third and fourth plays show good examples.
Fricks is a quick processor. The fifth play has him turn his back quickly on the post-entry pass and trusting the instincts with the bounce pass. He’s consistent in executing basic reads and for his role as a shooter, adding his execution of his passing reads could turn him more into a hub at the next level. That’ll raise the gravity of both his screen-and-roll and shooting game. We don’t have to overcomplicate the game. The easier it gets, the better and more feasible success is. The last play shows a good example of him just faking the shot before making the extra pass to the extremely-open corner. His passing and ball-moving are a value-riser for his profile, mainly because of his composure.
NBA Draft Projection
Plus-sized shooters, screen-and-roll finishers on top of the composure and reading the game so consistently will have many NBA teams interested in him as a undrafted free agent. As per HoopsHype, Fricks has had five confirmed workouts already with teams that look for depth among their frontcourt. The lack of rebounding is the main value-dropper in his case. That’s been the main emphasis on top of simply getting stronger and filling his frame in the next few years.
Overall, he has many skills to grow into a niche role. But he’s physically not ready to play NBA minutes early on in his career. Overall, I expect Fricks to sign a two-way deal with a contending team where he’ll mainly play in the G League until the latter stages of the regular season. His path via Portsmouth Invitational Tournament has been a positive while a source informed me of having a tremendous workout with one NBA team of the five he’s been confirmed to have attended one.
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