We’ve done it, all! The sixth and final (pending figuring out what to do about the international players) installment in this offseason’s Tracking A Transfer. This one will feature Malik Thomas, the 5th year Senior who required a waiver to play for us this year and who, allegedly we just made such a competitive offer there really wasn’t much other competition (despite Gonzaga, one of his main competitors last year, being interested). For previous pieces this year, I’m just going to go ahead and link you to the Cuts Home Page. You can navigate to the bottom and take a look at anything written this offseason and much of the beyond – but there are features on Sam Lewis, Jacari White, Devin Tillis, Dallin Hall, and Ugonna Onyenso there.
Thomas, along with Dallin Hall, is one of two five-star incoming transfer players per Evanmiya.com; the 35th ranked in the transfer class. When rumors came that UVa had made an offer to Thomas that basically guaranteed he’d become a Cavalier as long as his waiver to play cleared, it created a different level of hype for the offseason – one perhaps only rivaled by our foray into international waters to solidify our frontcourt. After riding the bench at USC for a couple of years, Thomas transferred to San Francisco where he earned a starting role in 23-24, only to lead the entire WCC in scoring in 24-25 at 19.9 points per game. While the WCC isn’t chock-full of talent up and down their lineup, this is a conference with Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, the very good Santa Clara, and recently added PAC-12 castoffs Oregon St. and Washington St. This is a player who went off in the NIT; scoring 21 and 36 points respectively in his two games. He had 27 in a loss against Gonzaga in the WCC Semifinals (a game we’ll look at), and 34 in regular season contests against both Washington St. and Santa Clara. In San Francisco’s non-conference schedule, he put up 25 against the ultra-athletic Memphis Tigers, and 22 against both St. Louis and Boise St. This is a player whose offensive reputation preceded him and whose scoring ability raised the expectations for Ryan Odom’s first season as head coach (not to mention how he filled out his roster after). Not only is Thomas a high-volume scorer, he’s efficient as well. He shot 39.4% from three on 5.3 attempts per game, 44.4% from the floor on 13.8 attempt per game, and 85.1% from the free throw line on 6.5 attempts per game. Perhaps he’s not as efficient from two as you’d ideally want; but very efficient overall especially from deep and in getting to the line.
It’s funny how doing these detailed break downs can change your perspective on an overall roster. Earlier in the offseason, I did an appearance on a Hoos On podcast talking about various players, projecting minutes, and making predictions. At that time, I’d only completed 3 of these 6 pieces. I’d watched plenty of film on the others and watched highlights. But, having really gotten into the deep dive for the full group of incoming transfers now, the bigger picture has come into light, and I have a slightly different perspective. I’ll do one of my pieces later in the offseason projecting what I’d like to see on a minutes front which will finalize those thoughts; but it relates to Thomas in that I see now how all of the pieces compliment each other within Odom’s system and fill gaps that others may leave. Previously, I’d imagined that the three anticipated starting guards; Dallin Hall, Jacari White, and Malik Thomas would just be the superior three options across the roster and we could plug-and-play with the frontcourt; substituting mostly for fatigue. Now, I’m more of the opinion that each of the three backup guards, Chance Mallory… but especially Elijah Gertrude and Sam Lewis, have elements to their game this season that may offer strengths that the (expected) starting three might not offer quite as much; and that there will be some positive benefit to mixing and matching those rotations. This might trickle out to the frontcourt, as well, depending on who we’re playing at the three guard positions.
Fascinating.
Back to Malik Thomas, though. He’s listed at 6’5″ – but he looks and feels much more like 6’4″ on the floor. He felt much more like a true SG on San Francisco; and even ran backup PG much of the time. Now, he’s an incredibly strong player; which we’ll talk about later and add some versatility to his ability to defend cross-positionally (and gives him that “SF” flexibility), but it reminds me more of how Armaan Franklin could scale up in size sometimes – he was tough, but not long. He’s known as being mostly a pure scorer. I don’t think that’s the full extent of his game. His 1.6 steals per game were tied for 4th in the WCC (and only .1 behind the three leaders). He contributed as a rebounder with 3.9 per game. His assist to turnover ratio was not good, though, at 2.1 to 2.0; basically 1-to-1, and his defense was also swingy in efficacy.
