Toronto Raptors: Alijah Martin Scouting

Toronto Raptors: Alijah Martin Scouting

[Music] We are going to go to uh Elijah Martin. So Elijah Martin is uh the Toronto Raptors uh draft pick from the second round this year. He was drafted 39th overall. And um one thing to note about uh Elijah is that he is an older rookie. So this was his fifth season in uh college basketball. he will be 24 entering the uh the NBA season and um I think that there is a good chance that he makes the final roster because um he does bring a lot of things to the table and as an older rookie um you kind of expect those guys to hit the ground running and not require as much uh development time. So uh just a little bit of background on Elijah Martin. So, first of all, he played with uh Florida Atlantic University uh his first four seasons and uh then in his final year, he transferred to Florida State where, you know, he won uh an NCAA championship uh in the tournament. He was very good in the tournament and kind of made a name for himself and started, you know, moving up draft boards. Uh, one of the things just immediately right off of the bat that you will notice when you watch him play is that he has a developed body. He has an NBA ready body for a guard. Uh, he is, you know, broad shoulders, developed musculature. He is, you know, he is well well on his way to being having an NBA physique. Of course, he needs probably will need to work on it a little bit more, but that is one of his calling cards is the fact that he kind of he was a bit of a bully in terms of playing at the guard spot in college basketball. And that was one of the elements that really helped uh Florida State win the championship was that he was able to uh you he played the point of attack. uh you put him in front of the other team’s, you know, lead ball handler and he would move east west very well and use his uh physicality to stop them from getting into the lane and uh navigate screens, bump, do all that kind of stuff. He really is does have that kind of dog mentality. Um some other things about him uh is that I think he’s a good athlete. Um, I don’t think he’s like an elite athlete, but I think that he is a uh a strong athlete. Uh, I mean, if you’ve watched any of the highlights from him, I’m sure after the Raptors drafted him, you went on to YouTube just like I did and just sort of consumed some of the highlights that he uh, you know, created during his um, tenure in college basketball. And the guy is like has some sick dunks. Um, a lot of them are like posters and that kind of stuff. one comp. And I know that this is very uh man who’s only seen Boss Baby uh seeing his second movie. Wow, this is a lot like Boss Baby. He kind of reminds me of uh Norman Powell a little bit. And Norman Powell, as you may remember, um he is now more of a a scoring guard and a shooter and a guy who can, you know, create one-on-one and stuff like that. But in college, he had a defensive rep and he was known as like a defensive stopper. And one of the things like he was also an older player. I believe he was a senior when he entered uh the draft. So similar circumstances also like pretty big guy, pretty pretty muscular guy, like not a little shrimp. um also pretty athletic and also um he didn’t have the shot coming in like he could shoot a little bit but um he did eventually become and now he is a lethal shooter so maybe there’s some upside comp there hopefully Elijah Martin is a little bit uh better of a defender maybe a bit more situationally aware that was always uh Norman Powell’s uh issue at the NBA level anyways but um yeah then maybe that’s a good comp I don’t Um, another Yeah. Uh, another thing to note is that he is uh very right-hand dominant. And this is something that screams. Okay. So, if you are a a onehanded player as a guard, you’re an offball player, you you’re a role player. Uh, that in in my opinion, you have to be able you have to be ambidextrous. You’ve got to be able to to go both ways. And, uh, he’s very right-hand dominant. Um, and there pretty much very very few instances of him dri dribbling with his left hand. It’s almost always uh just he he will switch back to his right and uh whenever he drives to the rim and and finishes, it’s with his right hand. Uh with that said, he’s a pretty good connector. Uh he didn’t average many um assists in uh with Florida. Uh pretty pretty poulry for a guard. I mean it was better than his other seasons uh with 2.2 2.6 per 36. Um I would say that’s just generally because he was not asked to create for them. Uh he would do the Florida if you watch them they like to share the ball. They like to move the ball around but he was played mostly as a connector. Um so generally he will be um making dump off passes. He’ll be ma making post feeds. they’ll give him the ball uh on a curl and uh you know if he’ll come off a screen, get into the lane and then he’ll make a you know pretty decent pass. Uh there’s a couple of um nice plays where he’s uh uh creating for his teammates, but it’s all just stuff where it’s um his uh uh it’s it’s all kind of secondary creation, none of the first option stuff. So I I wouldn’t expect that from him. Um, next up, let’s talk about the shot. That is one of the biggest swing skill, as it is with pretty much any prospect. Um, these days, if you have the ability to shoot the three-point shot, there’s a very good chance that you are going to be an NBA player. And, uh, he has a very large volume and a large sample size of, uh, three-point shooting. So he was in five years in college, shot the the ball quite a bit, about six per game um every year. Uh so that’s quite a bit. And he has he averages uh about 36 3 point 36% from from three over that uh time span, which is of course not elite and a lot of it is spot up, but uh it’s there and there’s there’s a big sample size. So, there is a a decent chance that he could become a shooter at the next level. Uh, the shot in terms of the mechanics looks pretty good. Uh, it’s a little low. It’s a little on the slower side. Uh, nice follow through. Um, I I think it’s a pretty nice looking shot. Uh, I will say though, I think he’s a spot-up shooter uh at at the next level. That’s probably going to be his role in the NBA. He did it quite a bit at Florida State. they’d have him parked in the corner and uh he would be the recipient of kickouts and um they did some other stuff where he would come off of screens and shoot the ball and and do a little bit of that. Um but nothing major like the the two ways that he scores generally shooting