By Chris Horton @HortonBBallSite
Courtesy of TPG Sports Pro Scout School, I had the opportunity to take in some Summer League action and evaluate some NBA hopefuls.
In July, I promised to post my evaluations from TPG Pro Scout School as soon as they were graded and returned to me. After a couple months of anxious waiting, my evaluations have been returned and are now ready to share!
The following images show the evaluations I completed after watching Johnny O'Bryant, Malcolm Thomas, and JaJuan Johnson play in the Summer League. The "Player Evaluation Form" was supplied by TPG; the blue handwriting is mine; the red handwriting belongs to the expert (presumably Pete Philo) who critiqued my work. There are two images: the completed front side of the handout and the backside where I provide my own grading scale (similar to the KPIs that I have already detailed) and overall thoughts. Some of the expert's comments are difficult to read so I will recap the critique.
Comments from the Expert
JaJuan Johnson: I equated JaJaun Johnson (or should I say JuJuan, as I so incorrectly wrote) to a Poor Man's Rashard Lewis. The expert was seemingly intrigued and wrote, "Interesting".
Johnny O'Bryant: The expert thought it was "Good" that I observed O'Bryant's energy on the offensive glass, motor, and wingspan. Next, the expert thought my description of O'Bryant's weaknesses were "Well Done". The only point of contention between my evaluation and the expert comes when we look at the Pro Comparison. I see O'Bryant as a Trevor Booker, (less flailing) Tyler Hansbrough type; whereas our resident expert compares O'Bryant to JJ Hickson and DeJuan Blair, commenting that O'Bryant can be a fringe guy because he "will be given every opp[ortunity] to make the league -- still young."
Malcolm Thomas: Again, the expert commends me on recognizing the strengths and weakness of our next prospect, Malcolm Thomas. He describes both of my assessments as "Good". The Pro Comparison is the only area in which we disagree. While the expert compares Thomas to Shawn Marion, I don't think Thomas is nearly bouncy enough to warrant that comparison so I equate him more to a Udonis Haslem type. I still stand by that comparison.
Final Thoughts from the Expert
After seeing the grading scale I made to dive deeper into analysis and reading my final evaluations of each player, our scouting expert wrote,
"Well Done!! Impressed by the grading-- tough to do when playing short minutes. Be careful being 'matter of fact' in short minutes. Impressive though! Great Job"
I put a great deal of thought into everything I put on that paper so it was great to hear such positive words from an expert! Months ago I wouldn't have imagined the opportunity to have an NBA executive critique one of my scouting reports. TPG Pro Scout School was such an unforgettable experience and I'm ecstatic to have such "impressive" tangible results!