The Vertical Attack of Anthony Black
Picturing how Anthony Black's game will translate to the NBA level with one of his former Arkansas coaches and NBA Analytics Draft Consultant, Dom Samangy
Growing up, he excelled in soccer, baseball, football; any sport he could find.
At one point, he had received double digit offers to play power-five college football, yet only one offer to play college basketball, at North Texas.
Now, he’s the 6th overall pick in the NBA Draft.
Anthony Black’s athletic journey is an incredible story.
Black’s range of experience as a multi-sport athlete helped define the basketball player he is today, likely developing mobility and advantage creation skills from other sports such as balance, footwork fundamentals, and decisive downhill movements.
“Everyone needs habits of mind that allow them to dance across disciplines.”
- David Epstein, Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
A 6’7” cerebral playmaker with high feel and versatile skills on both ends of the floor, Anthony uses his athleticism effectively as a switchable 1-4 defender, a help-side shot-blocker, and a north-south two-way force vertical-attacking rim-protectors.
Competitive toughness, smart rotations, and active hands that often lead to well-timed digs help create an effective perimeter defender.
Incredible vision, tight handle, and great anticipation on swings to the corner add up to phenomenal passing ability.
In the 2022 FIBA Americas U18 Tournament, Black recorded an off-the-charts defensive statistical impact rating via Cerebro Sports (106 DSI) off high-effort plays, racking up 7.8 boards, 2 blocks, and 1.6 steals per game through six contests, with an 8.2 C-RAM measuring overall impact relative to competition while flashing his floor general skills with a 74 FGS rating.
As a freshman at Arkansas, Anthony averaged thirteen points, five rebounds, two steals, half a block, with a 4 AST / 3 TO ratio, showing promise with high overall impact (8.9 C-RAM), active energetic defense (83 DSI) and solid floor general skills (71 FGS), via Cerebro Sports.
Two-way team-first connectors fit any team trying to win basketball games.
https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1678568153087967232?s=20
Black’s incredible vision, feel, and touch creates exciting upside as a scoring creator.
Proven ball-skills in handles and passing with great two-way instincts and high feel for the game round out a high-floor NBA-level defensive playmaker, all positive indicators for skill development in other areas of his game.
Here, Anthony attacks a closeout against LSU by gliding through multiple defenders with ease, purposeful footwork, euro-step-through body control, and the finesse reverse finish.
Combining physical size and defense with cerebral understanding of the game and the handles and vision to dribble drive and pass provides a high floor as a plus-defender team-first connector and realistic potential as a do-it-all point forward.
Showing soft touch on floaters, runners, lobs, and finishes at the rim with near average shooting indicators from 3P% (30% on 2.5 3PA) and FT% (70% on 5 FTA) all add up to offer promise as a shooter and scorer down the line.
Against Alabama, Anthony brings the ball up, attacks his defender in Pistol side P&R, seeks contact for the bump-and-finish, and drops in the lofty FLOATA.
Already a relentless driver to the cup, Anthony vertically attacks the body of the rim-protector, stays floating through contact, and always tries to finish the shot, revealing an offensive role as a north-south downhill force who stays ready to dribble drive, draw fouls, and kick out to teammates.
Anthony converted 59% of his 157 shot around at the rim last season. Black draws fouls at a rate of 0.578 free throw attempts for every field goal attempt he takes, via Hoop Math FTA/FGA.
Against Kentucky, Anthony shows his impact as a north-south force breaking down defenses by attacking the rim:
Black grabs the board,
dribbles the ball up,
accelerates to the rack,
draws defenders into the paint,
and makes a jumping-out-of-bounds-wraparound-drive-and-kick pass to start the closeout-attack against a scrambling defense, where Nick Smith Jr. and Makhi Mitchell take advantage with the extra pass and mean rim-rocking slam.
In Summer League, skill, feel, or decision-making popping against fringe nba players fighting for rotation spots is one of the only real takeaways one can hope to see.
Anthony Black has flashed all sorts of athletic gifts by hunting contact and creating space with full deceleration control, tight handles, clean footwork, and sound timing.
Black outhustled his opponents in Vegas with endless defensive rotations, crashing the glass as the inbounder for a buzzer-beating putback to force overtime and blocking a three-pointer to boot.
