Post by jhb on May 26, 2021 12:33:04 GMT -5
Amar'e Stoudemire
PF
6'10"
245
19
Cypress Creek HS
The lone high school entrant to the TMBSL draft in this class and a great story of overcoming adversity, Stoudemire overcame having to transfer through 6 schools to graduate high school and become eligible to go into the draft while overcoming a mother in jail and a father that passed away. Amar'e handled all of this adversity with tremendous grace and maturity and has excellent intangibles on and off the court. He's lauded by scouts for being among the best in this class in terms of his on-court intensity and aggressiveness, and that has scouts excited that he will have the work ethic to capitalize on his tremendous physical potential. He has a TMBSL-ready body at 19 that can handle additional muscle on his frame as he ages and he's extremely agile and explosive.
He put up an absolutely insane stat line his final year of high school basketball, tantalizing in 29 contests with 29.1 ppg, 15.0 rpg, 6.1 bpg, and 2.1 spg on a shooting split of .650/.240/.780. He's a tremendous rebounder, and he out-hustles opponents to spots he'd be able to beat them to even without effort just due to his long arms and shear quickness and especially dominates the offensive boards. Loves the put-back dunk and really any dunk, embarrassing defenders as often as possible. His high energy and quickness suit a high-energy, high-paced type of offense perfectly and he'd be especially dangerous operating as the roll man in quick pick and roll action with his quickness, strength, soft hands, and finishing ability...but he also has the ability to step back and pop the jumper out to around 15 feet with some consistency. He's got the strength to finish through contact but his free throw shooting held him back at times in high school...while he shot 78% his final year he was more in the high 60% range in earlier seasons. He's not lacking in his post game, which is fairly advanced for a high school player, but he could stand to work on his footwork, playing in control, and working better shot selection. He needs to learn to make the play within the offense rather than searching for the highlight reel.
Defensively, Stoudemire has tremendous potential, but he needs to learn to harness his aggressiveness so he doesn't get into foul trouble. He's got the tools to be a great help-side shot-blocker and the strength to bang with opposing bigs on the low block. He's also got the lateral quickness to step out and defend the perimeter. As with many young players, the key here is to work on developing his consistency as his focus defensively can wax and wane depending on the situation.