off of a kick out uh cutting to the rim that’s in the half court and then like his superpower. So the guy is like a very very good um transition player. So he is really really good at a creating the circumstances for a turnover because he is a a ball hawk and b uh he is very good at uh finishing plays and he’s also a good outlet passer. So those are a couple of things that uh work in his favor. So let’s just take a look at some of the uh the clips that I put together. I did didn’t do anything as kind of uh robust as Steve put together, but but I have a couple of uh uh clips here. So, uh let’s just go to this quickly. Um so, uh he is um right here. He’s um he’s waiting in the wings as you can see. Um he’s on the weak side. Uh he is a ball hawk, so he’s not sticking with his man completely. He’s doing what all good defenders do, which is um you know, keeping an eye on his man and the ball. So, he’s looking at the ball right now and he sniffs out that there’s going to be a a pass to uh Janai Broom and he picks it off and goes the other way and slams it home for a nice dunk. And this just shows that um a he’s always he’s lurking. He’s here, I’ll just pause it for a moment. He’s lurking and waiting for other teams to make mistakes. uh this is, you know, a a good way to pick up steals in the NBA in in college is capitalizing on mistakes. Not all steels are just stripping people. A lot of the time it’s sensing when there’s going to be, you know, a bobble or, you know, an errant pass and just being in the right spot at the right time. and he couples that with just good foot speed, um uh a a competent handle running the break, and um he’s a very good finisher. So, this next one is a very good example of that. Um where he just picks off, uh this kind of pretty crummy uh looking pass. Okay, so this was actually a steel that was created by a Florida center. it was poked away, but he kind of jumps in there and manages to beat two players down the court and um finish off like a really sick dunk. So that um obviously, you know, you want to be able to see that as a a player um in at the NBA level, you want to be able to see a guy who can finish on the fast break. Uh the Raptors in fact were a very poor finishing team and that might be hard to wrap your mind around it because they have a lot of athletic guys who should be good in the open court. Um but they for whatever reason just did not have a very good completion rate when it came to uh finishing fast breaks and he could really help with that by finishing the break and also starting the break with uh his good outlet passing. So, this last one, this one is is more uh just sort of what are the other stuff, the other things, excuse me, that he brings to the table. And one of the things that he brings to the table that um I really like is just his uh willingness to do the dirty work. And because that will be his role probably at the next level, you are looking for the role player uh qualities. So, this next one is a nice one where it just shows that he is willing to uh seek out a a man to box out. So, let’s just take a look at this quickly. He is uh guarding the corner. He’s standing in the dunker spot and he sees the shot go up. What does he do immediately? He looks to the perimeter. Okay. He sees um I believe that’s uh oh um gosh, what’s the name of that? Who’s the guy who was drafted out of Yukon? the white guy, the shooter. Uh is it um not cockbrunner but uh Riley M. McNeely McNeely. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so he sees McNeely um who wants to come in and get the offensive rebound and he immediately just puts the lumber on him, boxes him out, and what that allows is Condan is able to come over and just snag the board there. And um that’s the kind of stuff that you want to see from a role player. A guy who understands uh that his role is to just make winning plays. You’re not out there to score. You’re not out there to be a superstar. You’re out there to do the dirty work, bring your lunch pail, and just get to work. And he does that on tons of possessions. As soon as the shot goes up, he’s looking for a guy to box out. he’s looking for somebody to put the lumber on and make sure that um they are going to uh get the the rebound. So, that’s a nice thing in terms of uh I know that I’ve been going on pretty long. I’ll just uh we’ll I’ll I’ll just go through all the points here. Um so, his body is very very good. Lets him finish through contact. He has good hand eye coordination. He can finish at the basket. Uh he is a disruptive defender as I was mentioning. He is a ball hawk but he’s also able to stay in front of guys. Um he uses a good east west movement. He has good lateral foot speed and he has a developed body that can sort of stop players when they’re moving towards the rim. Uh obviously Florida was extremely successful. Uh he arrived there. They were good before that but he arrived there and then they won the championship and he was their point of attack defender. he was the guy that they were putting in front of the guy who had the ball. That’s a really good sign. Um, he had some really nice defensive games. There were really good games against Yukon, Texas Tech, Auburn, uh, where he just stayed attached to his man, was able to, uh, be one of the cogs that allowed them to play such effective defense. And then, and then the big thing, the transition play. So, those are the things that I would look out for, defense, transition play, and three-point shot. And you’re looking at a guy who has a a road map towards becoming uh an NBA role player. If you have those three things in your bag, you know what? You’re probably going to make it into the league. Uh did you notice anything about um about Elijah Martin that uh that you want to share? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I think he did a really good breakdown on him. Um, I was somebody who initially because I didn’t have my eye on him as a player that the Raptors might choose, I needed a little bit of selling on. And I think you’ve just further sold me on him because I think something that the Raptors very much lacked last season, the season before, was this identity. And it seems like the identity they’re trying to form is that we are two-way. We will bruise you. we will get the body on you and make it hurt like the Orlando Magic have been like some of the more successful teams establishing their defensive identity. And he’s another guy that can kind of add to that.

Taking an in-depth look at Raptors’ 2nd round pick Alijah Martin!