Yanic Konan Niederhauser Scouting Report
The elite seven-foot shot-blocker continued to add more to his game throughout the years. Yanic Konan Niederhauser is on many NBA radars. Here's why he might get his name called in June 2025:
Yanic Konan Niederhauser (#14, Penn St.): Junior, 7'0"
Center — Born: Mar 14, 2003 (22 years old)
Introduction
The Swiss-born Niederhauser transferred to play college basketball at Northern Illinois after playing for the German side Erdgas Ehingen. Being introduced to professional basketball early in his life gave him valuable experience in college, which helped him adapt much faster. The same adaptability was shown when transferring to Penn State to play in the Big Ten as a junior.
After leading the MAC in blocks per game (2.1), Niederhauser repeated his success in the Big Ten with 2.3 swatted balls per game. He’s a traditional rim-protecting screen-and-roll five who has quickly expanded his game. NBA teams get much-needed traits like switchability, solid screening, and mobility. However, he’s not a three-point shooter. The myth about the NBA is that every five players must shoot, which is false. Niederhauser is close to an elite protector of the rim, with more in his arsenal.
The G League Elite Camp attendee can carve out a role at the next level, which is the emphasis of this scouting report.
Physical Profile
As a true seven-footer, Niederhauser is a fluid athlete despite the strong build, broad shoulders, and well-filled frame. At 250 pounds, the mobility and toughness are two vital parts that add intrigue to his physical tools. He has decent foot speed and great length. No measurement is available, but I expect Niederhauser to post a 7-foot-5 wingspan at the G League Elite Camp.
Despite the heavy build, Niderhauser shows decent verticality and explosiveness, adding value to his rim protection. His footwork improved in the Big Ten, while he’s good at using head-fakes and duck-ins when playing physically in the post.
The most appealing part is his big and good hands. He’s comfortable catching tough passes and uses both hands to finish. The hip fluidity is decent; that’s where he has more potential to tap when investing in improving the core strength in the next few years. The area of development is his motor, which is not consistent enough to play long stretches of fast-paced NBA basketball.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Timing and game processing are two of Niederhauser’s strengths. He learned not to rely on drop coverage too much, as he’s comfortable hedging ball screens as well. The other side of the coin is that he’s heavy-footed in his first step. It’s slow and puts more importance on his timing. Against consistent rotations, but when playing further away from the basket. This leads to issues with teammates who must rotate to take over their assignments. Regardless, more NBA teams run lineups with two fives, where Niederhauser has more runway to focus on his duties inside the arc.
In the first play, this leads to the roll man getting past Niederhauser easily. However, his timing on the first and second jumps was great. His composure and maturity speak to what NBA teams want to see. The second possession led to Niederhauser hedging the ball screen. Hereafter, he kept good track of his assignment, recognizing his deficiencies and sticking to the roll-man instead of rotating to the corner. His composure in the shot contest and reliable defensive box-out are two consistent factors in his game.
However, the other side of his good processing of the game has to do with his slow movement. In the third play below, the first two steps were too slow when the ball was passed deep inside the paint. He must act quickly in a faster-paced NBA game. His foot positioning looks off sometimes as well. In the fourth possession, the ball handler decelerated before hitting the roll man with the pass. That’s when Niederhauser took one step toward the ball handler, but he had to rotate and immediately tag the roller instead. The one step led to him slowly compensating two steps back, and thus giving away the scoring opportunity at the rim.
Post-ups
Niederhauser shows close to elite timing on his jumps. That makes him one of the best post-up defenders in college basketball. With strong hips and decently quick feet, he puts his chest out and absorbs contact. That makes him adaptable to every assignment they throw at him. We see a decline in post-up play in the NBA, but it’s still a valued play type because of the advantage and angle creation for passes to the perimeter and finishing plays against mismatches. Therefore, NBA teams want to hedge and improve their defensive rating. That’s where Niederhauser brings value for NBA scouts.
The first play is a good one. Niederhauser absorbs contact and keeps bumping back to disallow the opponent from finding the angle to dunk under his arms. The positive is that Niederhauser kept his patience despite many spin moves. Regardless of the make, he kept the angles decently closed. Using his hips to move fluidly with the post-up scorer gets Niederhauser recognition as a post defender. In the second play, the post-up scorer pivots out wide, and Niederhauser immediately slides to stay at 180 degrees and contests the baby hook.
