Oh, hello! Funny seeing you there. Thanks for joining me for Part 4 of my never-ending 2025 Tracking A Transfer series in which I break down all of our incoming transfers (who have tape at least at the collegiate level). Part 1 on Sam Lewis can be found here. Part 2 on Jacari White can be found here. Part 3 on Devin Tillis can be found here. Last year, this would have been the final installment but there are at least two more after this before I start weighing the international players!
As the 34th player in Evan Miya’s transfer rankings (one ahead of Malik Thomas at #35), Dallin Hall is the highest-rated incoming recruit in his formula (if you like that kind of thing). And, while I wouldn’t personally put him over Thomas in terms of impact, it does speak to all of the things he brings to a basketball team. His signing came as a bit of a shock, right after Duke Miles signed and it appeared the guard flood gates had opened. It’s no wonder, though, that Miles transferred out after Hall’s signing, as he wanted to be the starting PG somewhere and it was clear that wouldn’t be the case with Hall joining the team. An incoming Senior, Hall was BYU’s starting PG his Sophomore season and started in that role last year as well before eventually coming off of the bench as their sixth man. That might not sound encouraging, but BYU made the shift after a slow start in Big 12 play to allow Egor Demin, the 8th overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft by the Brooklyn Nets, to start with primary ball handling responsibilities. Hall’s relegation to the bench didn’t come with a substantive loss of minutes, though, as he continued to play almost 25 minutes per, and was typically on the floor during crunch time to close out the game. With him, Hall brings a lot of experience playing against major conference competition in the Big 12 and in the NCAA Tournament both of his past two seasons; only bowing out in the Sweet 16 this past year against high-octane Alabama. Hall should be our starting floor general this season, so let’s take a look at what he brings to the table….
Hall is a 6’4″, 200lb PG who was a local kid from Utah prior to signing with BYU. He played 24.6 minutes per game despite coming off of the bench; scored 6.8 points per game, had 4.2 assists per game (to 1.6 turnovers), and shot 35% from three. He should be the best pure facilitator and floor general on the roster (likely by a considerable margin, given his experience) and his primary role should be that ability to distribute. He’s a very good passer and does a nice job creating opportunity off of the bounce and finding the right pass – but he’s a well-rounded player who does a little bit of everything well. He can get his own bucket, he can defend with size and physicality (6’4″ is quite good length for the position and he’s got some bounce to his game as well, which we’ll see), he’s got a great motor and good burst; and he shoots it pretty well from outside, especially admirably off of the bounce. There are no clear weaknesses to his game, although there are stronger areas than others, as we’ll discuss. He was an integral part of a very good team and, at times, took on the load of orchestrating the offense for that team. That being said, he’s not elite at any of these traits, either (which isn’t a bad thing, just setting expectations). Dallin Hall will be at his best for you when he can get everyone else involved and then occasionally take over when he’s not the primary focus of the opposition; and when he can play the role of very good defender, but doesn’t have to be that true lock down option, especially on the ball. But he’s good enough to be an integral part of a very good, if not great team; which is exactly what I think we’ll want him to be here.
I think he fits in really well with our roster makeup. He’s going to offer an incredibly high floor and, occasionally, a pretty high ceiling as well; and you’re going to want him on the hardwood the majority of the time. We also have two players in Chance Mallory and Elijah Gertrude behind him on the bench that do a few things (and very different things from each other) really well. So, you can play them in response to certain needs on the court (covering quickness and deep outside shooting in Chance and, hopefully, locking someone up on defense and being more explosive in transition with Eli), but then you can lean on Dallin in most broad situations because he’s likely just a more complete and well-rounded player. He’s also proven that he can be effective playing alongside Demin, a very different style of PG, so it’s not out of the question that he could play with either Chance or Eli, as well. He’s a pretty versatile piece who can run your offense for you; but who could also play off of the ball, and who should be able to hold up defensively against most 1-2 and even some 3s.
Let’s take a look at it but…
First A Word About BYU
BYU had a ton of talent this past season, making a deep run into the Sweet 16, finishing ranked 13th in the country and 3rd in the standings (behind only Houston and Texas Tech) in the Big 12 (which they only joined last year). Hilariously, their 6’9″ PG in Demin was the tallest player in their starting lineup; but they were a force to be reckoned with on the inside because they had so much strength and physicality. The 6’8″, 231lb Keba Keita, and 6’7″ 216lb Mawot Mag made up the starting frontcourt with the 6’6″ 240lb Fousseyni Traore coming off of the bench. As a trio, they made up for their lack of collective length (especially Traore) with strength, athleticism, explosiveness, and touch. Richie Saunders (instantly recognizable if you watched college ball much at all last year) and Trevin Knell made up the other two starting guard spots. Hall was first off of the bench, normally for Knell, and played more time on average than he did.
The Cougars ran an offense very similar to Ryan Odom’s; focused on generating plenty of corner threes with two guys often in each corner and a lot of three-man actions and ball screens. They often relied on any of their non-Centers to make plays with the ball, played a lot of two-man game and had some isolation mixed in. Their bigs were quality rim-runners but were also forces on the offensive glass and had strong post up elements as well. Demin was expected to be more ball-dominant when Hall was off of the floor; which is why they liked to start in that setup, and then normally moved more off the ball when they both were in the game (but Dallin spent plenty of time camping the corner or playing off of the wing as well). The majority of the time, though, Hall would get them into their offense, start up the play, and often would look to be the primary facilitator – mostly creating for others but also for himself, at times. It was often quite effective as BYU had the nation’s 9th most efficient offense, per Kenpom, at an expected 124.1 points per 100 possessions (adjusted for opponent).
