Malachai Flynn Scouting Report & Analysis

Malachi Flynn's vitals:

Overview

OFFENSE

Excellent PNR PG with limited physical tools. Good quickness and burst but limited vertical explosiveness, length, and strength. Very crafty PNR player that manipulates defense with his eyes and head. Plays under control and gets the looks he wants. Strong scoring threat out of PNR - pullup 3, midrange jumper, and a good floater at the rim. Good shooter from both 3 and midrange, although he runs a little hot and cold. Shot a high percentage at the rim due to his excellent floater, but his lack of size will limit his volume in NBA. Creation will likely be limited by: 1) lack of physical tools to beat good NBA defenders; and 2) some struggles with passing to weakside. Projects as a good backup PG that can run a second-unit offense.

DEFENSE

Smart defender with excellent lateral quickness. Lack of strength and length renders Flynn a one-position defender. Good team defender, makes full rotations, knows where to be, keeps head on swivel. Very opportunistic getting steals against big men. Playmaking ability limited by his size, will be difficult to deter bigger offensive players. Excellent tracking shooters offball.

Projects as average PNR and man defender. Excellent lateral quickness helps keeps offensive players in front. Can look good blowing up PNRs with his quickness when he applies maximum effort. Will get overpowered by bigger players. Strictly a one-position defender. Defense projects better on the second-unit where he'll generally face smaller NBA guards.

Poor PNR defender. Gets caught on screens too easily, not consistently in stance. Good lateral quickness and quick hips - should help him get better at POA. Technique still improving for man defense but good quickness and decent strength. Limited by lack of length.

Projections

Best Case: His pullup shooting translates very well. Gets shots off against length, not too streaky, and hits in the high 30s. Generates good scoring efficiency for himself and compromises defenses in PNR. Although not a dominant passer, has very good feel and craft and gets teammates open looks. Maintains good efficiency at the rim and from midrange. Embraces offball movement and fits with bigger initiators. Somewhat neutralized by switching defenses and elite defenders.

Increases intensity on defense and and makes the most of his tools. Makes plays on team defense through tenacity and smarts - generates a lot of steals. Becomes excellent man defender against point guards. Increases his pressure defense and makes it difficult to run PNR. Struggles against bigger plays and occasionally gets headhunted. Limits switchability of his team.

Lower-end starter that pairs with bigger initiators. Capable of running a successful bench-unit offense.

Most Likely: Pullup shooting is threatening enough to force teams to go under, but doesn't shoot an elite percentage from 3. Hovers around 35-36%. Pick and roll game plays well and he can set up decent looks for his teammates. Maintains decent efficiency on his midrange jumper. Good catch-and-shooter player, but doesn't master running off screens.

Solid defender that knows how to play team defense and is in the right spots. However, his effectiveness is limited by his physical stature, and he doesn't put enough pressure on the offense to compensate. Good at defending most point guards, but never plays with quite enough force to really disrupt their pick and roll game. Strictly a one-position defender.

Slightly above-average defender (for point guards).

Good backup PG that is a pinch starter for less good teams.

Worst Case: Still enough of a pullup threat to force teams to generally go over, but doesn't maintain efficiency. NBA defenders bother his shot a lot, and his finishing efficiency doesn't hold up. Still a crafty PNR operative, but doesn't create anything distinguishable from other backup point guards. Good catch-and-shoot player, but doesn't develop into a movement threat.

Below-average defensive player. Knows where to be but lacks physical tools to make plays. Looks decent guarding small players but limited against larger ones. Gets headhunted in playoff settings.

Lower end rotation point guard.

Physical Tools

• Very quick first step.

• Good - not elite - burst.

• Excellent lateral quickness. Keeps offensive players in front very well.

• Good - not great - hips. Not stiff, but not a lightning quick turner. Sometimes has to slide his way back into a play.

• Good balance on either end, low center of gravity.

• Good deceleration, uses nice in-out dribbles and hesitations to freeze defenders.

• Poor vertical explosiveness. Limited jumper in traffic. Below-the-rim player.

• Quick hands, uses them well to get steals.

• Below average strength. Narrow frame at 185lbs. Frail throughout highschool. Skinny in first two years of college. Looked and played noticeably stronger this past season, but will be below average in NBA. Slender build overall - probably can't add much more mass.

• Slightly below average height and length for NBA point guard. 6'2 in shoes, 6'3 wingspan, 7'10.5 standing reach. Those measurements are from several years ago; it's possible Flynn's grown more, as he is a late bloomer (just 5'6 his sophomore year of highschool).