The best way to think of Malik Thomas in 2024-2025, in my opinion, is to think of him as a player who hunted splash plays. He was always looking for that three-point shot, that aggressive drive to the hoop, that difficult pass… an opportunistic steal. And those splash plays… they came; in abundance. That being said, it also led to him pressing at times and forcing things; leading to the turnovers, leading to some unsound defensive possessions.
When I think of Malik Thomas – I believe he’s exactly the kind of player Ryan Odom can weaponize. He’s incredibly aggressive at both ends. He’ll hunt his shot, he’ll break down a defender, he’ll be aggressive and physical on the defensive end. There will be elements of this, especially on the offensive side of the ball, that need no translation. The question for me will be, how much can Coach Odom use that aggression, as he so loves to do, while minimizing the drawbacks. I’m incredibly excited about watching Malik play in this system; but I also think it speaks to a clear opportunity for the strengths of other players to have a greater role than perhaps I had previously thought. We’re going to get into it but…
First A Word About San Francisco
Seeing Thomas lead the WCC at virtually 20ppg, my initial reaction was to suspect he did so on volume due to lack of help and playmaking around him. And, certainly, he did do it on volume to some extent, taking over 100 shots more than any of his teammates on the season; but there was some quality talent around him at the Guard position. Marcus Williams poured in 15.1ppg himself on 41.4% shooting from deep, and Ryan Beasley came into his own as the season progressed as a playmaking PG who had no conscience despite his season average coming in under 30% from three. They also had 6’6″ G/F Tyrone Riley IV who gave them another almost 10ppg, was probably the best defender of the group, and allowed them to play small with four guards or could spell one of the other three.
There was a strong supporting cast in the backcourt such that Thomas didn’t always have to carry the load. In fact, in most games it seemed as though he deferred early on and let his teammates try to get going, only to rapidly build on momentum as the game would progress. You’d sometimes feel like he hadn’t even taken a shot for the fist 10 mins+ of the game or so and then you’d blink and he’d finish with 27 or some crazy number. I think that since he was often the top of the opposing team’s scouting report, he’d try to hang back and establish some of his teammates as threats, and then punish the defense once they adjusted or didn’t have quite as much focus on him.
Offensively, San Francisco was a perimeter-focused program with very similar actions to what we’ll run but with less of an emphasis on transition. They were a ball-screen heavy offense with pick-and-pop looks from their bigs and open driving lanes from their guards; but they also had a suite of off ball screening actions and would often turn to isolation as well. Many possessions Thomas would just chill in the corner and act as a decoy for one of the other two guards to make something happen; but when he was involved in the play he was a three-level scorer (outside the arc, in the midrange, and around the rim). San Francisco had a variety of packages they would run to call his number and they most often put the ball in his hands when they needed to make something happen. Surprisingly, they were only the 91st most efficient offense in the country, if you like Kenpom. I think the fact that, while they had several guards who could create, they only shot the ball at 33.8% from deep despite Thomas and Williams, their highest volume three-point shooters, each being close to 40%. Additionally, their frontcourt really just wasn’t giving you very consistent or efficient offense to back up their guard play.
Defensively, they mostly played man-to-man and finished 55th in the country in efficiency. Watching them, this was surprising, as they seemed a more capable offensive team than they were an imposing defensive team. Overall, they helped pretty well systemically with their bigs. I thought their guards were pretty decent defenders on the whole – but Thomas was the exception to this rule. He wasn’t a bad defender, and he was often put on a weaker offensive player and the opposition didn’t test him; but his off-ball technique was feast or famine and put him in some less than desirable positions. San Francisco realized this as they would often sub Thomas out on defense at the end of a game when they needed a stop and then back into the game on offense; getting the 6’6″ Tyrone Riley IV’s length onto the floor.
Okay, let’s get into it. Please bear with me as I would have loved to get some of the NIT games in here, but the world of full-game video is less robust than it used to be. Please also bear with the video quality on the Gonzaga game. I scraped to find a bootleg version of the WCC Semifinal game, but had to sacrifice some video quality in the process. For these four features we’ve got the WCC Quarterfinal against Washington State, the Semifinal against Gonzaga, a regular season contest at Oregon State, and then a home game against Loyola Marymount – a middling WCC team ranked the 155th in the country per Kenpom – but who had some quality length and athleticism.