Their defense, on the other hand, was only the 82nd most effective in the country and is what ultimately is what knocked them out of the tournament. Alabama put up an eye-popping 113 points on them in their Sweet 16 loss on the back of some absolute flame-throwing shooting. They just kind of spread and shot BYU out of that game and the Cougars visibly struggled with their athleticism and spacing. I will not be showcasing that game as it just didn’t really feel like the best representation as they got the doors blown off of them, but I will say that it did leave me with the impression that there is a ceiling with Hall even though that ceiling is at the absolute highest level of college ball. I’ll settle for that this season! I will tackle their other two tournament games; against VCU and Wisconsin, as well as two OT regular season games (one double OT!) against Baylor and Iowa St.
Right; but back to the defense. BYU alternated between man-to-man and like a 2-3; 1-2-2 zone. Sometimes they’d start in a zone and then matchup and stick with those players man-to-man. Their man variation was a Pack Line style but one that primarily played drop defense from their bigs and then looked to sometimes opportunistically double team when the ball got into the paint or on the baseline. They would opt more frequently to run opponents off of the three-point line and push them into their Centers rather than trying to break down on close outs. Their zones also looked to trap at times. Interestingly enough, when they were in their 2-3 variations, Hall was often the wing of the 3 as opposed to being one of the top two guards in the zone. This was likely due to his speed on close outs as well as the physicality with which he played with inside. But, generally, they attempted to overcome their collective below-average nature as individual defenders with conceptual team defense (to varying degrees of effectiveness). In this piece, I’ll spend most of my time focusing on Dallin in man-to-man since that’s what he’ll play most often here, but to have a few looks out of zone to illustrate other concepts.
Alright, now that got some context on what BYU did and their pieces, let’s jump right in!
Offense
Creation (For Others)
I like to start with the more signature elements of each player’s offensive games. For the previous three, it could have been debatable, but I started with shooting for each. Hall is a fine shooter, which we’ll discuss, but the strength of his offensive game is absolutely creating opportunities for his teammates. He has good command over the ball and is very comfortable handling it, he has good court vision, is a skilled passer, and plays with strength on the ball. He should be the best pure facilitator on the roster.
In this first Cut, we’ll get a good introduction to this against Odom’s VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. BYU would win this game pretty comfortably, but was trailing at this point. We’re going to start by seeing some ways Hall navigated the ball screen, which was a strength. Here, his teammate pushes the ball up the court and gets it to him on the wing. Traore (#45) sets some bone-shattering screens and VCU’s Phillip Russell (#1), who concedes 4 inches and 20lbs to Hall, gets over the top of the first screen. Undeterred, Hall sets it up again and runs Russell off of Traore a second time; this time creating the contact he’s after. With Russell trailing now, Hall does a nice job locating him and executing a prison dribble to keep Russell on his back. He then threads a really nice pass into Traore before Bambgoye can fully recover from having to step up to defend Hall.
The result is a really easy layup for Traore. Note how Hall was able to use his size and strength (and alertness) to keep Russell at bay, bait Bambgoye, and give his teammate time to get back under the hoop. Very good game control within pretty tight quarters.
This next one isn’t anything extravagant, it’s just him manipulating and reading a defense. This time he takes a ball screen from Keita (#13) which draws Shulga’s (#11) help in the driving lane. Reading this, Hall simply kicks it out to Demin (#3) for the open three.
It’s the simple pass but it’s also really valuable to have the guy who can force the defense to react and then can take advantage of it by getting the ball to that vulnerability.
Very similar here, below, this time he takes another ball screen, probes the lane deeper under control, collapses the defense, and then makes a nice kick out to the corner,, this time to Knell (#21), for another open three.
A couple more ball screen looks against VCU, below, this time with the big slipping the screen and Hall making a nice feed inside. Here we see him delaying, holding the double team, and then rifling a waist-high pass around it into Traore who draws a shooting foul:
And here, with a bullet over top of the double team, hitting Traore such that he can continue his momentum for the (relatively) easy finish before any help can recover.
Here’s a look against Wisconsin, below, where he does the dual ball screen with Traore again… but he just maintains his patience and eventually stets up a really nice passing angle to get Fousseyni the ball deep:
Very similar vibes here, below, operating out of the DHO screen element this time, playing it slow and setting up a post entry. He does a nice job hunting and feeding the post mismatch game especially being patient while still maintaining an advantage after those ball screens:
And check out the touch on this next pass, below. He runs a quick ball screen, again with Traore, this time drawing the switch. He jumps and gets himself caught in the air a bit, but hangs up there with the ball and is still able to feather an accurate lob pass over both defenders (including the 7 footer, Crowl, #22 in his face):
And then, I had to include this one, below, against ISU, which I thought was bonkers. The Cyclones had been blitzing the ball screen most of the game in this one and were creating a crazy number of turnovers across virtually all of the Cougar ball handlers (as we’ll see momentarily). This time they try after a ball screen from Keita, though, and Hall has the presence of mind and vision to see past the double team AND pass the help side rotation onto Keita, to pick out Demin (#3) all the way under the hoop with an absolute laser.
Demin can’t finish the play by the time he lands and goes back up – but the ability to stand in with that double team pressure and pick out the open man behind the play with that strong of a pass was really nice.
Of course, Hall didn’t always use the ball screen to attack or, when he did sometimes it was after generating the switch and then attacking in isolation. So, let’s look at some of that now.
Here’s a good glimpse against Baylor. He’s looking to set up that post entry to Traore, passes it out to the point and takes the pass back to deliver a quick post entry lob. Traore catches it but draws the double team and passes back out to Hall. This time, though, Hall takes the pass back, quickly drives the lane, draws the defense and then gets the ball back to Traore for an easy finish.
