Julian Champagnie: 2022 NBA Draft Scouting Report
A high-volume scorer in the Big East, Champagnie projects more as a role playing shooter at the next level
In college, Julian Champagnie is more of a Khris Middleton. In the NBA, he’ll be more like Jordan Nwora.
The do-it-all scorer for the St. John’s Red Storm is coming off two seasons averaging at least 19 per game and doing everything he can to keep their offense afloat. He left it all on the floor as a high-volume jump shooter and single-handedly made their half-court offense solid enough to win games. The twin of current Toronto Raptors swingman Justin Champagnie, Julian was always seen as the offensive producer of the pair. After returning to school for additional reps, it’s pretty clear that label will hold up.
The question for Julian is whether much of what he showed this year at St. John’s can translate onto an NBA court. It’s one thing to be a high-caliber scorer on a college floor, it’s another to be the top option for a pro team. There are many flashes of intrigue to his game: solid post-up ability and physicality, tremendous backdoor cutting when playing off-ball and a consistent-looking jumper.
The stats-based analysis doesn’t bode very well for Champagnie’s game clearly translating to a smaller role. For someone who should be a good 3-point shooter, he’s never been all that efficient from deep (only 33.7% this year). He relies on jump shots far too often, rarely getting to the rim (only 22% of his attempts come at the bucket) and being a mundane finisher when he gets there.
Champagnie also garnered the reputation of being a bit of a chuck. He was asked to shoulder a massive load in their offense, yet he did little to use that to create opportunities for others. He has a usage rate above 27% and an assist rate below 10%. Over the last decade, here’s a list of the college players to get drafted with the same marks that were not big men:
Doug McDermott
Jabari Parker
TJ Warren
Ben Bentil
Rui Hachimura
Quite the list of score-first guys. Much like McDermott, Champagnie is the guy who should need to move to an off-ball role as more of a 3-point threat. Even McDermott got more of his attempts at the rim (32.5%) than Champagnie (22%). All the others were multi-level scorers who were more driver than shooter. Parker (36.5%), Warren (34.5%), Bentil (37.4%) and Hachimura (49.7%) all got to the rim a fair amount.
Projecting Champagnie to the NBA either means that he has to be able to embrace a smaller, spot-up role or be so good at getting to his spots as a jump shooter that he can be a top offensive piece. Based on the film and some issues with 1v1 separation, we aren’t quite sold on him accomplishing the latter.