Anthony Black

Offensively, Black is an extremely savvy player who has a decent physical profile and skill set, but uses his high awareness and quick decision making to get the most out of his tools.  Black is a solid athlete who has a decent first step and who possesses solid handles.  He can execute a variety of textbook moves ranging from crossovers, hesitations, and changing pace to try to throw the defense off.  And if he gets a step on the defense, he will effectively use a hostage dribble to keep the defender behind him while he surveys opportunities.  The problem is despite all of this, he simply isn’t that elusive or speedy.  He will use screens to help create additional advantages.  This works to some degree, partially as Black is able to read and react to defensive coverages very quickly.  This allows him to drive, shoot or pass the ball either to the screener (on the roll or pop) or to another teammate.  This is another strength of Black’s.  He may not be a three-level scorer, but he is a three level passer.  He reads the court and makes anticipatory passes.  He can hit cutters, whip passes crosscourt to shooters, and can hit his roll man at various angles.  He can throw basic passes and more advanced ones with generally good touch and accuracy.  While he has a decent amount of turnovers, more of these were due to ball handling, either getting picked or getting trapped and then throwing a desperation pass.  This passing would be a lot more dangerous if Black was more of a threat to score.  Black’s big issues are he’s not great inside and he’s not a great shooter.  When Black gets into traffic he doesn’t have a lot of countermoves, great body control, or great leaping / hangtime.  He does have decently broad shoulders and a good sense of angles and touch, so he tries to shield the defender to get up his shot, but if he can’t he doesn’t have anything to fall back on.  Speaking of falling, Black needs to continue adding muscle (he was up to 210 at the combine, but was lighter during the season), he seems to have a high center of gravity or is simply playing off balance when he gets inside and when he is bumped, it throws him off and he struggles to move anyone in the post.  The other issue is Black isn’t a great shooter.  He’s improved and is passable in catch and shoot situations despite some stiff, mechanical form.  However, aside from needing to improve his outside shot, he poses no threat from the midrange, either dribbling into a shot or executing a step back, which would help open up driving lanes.

Defensively is where Black really shines.  Black plays with a very strong motor and great physicality.  He has an aggressive style that can lead him to overplay at times, but also put a lot of pressure on opponents.  Black is a strong help defender, who gets a decent amount of blocks in help for his size and gets steals jumping into passing lanes or digging to knock balls away from drivers and then uses his ball handling to immediately transition into offense.  He also rotates and communicates well, moving around the perimeter, tagging rolles, and making good decisions without losing his man.  Notably, Black has really quick reaction times and good foot speed defensively and is decently springy jumping up to contest shots, which allows him to pressure and even block some shots on the perimeter.  When guarding outside, Black has good lateral speed, doesn’t fall for many fakes, and has a strong ability to change direction.  This allows him to move his feet and stick with potential drivers and recover to stay with them when they to throw him off with a countermove.  He’s also wide enough and strong enough, that is makes it a bit harder for players to get outside of him and turn the corner or bump him off.  His biggest weaknesses are that at times he plays too upright and perhaps related, he has good but not elite lateral speed, so some quicker guards can simply “turn on the burners” and drive right by him and he doesn’t quite have the recovery speed to catch up.  He’s also benefit defensively from adding some weight as when he rotates inside, he can provide some mild congestion, but simply isn’t big enough to bother a lot of bigger wings and big men near the hoop.  Finally, I would note that I did think Black looked a bit more human when matched up against prospective NBA players like Brandon Miller and Chris Livingston, so it’s possible that he’ll simply be a good and not great defender at the next level.

Note: I do think that for some of Black’s struggles offensively, that he was a bit miscast this year due to necessity.  In the NBA, he is likely a connector or more complementary player.  Originally, Nick Smith was likely going to be the high volume creator and Jared Walsh was probably supposed to soak up a bit more usage as well.  But Smith was hurt and struggled to regain his form and Walsh struggled a lot offensively.  So Black was basically cast in a primary creator role that wasn’t an ideal situation.