You can see on many of these that he doesn’t have a ton of trouble getting passes off in tight spaces because he’s quick on his delivery with the ball and because he’s got the length to fit them over some hands as well.
This time he draws the switch from Norchad Omier (#5 – remember him?) after the ball screen so he uses the mismatch to drive it baseline, collapse the defense, and find Dawson Baker (#25) diving to the rim (who draws the shooting foul).
That quickness to get that pass off is impressive and he actually brings it across the taller Omier’s face to do so.
In this next clip, you can get a sense of his control over the offense as a whole. He opens the out of bounds play by delivering a one-handed pass on the money to Baker coming off of a pin down. When Baylor switches and defends, Hall gets the ball back, threatens the drive to get his defender down in a defensive stance, and then delivers a nice lob pass to Traore behind his defender.
It’s all just tight execution from Hall throughout that play. Accuracy of passing and subtleties to keep the defense from disrupting his ideas.
He did most of the ball handling and set up in OT in that Baylor game and also here in this ISU game (double OT), below. This is just the first OT, but it’s late in crunch time with the game tied, and BYU dials up a straight Dallin Hall isolation.
His teammate misses this kickout, but it’s a really nice fake drive, step back, and then inside-out dribble to completely implode the defense and create the golden opportunity.
Now, where I will say this element of his game isn’t perfect is that sometimes he’s a little too aggressive/reckless with his passes. We saw the potential as he made a nice pass earlier when caught in the air, and I talked about the quickness of his decision-making and delivery; but that cause him to sometimes just force an ill-advised pass, like here:
Or sometimes he just attempts a pass that’s a little too high on the degree of delivery to fit it into the needed window, like here:
Iowa State had the 13th best defense in basketball last season so it should be no surprise that they can be disruptive. They forced 29 turnovers in this game (and BYU still won)! But six of those were Hall’s (to only 3 assists, but he did have 22 points in this one). And that brings us to the last main thing I would call out in this section. Hall does handle pressure pretty well, as we’ll see later, and has good strength over the ball where he isn’t easily displaced from his path; but there are times where his physical skill doesn’t quite catch up to his idea. We’ll talk about ball protection some a little later, as well, but defending him in this clip, below, is Keshon Gilbert (#10) who was not drafted but was still signed by the Washington Wizards. He’s a very good, strong, and quick defender with active and disruptive hands. Hall gets a little too careless/over-confident in his behind-the-back dribble and Gilbert picks it clean during a big moment in the game.
One thing I loved about Dallin Hall is his mental resilience. Whenever he had a moment like this, and there were a couple, he’d often respond by making a really big play in one way, shape, or form. He has a clutch gene in him – but it’s worth calling out that often times that clutch gene is preceded by a mistake, as well.
Creation (Self)
Alright, let’s look at his ability to create for himself now. Speaking of what I was saying earlier about responding to a mistake with a big play. This was the very next play after that behind-the-back turnover, against Gilbert again who, I should remind, is now a pro player. Hall has the confidence after getting his pocket picked to call his own number, run off of the screen, stop on a dime (and look at that separation he creates) and then drill the three!
This is mental toughness right here. It’s also a good look at one of his strengths, though. He likes to shoot it from outside, but he is actually just as (and in some cases might actually be better) effective at shooting from deep off of the move/bounce than as a pure catch and shoot guy. Don’t get me wrong, he’s got some of that in his arsenal too, but this is worth highlighting because it’s not an anomaly, it’s a part of his game.
Alright, let’s now take a look at him in isolation against Max Shulga (who was drafted in the 2nd round and is now on the Celtics) at the end of the half. BYU again calls Hall’s number here rather than Demin’s. Hall absolutely leaves Shulga in the dust with a nasty spin move to the right-handed layup. He is blocked by Bamgboye coming over from help-side, but that allows Keita to clean up the easy bucket.
So, level of competition is important, and it’s very much worth highlighting that Hall has the ability to create convincingly against these types of players.
Once again, this time Hall rejects a ball screen, blows by Shulga, and this time is able to finish at the rim with the left hand.
And once more against Shulga from VCU, this time he’s just strong on his drive, gets and angle and maintains it, getting all the way to the rack with his right hand:
Finally, let’s look at another switch with Norchad Omier guarding him, below. This time he gets the switch late in the shot clock and so Hall just blows by him and uses the rim as protection from the shot block by going to the nifty reverse layup.
I’m excited to see Hall paired with Malik Thomas and Jacari White for many reasons, but also because I think both could draw tougher covers in situations where we’re trying to isolate or run a ball screen to get a crucial bucket. This should leave hall on the lesser of the three guard defenders or, at least, not on the very best. When he was at BYU, the Cougars wanted Demin to be the most ball dominant player, but at 6’9″ sometimes he just didn’t have the quickness and some players got under him. I still think Hall was their best option to have the ball in his hands in these moments, which wasn’t always his forte when it came to finishing in a prepared lane or going up against the best defenders.
For example, in the clip below, he does a nice job getting into the lane but struggles to finish as he has to hang and try to shoot it over a quality contest (and a big trailing).
And here, below, BYU puts the ball in his hands, up three, needing a bucket to make it a two-possession game against Baylor. Now, and this was not smart on BYU’s part, they run a ball screen that triggers a switch that puts VJ Edgecomb (#7), the third overall pick in this year’s NBA draft and one of the more athletic players in college last year, on the ball with Hall. The Cougars should have just taken their chances having him beat Jalen Celestine (#32). Anyway, this clip looks a little worse than it was because Hall loses the ball on the way up, but he is rushing, Edgecomb is there on the contest anyway, and then smothers him afterward to force a hopeless jumper.