He’s also a smart decision-maker. Niederhauser knew the interior defender guarding the rim and smartly gave away an angle in the third play below. He kept his composure until the scorer bit and tried to score over his left shoulder before he got denied by Niederhauser. Post-up defense is one of the strengths in his draft profile, and a feasible part to add toughness to an NBA team’s defense around the rim.
Closing out to the perimeter
Niederhauser is uncomfortable closing out to the perimeter, mostly because of his slow first step and lack of burst. Regardless, he slides his feet decently because of good hips and a decent last step. That helps him to play physically early, and if he’s blown by, he can adjust by using decent lateral quickness for his size. However, it’s not enough to generate stops against faster NBA guards and wings. Regardless, teams buy his interior presence rather than his switchable defense. The positive is that Niederhauser can learn how to better elevate his burst. He doesn’t use reverse pivots often, and the last step is placed too far out, which costs much more energy to find a good launching pad to slide his feet and move back to the paint.
In the first play, Niederhauser cautiously responded to the post-entry pass. He tried to reach in to poke the ball away, but completely gave away the scoring angle because he pivoted out too far. That’s the first thing NBA scouts must address in their evaluation. We see a similar outing in the second possession. Niederhauser closed out to the elbow and placed a decent last step. But again, it was too far out, which led to him not moving back as quickly as he could, as he needed too much strength to help his burst and pop back inside. The positive is that Niederhauser can compensate for most of his slow movement. The full-court press didn’t help, and Niederhauser saw the cutter move behind him and decided to use a jump stop to force a drop-off pass. Hereafter, he used his length greatly in closing passing angles and saved his team from conceding a surefire two points.
Catch-and-shoot
Here’s the issue NBA scouts will have. Niederhauser is not comfortable defending against spot-up shooters. He avoids getting out on the perimeter. Therefore, context matters here. Penn State demanded an interior presence, and that’s the role he embraced. They surrounded him with athletes and compensated with switchability from the other four. That doesn’t take away anything from his play for the next level. More NBA teams run four- or even five-out sets. This lures interior defenders out to the perimeter. Niederhauser compensates with his composure and good decision-making. He won’t bite, nor overhelp, which gives more insurance to teams.
However, the speed of his closeouts is underwhelming. The first play shows an example. Niederhauser decided to leave the weak side open and focus on closing the path for dribble penetration. Recognizing his assignment in the corner, he didn’t close out fast to avoid getting burned off the dribble. Regardless, the passiveness in his shot contest was evident. To respond and adjust to a faster NBA game, he must intensify and improve his motor. He shouldn’t rely too much on rotations around him.
In the second play, Niederhauser was busy seeing if someone would take over the above-the-break shooter, which led to another late closeout. This effect trickles down by not moving back on defense for the defensive rebound, nor did he move in transition. The passiveness is a red flag that Niederhauser has to address. This adds doubt to how consistent his motor is. The third play shows another late response as the rebounder after he did well with his shot contest on the midrange jumper.
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Offense
Putbacks
At a 10.0% offensive rebounding rate and 58 dunks this season, Niederhauser thrives in creating second-chance scoring opportunities. He saves his energy to attack the offensive glass hard. That’s the main contributing factor to Niederhauser scoring close to thirteen per game. For the NBA, we see teams changing their frequency of attacking the glass. Often, long threes lead to transition offense with slower-footed fives struggling to get back on time. Therefore, Niederhauser must show he has good decision-making when to attack the putback or offensive rebound.
In the first play below, Niederhauser has the runway to respond with a good launching pad to dunk home the offensive board with two hands, before missing it. That’s a good decision, as the defense didn’t properly box him out. For NBA scouts, boxing out offensively is where Niederhauser earned his interior-anchoring reputation. In the second play, he recognizes the mismatch and immediately throws his body to create a better angle to collect the potential miss. As a result, he was hacked and sent to the line. At 66.4% on 4.5 attempts per game, Niederhauser shows his boxouts get him to the charity stripe, where he shows a much-improved touch compared to earlier years. His energy is promising when attacking the offensive glass, with the third play showing him grabbing the board on willpower against three opponents.
