The greater DMV-area was the destination over the weekend, as I attended the Team Thrill Showcase  with intriguing matchups between the shoe-circuit powerhouses including Michigan-friendly clubs such as Team Takeover (Nike EYBL) in addition to the host Team Thrill (Under Armour) among others. 

The Dilemma of Dug McDaniel

I was anxious to get eyes on 2022 offer Dug McDaniel of Team Takeover, as my last live viewing of him came in December 2019. As McDaniel has always been a smaller guard, perhaps the first thing on my list to check off was physical profile. He's pretty much the same at around 5'9 and 150 pounds. 

In terms of skill, my highlights of Dug above reflect everything you want to see from an undersized guard. He excelled in ballscreen action with pull-up triples against drop coverage, look-away passes to find the roll-man, great first-step acceleration and the ability to knock down jumpers off the ball as a floor-spacing shooter. He also surpassed my expectations for him as a shooter, going 4/10 from distance over 3 games. No question about it, there is a lot to like about him as a prospect. 

But highlights can be deceptive and taking in entire games is always the better way to evaluate. The clip above doesn't really do his full-game performances justice and it would be somewhat challenging to reconcile the film above with my scouting report and overall takeaway. McDaniel's highs are eye-popping stuff, but his possession-by-possession play can be far from that at times. To that extent, I'm going mini-Future Hoops Originals here to provide you with in-depth film analysis to supplement my scouting report. 

As a passer Dug whips around no-look passes with one hand in tight windows that very few prospects are capable of making. But he also struggled mightily with making accurate routine passes that most any high-level HS point guard can make. It was a consistent theme and definitely struck me as a bit bizarre. Check out some of the delivery issues below:

[Hit THE JUMP for the full report on McDaniel + Justice Williams update]

As one might assume, McDaniel had some issues as a finisher given his size. He's a good athlete with elite open-court speed, good first-step acceleration and good elevation as a leaper. But he's simply too small to finish proficiently against high-major athletes that are generally 6'7 and up. He's often relegated to taking quasi-floaters just outside the paint/restricted area because he knows going all the way to the rim will likely result in rejection as seen below. 

As I compose this section, I imagine this will be cringeworthy content for Brian. Dug likes to take a lot of "other twos", and he's not very good at connecting on those shot types as you can see below. Those shot types accounted for 1/3 of his overall attempts. A lot of these shots are wild/off-balance looks that essentially have zero chance of going in. Again, this is largely due to his size limitations. He lacks the size to finish at the rim, so the path of least resistance is generally going to be the 8-15ft area. I'd like these shot attempts a lot more if they were balanced looks. 

Caveats apply, as Team Takeover clearly lacks the talent they generally have (can be said for the entire 2022 class) and this was the team's first event of the Spring. But overall, McDaniel's stock went down for me. He's a better shooter than I anticipated, but fell short of my expectation in nearly every other offensive skill facet.

Hovering around 50ish on 247, that territory is generally reserved for undersized guards that have mostly everything you want but lack NBA size. See one Frankie Collins. Rivals has him a bit closer to 70 and I think that's the more appropriate range here. Dug isn't the same level of playmaker in the half-court in relation to Frankie. As a finisher, Collins is in a different stratosphere and draws fouls at a much higher rate. McDaniel appears to be the better shooter, but checking in with two coaches that have played against him there is some concern. When asked about the potential fit at Michigan, one source says "you have to be an elite shooter at that size to play in the B10, and I'm not sure he's that". Another source was more candid and said "I think he's too small for the B10 and worry about his shot". 

On the recruiting front, Dug was thought to be a near-lock for Michigan at one point. But significant time has passed without a commitment to the extent that he can no longer be placed in the category. After checking in with sources over the weekend, it seems that Florida is gaining steam here and Penn State is trying to make a big push of late. In any event, I can see why Florida/SEC may be appealing to McDaniel considering tempo/style of play and his size/skillset. 

Wolverines Making a Push for Justice Williams

Top-40 Justice Williams was back in action with Team Final against EYBL level competition at the Team Final Scrimmages over the weekend and looked extremely impressive. Listed at 6'3 - 6'4 depending on source, Justice looks a bit closer to the 6'5 - 6'6 range based on my eye test from the film above. Williams is a great athlete with a really diverse skillset. He blows by defenders in isolation, displays a great pull-up game, good vision as a playmaker for others and finishes through contact at the rim. I'm excited to check him out live this Spring/Summer, but he definitely has the look of a prospect that should be slotted as a 5-star in the 10-20 range. 

Juwan Howard offered back in July 2019, but we haven't heard a ton since then. Michigan was the first school mentioned over the weekend when asked which schools are in contact the most. Williams plays his HS ball at Montverde (FL), but is originally from Philadelphia, so the Phil Martelli connections run deep here. Added bonus, Williams also plays his AAU ball with Team Final ... where Jalen Duren is also his teammate.

I would absolutely love to add Williams to the class. He checks all the boxes in terms of athleticism, size and skill. His size allows him to be a versatile weapon with the potential to play anywhere from the 1-3 spots at the next level.