Anthony’s ability to fight through contact, push the pace off forced turnovers, and draw defenders on drives through the paint translates to every level.
https://twitter.com/beyondtheRK/status/1679294204541825028?s=20
Like Steve Nash running fast break three man weaves on the hardwood the same way he envisions pushing the pace to pass or score on a breakaway on the soccer pitch, or Tony Gonzalez combining unreal timing, strength, and leathery gloves for hands to be able to run and catch anything thrown at him from lobs and rebounds to jump balls and dig routes, Anthony Black attacking gaps and closeouts with a head of steam, clean footwork, and complete body control is a prime example of the rare downhill movement skills that could have developed from his range of multi-sport experience.
Knowing what he wants to do before he does it, knowing what specific movements will get him there, and knowing just how quickly to make those movements are prime examples of Black’s next-level spatial awareness and proprioception.
In the following clip, Anthony knows where he’s going to attack before he even has the ball, juking with his left foot and planting hard to stutter rip fake left before driving fast in the opposite direction, gliding like a running back shooting the gap, with elite balance and purposeful euro-step footwork to change directions on a dime.
What does putting it all together look like for a player who already has so many tools?
The biggest swing factor may come down to the confidence and consistency of the jump shot. Already having such command of body movement, dribble driving, and team-first passing not only offers a high floor of base skills to work with, but also offers room to grow as an on-ball scorer, pending how far that jumper progresses.
Scoring off the dribble requires a mix of good handles with pull-up shooting, tougher skills to master than the traditional catch-and-shoot jump shot.
What makes Steph Curry the greatest shooter and arguably most lethal scorer to ever play the sport of basketball isn’t just his ability to make any shot imaginable, it’s his ability to create and confidence to take any shot imaginable.
This sum-of-its-parts effect is formed from Curry’s clean shooting touch, tight ball control, and ideal hand-eye coordination adding up to form the splash brother’s self-creation super powers.
Once Anthony Black feels comfortable shooting off the dribble, he could really threaten to attack and score from any spot on the floor.
A six-seven point guard with the first step burst to blow by his perimeter defender, vertical leap to challenge help-side rim-protectors, and good feel to decide whether to finish softly or kick out abruptly is already a difficult player to guard.
Simply having confidence in the outside shot, a mere willingness to shoot from deep, can be enough to earn respect from the defense; any hesitance, and the sharks will smell fear in the water, giving up that shot for the rest of the night.
The non-spacing point guard’s dillema: as long as defenders go under the screen, the ball-handler must get creative in finding ways to still be an effective shot creator.
Markelle Fultz uses snake-dribbles and hostage-dribbles to put his defender in jail behind him, with methodical shoulder-leans to manuever maniacally through the paint, while Anthony Black can start, stop, and explode to any spot on the floor.
Video Credit: Orlando Magic
Drafting for fit can be complicated.
Addressing team needs directly in the draft, like selecting a three-point shooter because your team needs shooting, could often be a misguided attempt at fixing a short-term problem at the cost of missing out on long-term upside and talent.
For contenders that are truly one specific role player away, addressing that need in the draft could be one of few paths available, like the 2009 Orlando Magic drafting and starting a rookie Courtney Lee from Day 1 all the way through an NBA Finals run.
In general, trying to fix a team-wide problem in one draft pick foul swoop can be a fool’s errand, especially once considering the expectations that puts on a rookie.
Attempting to fill a team’s holes in the rotation from the season prior, projecting the same problems to exist the following season, and assuming a rookie’s impact will translate immediately, could all be draft fallacies.
Team needs serve more like tiebreakers among prospects within the same tier of talent and potential more than being an outright reason to draft someone higher than they should be taken. Drafting for the best “fit” on today’s roster doesn’t neccessarily mean the same thing as drafting a good basketball player who “fits” the long-term culture a team is building.
By instead selecting the best player available, the BPA, the safest bet of a high floor rotation player with the most realistic potential to develop into a star one day, the team improves their chances of rostering the most impactful players from the draft for the foreseeable future as these young players enter the next stage of their athletic prime and as older veterans age out of a league that grows younger by the day.
Teams controlling the rights of the best young talent for four rookie seasons and usually three additional years with the rookie extension incentivizes teams to draft with the long view in mind.
Fans should always appreciate good team-building process.
Should fans care how much money a billionaire saves by ducking the luxury tax when the only actual competitive advantage any sports team owner can add to the equation of winning a championship is opening up their checkbook and outspending other team owners on the best players, coaches, and facilities to build a winning culture?
