UNC Basketball: Breakdown of Nassir Little’s Summer League debut

Film & Analysis:

The simplest way to break down Nassir Little’s first taste of NBA minutes is that he was just there. He was on the court, donning a Blazers uni, playing basketball against other young players, running through sets and playing defense.

But he wasn’t impactful, not in a beneficial way, anyway.

He has a tendency to just float around on offense and defense, not really fitting into anything, standing around with little responsibility and little action. He played 22 minutes, but for those who watched, it was as if he wasn’t really there.

This isn’t some new phenomena. At UNC, if he wasn’t tasked with making a play on offense, he was often seen meandering until he got the ball. Similarly on defense, if his man isn’t blatantly involved in a play, he’s likely seen standing around, sometimes motionless. This isn’t to say that he’s disengaged — it’s apparent that he is processing what’s going on around him, but he processes events slower than others, evidence of his low feel (which of course bleeds into his decision-making and floor sense/vision).

His subpar shooting performance (1-of-6 FG, 0-1 3PT) wasn’t really the result of shooting variance, with some shots simply not finding the bottom of the basket. Some of his attempts were truly awful. His decision-making on offense was hard to watch, with most, if not all, of his shot attempts coming from suboptimal scoring chances despite Portland’s coaching staff ostensibly attempting to scheme him into better looks.

Little catches the ball up top out of the HORNS set and, immediately after clearing the screener, rises up into a leaning pull-up jumper that is heavily contested, with the shot clanking off the front of the rim in head-shaking fashion.

Similarly, Little caught the ball from a handoff curling on the move, a play that was seemingly made with the sole purpose of getting him downhill (the right side of the court was completely cleared out for him). Instead of recognizing that the defense was not giving him space for a driving lane, Little spins directly into the defense before throwing up a shot that misses the rim entirely, with Little subsequently stumbling and tumbling to the floor.

Little’s decisions seem to be predetermined, as he routinely fails to make decisions on the fly, unable to read and react to what the defense gives him. His shots don’t necessarily come within the flow of the offense, nor are the instinctual or improvisational. In the two previous examples, Little took what the offense schemed for him, settling into errant shots without adjusting for the defensive coverage. In both examples, pulling back and giving up the ball to reset the offense would be the preferable decision, as the two shot attempts both missed badly.

Troublesome decision-making as a scorer popped up twice more, unfortunately. Despite receiving the entry pass with literally no one between him and the basket, Little mindlessly takes a two-handed pound dribble into a hop-step, inexplicably bringing the ball down (twice!) and giving the defense enough time to recover to him before completely stuffing his layup attempt. There’s is simply no excuse for such a mismanaged layup attempt. He has to capitalize on finishing opportunities such as this one, especially considering that his primary role on offense is to cut and slash to the rim. (On a lesser note, this play also points to his overrated vertical athleticism, which requires time and space to load up; he’s not a quick-twitch mover or leaper.)

Once more, underwhelming offensive decision-making plagued another attempt in the paint, with Little throwing up a no-look hook shot from his hip following an offensive rebound, praying for a whistle that was never coming.

It wasn’t all bad on the offensive end, for what it’s worth. He missed his only three-point attempt of the day, a wide-open catch-and-shoot chance on the right wing out of an Isaiah Whitehead drive-and-kick (a great find from the former Seton Hall standout, by the way), but his shot preparation (sound footwork, feet squared toward the basket) and balance (went straight up, didn’t try to lean any which way) were both solid. You can live with that miss considering that it looked OK.

His first and only made basket came later in the fourth quarter with the game already out of reach (the Blazers lost 93-73), with Nassir Little taking a handoff on the left wing and taking the heavy-footed Jarrod Uthoff off the dribble whilst going left. He took the contact well, using his body to shield the ball, nimbly waltzing on his way to an up-and-under reverse layup that he finished with nice touch. Little has to be able to capitalize on offensive mismatches, so it’s good to see that he didn’t end that possession without a bucket. Uthoff (6-foot-9, 220 pounds) isn’t an imposing defender by any means, but it’s just good that Little wasn’t somehow neutralized by him (that would’ve been nothing short of disastrous if that were to happen).