Offense
Thomas’s offensive game is the headliner and is why he adds so much juice as a transfer addition. He’s a complete offensive player who can shoot it at that ultra-efficient 39.4%. He’s getting that shot spotting up, catching and shooting the ball on the move around screens, and pulling up off of the bounce. He’s got a nice step back from range and can dribble around a ball screen and launch right into that shot. He has a plethora of moves in the midrange and likes to get to that pull up through creative pivoting, or after creating some space navigating ball screens. Similarly, he can also push the ball all the way to the rim. He’s got a nice floater, some creative Euro stepping, and he’s a surprisingly strong player which allows him to finish through contact around the basket. He’s skilled at getting to the free throw line; attempting 222 of them last year – which was 136 more than his next closest teammate. For context, Isaac McKneely took 70 free throws last season. Thomas has a tight and creative handle, a nice change of pace, and he doesn’t shy away from contact, often lowering his shoulder and initiating; all great for drawing trips to the line where he shot a sterling 85.1% on the season. In fact, 28% of his total 676 points came from the charity stripe last year; very efficient offense. San Francisco would even run set offense for the purpose of posting Thomas on the block when they thought he was more physical than his defender, allowing him to overpower smaller guards and get easy buckets around the rim.
While I do think there’s something to the idea that he could be more efficient around the midrange (and should just take fewer of these shots); he’s still a complete player as a scorer and you don’t want to eliminate that element of his game entirely. The threat to shoot from anywhere has to be there. In fact, apparently at a recent practice CTB, who was visiting, simply said about Thomas, “That guy’s a bucket.” This kind of hard-wired scoring ability and confidence to create for himself in so many different ways, and being so efficient (when you put the whole package together) is hard to come by and should be valuable for us both to bolster our offense and to have an easy place to turn if the sledding is rough for the team as a whole.
So, does he play well with others? Can he create for others? I’m here to say that he absolutely can, the question will be: how much will he need to and how much will he adapt his game? His drives into the paint carry great gravity, as we’ll see. He collapses a defense. There should be more value in him kicking that ball out on this team than there was on San Francisco; but his eyes often got locked on that rim. Will he be able to just kind of take what comes to him within the flow of the game and play off of the supporting cast of skilled offensive players (and great shooters) around him or his default mode to attack to score? We’ll see him facilitate for his teammates in this piece; and it can come pretty easily because of the attention he draws and because of his tendencies as a scorer; but is that something he’ll be able to build off of if those shots are more effective in a given game?
They’re different sizes and positions and the comp isn’t precise; but his offensive tape had a very similar feeling that I had when watching Mark Sears at Ohio (when scouting BVP) before he became MARK SEARS at Alabama. Similarly precise outside shooting. Could be ball-dominant at times. Very confident and hunted his own shot when he had the ball in his hands; but there were times when he was frustrating to watch because it felt like he could have prioritized distribution a bit more and he forced some things that didn’t always feel like smart basketball. Of course, we know how Sears translated at Alabama when surrounded by the system and talent that he was – so if only we could be so lucky with Malik!
The thing about Thomas that I find so fascinating (really on both ends but we’ll focus on offense for now) is that when he’s got the ball, he’s often teetering right on that precipice of being out-of-control. He takes chances with his passing and shot selection. His handle and sequencing on his moves feel like the wheels are about to come off at any moment, and frequently, they do, but the majority of the time they put a ton of pressure on the defense to be alert; even when they’re defending him on the ball. He’s strong, crafty, and constant; and not afraid to get his shots up… but this also lends to him forcing things sometimes. Taking a shot too early in the shot clock, especially in the midrange; jamming it into traffic, losing control of his body, and travelling or getting his shot blocked; or just being too aggressive with some of his pass attempts. Playing so close to the edge often leads to mistakes; and while he’s strong and very fluid with the ball (he’s got it on a string sometimes), he’s not overly athletic in pure quick twitch ability, open-court speed, or verticality in his finishes.
Sometimes the easy play is the better play. Will he be able to more consistently find the easy play with this cast of characters around him? I think and hope so; but time will tell.
Alright, we can start with the Cuts already!
