Jalen Hood-Schifino

Hood-Schifino was not very popular with the models.  And with To The Mean’s Jesse Fischer releasing his model compilation today, none of them seemed enamoured with him.  And it’s easy to understand why.  Hood-Schifino got a lot of hype for his scoring, but the data shows it’s more volume than accuracy.  He shot 42% from the field and had a 49% TS%.  And his Synergy numbers don’t paint a rosey picture.  But let’s talk about the film.

Hood-Schifino wasn’t especially fast or quick.  He was a methodical player with decent size and awareness who wasn’t very elusive and used a lot of screens to try to fain an advantage.  Even then, he didn’t always shake defenders and it felt like he was shooting a lot of contested shots.  Now he did hit some contested shots, but that’s a skill that has generally doesn’t translate well, as NBA defenders are tougher and those contested NCAA shots become blocked shots in the NBA.  To his credit, he does plant and shoot quickly, which helps him to get off some good midrange looks off drives and P&Rs.  And the quality could eventually help him to become a good movement shooter.  Now when Hood-Schifino shoots, he has solid form on his jumper.  He can lean back a bit or shoot a bit stiff, especially when he’s rushed.  But given his mid-range shooting ability and strong free throw shooting, the three pointers should come.  Driving inside, he as some strength and wide enough shoulders he should e able to get an able and hold defenders at bay; however, he also isn’t very explosive and doesn’t have great hangtime or bend, so he had mixed results inside (just spot checked on Synergy and he hit 44% of his layups in the half court and had one dunk).  He does appear to have a decently nice runner, which could help him compensate in time.  Hood-Schifino’s handles are pretty basic.  He has a couple of moves, but none that create separation for him at all consistently.  his best move is using his body and executing a hostage dribble after a screen to help him probe and survey his best chance at scoring.  He’s also an unselfish player who is willing to pass.  He showed the ability to make basic reads and pass the ball around the perimeter, push it up court, or get the ball to his roll man.  For someone tasked with a lot of scoring, he kept his head u and found his teammates instead of wearing blinders.  However, his accuracy is mixed and he has some poor turnovers missing passes, especially inside” and he can rotate between throwing a soft pass that gets picked off and firing an inaccurate fast ball out of bounds.

Defensively, it’s the same mixed bag.  He’s not much of a turnover creator, but when he get a steal he will turn upcourt or throw the ball ahead quickly.  He’s not especially fast on defense and struggles to get out and contest shooters.  And he’s not very springy, so ofen is jumping to the side or just running with his hand up.  This struggle to close out well leads to him selling out or biting on fakes and makes him susceptible to players simply faking or driving past him.  Hood-Schifino gives good effort and tries to rotate and help, but he can get lost in no mans land and end up ball watching while losing track of his man and has a tendency to overhelp at times.  Hood-Schifino only has decent lateral speed and doesn’t change direction well, which causes him issues guarding the perimeter.  He tends to play off ball handlers and bites pretty easily on fakes, perhaps trying to compensate for his inability to slide with them.  He also doesn’t have great recovery speed, length, or explosion, which makes i thard for him to catch up and contest after a player gets past him.  He does have some decent strength and physicality, so when a player can’t get a step on him, they don’t find much luck trying to drive into him.  In theory, this strength should translate to his post defense, but he doesn’t have great technique.  He did swim around and steal some post entry passes, but otherwise he didn’t stop much.

Overall, it’s hard for me to get too excited about an inefficient scorer who struggles to create his own shot and was a poor defender.  And unlike Keyonte George, he doesn’t have a 31% usage rate to blame.  I think his midrange and free throw shooting give some hope that he’ll end up being a good shooter in the league.   And he has good positional size, strength, and some solid passing and awareness.  So I could see him developing into a nice rotation piece with the potential to be a lower level starter.  But I would prefer to draft him in the late first or early second round, which I think is going to be a decent chunk later than he goes in the actual draft.