We’ve gone pretty heavy on the forwards and bigs in this prospect scouting report series outside of Cameron Carr and Dailyn Swain. Let’s add another guard to the mix with Labaron Philon Jr. The Charlotte Hornets seemingly don’t need another guard given that’s where the bulk of their offensive talent already lies, but you never draft for need. Plus, the future of Coby White is currently an uncertainty.
Measurements
Height: 6’2.5″
Weight: 176.2 pounds
Wingspan: 6’6.25″
Standing reach: 8’3.5″
Standing vertical: 30.5″
Max vertical: 35″
Strengths
Offense generation, scoring ability
The biggest selling point of Philon’s game is his ability to generate offense out of a variety of situations. He has that rare ability to get a paint touch without a screen or any called action to put him at an advantage. He’s one of the best ball handlers in the class, using choppy steps and smooth, quick transitions between moves to create space and driving angles for himself. He’s confident with the ball in his hands and constantly gets defenders on their heels with his unpredictable movements and frequent changes of speed and direction. Once he gets a step on his defender, he’s a crafty finisher around the rim despite his athletic shortcomings, and he has an elite floater in his bag to counter length at the rim.
He’s also an adept pick and roll ball handler. He uses ball screens to open up the floor, where he uses his slithery dribble to carve up defenses and find angles to the basket. He’s developed into a very competent pull-up shooter as well, which puts defenses in a bind when trying to figure out how to guard him. He’s a score first player as a lead guard, but he has ample vision and play making feel to run an offense. He’s like a six assist per game type of point guard.
There’s room for Philon to function in multi-guard lineups with his outside shooting. He took a big step forward in that area as a sophomore, increasing both his efficiency and his volume rather substantially. As a sophomore, he converted 39.9% of his 3-point attempts while shooting 6.2 of them per game. He was also a near 80% free throw shooter both years in college. The outside shooting makes him a threat off the ball and opens up space for him to use his elite handle either as the primary point guard or in secondary creator situations.
Question Marks
Physical tools
Putting only one question mark would seemingly make Philon a can’t miss prospect, but the one question mark is a very large one that permeates all areas of the game. Philon just finished his sophomore season, meaning he’s had two years of top flight college basketball strength and conditioning, and he still weighs just 176 pounds. His height and reach are fine for a lead guard, but being just okay in terms of height and length while exceedingly light and not very explosive is major cause for concern.
The problems with Philon’s physical profile are obvious. His slight frame didn’t hinder him on offense in college, but that’s against smaller, slower defenders. It’s possible that the step up in competition sees him get swallowed up by the bigger opposition, especially in starting situations. But defense is where it truly becomes a problem. He’s easily bullied inside the arc, and that’s arguably the hardest situation for teams to compensate for in a defensive scheme. He wasn’t a huge event generator as a sophomore, but that’s possibly a result of the offensive burden he handled. It’s hard to see what kind of defensive role Philon plays in high leverage situations, and his offensive game is going to have to be truly elite to make him a starting caliber player.
Overview
Labaron Philon enters the draft with one of the best offensive profiles in the class. He averaged 22 points and 5 assists per game as a sophomore with extremely good efficiency. He has a coveted skill as a paint touch generator with or without ball screens. That paired with very good outside shooting both off the catch and off the dribble make him a very enticing prospect on the offensive end. However, his slight frame and mediocre athleticism even after two years of college cast doubt on how impactful he can be with his skill alone, and he will almost surely be a liability as an on ball defender. The Hornets don’t really have a need for a guard right now, especially if Coby White comes back. But Philon at least deserves a look depending on how the team balances his offensive green flags with his defensive red flags.
As sort of an aside, I’ll be interested to see how the perception of Philon differs between NBA teams/more attentive fans and the social media crowd. Philon is a big “bag guy” that has a game built for social media clips. Those guys almost always have big followings relative to their actual in-game impact, and I’m curious to see if that ends up pertaining to Philon as well.