Self-Creation With The Dribble
This is doesn’t have to be the primary way that you play him, but it’s certainly the headliner in terms of flash and the variety of ways that he can get to his own shot. Let’s start with his ability to get to that sweet, sweet, three-point jumper with the ball in his hands:
This first look (again, please excuse the video quality on the Gonzaga tape but it is the best competition in these) gives a good look into what his role can be within a system like ours, especially toward the end of a shot clock. He starts out taking a pin down screen to bring him out of the corner, and getting the defensive assignment switched so that Gonzaga’s PG, the 6’0″ Ryan Nembhard (#0) picks him up around the lane. Thomas pops back out to the top of the key, taking the ball after another pin-down screen. From there, he looks to re-engage his teammate on the wing, but Gonzaga’s ball denial discourages this, and it’s isolation time. Notice the little hesitation and wiggle to set up the step back!
I like the subtle threats he’s presenting here. It’s not just a simple cross-over back into the three, he freezes Nembhard and holds him at his depth by making it look like he’s still going to drive with his left hand after crossing-over, just before getting to his step back into just the purest shot.
Here’s another look against Oregon State where, a little over midway through the first half. Thomas had been deferring to teammates early in the game to the point where the commentators were discussing how quiet he had been. And then he just kind of exploded offensively, hunting shots like this one, below. This look wasn’t late in the shot clock; he was just hungry for it:
That one’s all feel and foot work. As opposed to some of his stuff, it was just a pump fake, a jab step, and a retreat dribble – and that was good enough to drain a triple over a guy who started in his pocket on the catch. #7 on Oregon St. is 6’5″ Nate Kingz, as well (who Thomas is noticeably shorter than by an inch or so), so it’s not like he’s leveraging length; it’s just good technique and skill.
Here’s a last look where you see him just use his handle to freeze his defender and then pulls up over him. Quick and fluid ball handling for the purpose of creating hesitation in the defender and then loosing the arrow from deep.
Absolutely a staple of his game.
He also likes to navigate to get to his midrange jumper. I don’t have quite as many clips of these within this game set, but he’s got a fadeaway in the midrange and a pull up that he gets to in ways that are similar to what we’ll see when he gets all the way to the rim. Here’s a good look at it, though, where he rejects a ball screen, weaves around his man and the corner help defender, and then pulls up before the Center can contest the shot:
The thing is, though, we just generally know that the midrange jumper is one of the least efficient shots in basketball. Thomas shot 44.4% from the floor despite shooting 39.4% from deep – only 5% better. That long shot is worth the extra point, and driving inside; while it might be acrobatic at times, also draws those uber efficient free throws (and can draw more aggressive help to let teammates clean up). It’s good that Thomas has that midrange confidence in his bag for situations like the above where there’s an opportunity and it makes sense; but I’d absolutely rather see him scale the volume back here because even good and open shots, like the one below, come up empty a little too frequently for us to want it to be a primary part of our offense this coming season:
Alright, let’s now take a look at some of his drives to the rack. This first look is a good example of his aggression and creativity with the ball, while also highlighting how he really toes that edge of control. I mean, this play is just so Malik Thomas. He catches the ball on the wing, while his defender is fighting over a guard pin down screen. There isn’t a ton of advantage there, but his man is slightly off center and still recovering through the body contact. Thomas on the catch immediately attacks the open space with momentum, putting his man in recovery position. The defender from the point sags down into the lane to help try to cut off the drive, but Thomas pushes his dribble well-out in front of himself to split the defense; risky because there are still help defenders in the lane. Without breaking stride, he keeps his defender on his hip, recovers the ball, and then fluidly switches it over to his left hand to finish at the rim away from the help defender.
Blink and that’s a turnover (and we’ll see some times when it happens that way later)… but he’s just so decisive, in attack mode downhill, and able to intuitively put the ball exactly where it needs to be to allow him to carve out a path to the rim.
So, you have a sense now what I mean regarding pushing things to the brink; but everything is intentional. Here’s a good look against Washington St. where he gets a kick out after a long rebound, uses his shot clout to freeze a defender with a shot fake, weaves his way into traffic, takes the body contact from the rim protector, and still finishes.