Pick-and-roll
Niederhauser has limited scoring options in his arsenal. That’s putting more weight on how good his screening is to help him succeed in the NBA. Diving hard after each ball screen or setting reliable off-ball screens helps him create cutting opportunities to finish plays inside the paint. Regardless of his screening being decent. There is room to improve. In the first play, Niederhauser doesn’t set the screen strongly enough, where he eventually didn’t give the ball handler enough separation, who then had to rush the lob pass, which didn’t lead to a dunk. For a faster-paced NBA game, that’s an area of improvement for Niederhauser.
In the second play, Niederhauser does well to lock his opponent with the screen, securing a full switch. Hereafter, he receives the entry pass and immediately goes to work. But the issue was that he didn’t move his hips well enough to create the finishing angle. Rushing his post-scoring is one of the issues NBA scouts will encounter in their evaluation. The lack of composure is telling. In the third play, Niederhauser had to ensure calmness in taking what the post defender gave him. As he went up, the opponent immediately bit. Recognizing angles to use pump-fakes and try to take one-and-done opportunities is a must for NBA teams to maximize to support their offensive rating. It’s likely Niederhauser gets some attempts out of his screening, but the natural scoring ability isn’t a part of his draft profile yet.
Post-ups
For a modern five, creating advantages out of post-ups remains a much-wanted quality. That’s nothing different for Niederhauser. The appealing part of his offense is how well he creates the angle with his footwork, duck-ins, and fakes. However, the execution of his advantage creation is subpar and needs work in the next few years to get better both as a passer and a scorer on that end. Niederhauser looks scared to commit turnovers. That’s leading to not utilizing passing angles and trying to finish against a defender who is already set.
The first play shows an example. Niederhauser gets the post-entry pass and immediately recognizes the angle on the elbow side with his positioning. He doesn’t use the passing lane and instead takes his man via the post-up, while not recognizing the double dribble. A surefire two points exchanged for a turnover. That’s bad for a team’s offensive rating. However, Niederhauser looks confident when he’s attacking the defense. Great body control while decently putting the ball on the floor after Niederhauser used a fake to create a driving angle in the second play below. His last step looked good as he had enough balance to finish the bank-in for the and-one. In the third play, Niederhauser reverses pivots well after the fake to attack the closeout. However, the lack of quick execution on the layup bailed the defense by hacking him at the rim.
From a skill standpoint, Niederhauser is beyond his years. But the area of development is to speed up the process. He’s executing his reads too slow or looks afraid to execute passing reads to limit turnovers. NBA coaching staff must stimulate him to play more freely while allowing mistakes.
Passing, ball-moving, and playmaking
At 34 career assists to 104 turnovers, the numbers don’t indicate any level of passing. That’s where the context matters. As mentioned, Niederhauser doesn’t execute his reads quickly, nor does he look confident in making risky passes. That’s a part of the reason behind the low number of assists. When diving into the assists, most were indirect assists that didn’t immediately lead to a score.
In the first play, Niederhauser has the kickout pass after saving the ball via the inaccurate lob pass being thrown his way. The second possession shows Niederhauser using his footwork to create angles around the basket. The mature part of his game is him not forcing the finish and keeping decent composure before kicking the ball out to the weak side corner. The late execution takes away feasibility to grow into a short-roll passer, but I expect Niederhauser to be a good ball-mover instead. The third and fourth plays below show examples.
Executing passing reads and creating angles aren’t a consistent part of Niederhauser’s offense. That’s worth focusing on during team workouts in determining the potential of the passing for the next few years. As of now, it doesn’t look feasible to improve on an NBA floor.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project Yanic Konan Niederhauser to be a possible late second-rounder in the 2025 NBA Draft. The physical tools are the main buy, as Niederhauser offers the scarce combination of size and mobility. Despite being a 22-year-old, there’s untapped potential left to develop. But the offensive additions are limited, which makes it more likely Niederhauser will get a two-way deal for two seasons before he’ll find consistent rotational minutes. Overall, I expect him to keep his name in the 2025 NBA Draft.