Not featured here, but I thought Hall also struggled to get anything going and/or to come up with threatening ideas against Alabama in their loss. Some of that was the shellshock of how Alabama was playing on the offensive end, but I thought their defenders gave him some trouble.
Again, we saw him be able to create quality offense for himself against some NBA level talent, so I wouldn’t call it a weakness that he was less effective against some of the very best players in college ball – but it is still worth noting that, while he should be able to have some big moments for us, we’re still probably going to want to lean into some of our other guys more often when it comes to calling their own number.
Transition
BYU didn’t force the issue in transition as much as I had expected. Their adjusted tempo was only 170th in the country (which doesn’t always speak to a team’s aggressiveness in transition) and I thought that they balanced pushing when the opportunity was there but typically not forcing things.
Plays like this where Hall gets out running the break in what amounted to a three-on-two and I thought at about 6 seconds into the clip when he gets Edgecombe to start to bite to stop the dribble, he could have laid the ball into space for Mag (#0) to finish at the rim. He also had Ritche Saunders (#15) on the opposite side of the court and could have lead him into the corner or threaded a pass to him on the wing. Instead, he thinks better of forcing the issue and pulls the ball out and sets up the offense.
It’s not a bad play in that BYU was really efficient in the half court so why take chances that might not value the ball – but I do think those plays were there for the taking.
There were other times where I thought he could have protected the ball more and been a stronger finisher on the break. He’s almost certainly fouled in this clip below and the ref doesn’t have the angle on it, but he also doesn’t quite have the burst to keep the defender on his hip and allows him to dart in front, giving him access for the rip. He also isn’t as strong or compact with that rip through as he could be and kind of brings it right to the defender.
It doesn’t always go your way, but you’d want him to be able to finish this one or at least draw the foul. All-in-all, I was a little under-impressed when he had the ball in his hands pushing the break. I thought his court vision was better in the half court when he had a better sense of where his teammates would be, I thought he tunneled just a little when he had the dribble, and while he had no issue getting his team into good offense or even getting some secondary break action at times, I didn’t find that he led to his team getting quite as many easy baskets that were less obvious.
That being said, I thought he was unexpectedly good at running the floor, filling a lane, and being a quality finisher. Here you see him contest a three in the corner against ISU and then go on a full sprint up the court from there. His hustle forces ISU’s defensive balance to have to decide between one of two players ahead of the pack, and Hall takes a diagonal pass where he can catch on the run and finish ahead of the shot block attempts (on the other side of the rim again) without having to put the ball on the floor.
Aided by double OT, this game was Hall’s highest scoring output of the season by 6 full points at 22 – against a very good defensive team. So, I certainly picked this one to showcase a variety of looks for a player who only scored about 7 per on average. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t also pick this game so that I could showcase this clip below, which really highlights the athleticism with which Dallin Hall is working.
That’s not just a dunk in transition ahead of the pack, that’s a full-on alley-oop and a powerful one that he made look pretty easy, as well!
Why does this matter most of the time? Because it illustrates that he can play well-above the rim, which helps with his ability to get shots off, to finish around would-be shot blockers and, as we’ll see on the defensive end, to effectively play help side defense and bother shots.
Many PGs are effective running the break but can struggle when forced to finish around defensive players moving at full speed. In Hall’s case, he may actually be a better conversion point in transition than leading the run-out; although he certainly can be effective at either. I think Odom’s emphasis on how he wants to try to aggressively take advantage of those transition opportunities will bring Hall out of his shell a little more on the transition facilitation side. Similarly, the fact that Odom typically wants any of his 1-4 to push the ball on a rebound should give Hall plenty of opportunities to run without the ball as well.
Outside Shooting
Hall’s three-point shooting has consistently been between 35-37% throughout his career; with his percentage actually slightly decreasing each of the past two seasons, landing at just over 35% last year. He’s quite good at it but, considering he’s closer to our Center, Johann Grünloh’s 34% average than most of our guards/forwards 39-40+%, most teams will probably live with being more aggressive with their help off of him and living with it. He’s going to have to maintain that confidence if teams do tempt him and he misses a few, to keep launching – although I never got a sense he played with any hesitation in that way. He’s the kind of shooter who seems better when he’s not thinking about it, which we’ll talk about later with his free throws, but also explains his preference to shoot off of the move rather than the pure spot up looks.
Shots like this one, in early OT against Baylor, noticing that they were a little cautious playing the ball screen and just confidently stepping into the three:
The one I showed against Gilbert and ISU earlier is a perfect example. This play against Wisconsin, below, is another. He’s really strong on the ball, is probably lucky not to get called for the push off (but Max Klesmit, #11, also certainly embellishes that a bit), and then fires.
He misses this one, but it’s halfway down and is a good example of how he likes to free up his outside shot via the step back and a little physicality.
That being said, he’s also very capable playing off of the ball and converting opportunities that come to him. In this play below, against ISU, you see him set up the offense, set a screen away from the ball, and then hover around the three-point line as the play unfolds. Eventually, it gets back to him from a kick out from a baseline and he makes a nice decision to keep it moving over to Dawson Baker (#25) who is wide-open. Baker probably should have shot this himself, but instead decides to attack the wild close out, but into an already crowded lane from the baseline drive. Nevertheless, Hall subtly relocates, stays a few feet beyond the three-point line, and this time launches quickly on the catch over a pretty decent contest.
And here’s a big momentum three after ISU, at one point down 54-33 (after Hall’s dunk), had come all the way back to being within 6 at the 7-minute mark in the second half. After breaking the initial pressure, Hall spots up after the scramble, takes a cross-court pass, and fluidly knocks down the catch-and-shoot to break his team’s scoring drought.
