Jared Rhoden & David Roddy: Mini Scouting Reports
Two prospects vying for roles as wing players in the NBA are the perfect lesson in scalability
As we wind down the pre-draft process, time is alluding us. There simply isn’t time left for a deep dive into each prospect in the way we’d want to do. No more ten-minute scouting videos, full six-category breakdowns, individually-dedicated scouting reports.
What we can offer instead is a chance to look at two players at a time, perhaps comparing their overlaps or making a point about how differently they’re treated in draft circles. We’ll provide some five-minute scouting report videos, a quick breakdown of our thoughts in written form, and maybe a draft prediction or two based on intel we’re hearing around the league.
This approach — covering more prospects instead of looking at fewer in great detail — seems vital to encompassing the 2022 draft class. The way this draft is shaking out, there could be as many as 50 players in play for a first round selection. Beyond that, the end of the draft is wide open. Of those 50 players we hear rumors about with the first, at least a dozen of them could easily go undrafted as well. There’s a great deal of volatility with draft ranges. As a result, there are probably 75-90 guys we need to look at and prepare for going into draft night.
Scalability is one of those words that belongs on an NBA Draft bingo card. So much of scouting is about taking players who have large roles before college and trying to figure out if they’ll fit into an NBA setting where their role is likely to be reduced. For us, the two prospects we’ll look at today — Jared Rhoden from Seton Hall and David Roddy from Colorado State — are the perfect two for a lesson on scalability and how what we look for in the second round of a draft is less about overall talent and more about fit as a complementary piece next to the league’s most talented players.
Jared Rhoden, Seton Hall
After a four-year career at Seton Hall, Jared Rhoden is ready for the NBA. The jump he made between sophomore and junior years put him onto NBA radars, and a solid season in 2022 solidified that he is talented enough to be a professional basketball player. Averaging 15.5 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists last year, Rhoden was the top offensive option for the Seton Hall Pirates.
That’s not a role he’s optimized within. Rhoden is more of a two-foot finisher near the basket, needs multiple dribbles to get to the rim around his man one-on-one, had subpar finishing stats as a senior and isn’t a high-volume creator for others. In a vacuum, those would turn us off from valuing him as a professional prospect.
Instead, the specifics about Rhoden’s offense as it relates to being a role player in the NBA stood out for the positive. Repurpose him as a catch-and-shoot prospect and he’ll be quite fine; he shot 42.5% on catch-and-shoot jumpers in the half-court, a hell of a lot better (and more functional for the league) than his 33.6% shooting from deep might suggest. The negative assist to turnover ratio isn’t indicative of his feel as an extra passer, and his deceleration in the mid-range can give him at least some pull-up scoring to rely on in late-clock situations.