On the other end of the floor, things were quite bad. In the nicest way possible: Nassir Little was horrendous on defense. On ball, off it, it didn’t matter. His feet were slow, his awareness poor, his technique rudimentary and unpolished. Not much has changed since his days as a Tar Heel, and the Portland coaching staff will have their work cut out for them, as Little’s elite tools (strong 6-foot-6, 224-pound frame and 7-foot-1 wingspan) aren’t enough to make him even an average defender. He is below-average, and, quite simply, outright bad.

Before delving into the bad, let’s first look at a couple of encouraging plays that stood out, both of which were against second-year guard Khyri Thomas.

Little’s technique in lock-and-trail defense isn’t ideal, but he hustles his tail off to chase Thomas through a pair of screens before the ball is inbounded, showing great closeout speed (even after slipping!) to get back in front of Thomas in order to deter a shot attempt. (His condor reach also helped him make up the difference, as it affords him a few extra inches to stunt and deter both shots and passes.) It’d be nice to see him dip his shoulder and glide through the screens instead of essentially running into them, but the effort and speed are admirable.

This time on-ball, Little puts together a spectacular defensive possession against Thomas. He sits deep in his stance (something we genuinely didn’t see much of at UNC), brushes off the initial screen, slides well and flips his hips in order to halt the drive attempt, and mirrors Thomas’s movements, timing his contest perfectly to mirror Thomas’s hapless shot attempt. Lockdown, hounding defense from Little, with a strong job contesting the fall-away jumper without fouling.

And, finally, Little shows some decent awareness defending the Spain pick-and-roll, although his teammates’ decisions ultimately hurt the team (which occurred throughout the game, with none of Portland’s players playing particularly positive defense). Little pre-switches the pick-and-roll, dropping to defend the roller, but due to his teammates inexplicably trapping the action, the popper is left wide open for three. For such a complicated action that left him in a tough position, Little handled it surprisingly well.

But that’s where the good defense ended.

A poor technical understanding of defense, something that was put on display at UNC and lower levels, didn’t disappear once he was drafted, instead popping up time and time against Saturday afternoon.

Although one of the previous clips showed promising speed and motor when following his man through screens, his technique was still far from ideal, although it didn’t bite him there. Here, this time chasing Svi Mykhailiuk, Little runs into the screen awkwardly before fouling Mykhailiuk at the rim. It was a smart set and succinct execution from the Pistons, and wasn’t necessarily aided by Jarnell Stokes’ ambitious defense (by trying to front the screener, he acted as another body in between Little and Mykhailiuk), but the technique still must improve from Little, who regularly clipped and barged into screeners at UNC.

His awareness defending off of the ball wasn’t much better. After his man gives up the ball and relocates to the corner, Little wanders into the paint (as he should), but is unaware that another Detroit player darted behind him (and his defender, too), into the same corner. Upon seeing the drive, both Little and the new defender rotate to stop it, essentially leaving the corner defenseless. Little ends up jumping at the shot fake, taking himself out of the play, which ultimately results in an open three-point attempt from the opposite corner. He can get a bit of a pass here, considering the defensive miscommunication, but it’s nonetheless something to monitor. Regarding the closeout, he has to use some self-control and sounder technique, as he can’t afford to take himself out of the play like that, nor can he afford to recklessly sprint toward a shooter and risk fouling and gifting the opposing team three free throws.

Nassir Little’s subpar foot speed and on-ball defense was exposed twice by Bruce Brown, with Brown taking advantage of both Little’s slower feet and poor positioning/angling on two separate occasions.

On the first, Little goes too deep and too far to Brown’s left, giving up a lane to the basket that Little simply can’t halt.

On the second, Little switches onto Brown and ends up getting beat off the dribble fair and square, helplessly watching Brown slash to the rim.

He may have the length and girth to afford him some extra wiggle room and leeway on the defensive end, seen in the possession where he put the clamps on the smaller Thomas, but his foot speed and slower hip mobility can both get picked on by better ball-handlers and drivers.