We’ll do a whole section on his finishing, and this was a nice one, but notice again all of the quick little movements and adjustments he makes in succession to make this finish. It’s a shot fake, into weaving away from the help defender on the wing, into using the body contact at the rim to create space, adjusting his shot while hanging to clear the shot block attempt, and then finishing.
Here’s another good look at the intention and the playing speed. Here he takes a DHO from the strong-side wing, but is running so hard and is contacted upon receiving the ball, that he’s off-balance, pushing himself at an angle toward the half court logo rather than toward the hoop. Sensing this, he kind of pushes the ball out in front of him toward the hoop as he’s recovering his balance and angle, keeping his momentum toward the bucket. His defender has gotten back into solid guarding position due to all of this, so Thomas very subtly hits him with the hesitation dribble as he’s gathering himself around the three-point line, prior to continuing to explode to his right hand. That hesitation buys him all of the angle he needs and he’s able to streak down the lane and finish by putting the ball very high on the glass to avoid any shot block attempt.
Am I gushing about these? I feel like I’m gushing. If it doesn’t read that way, then let me try staying this another way. All of these baskets are Thomas just quickly reacting to what the defense is doing in real time and having the wherewithal, feel, and ability to counter what they’re doing. He’s athletic in many ways, but not overly so with regard to any quick-twitch movements or elevation with his vertical. He’s winning these matchups with his mind and his skill (while still having the athletic ability to execute and punish).
Here’s another, very impressive one, at the end of the half against Loyola Marymount. San Francisco sets this up to get him the final shot, and start him at the elbow on the catch. He’s being guarded by 6’6″ Lamaj Lewis (#10) and this time it’s a reverse pivot to create body contact and then another pivot to spin away. He starts to dribble to his right but steps back while maintaining his dribble to create space from the body contact, crosses twice, once between the legs, and then blows by Lewis with the right hand – easily clearing his entire body with his handle and explosion. The most impressive part comes at the end, for me, though. That’s 6’11” Jevon Porter (Michael Porter Jr’s little brother) waiting there to meet him in the lane. Thomas doesn’t shy away and jumps right at Porter; pushing the most delicate little floater over the lengthy outstretched arms almost at a quasi-hook shot angle with his side facing the basket.
That’s just a wired scorer right there. Doesn’t blink at the healthy shot blocker, adjusts his take off point and shot angle, and contorts his body for the finish.
Here’s one against Gonzaga that I almost put in the Transition section because it’s a slow/secondary break action where the defense needs to be aware, get back, and set to defend him against the ball screen – but I like it better here. This is just so much set up and so much body control. He brings the ball up after the miss, sets up the ball screen as the defense is regrouping – but almost lulling them into thinking he’s not going to attack at first. Then, he uses the ball screen, attacks the drop coverage by pushing the ball ahead of him, from right to left, and then uses that nice little Euro step to clear the defender and finish on the other side of the rim; removing any shot block hijinx.
That’s just really smooth! Again, no wasted motion, perfectly conceived and executed.
We just saw him bring the ball up the floor after a miss, but here he is with the ball as the actual PG. He’d often take backup PG responsibilities when Ryan Beasley and, sometimes, Marcus Williams were out of the game. This time Thomas navigates the high ball screen from his teammate at the logo. With a head of steam going downhill, the 6’10” Ethan Price (#3) has no prayer of staying in front of Thomas in drop coverage. The move at 4 seconds into the clip where Thomas puts the ball from his left hand to his right but still jukes/staggers like he’s going to go back to his left before keeping with the ball back to the right is dirty and he punctuates it with a nice finish with the layup.
In this next clip, below, he is called for an offensive foul; but I show it because it gives a good sense of how physical he is when he drives and how he attempts to find every advantage he can. He discards his defender initially with a nice shoulder and spin move back the other way, but then he full on uses his off hand to hold his defender behind him; catching him in the head and neck area with his arm.
He normally wasn’t called for these, and he normally didn’t catch his man up so high (and this was actually initially called in his favor and then overturned on review). I’d mentioned how strong he is, though, and he’ll scrap and jockey to gain and maintain an edge.
Now, let’s touch on a few other advantages of Thomas being able to puncture a defense off of the bounce that extend beyond him just making a bucket.