Ideally, the front office’s goal is to build a contending basketball team, usually managing the books to stay under the tax if the team owners aren’t willing to join the Warriors, Clippers, and Suns in luxurytaxland; in reality, the front office’s job is to keep the owners happy.
Drafting good basketball players with high upside today bridges the path to building around the best players in the league tomorrow, providing the team a wide lense to maximize their options as they build the most sustainable winning program possible.
From their fondness for Chick-fil-A to their tall two-way playmaker prowess on the hardwood, Anthony Black and Markelle Fultz share similarities on and off the court.
Having multiple ball-handlers who create good shots for themselves and teammates while defending multiple perimeter positions on the other end improves any roster.
Orlando drafting Anthony Black with the sixth overall pick reinforces the idea that teams can’t have enough tall, long versatile plus-defenders who can grab and go in transition, draw fouls attacking the rack, and reliably run halfcourt offense as a good decision-maker with soft finishing touch and realistically developable ball skills.
This team-building belief is held by former Golden State GM Bob Myers, who valued flanking the Warriors’ splashy shooters with switchable plus-defenders who were strong, tall, and long for their position, who make smart team-first decisions with the ball, and who create advantages as downhill drive-and-kick playmakers, like Andre Iguadola and Shaun Livingston.
How many players on Orlando’s roster can rebound the ball, dribble up the court, score in the midrange, attack the rack off the dribble, and push the pace in transition?
Rather than searching for perfectly balanced lineups today, Magic fans can be excited about the promise of a roster featuring multiple 6’6”+ ball-handling grab-and-go playmakers who all operate differently in the halfcourt, making the team harder to guard by adding unpredictablity and complementary scoring versatility to the offense.
Paolo combines force and finesse to score effectively in one-on-one situations. Fultz, Franz, Cole offer reliable pick-and-roll halfcourt shot-creation for the team, while Markelle Middy is an assassin from anywhere below the arc. Suggs is sneakily shooting well in handoff playtypes, while Wendell brings solid play to every aspect one could ask for out of a big man, starting with his telepathically strong re-screens.
Black adds another ball-handler capable of running offense and penetrating the defense for paint-and-sprays. Anthony can fill multiple roles for this Magic team right away with an open runway to develop a jumper that has multiple promising indicators.
If Markelle, Franz, or Paolo miss a game, Black can step right in as an injury reserve for anyone from point guard to point forward, bringing two-way team-first impact in switchable defense, decision-making, and ball-handling offense-running capabilities.
If brought off the bench, Black fits smoothly with the efficient Cole-Suggs-Goga second unit as a cerebral cutter, point forward playmaker, versatile wing defender.
Maybe Orlando dabbles with an all-skill frontcourt of Franz-Black-Paolo at the 3-5, given each player’s length and ability to guard big wings and Paolo’s physical similarities with Nikola Jokic in size and elbow backdown scoring creator game.
With outside shooting being the potential backcourt’s most glaring weakness, Magic fans have fair concern about starting Black and Fultz together right away, as it’s near-impossible for any team to play two non-floor-spacers together, let alone at guard.
Even still, a couple of super smart athletes with otherwordly body control, vision, and feel for the game who find ways to create scoring advantages for themselves and others will find playing time; if either one of them is scoring consistently or hitting the three ball on any given night, finding minutes together becomes much easier.
Fultz is a paint-and-spray machine, a foul-drawing, midrange assassin; Black shows touch and timing on lobs and floaters, explosion hunting contact when vertical-attacking rim-protectors, and kick-out team-first decision-making when pushing the pace on breaks, driving to the rack, and operating pick-and-rolls.
How quickly could Anthony Black be the undeniable best choice at point guard, or so good he forces his way into the starting frontcourt?
Starting jobs will be earned in practice; the best players will find a way onto the court.
The Grab and Go Magic are ready to run.
“He’s a kid that just loves basketball.
He’s just grateful and excited to be all around it. He’s a funny guy too.
Mature beyond his years.”
- Dom Samangy
NBA Analytics and Draft Consultant Dom Samangy (@DSamangy on Twitter) creates illustrious basketball data visualizations, working with the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program this past season as an Analytics Assistant Coach.
Dom took the time to discuss the role of data analytics in college hoops from recruiting to player development, along with his experience coaching Anthony Black, the Orlando Magic’s 6th overall pick, this past year with the Arkansas Razorbacks:
RK
How are analytics used in the recruiting process for college hoops and how do you view Data Science and Analytics as a tool for basketball scouting?