It’s a good illustration at how, even though he’s not going to be one of our best shooters out there, you don’t feel it’s quite as necessary to play with the ball in his hands all of the time. We’ve had some good point guards over the years but this hasn’t always been a luxury. Reece Beekman, for example, shot just under 32% for his career and it took him a little longer to get into his shot out there/he needed to be more open to be willing much of the time. Kihei Clark shot it better, just 1% worse than Hall from out there, but he needed a lot more space to get those shots up over contests and also didn’t have the quickest release. And let’s not even get into Dante Hall, or what Jalen Warley would have brought to the table had he played with the team.
Point being, you can have really good and impactful players at the position (I think Reece was our best under CTB outside of Ty) but sometimes those players make you have to play offense in a certain way where they have the ball in their hands a lot in order to be most effective; otherwise if another player creates an opportunity, they may not be as good at being the conversion point out there. It makes the PG role more specific.
With Hall, that doesn’t have to be the case. If you play him off, as he did with Demin many times and, just in general as the offense would set up, you’ve still got a good shooter out there on a kick out and an athletic slasher/finisher with some size and hops, as well. You’re not losing a ton, which is good in an offensive system where the PG can become relatively interchangeable.
Finally, Hall has developed a bit of a reputation for hitting clutch/game winning shots throughout his career, and you saw a couple of big-time late-game plays already in this piece.
Here’s one more that didn’t count in the end of regulation against Baylor… but only because the release was just a split-second too late.
I mean… that’s a deep three, hustling on the move after throwing the initial inbound pass, catching just inside the logo, and bombing ostensibly to win the game.
So, yeah. I think Hall is a bit of a gamer/rises to those kinds of occasions. He’ll be an interesting mix of probably being your worst overall perimeter shooter (outside of Gertrude, likely… but who knows there we haven’t seen him in a while), he also probably won’t be the best on the roster at creating his own look – but he’s also the kind of guy you’re happy to see take the opportunity in the big moments because he’s got that knack.
It should also be reiterated here that, even though he didn’t start toward the second half of the season, he was almost always on the floor to close out the games in these situations, close games, OT, etc. When he wasn’t, it was normally an offense/defense thing to keep him from fouling out or on some specific defensive matchups. They trusted him in these moments and viewed him as one of their best five; to the point of having the ball in his hands as often or more than the likes of high-quality players like Egor Demin or Richie Saunders.
Handling Defensive Pressure
As we wrap the offensive section, there are two additional areas of his game I want to call out. Hall was often called on to beat full court pressure when he was on the floor, or to deal with high leverage game situations.
Here’s a look at him withstanding VCU’s full court pressure, playing with strength on the ball in the half court, and setting up a post entry, as an example.
And here he is late in the game against Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament, breaking the pressure with strength, overpowering the reach-in that’s not called.
And here he is, below, sniffing out the ISU trap in the back court, retreating, and finding a long pass to Traore for the easy finish around the rim to punish.
So, I liked that he’s very strong with the ball in these circumstances and appears to be alert.
That being said, he was a little more mistake prone in these situations than I love for a primary decision-maker to be at the end of games. For example, at the end of the Baylor game, up 4 in OT, he basically boxes out to take the inbound pass, but then retreat dribbles on the trap farther into the corner and just loses the ball out of bounds.
This play gave Baylor life and could have been costly as the Bears immediately made a three-pointer on the next play to cut the lead to one, and had the ball down three with under thirty seconds left in the game.
And in the NCAA Tournament, against Wisconsin, a game they won by 2 on a Wisconsin missed jumper at the buzzer, the game looked almost done and dusted until this play, below, gave the Badgers a spark. Hall is just a little too careless with the pass to the wing, not recognizing how much pressure Kamari McGee (#4) was putting on that wing pass. Hall does a nice job retreating and contesting the shot at the rim, but the numbers and eventual putback/foul are all on him just not taking care of the ball the way he needed to.
So, yeah. Some pretty big swings of fortune with Hall handling the point for you down the stretch of games. He’ll make a big shot and/or rise to the occasion with his mistakes – but I think he’s also vulnerable to making some avoidable mistakes, as well.
I’d want him to be more cautious and to try to do a little less with a significant lead and hope he’ll be able to lean on his teammates when trying to kill some clock.
Free Throw Shooting
The last think I’ll mention briefly is just that Dallin Hall is a confusingly bad free throw shooter considering the rest of his game. He shot just 67% on the season, which isn’t great for anyone, but especially not a guard who is going to be handling the ball a lot toward the end of games. He becomes a very tempting foul late. And, in fact, in that very close double OT game against ISU, he went to the free throw line three different times and only made two once. He missed the back end of the other two – which could have been the difference in the first OT and kept the game from getting pushed out to two possessions late in the 2nd (although there was only a second or two left on the clock, still relevant).
I mean, sometimes it’s not even really close, like when BYU had a comfortable lead over VCU but they were trying to get back in the game late, here:
This, coupled with some of the turnovers almost make me think it better to try to salt away a lead late without Hall on the floor and to keep him in when we need a big shot to extend a lead or are behind/trying to play catchup.
Not sure… and I’m not going to spend a ton of energy fretting about it before we see it happen in the Orange and Blue. It’s contrary to his “clutch” gene, but it aligns with the lapses in concentration sometimes along with being a better shooter when he’s not having to think about it.
I could see Chance Mallory, Jacari White, Malik Thomas, and Devin Tillis being a pretty awesome free throw shooting group to close out a game, though.
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Overall, I think Dallin Hall offers just so much to your offensive side of the ball. He can make plays for his teammates and himself while being a ball-dominant point or, most often, while working within an offense as a complimentary piece who can also play off of other ball handlers. He’s tough, physical, and has a flare for the big moment. His 4.2-1.6 assist to turnover ratio is quite good – so don’t be too scared by some of the wobbliness in big moments, above.
