Brandon Knight Assessment

UKFreak00
WT Member

I had the chance to see Brandon Knight up close and personal yesterday at the Flyin' to the Hoop tournament. Here's my thoughts.

First off, let me say that I think the Pine Crest coach needs to step down. I don't know if I've ever seen such a poorly coached top team in my life.

When I first started watching the game, I was thinking to myself, "Man, I'm not impressed with Knight". But, that feeling didn't last long.

After the first few minutes, I noticed that the things I didn't like about Knights game were mainly due to poor coaching.

I thought, "Knight does not move well without the ball". Then I noticed, no one on that team moves without the ball. Because their entire offense is 2 guards around the perimeter, 2 guys on the blocks, and a guy at the free throw line.

Every time down the court, guard Traveon Henry would bring the ball up the court, dribble to the right, Knight would be on the left wing, and dump it down to the free throw line. The guy at the free throw line would then either take the 15 footer, kick it back out for the 3, or try to get it down low.

No one on the team moved without the ball, so I could not really assess if Knight doesn't move well without the ball, or if he's basically just not allowed to.

Speaking of Traveon Henry, keep an eye out for this kid. He's probably not going to be a major D1 player, but I can see him ending up somewhere like Dayton, and doing a good job. He's only a sophomore, but I liked what I saw from him, too. I can't find anything on his college offers or anything, though.

But, here's what I did like about Brandon Knight. First off, he's flat out a scorer. He's a threat to score from anywhere on the court. He can drive, he can shoot the midrange jumper, he shoots the 3 very well.

Knight actually finished the game yesterday as the 3rd leading scorer in the history of the Flyin' to the Hoop, with 39 points.

He does need to improve on a few things, however. He plays out of control at times. When he drives to the basket, he would rather throw up a circus shot than to dump it off to one of the big men down low. He did that multiple times yesterday.

He also tries to make the "highlight pass" when it's not needed. He turned the ball over way too much yesterday. And most of them were passes that either should have never been made, or were easy passes, that he tried to make difficult. At times he looked like wanted to be playing on the "And-1" circuit instead of D1 college basketball.

One thing he does not lack is confidence in his jumpshot. He started off the game missing his first 2 or 3 shots from outside, but he just kept shooting until they started to fall.

On the defensive end, he plays very tough, physical defense on the perimeter. I don't think a player he was guarding the entire game got off an open jumpshot. Even in a 39 point performance, I was more impressed with Knight on the defensive end, than I was on the offensive end.

Not only did Knight play outstanding defense on the perimeter, but he was not afraid to step in the lane and take a charge. He took 2 charges from Michigan State recruit Adrien Payne, and should have had a 3rd, but they called it a block (a bad call, in my opinion).

I talked to a fellow UK fan after the game, and he was talking about the 39 points, and I said "Yeah, but how about that defense", and he looked at me like "He plays defense?". If you ever get the chance to watch Knight play, don't let his offensive game blind you from how good he is on the defensive end of the court.

Overall, I really like Knight, but I don't think he's a 1 and done player. I think Knight is a kid that could come in and start as a freshman, but will have his struggles, and end up being a 2 or 3 year player.

I don't like doing this, because it's hard to compare one players game to another players game. But, if I had to say who's game Knight's reminds me of. I would probably say Mo Williams from the Cavs.