For instance, Anthony Black was the #1 ranked point guard in the country, a McDonald's All-American out of Duncanville, Texas. Did Arkansas use any type of analytic tools in his recruiting process?
Dom
Yeah, so I wasn't with the team when they were recruiting that class, AB (Anthony Black), Jordan Walsh, they were recruiting them while I was a senior at Syracuse, so I didn't specifically recruit those guys.
But when I went over to Arkansas, I was super involved with the recruiting process…Last spring, I got pretty involved, before I moved down we were recruiting the portal, so that would have been like Ricky Council, Trevon Brasile, The Mitchell Twins, Jalen Graham from Arizona State, so I kind of got a taste there.
Then last summer, we were recruiting a lot of high level high school kids like Ron Holland came on a visit, Baye Fall and Layden Blocker (committed).
Then just this year, we did a lot more throughout the season recruiting, less so during the season, then this past spring we hit the portal really hard again.
No one recruits harder than Muss (Coach Eric Musselman)
Muss doesn't stop, it never stops with him.
So we do, which every school does, you pitch the program, you pitch the school, you pitch obviously NIL now is a thing. I was lucky enough to have my own portion of the presentation, so I would be able to make 10 or 11 page break down trying to break down their game in a way that they would have never hopefully seen before visually, so try to make it analytics but also make it presentable to a player and their parents in a way that they can understand, and then find the mix of analytics as well with how they fit into our program and how they fit into our system.
So the biggest thing that Muss wanted to always harp on was, ‘we’re invested in you.’
He was always straight up, like some of the guys who we’re recruiting, he's like, ‘we only want you here for a year, and that's what you want to, but while you're here, we're invested. Dom’s gonna have updates for you all year on how you're playing, where you're at, where you were at.’
More specifically, a lot of the stuff is to show how they translate to the next level. I had a model that wasn't 100% accurate, like no model ever is, but it would take a player's stats, especially for college guys to show them similar players in the NBA that maybe we want to mold them into as they’re here with us for a year, what we want to work on, what we can we can from take certain players.
Obviously, no player is the same. But just to show them another way that we're invested both in analytics and how we can help you. It's pretty cool being able to have a small part of the recruiting pitch, and workouts at times, it was pretty cool.
Some of the kids that we recruited last summer, sent it to articles and journalists that never showed analytic stuff, that hey had never seen, always pretty cool to hear from those guys.
RK
Yeah, absolutely, I think that answers a few of my questions.
Especially that last part about how players and staff are able to communicate the data, finding value in communicating data to people who might not be as number-friendly.
So, it sounds like analytic tools are used in the recruiting process and development process, helping to find the best roles for players to succeed at the next level.
Just to delve into that a little bit, is there any specific analytic tools, programs, or visualization styles that you recommend?
What programs do you use to create Data Visualizations?
Dom
The funny thing with college data, it can really make it a headache to try, not only small projects, but big large scale projects, because there's no true (source). Like basketball reference has has a lot of stuff probably, the best for college, then there's synergy, but that's pretty hard to pull into one database, can scrape other websites for shot location data, which tracks high major teams all the time, but then only some non-major, so you don't get a full sample of that.
With college, the biggest thing is overcoming the data collection process.
But once you're there, I think the biggest thing for coaches, especially players, is figuring out what works for them. I found a lot of success with pretty simple stuff, with placing an emphasis on, making sure they understand, what's good or bad.
So, I always try to have something explaining what would be average here, like maybe have it on the chart like a bar chart, I always try to show the axis under each bar. I think the biggest, easiest thing that guys like to look at are shot charts where it's pretty intuitive by nature.
Obviously, it doesn't tell the full story, I think it's the easiest and most readily available thing in college basketball that players can take a grasp of. Then breaking that down, I do a lot of around the rim, (different zones),
…heavily used in college already. I did a lot of year over year trends, whether it be shooting data, like ‘you shot 30% on short mid range last year, shot 45% this year on double the volume’ stuff like that. It's easier, maybe not as advanced. But, you know, these younger guys are learning basketball as well, where if you're working with NBA players, those guys know their details very well, so maybe you look at more niche stuff there, especially more advanced data sets.
Shot charts are huge, I use a lot of bar charts, because that's pretty basic chart to explain pretty easily. I think the biggest thing with coaches and players, you don't want to explain the chart as much as the takeaway, you want that to kind of complement what your takeaway is, especially in a meeting or like a short time with a player.