Let’s now take a look at his…
Defense
Hall is a good, not great defender. He’s a better offensive player than he is a defensive one; but it’s not a stark contrast and you’re still happy to have him on the floor on the defensive side. In my opinion, he’s a stronger defender off of the ball than on it. He’s fast on his close outs and his recovery, and his leaping ability and size allow him to be a nuisance at the rim against both smaller and bigger players alike when he rotates over. He analyzes a play well, too, and makes smart rotational choices. On the ball, he’s strong and physical – sometimes going too far and getting into foul trouble. He does a nice job of scrapping and clawing to stay in plays; but doesn’t have elite quickness so he can sometimes get beaten by burst; although his size and length can help him mitigate that some.
Personally, I would probably defer toward playing White or Gertrude on the primary ball handler and playing Hall off the ball on the defensive side so that he has more freedom to rotate, help, and crash the glass (and to lean into Elijah and Jacari’s strengths as well).
Alright, let’s take some looks!
On Ball
One thing I do like about Hall on the ball is that he is very physical at fighting through screens and he can be intrusive in trapping situations or those where you need him to be disruptive. Here’s a look against VCU, below, where he powers through a ball screen and then builds off of the hedge of his teammate to overwhelm Shulga and force a turnover:
Here, below, you see him get caught on a ball screen that’s probably moving as the big rolls into his attempted path of going under it. Hall gets caught on it momentarily but basically shoves Michael Belle (#8) out of the way and actually still gets a piece on this Shulga three attempt (which he makes anyway – which is crazy).
Here he is in this next one and you get a good look at him jumping over the DHO while guarding Jayden Nunn (#2). Hall does a nice job staying in front throughout most of Nunn’s moves. He does briefly lose him at about 20 seconds into the clip, but his length on the contest, driving Nunn into Traore, and then the ability to get back in front and force the kick out leads to the shot clock violation.
That’s a really nice defensive possession! It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to be bothersome and to make things really difficult on the offensive player.
This next one I think is a nice example of his scramble and athleticism. Brandton Chatfield (#33) pretty clearly leans into Hall with his ball screen here, impacting his recovery line. Hall gets jarred and ends up fully behind Curtis Jones (#5), who is another player who made it onto an NBA roster (Nuggets) undrafted. Jones is 6’4″ himself and is an athletic player. But watch Hall scramble to get back into the play, chase him down from behind, and offer a looming shot block attempt at the end that forces Tonje to rush and miss the shot.
Navigating those ball screens, again, is a part of Hall’s game I really liked. You can see it in how he plays physically through the contact and then his recovery ability when chasing is a plus feature.
Here’s a look at him drawing an offensive foul because he runs through the contact of the illegal screen:
And this next one, below, he gets called for a foul holding and pulling his cover from behind trying to chase back down the play. I do want Hall to stay out of foul trouble (although I also won’t be mad at Mallory/Gertrude playing time) – and he can get called for some quick ones because he is so physical. But I still like the fight here, early in the game yet, setting the tone that nothing is going to come easily and that he’s going to play physically.
I like it when he’s physically getting over screens and then causing some chaos while chasing. In these clips, when he does that, he’s running his man into his strong, but in some cases, shorter, Centers. Traore is a massive dude, but he’s only 6’6″, Mag is 6’7″, Keita is 6’8″. Ryan Odom employs a similar drop coverage with his bigs when defending ball screens, but on our team this coming season, Hall will be chasing his man into a pair of 7’0″ footers with excellent shot blocking prowess. So, I really like the idea of this approach of blowing up the ball screen, scrapping and chasing from behind, and creating some rush/chaos with the offense as they try to navigate the quickly closing Hall and the looming Onyenso or Grünloh.
An alternative that Hall would sometimes employ is trying to get under the screen and using his length, foot speed to offer strong closeouts on any outside shot attempts. There’s going to be a time and a place for that as well, especially with poor outside shooters, but I thought it was generally worse because he could get caught on the screen, like here, and then it was just a matter of how good the shooter was.
We saw him actually get a piece of Shulga’s shot, earlier, and he still made it. I thought he actually still did a pretty admirable job of contesting here, all things considered with how deep that rolling screen took him. Still, in today’s game I’d probably rather him be proactive and force the offensive players to make quicker decisions while moving quickly… and for opportunities worth fewer points.
Okay, not let’s look at him in more straight-up Man trying to keep his matchup in front. Hall has the tools to be effective defensively in this way. For example, you see him here retreating well, while maintaining body contact, forcing his man to make a bit of a chaotic pass after his dribble, and then staying home to double team the ball and force a turnover.
But I generally like it when Hall can be more proactive than reactive on the defensive end. We’ll talk about this some with his help side, but he’s at his best when he’s on the move, initiating contact, trying to go up and block a shot, etc. When he gets to make a decision and impose his will on an offensive player, or force that player to react to him chasing them down, good things tended to happen. But, he’s a little more fast and strong than he is quick.
Here, below, for example, I think he played really good defense. He initially gets over a double screen and recovers to his man, Robert Wright III (#1). Wright is smaller (6’1″) but quicker than Hall and he drives him into the lane on his left hand. Hall does a nice job of shutting down the driving angle, but his momentum carries him backward which puts him on his back foot. Still, he does a really nice job of putting two hands in the air and trying to contest/forcing Wright to make a difficult shot, which he does.
To be clear, I’ll take that defense all day. Stay in front, force your man to make a difficult bucket over you. Sometimes they’re going to make it. That being said, Write was able to get pretty good depth on the play and Hall’s reaction to it kept him from really being able to jump much to impact the shot attempt. To me, it’s an illustration of how he’ll still make a defender have to work, but isn’t quite as disruptive.