As mentioned before, he draws a lot of fouls. For example, below, he’s verging on out of control and getting his shot blocked. Instead, he spins clean around the 6’8″ Alex Merkviladze (#23) and runs right into the shot contest of the 6’7″ Caleb Stone-Carrawell, but Thomas is able to draw the foul call by extending the ball with his right hand and drawing wrist contact.
Now, Thomas does play above the rim. You’ll see it as he’ll dunk fast breaks, even boldly attempting to dunk on people sometimes, as we’ll see below, you saw it on the floater above where he elevated over Porter, and you’ll see it when he runs in for some rebounds. That being said, when he’s careening into the lane like this with multiple changes of directions, his release points on his drives is often pretty low. He does get blocked somewhat regularly because of this and because of the volume of his attempts. That being said, it’s absolutely worth it because, much of the time, he’s drawing contact and trips to the line instead. We’ll continue to see, below, he’s a good finisher anyway, but you like the aggression around the rim when he’s forcing the opposition not to foul him near the rim.
Finally, and we’ll see this with his distribution, his drives just draw so much attention that good things can follow as a result. Here’s a great example, below, where he draws three different defenders to try to contest his shot around the rim because he isolates his man and beats him to the rack. Thomas doesn’t finish this one, but the attention he draws keeps the defense from being able to locate and box their own men, and San Francisco gets an easy tap in offensive rebound.
These are fun to watch so I included a lot, but I also included a lot because he has a pretty wide suite of moves and options to create for himself, and we didn’t even get to them all. Before we pivot to how he creates for others, though, to piggy-back off of this section, I do want to focus on his…
Finishing
You saw it above with some of his creative looks and his smooth transitions around the basket; but I want to spend a little more time specifically highlighting Thomas’s ability to finish around the rim. He’s creative with his release angles and sneaky in how he can get his shot off. He’s, generally, got very good awareness of where his shot might be contested and how to negate that shot contest. Additionally, he’s very strong, which I’m sure I’ll say a few more times throughout this piece as it helps in many ways, but he’s good at powering through contact and getting his shot up on the rim anyway – allowing for three-point-play opportunities. Let’s take a look:
In this first clip against Gonzaga, you’ll see Thomas running off of baseline screens away from the ball; curling into the lane. I don’t have a whole section on his use of screens away from the ball – but you’ll notice a lot of these looks within other sections and, just note, he’s very savvy about it and it’s a big part of his game. He’s can be static without the ball, but is often not (and will fit well into some of Odom’s offensive actions). As Thomas curls around, the post defender steps up in attempt to stop him. That’s the 6’10” 255lb Braden Huff (#34), with plenty of length. But Thomas gets into his body quickly and then uses his strength to power through the resistance, get the ball up and into the bucket, and earn himself a drip to the foul line.
Here’s another look where he tracks down an offensive rebound on his own midrange miss, and then on the catch just power dribbles into the defender, absorbs the body contact creating space for the shot and finish.
He’s effective at using that shoulder to initiate contact with the defender and to create that space to get his shot up, as we’ll see.
Here, below, you’ll see that same thing but this time against the 6’9″ ND Okafor (#22). Thomas catches the really quick inbound pass on the block, wastes no motion, initiates that body contact with his shoulder, and is able to then create the space to pull his shot back and get it over Okafor’s outstretched arm.
That’s just really effective body control, physicality, and awareness inside against a much bigger and longer player.
Here’s one more look at the same type of thing, only this time after an offensive rebound and from a different angle. It’s that same initiate body contact with the shoulder, create space, and then adjust the shot release point back such that he can get the shot off:
In this last one, below, we get the most extreme look yet of his ball adjustment while in the air or finishing out his drive. Thomas is being draped by the 6’6″ Aaron McBride (#16) on the drive, but he sets up the drive like he’s going to try to finish with the extended left hand, then as McBride tries to get back in front to contest, Thomas adjusts the ball back to his right hand while in the air, hanging and bringing it away from McBride’s momentum for the finish.
Crafty. And, once again, intentional – as you’ll notice everything about that drive including how he pushed the ball ahead when first splitting the two (three?) defenders.