Flynn has some good physical tools, but also considerable weaknesses. Good combination of quickness and burst, enough to initiate an offense. His terrific lateral quickness will help him on defense. Flynn's limited by his poor vertical explosion, relative lack of strength, and limited frame and length. How well can he score if he can't overpower anyone? Places a lot of pressure on his skills and smarts. Can he prevent guys from powering through him on defense? Will only guard small players.

Motor, Mentality, Intangibles

• Poised demeanour. Always appears calm and collected.

• Doesn't show a lot of outward intensity on the court, but very engaged. Plays both ends.

• Clearly thinks the game well, sees the court on offense, makes timely rotations on defense.

• Undoubtedly San Diego State's best player. Often bailed them out when their offense was stalling.

• Engaged presence, but not a crazy high motor guy. Doesn't always box, doesn't relentlessly push pace, etc.

• Unconventional route to becoming an NBA draft prospect - late bloomer, not a RSCI top 100 recruit, originally committed to Pacific, transferred to San Diego State after two years at Washington State. Hidden room for further improvement?

Finishing

• Excellent floater. Feathery-smooth touch. Good range on it. Decelerates into floater quickly - tough to block. Can shoot floater off one foot or two feet and at weird angles. Big reason why Flynn shot 68.2% at rim. Should translate to NBA. Prefers right hand with floater. Development of his left will give him more finishing versatility.

• When not using his floater, likes scoop layups. Good floater touch with either hand. Nice touch off glass with these layups. Can make them from tough angles. Good at extending and going under defender's arms to avoid shot blocking, but only so much he can get away with.

• Strictly below-the-rim finisher. Not overpowering anyone around the basket and lacks vertical pop. Completely reliant on his finishing craft. Often got his layups blocked by guards in 1-on-1 transition plays. Must pick his spots in NBA.

• Must develop an eurostep or similar change of direction to give himself more separation at rim. What can he do if the floater or scoop layup isn't there?

• Showed some ability to push off perimeter defends on his drives to the rim. Will this translate in NBA? Thin frame, and Flynn was a senior-aged player facing Mountain West competition that was usually younger than him.

• Does not get to line much. Avoids contact against rim protectors.

Poor physical tools for finishing, but was a great finisher in college. Will rely heavily on floater in NBA. Won't put much pressure on rim in NBA, but could be efficient at low volume.

Flynn misses a layup in transition. Lacked the explosiveness to go over the defender, Sam Merrill, and the shiftiness to go around rim.

Lack of explosiveness on what should have been an easy layup.

Here is an example of Flynn's great floater. This clip is from 2017, when Flynn stilled played at Washington State. He is number 22 in red. The video is grainy.

Shooting

• Very good shooter. 36.3% 3pt shooter for college career on 6.2 attempts per game; 37.3% this season on 6.4 attempts per game. 83.3% career free-throw shooter; 85.7% this season.

• Great pull up shooter from 3. If a defender goes under Flynn lets it fly. Very confident in his shot.

• Deep range, will catch-and-shoot or pull up from beyond NBA range.

• Mechanics and form look good. Holds follow-through, quick release, gets on balance easily. Good footwork to get into shot - nice 1-2 step. Shoots with shoulders square to basket.

• Occasionally gets undisciplined about shooting square to basket and feet sometimes point inward. Happens most frequently on stepbacks. Needs to consistently get squared up with proper feet placement every time. Ball close to head, right above his face. Bit of a two motion shot.

• Nice feel for drifting into catch and shoot 3s, doesn't need much time to get them off. SDSU didn't run much offball action for Flynn, and Flynn didn't look to take 3s running off screens. Does he have offball movement that can be unleashed in the NBA?

• Good midrange pull up. Prefers to pull up going left. Very confident taking it against drop coverages. Has lots of little hesitations and head fakes to get into it.

• Somewhat of a streaky shooter. Will he be consistent enough to score efficiently in NBA?

• Played as a shooter in highschool, teams would do anything to stop him from getting open.

Flynn should be a good/very good shooter in the NBA, as he's shot well on difficult attempts his whole career. The main concerns are how efficient he can be on his pull up (he runs a little hot and cold), if he'll be bothered by NBA length on his shot (since it's a little low), and if he can shoot running off screens. Due to his mediocre physical tools, he must be a potent shooting threat to unlock the rest of his game.

Drains pull-up 3 from NBA range. No hesitation.

Here's a tougher pull-up 3 attempt:

Drifts into catch-and-shoot 3. This is how Flynn usually gets into catch-and-shoots. Not cutting hard. Note that Flynn is unaffected by the contest.

This is his bread-and-butter midrange scoring option. He's very comfortable when he gets to his left.

Handle

• Righty, but very comfortable with either hand, goes left more than right.

• Not flashy but functional.

• Good with most moves going either way: behind-the-back dribble, crossovers, through-the-legs crossovers, in-out dribbles, etc.

• Tight handle, rarely turns it over off the dribble.