So bar charts have been great, polar charts are pretty much bar charts wrapped in a circle, I like those because I tell the guys if you play FIFA or 2K, which I know they do, they see these charts all the time, now they’re just gonna like morph it into your stats and how we look at it. So it's a cool way to connect the guys, maybe they're not realizing that they're looking at data all the time playing video games and stuff like that.
Line graphs, smooth line graphs, just to show year over year, cumulative trends, those are pretty easy to combine left to right as time passes, you go up and down. So I like to use that a lot for shooting data to try to get a feel for how players performing over a season or over several years span.
Finally, it’s not a specific plot, but I think you can never go wrong with plain tables. And if you want to get crazy, throw a color scale in there; that's just the easiest way to put something on a report and have people read it. That's like a classic way, probably the most used type of chart or analytics, not just on Synergy or websites that coaches use, but on reports.
I found a lot of success with just tables, whether it be shooting data, box scores, advanced stats, you can pretty much customize that to whatever you want. A lot of times I use percentiles, that's what we use at Arkansas, I kind of introduced that to Coach Muss. He has his own color scale that he likes, so I fixed that into my code and automated that, and I put percentiles in there for all coaches.
It’s pretty simple, it standardizes everything, so they know zero is the worst, 100 is the best, that's gonna be the scale for everything, whether it be three-point percentage, like, I'll give them the percentage, and then I'll give them the percentile. So it lets them keep a consistency through out any reports, so that’s what I use most of the time with coaches and players.
RK
So, how would you say Arkansas and college programs balance the idea of trying to win games and compete for March Madness while also developing NBA prospects?
Like you said, Anthony Black might only want to be there for a year given his (professional) goals.
So how do you think they find that balance on a day-to-day level of trying to win now and also develop a player for tomorrow?
Dom
Yeah, it's tough. It's getting even harder with freedom of player movement, which I'm a big fan of, but at the same time, guys can move around a lot differently, or a lot more now. So you're almost recruiting guys and re-recruiting them every year, even when they're in your programs, so it gets tougher.
I think the biggest thing is older teams, on average, win more college basketball games. More experienced teams that have better chemistry usually last longer in March. Obviously there's been some outliers with some Duke and Kentucky teams, we've had similar issues this year where we were so young, arguably a top three or four talented team in the country, but we really didn't have many experienced guys, and it didn't help that we had two pretty much season-ending injuries to top three guys.
I’ve seen a lot of it, when I was at Syracuse we had a team that we had one guy that was a freshman and outside of him they were all seniors or grad students. We were less talented than the Arkansas team we had this year, but we were more connected. Didn’t make it as far, but I've seen both sides to the point where it's a hard balance.
I think ideally a coach would like to have program guys that they know will be around for four years, mixed in with guys that are one-and-done or two-year guys, I think that's like the best outcome, but that's hard because you want to develop guys. If you develop well they're eventually going to leave, and they might leave earlier.
I’m trying to think, Baylor does a really good job of finding four year guys; Arizona always seems to have four guys that are there three or four years mixed in with one and done. Muss has done really well with teams that are super old because you can get them to play a certain way, more bought more experience more physical guys, but then last year showed that we were more spaced out. We didn't shoot great but he can adapt to whatever his roster is.
I think coaches nowadays can't just rely on veterans coming back obviously. So it's gonna really test coaches, they're gonna have to change the system, not neccessarily the whole system, but playbooks will change depending on your personnel, and that's only going to have more turnover each year. So it’s a tricky balance, and obviously you're gonna have some teams emerge now through NIL that might have not been recruiting powerhouse just five years ago.
I wish there was a one encompassing answer to it, but I think it’s just as a program buying into what you want to be. Everybody wants to develop players, but once you have the right infrastructure, I think finding a mix of high end talent with hopefully some program guys that are there three or four years, cultivating the environment where guys want to stay. At the end of the day, you see guys transferr right now, last week of June, that stuff can really disrupt a program if you're turning over the roster years over year.
It's tough, but once you start churning out draft picks, kids are going to want to play for you. Having guys in the NBA only helps you. Players talk to players, AB hopefully has good reviews of Arkansas and he's only going to talk to (more players)… So word of mouth good reviews only (help), so it's a tricky system to master, but it all comes from a culture standpoint, which is very cliche in the basketball world, but it is true.
