Scouting and Highlights: Marcus Alston (2019)
Marcus Alston is a 6’1″ guard who plays his high school ball with Lansing Sexton and his AAU ball with Elite Nation. This AAU season, Alston was one of the top players on Elite Nation’s 16u squad, stringing together solid performance after solid performance in several different tournaments. Alston has football player athleticism to go with some legit basketball skill, a combination of which helps Alston score the ball at a high level.
Here’s my take on Alston’s game:
Strengths:
Scoring – When it comes to scorers, there are certain players that you can tell just have a great feel for how to score the basketball. Alston is one of these players – he just has a knack for putting the ball in the basket. He scores from all three levels with no real weakness or preference at a certain level. He also has that ability to heat up and simply take over a game.
Handles – Alston has the handles that allow him to get anywhere he wants on the court. When combined with his athleticism, his handles allow him to penetrate at will, creating for himself or his teammates. One of the valuable things about Alston’s handles is the fact that he doesn’t need to do 4-5 dribble-combo moves to lose his defender – he can beat his defender off 1-2 dribbles consistently.
Finishing – Alston has a super soft touch around the rim. He elevates well, allowing him to hang in the air in order to avoid getting his shot blocked. I’ve seen him make numerous layups in traffic or double-clutch layups. If Alston gets a clear lane to the rim, it’s almost a guaranteed two points or two free throws.
Athleticism – As I noted earlier, Alston has that football player athleticism. He’s got speed, strength, quickness – all of which are necessary for a smaller guard to be successful. His utilizes his athleticism to finish at the rim as well as anybody.
Areas For Development:
Motor – The biggest area Alston needs to work on is his motor. While he plays hard most of the time, he has a bad habit of taking plays off when he gets tired. It’s tough not to playing multiple games a day in AAU, however, this is something that college coaches won’t tolerate.
Passing – Alston is definitely a score first player. While he does this at a high level, he sometimes takes contested shots when the better play would be to pass.