Florida State Basketball: 2020 NBA Draft Profile for wing Devin Vassell
By Cody Larson
Weaknesses
Not even the high floor prospects of Vassell’s archetype are without flaws. He was asked to speak on those flaws with Jeff Goodman, in which he said: “For weakness, it is gambling – I feel like sometimes I gamble on defense – and just working on my handle.”
Vassell seems to be a very introspective player because he hit the nail right on the head. He is excellent at interrupting passing lanes and at acting as a help defender, as was mentioned earlier, but sometimes he tries to do too much.
Learning to dial it back will be key for him at the next level of basketball. NBA teams can live with a defender being too aggressive though; it is certainly much better than the contrary. A much bigger hurdle for Vassell lies in the second point that he made: his rather “meh” ball handling ability is a valid area to improve upon, as it hinders his isolation scoring potential.
According to Synergy Sports, Vassell only ranked in the top 44th percentile among all college basketball players. That is a rather underwhelming ranking when it is lined up next to his stellar spot-up and transition scoring numbers. It is the same story for him in the pick-and-roll, where he only ranked in the top 45th percentile among all of players (when acting as a ball handler).
From a fundamental standpoint, Vassell dribbling the basketball is not the grossest thing in the world. He is not some stiff G.I. Joe action figure that was stored away for 10 plus years. He is mobile, and he has a base set of crosses and spins to create at least some separation.
The big issue with his handle was best-put by NBA draft extraordinaire P.D. Web: “His handle is point A to point B, with some one cut explosion, and when he flashes craft, his game starts to raise a level” he wrote on Vassell.
He has a very simple handle; one might even call it predictable. Predictable ball handling with no finesse struggles to create good looks against NBA-level athletes. And struggling to create good looks against NBA-level athletes usually leads to a specific label: “role player.” Luckily, Vassell has shown flashes of creativity in isolation.
He was good at creating mid-range looks last year and was solid when creating looks off of a couple of dribbles. The point is that the groundwork is there, whether Vassell starts building upon that will dictate his true limitations as an NBA player.