This one, though, is different look against Wright that better highlights the susceptibility to quickness. Isolated on the wing, Wright just makes a pretty nice hesitation toward his left and then blows by Hall toward the baseline. He gets cleanly around him and, fortunately, Hall is called for the foul on the floor so that the layup doesn’t count.
I do still like that Hall’s contest is pretty good here despite Wright mostly getting fully by him; but defending that kind of quick player in isolation is probably the weakest part of his defensive game.
Now, I want to take a look at three different kind of clips from the Wisconsin game where he was whistled for a foul each time. For what it’s worth, I thought the officiating in that game was atrocious and they called way too many fouls. I also thought that he probably didn’t have to be called for any of these, certainly not all of them. That being said, I think they showcase elements on his defensive game.
This, for example, should not be a foul. Hall is covering the 6’4″ John Blackwell (#25), who averaged almost 16 points a game this past season. I thought Hall did a really nice job of following Blackwell through the lane, keeping eyes on the ball here, staying home to help on the drive, and then recovering. I also like that his recovery angle is up the floor so that he could potentially bother the pass back out and he can use the baseline as a defender; which he does. Blackwell fakes the pass and drives baseline, and Hall does a nice job sliding while retreating and forcing Blackwell to the baseline, under the hoop. Blackwell is leaning into him so hard, that when Hall steps away (he’s always moving backward, which is why this shouldn’t be a foul), Blackwell actually falls.
That should be a play on because it’s Blackwell who is out of control and initiating things but, either way, I liked that from Dallin.
Here, below, we see him in a rare post defense opportunity against Blackwell again. Again, you see his strength. He’s got a low base and doesn’t actually allow Blackwell to get into the circle. They call him because he’s umbrellaing with his arms for a split second, but he actually pulls back on the shot attempt, forcing the miss.
Kind of a bail out call, in my mind. Either way, a good illustration of Hall holding up on the inside.
And then this last clip is him guarding John Tonje (#9) late in the game, protecting a small lead. Tonje had 37 points in this game and was drafted in the second round of the NBA Draft to the Jazz. Hall wasn’t on him very often, but here’s an instance where he was in an important moment. Now, Tonje is 6’5″ 218lbs and is an athletic scorer who averaged almost 20 points per game on the season. Point being, this is one of the harder covers someone like Hall is going to have to face. Also, kind of insane to call this a foul as Hall really just slides through the lane and then jumps straight up at the end with two hands extended, but I guess they said he got into him with the body on the jump. That being said, you can see how cleanly Tonje gets Hall on his hip during his initial move and then is able to use that to take an indirect path to get a quality shot. Hall does a pretty decent job of staying level and forcing Tonje to finish over him, but doesn’t offer very much obstruction.
All of this adds up, in my opinion, to say that you’re generally comfortable having Dallin Hall as your on-ball defender on the floor. He’s going to fight and scrap and play with strength (and length against many matchups) and force most any offensive player to have to work to get a decent look.
He’s not a lock down defender, though, and could be a point of attack especially in isolation as opposed to in the two-man game, and especially if he’s facing a player with superior quickness. This is why I say that, in most cases, I’d probably prefer him to be off the ball, if possible. Speaking of…
Off Ball
So why do I like Hall as a defender off of the ball? He’s alert, he has good chase/close out speed, and he’s at his best and most athletic when he can build up a little head of steam.
Here’s a quick look at him running Phillip Russell (#1) from VCU off of the three-point line on his close out:
Now, before you say to me, “Cuts, what are you talking about? That was a terrible close out. He ran right by him!” First of all, you could be a little more tactful! Secondly, running guys off of the line is a valid defensive approach often used in the NBA now where you over-commit to denying the three-point shot and force the offensive player into that awkward midrange space where they can’t get all the way to the rim due to the shot blocker so, instead, they have to take a pull up jumper that they’re probably less likely to hit (as Jennings doesn’t) and is worth fewer points if they do anyway. That in mind – there’s no way Jennings is going to take that shot in the face of Hall’s closeout there.
Here’s another look I liked at the end of the half against VCU. Often in these situations offensive players will shoot farther out than normal and defensive players will not get the same intensity of contest on them because they’re used to playing a bit farther back and also don’t want to get beaten on the drive. I like in this clip how there are still about 5 seconds left on the clock, but Hall keeps well attached to Zeb Jackson (#2) such that he’s able to offer a really nice contest on the shot well-beyond the three-point line with about 4.5 seconds left to go in the half still.
And this one below, again, that darned Wisconsin game officiating, he gets called on a three-point shooting foul (the replay shows he grazes the hand on the shooter after the release – complete flop). This is zone, which I’m not showing a ton because we won’t be playing it a ton – but BYU did use fairly regularly. He’s extended such that he’s brazenly trying to deny the pass to the corner, but when Wisconsin sends the ball through the high post and then passes to the corner, look at the closing speed from Hall to make that shot uncomfortable:
That shot isn’t missed so badly because of contact, that shot is missed so badly because the shooter is thrown off by the hot contest and flinches.
So, he can cover a lot of ground. His strength at playing through screens is helpful off of the ball as well. Here, you can see him stay tightly clung to Shulga (#11) from VCU. He’s right in his pocket on the catch and shot attempt, and even has really nice body control to back up and not foul the jump shooter despite being so invasive in his space. That’s just really great shot-making from Max; but I’d always live with that kind of look from the opposition, on the move, awkwardly leaning into the basket from so far out, with a defender right in his space.
Not only does he still play with that strength and speed, but he’s also got really nice alertness at watching a play develop, understanding where he needs to be, and then finding a way to make a positive impact.