RK
Speaking to Anthony Black, we could switch over to him and talk about the future magician here...
Getting to know him as a person and as a teammate off the court, it sounds like he’s a culture guy, doing the right things before and after practice to help teammates and be good to fans.
What's it like seeing Anthony’s well-praised work ethic up close?
What type of work ethic, skill development, and coachability did you see as an NBA prospect?
Dom
Yeah, AB is special, man.
I'm involved in a lot of workouts, and then in practice, we're on the court in drills, sometimes on the scout team, so I got to work very closely with him.
He is a special kid. I think the first and still one of the most resounding memories I have of AB was (when) I got to Arkansas last year in the first week of June…
At the time, AB was playing with the U-19 Team USA team in Mexico. So he was the last kid to report to campus last year; he came like June 15… so he got a late start.
We had already started practicing. Some of the guys started working the playbook.
I remember a weekend into AB’s time here, AB had stopped Coach Muss during practice and started asking him questions about the playbook.
AB at the time was learning 1-2-3, potentially the 4, he was asking him all kinds of stuff, and you could tell he was already picking up on it so fast.
I remember Muss stopping practice, Muss will always kinda throw some chirps in there about guys wanting to learn, wanting to work.
He stopped practice and said, “guys, come here, come here,” everybody huddled up, “AB has been here for a week, guys. He's already asking me questions about the third and fourth option of a play that AB is running at the three, which isn’t even his main position. So, not to play up to AB who’s our five-star freshman, but you guys gotta want to know, want to learn the playbook and be as invested as AB is already asking about extremely advanced options on a position that he's not even going to be playing, in a playbook that he just got introduced to last week.”
So I think that's always a funny story that I'll remember, it's a testament to his IQ and the way he processes support has actually been able to trust him with a playbook is something that’s huge, especially as a point guard and a ball handler, like I think he'll have no issue. We ran as (much of) an NBA-driven playbook as you can get at the college level; so, he's more than ready there, both offensively and defensively with our coverage as well. That was like the first moment where I was like, Wow, this kid is really special, not just on the court, but the way he can learn.
And then getting to know him as a person was really cool. I think he was in a similar boat with every freshman, he had to learn to work outside of practice and in practice, which is normal.
Those practice are much more intense, you got to do game reps every rep to improve and he quickly caught on. He had a pretty good summer and I think he really turned it on in the fall…
Not always the most vocal guy, but I think AB’s a guy that just garners respect with the way he competes. He's gonna raise the intensity level of the team by just the way he competes, guys just naturally follow in his footsteps.
Just as a person, you want to be around AB, he’s a really good kid.
Always nice to everybody. Every time we had home games, he’s staying signing autographs, taking pictures. He's out there for 20 to 30 minutes every game.
He really is, like I said earlier a cliche term, but he's a culture guy. He’s going to be a guy who’s good for the environment and the facility.
And then I actually got to work with (Anthony). I did some stuff WME, Bill Duffy’s agency, who AB actually happened to sign with, so it I was pretty cool.
I got to go out to Santa Barbara, California to see him, so we caught up out there for some workouts, cool seeing him in a different setting then a team setting.
So another testament to being surrounded by great people as well, Duffy is one of if not the most respected agent in basketball, so he has a really good foundation of people around him, so I can only see nothing more than the best with the Magic.
He's a kid that just loves basketball.
He's just grateful and excited to always be around it.
He's a funny guy too, a lot of these guys are funny guys once you get to know them.
Yeah, he'll be really good. He’s like every kid, but mentally, I’m pretty confident in saying he’s mature beyond his years, which should be good for him in terms of being an NBA guy for years to come.
RK
I have one play I want to point out against Kentucky (3/4/23)
Anthony Black relocates, crashes the glass, relocates again, and misses a three pointer, but instead of dropping his head, he sprints back on defense and explodes for a two handed chase down block.
I think that sequence summed up some of the energy, versatility, and resilency you're getting from this six-seven point guard who can run the offense, attack the glass, and even clean up a missed shot with a full-court full-speed chase down block on the other end.
Dom
Another play I want you to look up also came against Kentucky. (2/7/23)
(Davonte Davis) drove baseline and kicked it out to AB at the top of the key, and he caught it while in the air and already knew he was gonna fire it back into the post to the open center, Makhel Mitchell, and he dunked it.
So, that was just a cool play of AB pre-pre-pre-processing the play and already knowing where he was going with the pass.