Creating For Others
This is an area in which Thomas apparently improved from his first to second year at San Francisco (and much over his time from USC), but I’d like to see him continue to develop while he’s here. He commands so much attention and pulls so many help defenders when he drives, I’d like to see him use that to his advantage because some of the set-up passes can come easily. The thing is, he is actually a very skilled passer and he can have a good feel for the game… but it can also come like his driving; a little reckless at times. I will say that it doesn’t come as naturally to Thomas as to some guards because he is just so wired to try to score; but I would also say that it seemed like that was more of his role on the team, too. San Francisco played through their other two guards to facilitate more. What remains to be seen, and will likely play a big role in determining how versatile and effective our offense can be this year, is how much of that was schematic vs. how much of that is just who Thomas is as a player. There are enough scorers on this team that it would behoove us for him to be able to still draw that attention, but to often use it to facilitate for those players.
Here’s a first look against Gonzaga. In transition, Thomas merely probes the lane with the ball and watch how three Gonzaga defenders enter his sphere! It’s an easy pitch back to the trailer for the open three from there.
Notice, that clip isn’t anything special from Thomas as a passer other than being aware – but it does highlight how easily that look came because the defense was so focused on him when he had the ball.
Similar in concept, watch how Gonzaga blitzes the ball screen here, attempting to get the ball out of Thomas’s hands… and how easy this pass comes to the slipped screener for the dunk at the rim.
Of course, Gonzaga didn’t always blitz him on ball screens – but they were losing at this point and Thomas was starting to feel the game. Their desire to make someone else beat them came at a cost – because it came too easily.
Here’s one that maybe I could have included in the Transition section but also illustrates this point well. It actually came after a made basket, and San Francisco pushed the ball up the floor quickly to Thomas. Watch how he slices through four of Oregon State’s defenders who are back, and then pretty easily kicks the ball to the corner for a wide-open look.
The shot is missed, so there’s no assist credit; but two of the Don players are barely across half court at this point. Thomas just implodes the Beavers’ defense himself and then picks out his teammate. Plays like this should be incredibly valuable for us with the shooters at our disposal.
Here’s a slightly less extreme variation, and again, it’s not a make from his teammate – but look at the Loyola Marymount defense to open the game against Thomas here. It’s one thing for the help defender to sag into the lane in order to help shut down the drive. It’s that he just stays, lingers, basically turns it into a double team for Thomas at the elbow who can just turn and pass out to his teammate for an open three-point attempt.
San Francisco’s outside shot-making is letting him down here; but these are good and easy looks.
Not to belabor the point, but here’s a nice kick back pass off of a pick an pop. Again, pause at 14 seconds into the clip and notice a triangle of three LMU players all focused on Thomas – making the pass back pretty easy.
It’s not all drive and kick. Here’s a good final look against LMU, now playing a zone, where Thomas makes a slight ball fake into the elbow and then whips a pass across the court for an open three.
Again, nothing spectacular here; but I show it in that he can manipulate the defense and has the sense to do so, and to show that because he puts so much zip on this pass, his teammate is able to get into the shot before the close out arrives. A more lackadaisical delivery doesn’t get the job done.
Of course, if you look up some highlight reels, you can find a few more splashy passes of his… but I didn’t see those often. In fact, I thought those more often were forced and yielded some negative plays (which we’ll touch on below). This kind of stuff, above, though, is pretty easy to switch on should Thomas so choose and should we put the ball in his hands with the goal of more distribution. Draw the defense and make the easy pass!
Catch And Shoot
Of course, Thomas was a universal shooting threat, not just off of the bounce. Part of what made him so scary and allowed him to get such productive driving lanes is that his defender had to stay pressed up on him to keep from allowing a shot attempt. He had that step back I showed earlier, but he was also a pain to cover away from the ball.
Here’s a look quite similar to how Odom often sets up his offenses, with two players in each corner (or from the wing down to the corner) and then three men playing in the center of the floor with the pick and roll and a big down by the block. After the big shows the screen, Ryan Beasley (#0) dribbles hard toward Thomas in the corner, drawing two defenders with him as he does. He’s driving so hard that Thomas’s man takes a slight step toward him so as to help, if needed. That little false step is all Thomas needs, as Beasley hits him with the pass and he immediately elevates, with almost no distance on the close out, to drain the three.