In this next clip against ISU, the Cougars are getting back in transition and looking to match up. I really liked this sequence from Dallin. He stays deep in the lane early to help on any drives/imbalances. Then he identifies his matchup and closes out on the pass but without losing driving leverage. He’s communicative throughout and you can see him directing traffic. When BYU sends the trap in the corner, Traore rotates on the cross-court pass to the opposite corner, which leaves Hall to make a really smart rotation – onto 6’11” 274lb(!) Dishon Jackson (#1)! Hall moves over and “boxes out” basically by walking into/shoving Jackson past the basket, to the baseline, and under the hoop away from the play so that his teammates can fight and secure the board.
Smart team defender all around and I just love that toughness to flat out push a big so much bigger than he is away from the play, effectively, without being called. We’ll see some of this toughness and fight on some rebounds later.
Another element to all of this that I really like. As a 6’4″ PG, Hall is very effective at rotating over from the help side and contesting shots at the rim! Here’s a look, below, from that same ISU game, where he leaves his man, rotates over, and contests Keshon Gilbert’s layup attempt; forcing the miss.
You don’t have to get the block to alter the shot!
This is the one that really stood out to me as he rotates all the way over from the opposite side of the zone to force a miss from Norchad Omier (#15).
Omier runs 6’7″ and there was no one else impacting the shot there. Hall just came over with reckless abandon (note how he lands!) and forces Omier to re-adjust his shot attempt in mid-air. It turns a would-be easy basket into a missed shot with the ball heading the other way after the deflected rebound. It impressed me that Hall can offer rim protection like that.
Also, it makes him a frustrating player to attempt to finish against in transition which we’ve actually already seen after one of his turnovers in the offensive section, but we can take a look at again here, forcing a miss at the rim:
And here, buying enough time for his teammate to chase down the block:
As a guard, I love the speed, strength, range, and elevation Hall plays with as a 6’4″ player with some spring to his jump. It allows him, when playing off of the ball, in my opinion, to be able to contribute in a greater diversity of ways. Whether he’s flying over to contest an outside shot or a player driving hard to the rim, or whether he’s fighting through screens to stay clinging to his man, it gives him the ability to put his fingerprints on the game from that side of the ball.
Couple all of that with his strong navigation of ball screens and his good-but-not-great defense in isolation; and you have the makings for a plus defender as a total package who isn’t perfect but who should fit into our system quite well at being aggressive and disruptive. If you lean into the matchups to keep him away from the oppositions best isolation scorer, then I think we’ll have something cooking.
Rebounding
I won’t spend a ton of time here as a guard, but I did think Hall was a very tough and willing rebounder. We saw him mix it up with the much bigger frontcourt player in that clip against ISU above. He’s also got that heat-seeking missile kind of tenacity about him when chasing down long rebounds. Here you get a look at him against Wisconsin where he gets rotated under the hoop, but the long rebound carries to the corner. Hall leaves his man, and starts from behind the 6’7″ Carter Gilmore (#7), but out races him toward the ball, jockeys with his arms to get in front, and shields him from being able to get to the ball.
Practically speaking, he basically shoves Gilmore into his bench but manages to do it while fighting for a loose ball at parity and not getting called (in a whistle-happy game). I love that hustle and determination and, again, broken record, physicality.
Here’s just a really NICE and TOUGH box out at the end of this same game. It’s against Gilmore again after a switch, who is much bigger (3 inches and 25lbs). As the shot goes up from Tonje, watch Hall fight to keep Gilmore out of the circle and actually gets pulled down from behind, with both going to the floor, because he’s offering so much quality resistance.
That box out actually took out two Wisconsin players, because one tripped over him as they were falling to the floor, and helped secure the rebound to seal the game. Really tough.
And, finally, nothing special here, but his most common rebounds are going to be crashing down from the weakside, like this, where his vertical is certainly relevant in most cases (not here).
In Conclusion
I’m really excited about Dallin Hall and think he’s probably our most underrated incoming transfer. Yes, he’s from a big school, but to the untrained eye, he lost his starting job and his stats weren’t eye-popping.
He just does so many things really well and his areas of weakness are still pretty darn good (except for the free throw shooting, he does need to work on that).
I expect that he’ll be the best pure facilitator on this team and, the way the roster shakes out, I expect there will be a lot of guys who stand to benefit from the opportunities that he creates – from our rim-runners to our plethora of outside shooters. I expect he’ll be fine stepping to the side when players like Malik Thomas and Jacari White look to have the ball in their hands and create more for themselves; and that he’ll still be an effective conversion point when they do so and create a look for him. I expect he’ll be a stout defender and provide athleticism and intangibles all over the floor on that end while adding toughness and helping to set a physical tone. Hopefully, we won’t have to rely on him as the primary ball defender (and I don’t think we will), but we also don’t have to fear those moments when he is.
More, and also importantly, I expect he’ll be a smart player (he already has basically the full scouting report downloaded in his brain of each teammate when you hear him interviewed) who sets a positive tone both by getting others involved and by how hard and gritty he plays.
This is just a very well-rounded player who likely won’t take over many games on the scoreboard (although he’s capable as we saw against ISU); but can feel like he’s taking over a game in how he impacts it in all of the other ways. I’m still going to want to see some Chance Mallory run, and I also think there will be some benefits (primarily defensively and in transition) to playing Elijah Gertrude at the point some – but make no mistake, we’re going to want Dallin Hall to have the lion’s share of those PG minutes. He’s a high-quality addition!
Alright! The next piece I’ll get into will be on our incoming backup Center from Kansas State (via Kentucky), Ugonna Onyenso. Until then!
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