RK
That will all come in handy, especially building locker room culture.
I want to dig into his game itself a little more specifically, how you see it thriving at the next level, any skills where the realistic development lies.
(When you watch him play) you just see absurd athleticism, versatility to guard multiple positions, grab and go on the fast break, incredible vision and feel running the game.
Do you see a really high floor because of all of the tools that he already has? Where do you see his impact and best role being at the next level?
Dom
AB is a guy that might not stick out; like there’s workout guys, you go watch this guy on air and workout, you know he's gonna look good; AB might not be that guy.
But when you put AB in a five on five game against NBA athletes who want to compete, AB’s gonna show up to compete, to impact winning.
Not a lot of people see his defensive rotations, defensive awareness, where he's at in gaps, two-hand digs when he's off the ball, when to leave his guy to go chase another guy; he's got all those tools, and that's something you can't teach, especially at such a young age.
We had a lot of injuries this year, and I think AB’s ability to cover so much ground and also play 38 minutes a night, he played the most minutes of any freshman in the country, he’d get beat up, he's a really durable guy too, was huge.
So I think he's got all the intangibles there which, like you said, is common in high floor guys.
I think I see a lot of Derrick White, a point of attack stopper, a big strong guard good at attacking closeouts, I think that's a good comp of what he can bring to the game almost immediately.
AB, for how big he is, is really good at navigating screens.
When he’s locked in a lot of times, I think some of his biggest defensive worries were him trying to be overly focused on stealing the ball or going for the ball and getting crushed over, that type of stuff.
Maybe he would have some defensive lapses and those lead to getting hit by screens, just losing his guy, which is common, but when he's on the ball, his screen navigation is really good.
There were several times when it was hard for him, he was playing 40 minutes a night, handling the ball and guarding point guards, that's not easy.
Whenever he has been locked in on point of attack, there are some occasions where guys weren't even getting the ball into the offense, like he was just breaking up their whole flow. So, defensively, he's just all over the place; he can only get better there.
He’s going to be a high impact guy whether it's in the box score or not.
I do think AB has got all the indicators of becoming a better shooter, whether it’s the floater touch, a decent free throw percentage, he had a hot streak last year in Maui he was averaging 25 a game and shooting 38% from three, so I think he can get there.
We obviously didn’t have the best (spacing) environment around him. Nick (Smith Jr.) was hurt for most of the year, he's probably our best shooter. Trevon Brazile, had a season-ending injury, a guy that played the five and shot 40% from the field and could catch anything at the rim for dunks; him and AB were playing really well together in Maui as a 1-2 punch.
I think the Magic are going to have some similar things, where they might not be the best shooting team, but in the NBA naturally the floor is way more spaced, especially compared to what we gave him last year.
I think on the ball he’ll have a lot more space to attack, and then off the ball hopefully he gets more reps as a spot-up shooter.
I think offensively, the biggest thing for him is that inbetween game, whether it's mid-range pull ups, or just that factoring into his decision-making.
A lot of the times for us, he would kind of get caught up:
Do I pick the ball up here and shoot?
Do I take one more dribble and shoot a floater?
Do I take one more dribble, fake the floater, and get to the rack?
He could do all that, but I think his processing can get better there, and that was only hampered more by our spacing.
A lot of the times, if he beat his first guy, he was driving into two more SEC bigs, which is not easy as a freshman, so there's definitely some wrinkles that need to be sprinkled in.
As a passer, he’s special; one handed, two-handed, passing with both hands.
His defensive feel, you can't teach that; not just the passing, but also understanding where and when to throw those passes.
I think a lot of his game flows with pace. Like he's not the most explosive athlete, but he's also not someone to be taken lightly, especially with his strength.
It seems like I'm naming a lot of positives, so it definitely plays into what everybody sees in his high floor.
*Anthony Black ranked 1st among all SEC players with 35 MPG in the regular season, via basketball reference
RK
Offensively, where do you see the fit at the next level?
Is there any other offensive role, specifically that you can see him thriving in between a starting point guard who runs every play in a heliocentric way to maybe more of a pass-first playmaker or point forward where he's guarding threes and fours while also initiating offensively?
Like you said, between slowly processing, building those skills together as one of many tall ball handlers who can run the offense, somewhere between primary and a secondary option, where do you necessarily see him thriving right away and developing to reach his potential?
