Michigan locked-in the big man of the future when 2022 Tarris Reed gave his verbal pledge to Juwan Howard back in August. Hello Post. 

While Reed has shot up the rankings into a consensus top-50 prospect, he hasn't been scouted extensively in the same manner as his fellow 22' commits. Dug McDaniel, Gregg Glenn and Jett Howard all play for high school programs that are generally ranked nationally and play top-tier competition. Tarris played for a relatively unknown HS in Missouri (prior to this season), while being limited to 8 games during EYBL play due to the pandemic. 

As such, I was in Dallas over the weekend to get an updated look at Tarris playing for a top-10 national team in Link Year Academy at The Scrimmage, as he squared-off against several quality foes. In game 1, Link took on Texas Alliance for Christian Athletes (TACA) as Reed matched up with Texas Tech commit Robert Jennings. Game 2 saw the Lions take the court against a Kimball HS (TX) team with a loaded backcourt in 5-star Texas commit Arterio Morris and 3-star Clemson commit Chauncey Gibson. One of the most anticipated matchups of the weekend came Saturday when the Lions played perhaps the best public school in America in Duncanville HS (TX). The Panthers have won three consecutive 6A Texas state championships while boasting a loaded roster featuring top-35 overall guard Anthony Black, 4-star juniors Ron Holland, Cameron Barnes and Ashton Hardaway (the son of Penny). For good measure, Duncanville also features 22' Northern Arizona commit C.J. Ford as the fifth leg in the starting lineup. 

 

Perimeter Defense

The most pleasant surprise over the weekend was undoubtedly Reed's perimeter defense. In the clip above, Tarris is on an island versus 22' guard C.J. Luster (offers from Rice, New Mexico State and UTEP) and beats him to the spot on three occasions in one possession. His defensive stance during this possession is outstanding and the results match. That is impressive stuff for a 6'9/250 HS big not necessarily known for his agility. 

The clip above versus Luster came during the first game of the weekend so I was curious to see if this was simply an outlier or whether this was a trend. Reed continued to display good agility on the defensive end against some of the very best prospects in America on several possessions as detailed below. 

I'm not going to sell you on Tarris being the second coming of Moussa Diabate on defense, but it does appear there is some potential for him to be a viable defender in terms of hedging against ballscreens and perhaps staying with the average guards of the B10 for a 1-2 dribbles if forced to switch. Particularly considering Sanderson will refine his body a bit (and likely trim him down) and optimize his agility and overall athleticism. 

 

Post Offense

Reed looked very good as a back-to-basket scorer. Tarris displayed advanced use of pivoting/footwork, finished well with both hands and created space with ease via jab-steps/spin-moves and the like. He certainly projects as a big that Juwan Howard can lean on in half-court sets as a primary option in the B10. We can talk all the scheme we want, but at times you simply need a guy you can dump the ball to and say "get us a bucket". 

It was very frustrating to see Link's coach continually attempt to utilize Reed as a roll-man in ballscreen action rather than optimizing his abilities with post-ups. Tarris is significantly better as a back-to-the-basket option. He wasn't at all comfortable as a roller or dumpoff option (more on that later). 

 

Shooting

I only witnessed two jumpers attempted by Tarris, but the first was eye-opening. Reed connected on a triple from the top-of-the-key after receiving a down screen and displayed really good mechanics. Good lower-body balance, high release-point and outstanding arch. Hitting a jumper on the move at 6'9/250 definitely isn't something you see often at any level, and certainly not from a HS senior. The more encouraging sign? This was a designed BLOB set ran specifically for Tarris. This suggests that his coach has seen enough shooting prowess in practice to warrant him being a designated shooting option against legit competition. 

[After THE JUMP: Areas For Development]

How About The Hands?

The biggest issue for Reed over the weekend was unquestionably the dropsies. Never did I assume hands would be an issue in this evaluation, but this was consistent during all 3 games. 

I always account for pass difficulty when assessing a big's hands, but a good portion of the miscues in the clip above are very routine passes that any high-major level prospect should be expected to handle with relative ease. For the contested post-entry passes, Tarris clearly has inside position against Cameron Barnes/Ron Holland and a 30-40 pound weight advantage on each. He should discarding Barnes/Holland without much effort and catching the ball for an easy finish. 

 

Finishing

Reed had some struggles finishing as well. The major culprit for Tarris is that he simply takes too long to get off the ground. On a good number of the possessions in the clip above, he has a 2-4 inch height advantage and yet his defender is able to block the attempt without event jumping, or perhaps getting an inch or two off the ground. 

Reed isn't a quick-twitch athlete by any means, so there is a limit to his improvement in this regard. That said, Sanderson can improve this in tandem with Tarris simply being more assertive/quick with his movements. What he lacks in pure elevation should be overcome with timing/assertiveness at the college level in tandem with his height/wingspan. 

 

Rim Protection

The lack of explosiveness was also a factor in Reed's ability to protect the rim. The time he takes to gather himself in preparation for the jump means the offensive player has already begun to elevate. This generally translates to the offensive player moving forward in the air and Tarris bumping his body in flight = foul. If Reed can elevate a nano-second earlier, some of these would result in blocks/alterations. Again, only so much you can do here considering the general lack of twitchiness, but marginal improvement helps the cause. 

 

Tagging the Roller

Given the impressive switchability/top-locking covered in detail above, I was a bit disappointed to see this play unfold. Tarris is in hard-show + recover defense against the ballscreen and does a really poor job of recovering to tag the roller.

His teammate (23' 5-star Omaha Biliew) is forced to stunt at the roller in order to deter to the pocket pass + finish, while the corner shooter makes a baseline cut that the guard finds him on. At this point the defense is in total scramble mode because everyone needs to help-the-helper after Reed was beat badly. The result is a wide-open jumper that probably connects at a 60% clip at the college level.

Unlike the finishing/rim-protection issues above, I don't think this is an athleticism issue. This is very much an effort issue in my opinion. One that is baffling considering his engagement/willingness to defend 5-star level players on an island on the perimeter and come up with stops repeatedly. One time isn't enough to identify this as a trend, but it's certainly something I'm going to look for in future evaluations.