Dereon Seabron: 2022 NBA Draft Scouting Report
The long, handling wing can get to the rim at will. What else can he bring to the table?
For those who have not read our scouting reports or know much about position labels, here at The Box and One we place draft prospects into one of six position categories based on their skills and who they defend. Point guard and combo guard are the two predominantly backcourt spots, wing and forward are more movement-based frontcourt spots, and post players are more anchored to playing the 5.
Then there’s a sixth category, which we call athletes, for those who don’t fit into any category. Their game is truly positionless and too difficult to summarize into one position group. Sometimes it’s based on just what the name suggests: athleticism. Guys are too big, quick and imposing to fit into one limiting mold. Other times the combination of skills that they have don’t jive with a position they’re bound to play. A player like Aleksej Pokusevski, for example, has such a unique combination of traits that it would be a disservice to place him into one.
Dereon Seabron is a fluid positional player, an imposing athlete and the type of player whose role and skill set would be limited by attaching any other label to him.
The 22-year-old sophomore served as the top option for NC State this season. Standing 6’8” with a super long wingspan and some of the longest strides you’ll see, Seabron ran the point for the Wolfpack. He did the lion’s share of rebounding on a team with no size once big man Manny Bates went down with a season-ending injury. Seabron would play the de facto 4 on defense within a switching scheme, crash the defensive glass and then push the other way. 20% of his total offensive production came in transition, where his athleticism would shine through.
In the half-court, the creation-starved Wolfpack catered around Seabron’s athleticism. Opponents sometimes struggled with how to matchup with them. Smaller guys would guard Seabron since he is always handling out of the pick-and-roll, then a mismatch would take place elsewhere. Bigger guys got blown past as Seabron was too quick and long for them to handle. In terms of athleticism, he has it despite an incredibly thin physique.
In terms of skill, Seabron isn’t a one-trick pony but his entire game is predicated on one tenet: get to the rim. About 80% of all his attempts came at the rim. There’s very little jump shooting right now, or evidence of it coming long-term. There’s also virtually no mid-range game or feel to complement the slashing.
Watching Seabron play is to marvel at one man’s ability to get downhill play after play. Seabron is a walking paint touch and one of the best we’ve ever seen at drawing contact on his drives. He lives at the free throw line, finishing the year with over 200 attempts. Pretty good for a guy who is so predictable by the defense that they know exactly what he’s trying to do.
With Seabron, his NBA future depends on two areas:
Projecting if he is good enough to command this type of creation, slashing role in the NBA on one of the 30 best teams in the world
If he is not, trying to figure out if he provides value in a smaller role as someone who is effective off-ball: hitting shots, slashing to the rim and defending at a high level.