Dom
He naturally always got the Josh Giddey comparison. I think the Magic have a good environment now, maybe they move someone, I'm not sure, but he's gonna have to work in slowly.
Rarely is a rookie point guard ready for a super-primary Luka Doncic type role, but hopefully he can get those reps and figure out his timing.
A lot of his game’s built on pace, so that's going to be a completely different level than what you saw in the SEC.
I think, interestingly, a lot of what we had to build as our shooters got hurt this year, we kind of tweaked our playbook.
Ricky Council was a really good driver, so we used AB off the ball a lot.
I'm pretty sure it's called Stampede actions, where a lot of times people think, ‘if you have a non-shooter off the ball, that's gonna hurt your spacing,’ but if you have a really good driver, say you put AB like one pass away, his guy (AB’s defender) is going to have to stunt on that first driver, if we're going to trust that driver to get in the lane.
So a lot of the times we would say, ‘Rick, drive’ if you get to the rack, that's great; if not, AB’s guy is probably going to stunt.’
Then a lot of times, AB, even in a shooting slump, we want him to shoot that open three if he got a pass. A big thing with the NBA now is a Stampede action where that guy who is one pass away is going to try to start running at you as he’s getting that pass so he can drive the gap opened up by that stunt.
So I think that is a way that you can utilize AB off the ball as a guy that's catching and ready to attack gaps or closeouts immediately, because he's such a good feel guy when he gets into those gaps.
Obviously you want the shooting to improve, and him to be able garner respect from inside and outside, but I think there's several ways you can tweak (his game).
Every team at any level says they want to run, they want to run the ball or run in transition, and AB is as pretty elite as he can get at that, whether it's as a passer or a scorer, that’s where he thrives in, that's where our offense was great because of him.
Whether it's generating turnovers, playing off that, obviously I think he'll be really good there if and when the Magic can run.
Then a lot of late-game packages, we went to AB.
Just a ball screen, spread the floor, let him work type of thing, because we trusted his ability to put pressure on the rim and also to draw fouls.
He was one of the best at drawing fouls, **his free throw rate was absurd last year; to do that on a team where there was no spacing is even more special.
To be honest, he wasn't a great shooter this year. I'm a big believer in his foul-drawing abilities, he would try to get late switches on pick-and-rolls, and look to pass out of it, so it was a pretty good way to combat shooting slumps at times, where he was just naturally given a very high usage role.
Nick (Smith Jr.) was hurt. Trevon Brazile was hurt. (Anthony Black) was able to work through a lot of struggles this year which I think was good for his development.
AB was able to take a really high-usage role to work through his slumps. From a team standpoint, we didn’t have much else to go to.
We were able to just say, ‘hey, we trust you drawing fouls, passing out of pick-and-roll, and also attacking switches late game.’ So that was another way to get him involved as a playmaker that’s not having him rely on creating a lot (individually).
While he's not the most readily available offensive creator and shooter, I think his ability to mix and match that with feel and his passing ability allows him to be pretty diverse to what you can do on the court.
**Anthony Black recorded a .578 FTr, averaging just over 0.57 FTA for every FGA, with his 190 FTA ranking 4th among all SEC players, via basketball reference
RK
Yeah, these are all great skills that both match what the Magic are trying to build and what works at the NBA level. He seems really special as a grab and go threat.
Like you talked about, with the pace of the league speeding up, Orlando seems to be prioritizing players who can just grab and go, grab the board, push the pace, dribble up themselves, and have the vision and feel to decide whether to attack or kick.
I'm imagining his immediate impact similar to the way Orlando's using Fultz as a tall playmaker who also uses his closeout attack as a way to threaten the defense.
Since they’re still going under screens on his three ball, Fultz makes up for it with Midrange Magic, Markelle Middy can pull up from anywhere.
You make a great point with the foul drawing. A ball-handler who can attack like that, what stood out immediately is the way he’s attacking the rim protectors in the air, trying to draw the contact and finish the shot, like a circus floater while in the air.
You can tell there's guys that avoid contact and guys who hunt it, and he's hunting, he's trying to dunk on them.
Dom
AB gave some of the centers we've got some pretty rough elbows to the face as he tried to draw contact, like he was up there with the big guys.
It's not something those big guys want to see either.
Yeah, yeah, they want to block shots, but, to see that all game?
That's not fun for them, from a point guard, especially.
Data Sources: Cerebro Sports, Basketball Reference, Hoop Math
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