• Has nice hopstep move to get into floater range.

• Occasionally does a Steve Nash style probe around rim, more of this in the NBA will help him compensate for his limited physical ability at the rim.

• Uses fake dribbles to get into pullup 3s. Lots of tricks to keep defense guessing.

• When he gets a big on him, he doesn't waste time "dancing" with dribble moves, just changes directions on the big quickly.

Excellent handle. Not at the level of the NBA's elite, but clearly a strength, and it helps him get the most out of physical tools.

Smooth left-to-right hesitation dribble. Good burst out of it.

Right-to-left cross. Quick enough to break some ankles.

Passing

• Good - not great - passer.

• Makes drive-and-kick passes with either hand.

• Impressive passing along baseline, can use either hand, hits tough passes out of it.

• Very good passing out of PNR. Lots of craft to get passes to his big man Yanni Wetzell (who's not a lob threat and has poor catch radius), very good at reaching around defenders one handed to get passes through).

• Flynn's PNR passing will look better with more explosive lob threats in NBA.

• Excellent at using his eyes and head fakes to keep defenses guessing, looks off his target then throws the pass after defense has shifted. This will play well in the NBA.

• Some accuracy issues with relatively easy passes to teammates (like a lob or a simple kick out), part of the problem appeared to be teammates with poor hands. Most of Flynn's turnovers came off passes.

• Head up in transition, but not an aggressive outlet passer. SDSU didn't push it hard either.

• Appears to see left side of the floor better than the right. A little more likely to hit shooters on left.

• Does his size limit his passing? Vision waxes when he has bigger defenders over him. Especially struggles to see weakside.

• Unclear if Flynn has arm strength to throw accurate skip passes one handed.

Crafty passer that's good at manipulating the defense. The manipulation pairs well with his PNR and shooting game. Somewhat limited vision seeing entire court and struggles with skip passes.

Misses obvious pocket pass out of PNR. He has this pass in his toolkit, needs more consistency.

This should be a pass to big man Wetzel (no. 5).

Nice vision and strength to kick pass out to weakside shooter.

Pick & Roll Offense

• Excellent PNR player. Has lots of tools in his repertoire - snaking, putting defenders in jail, rejecting screens, splitting defense, etc .

• Extremely manipulative and crafty. Knows how to leverage threat of his shot and pass to keep defenses guessing. Keeps defense off balance with little hesitations, headfakes, misdirection with his eyes.

• Plays with great poise in PNR, not speed, stays under control, doesn't force things.

• Good at reading defenses and taking what they give him. Only weakness here is that he's not good at finding the weakside.

• Threat of his pull up means defenses usually go over, opens up a lot of his PNR game.

• Knows how to keep defender on hip. Helps compensates for his limited size.

• Excellent at using screens. Good patience and timing. Runs shoulder-to-shoulder with his big.

Flynn's PNR game is his best NBA skill. Great poise, excellent at manipulating the defense, has a lot of tricks. Only limited by struggles hitting weakside and his physical tools.

Great rejection of screen for lefty baseline drive.

Good job splitting screen. Note the hesitation to set it up and the quicks to get through.

Handles hedge well. Strings the defense out and uses good patience to find roll man. But notice how his lack of height makes it hard for him to get the pass off.

Creation, Feel, IQ

• Excellent PNR game will translate. Good enough in PNR to run a bench offense.

• Creation ability will be limited by his mediocre physical tools.

• Can he stay efficient against longer, faster, defenders? Will he run too hot-and-cold on his pullup to be a consistent creation threat?

• Didn't spend much time offball at SDSU. Drifted to the corners and made catch-and-shoot 3s, looked good attacking closeouts, used pumpfakes and jab steps. Can he be more dynamic offball in NBA? Can hidden scoring outcomes be unlocked playing alongside another initiator?

• Likely won't draw fouls at high rate in NBA or be high-volume rim attacker. Efficiency will depend on his shot.

• Smart player. Takes advantages of mismatches, always looking for opportunities to get a good shot.

Flynn projects as a solid creator in the NBA. His PNR game looks NBA-ready, at least for backup duty. Whether he can reach a higher level depends on how hot his shot runs.

He could be an effective offball player. Can use threat of shot to draw defense, can curl into lane make a play, like in the clip below.

Good burst attacking closeout.

Solid creation ability. Look at the baseline blowby from iso. Then hits the corner shooter with left-handed pass.

Team Defense, Defensive Awareness

• Good team defender.

• Excellent feel for getting offball steals, very opportunistic and aggressive stealing ball from big men; gets them when they start dribble or when they get ball in post.

• Consistently sees man and ball, keeps head on swivel.

• Smart about knowing his personnel, knows which players to stick to and which players to liberally help off.

