MD Live: Paint Touch PGs

New readers: Use code Proia30     I attended three different events during the first scholastic live period session to try and see as many of the local teams play as possible in a big weekend for college recruitment. In this article we will focus on PG prospects that generate a ton of paint touches that I saw at Maryland Live at the Severn School in Severna Park, MD. Let's dive in!    12p 3a 2r 3s vs Catholic   -Undersized point guard with good feel that affected the game as a rising junior that will be a big part of what SP does this season. Love the way that Washington got downhill to generate paint touches for his team with or without a ball screen as he probed the most vulnerable parts of the defense. Washington hit a floater off the window, used a perfectly-timed high pickup step through to scoop a layup in off the glass, hit a smooth turnaround baseline jumper, and threw a nice array of post entry feeds (over the top, chest pass to the outside hand, pocket pass). Washington understands playing with pace and timing coming off of ball screens in the halfcourt. His feel for when to score and when to create for a teammate is accentuated by the ball-handling ability that allows him to improvise on the fly.     -Caught the 2H of his team's game vs Gilman and liked the flashes as a combo guard that can function as an off-ball shooter or serve as a primary creator for his team in the half court. Cooper understands when he needs to come off screens wide to draw helping bigs to stay with him further away from the screen that was set and also understands the importance of keeping his dribble alive to create those advantage opportunities. Armed with a smooth jumper off the catch or off a live dribble, he has the tools to impact games early in a consistent role with Loyola-Blakefield.     14p 2r 3a 4s vs NC GBB   -One of my favorite parts of Sulaiman's game is the fact that he LIVES in the paint as a downhill driving guard once he gains an inch of space with bumps created by his strong upper body. Sulaiman started the game slow (playing through an injury) but roared back to life in the 2H to make it a 1-possession game late vs an out of area team that had nice positional size across the board. He got things going with a steal that he took C2C to score at the rim, hit his matchup with a double crossover to throw him off balance and his a floater with the left off the window, hit an awkward double clutch bucket from the middle of the paint, and hit an off balance floater with the left going left through contact to earn the AND1 bucket. The scoring runs that he goes on (personal 8-0 run to give his team the lead with 3 minutes left) allows BL to sustain their offense through dry shooting spells and gives him a safe floor as a scoring PG prospect that can get to his spot vs a slew of different defenders.     16p 4r 4a 1b vs NC GBB   -It was fun watching him relentlessly attack the rim in new threads with Pallotti after transferring from NHA this summer. Hill does a good job of setting up second attempts at getting to the rim well with reverse dribbles and hesi moves that allow him to utilize an explosive first step to expose late help rotations. Hill hit threes off the catch, drove baseline from the wings to hit shooters in the opposite corner with skip passes, hit several hanging layup attempts by releasing on the way down to avoid the shot-blocker, and hit a huge AND1 runner going east-west across the paint. Love the way that he uses a stocky frame to create space and shield the ball on layup attempts to score over his own matchup as well as helper bigs at the rim.     18p 5r 1s vs Landon (40% 3P)   -Costley did a great job of attacking closeouts from the wing and coming off of middle ball screens to get two feet in the paint to score off a series of layups, short jumpers, and turn-arounds. Costley came off a screen to hit a 3 from the slot off the bounce, scored off a baseline drive double clutch reverse layup, and is improving his off-ball movement to slide from the middle to the wings and vice versa with the movement of the ball-handler to improve the quality of his looks in the halfcourt. If he can turn some of his down the middle of the defense into kick-out's for shooters or a reverse pivot to pitch it back to the trail big-- he will add another dimension to his arsenal as a point guard that can really fill it up.

New readers: Use code Proia30