• Executes small-small switches well. Doesn't give shooters rim to breathe.

• Generally aggressive on his rotations, helps into far block when he's on weakside.

• Vocal on defense. Acts like a leader.

• Knows when to tag, but hard for him to make a play. Not big enough.

• Gets overpowered at rim. Does a good job using verticality and bumping offensive players with his chest, but too limited physically to bother most players.

• Needs to get better at taking charges to compensate for his lack of physical tools.

• To make a high impact in the NBA, he'll have to play with a lot of intensity and toughness. Being in the right spot will mean less when he lacks the tools to make an impact.

• Must get more proactive at covering for his teammates mistakes on defense.Sometimes he's too content to just "play his role."

• Inconsistent defensive rebounder. Sometimes boxes out, sometimes doesn't. Can't compete with bigs. Rebounding is not a strength.

Flynn has the smarts to be a solid team defender. Good timing for getting steals off bigs will help him make plays. However, to be an impactful NBA team defender, Flynn must increase his intensity and toughness, as he lacks the physical tools to make an impact.

Good quickness and reaction rotating from weakside to takeaway drive.

Even back at Washington State, Flynn was awesome at rotating over from the weakside (although his intensity is noticeably improved at San Diego State).

PNR Defense

• Excellent lateral quickness for defending the PNR. Super quick slider.

• At his best, can blowup screens and force steals out of them.

• Generally good at going over screens and beating his man to the spot. Doesn't always jump into ballhandler as much as he needs to. Must do this everytime.

• Generally good at getting skinny.

• Has a few lapses, but generally good at getting over screens.

• Smart about going under screens against non-shooters.

• SDSU switched a lot, mitigating some pressure for Flynn to fight over screens. What will he look like in more ICE heavy schemes? Will he be strong enough to force offensive players to the side?

• If his man gets by him, struggles to bother him from behind. Not physical or long enough.

Flynn's excellent lateral quickness and generally good technique should make him a good PNR defender. May struggle against larger initiators.

Could have worked harder to get around this screen.

Terrible pick and roll defense here. Not doing any work to keep his man in front or force him into coverage. Very unprepared to defend the action.

Closeouts

• Excellent quickness and use of short, choppy steps on closeouts.

• Good deceleration - can close out hard and still contain the drive.

• Could improve at taking good closeout angles, but generally has quickness to recover.

• Keeps hands up.

• Limited length for closeouts. Needs to close out hard. Puts a lot of pressure on his deceleration and lateral quickness.

Flynn projects as a good closeout defender who will keep offensive players in front, but the quality of his contests will be limited by his poor length.

Under control closeout on relative non-scoring threat, Abel Porter. Note the good team defense; Flynn properly rotates while still tracking Porter.

Offball Defense

• Excellent lock-and-trail technique. Very diligent chasing offensive players over screens.

• Gets skinny to avoid getting hit by offball screens.

• Knows his personnel on offball defense - good shooter, locks and trails; bad shooter, goes under.

• Doesn't get backdoored. Excellent at seeing man-ball. Keeps hands out. Works hard to deny shooters.

• Is he strong and physical enough to keep bigger offensive players from getting to their spots?

Excellent offball defender in college. Great concentration, didn't get backdoored, didn't let shooters get open. Utility of Flynn's offball defense will be limited by his size in NBA, but he should be good in most matchups.

Flynn shows good feel and quickness to get the steal on big man Naemis Qaeta

Onball Defense

• Flynn's excellent lateral mobility made him a great onball defender in college.

• Kept offensive players in front of him very well. Squared them up and subtly used his defense to bump them. Kept hands active. Rarely broke stance.

• Smart onball defender. Played offensive players for their weakness. Good at forcing them to their off hands.

• Often offensive players gave up trying to drive him after a few dribbles.

• Conservative man defender. Focused on keeping man in front. Could look good applying more pressure. Flashes of forcing offensive player to retreat backwards.

• His teammate, KG Fleagin, usually took the toughest defensive matchups. Flynn wasn't used as a "stopper." Was SDSU conserving Flynn's energy? Or did SDSU have doubts about his stopper ability?

• Won't be a switch defender. Too small to guard multiple positions. One position defender.

• Narrow frame, will likely get overpowered by big point guards like Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday.

Flynn should succeed guarding small NBA guards one-on-one. Will struggle against bigger players.

Really quick feet here. Turns hips quickly. Nice.

Look at the quick feet here hounding Abel Porter from Utah State.

His defense improved from his Washington State days. He's more disciplined and is more ready to get in a stance. Big difference from below.

Keeps man in front but still loses. Lack of size limits Flynn.

My Big Board: https://www.nbadraftscouting.com/bigboard

Other scouting reports I've written: https://www.nbadraftscouting.com/