That’s the kind of opportunity a lot of guys will pump fake and attempt to drive, but Malik really just doesn’t need much space to get his shot off and for it to be effective. You can see how on point and close to him you have to be if these are the kinds of looks he’s taking and making.
Okay! Pin down screen, who wants to see a pin down screen? Away from the ball most of the play, Thomas just subtly sets up a nice pin down from the wing and, again, it doesn’t take much separation for him to be able to get into that shot.
And that’s how San Francisco used “Wide Sides” to make a run…. Okay, but it does look like something we might have run under CTB to try to get our shooter a look – and there are quite a few pin down actions in Odom’s system to take advantage of Thomas’s shooting.
Here’s look from an inbound play where he really doesn’t have to do much other than spot up – but sometimes that’s all he’s going to need to do for us:
And, not that I bet you were thinking it – but he doesn’t have a long memory with regard to his shooting and has the confidence to keep firing away. Here’s one where he misses the first attempt, gets it right back, and just launches again a second time, over a much better contest, but to a much better result:
You get the point. If he’s shooting 39.4% from deep including a significant portion of the degree of difficulty shots we discussed earlier, then you can count on his shooting when he’s open to be deadly. What I found most notable, though, is how quickly he could get into his shot, effectively punishing very small mistakes.
Cutting Away From The Ball
Let’s just give two quick looks here at a lesser-utilized element of his game that, nonetheless, is something his opponents have to consider when guarding him. Teams are so focused on making sure he’s not popping out for an open outside shot and, also, don’t want him to get the ball on the perimeter so they have to defend him in isolation. He’ll use this to his advantage with some sneaky cuts and uses of screens. Here you get a look at him representing like he’s going to take a zoom screen action into a dribble handoff but, instead, rips off the initial screen and curls right to the hoop for an easy backdoor layup (nice pass from the big, too).
Similarly, this time he does set up the DHO after lulling his man on a jog all the way through the lane, to the corner, and then back out to accept the ball. After slowing the tempo, he explodes into a quick fake like he’s going to cut toward the basket, only to pop back out to take the handoff and bury the three.
It’s that inside-out element where he can really set you up either way and you never know exactly where he’s going and he has a good feel for how to set up his man and use that versatility in where on the floor he’s a scoring threat (virtually everywhere) to his advantage.
Post Game
You’re not reading this incorrectly; San Francisco often went out of their way to try to get Thomas the ball on the block when they thought he had a plus matchup with his size and strength. Now, I said earlier I think he’s more 6’4″ than 6’5″, which is very true, but I also emphasized his strength and savvy around the rim. There were plenty of times when he’d either get a smaller guard switched onto him or when there would be a favorable matchup in that way and he took advantage.
Here’s a great example, below. This is the first possession of the WCC Quarterfinal. After a dribble exchange with Beasley, Washington State switches the screening action, putting the 6’2″, 164lb(!) Nate Calmese (#8) on Thomas, rather than his initial assignment, the 5’11” Beasley. Immediately sensing this mismatch, Thomas passes back to Beasley and cuts through the lane, running to the strong side block and exchanging with the big down there. He posts, takes an entry pass, and just turns and goes right over Calmese for the easy two.
And here’s a different look at it from a different game, against Oregon State, below. For some reason they start this possession out, and it’s not in transition, with 6’0″ Damarco Minor (#0) on Thomas. San Francisco runs him like he’s going to make an Iverson cut across the court, but instead he curls and gets a back screen, opening him up to receive a pass around the bucket. Minor recovers and gets back behind him, but Thomas simply turns into him, and powers through with a little hook shot to finish inside.
This just shows another little wrinkle to his game and how he can exploit a mismatch. If you switch assignments on him or attempt to play small, he is ready and willing to look for some of these alternative ways to get easy buckets around the rim; using his strength and size to do so along with his skill and finishing.
Offensive Rebounding
This wasn’t an overwhelming strength of his offensive game, but he was a willing offensive rebound and would often crash the glass hard, where appropriate. He was effective at high-pointing and fighting for the ball.
Here’s one good example where he lurks and hangs around the rim after getting his initial drive stalled. He’s a small dude in there but he goes up quickly and at a perfect time to come down with the ball before the trees can get to it; drawing the foul on his rise back up, as well.
Don’t expect him to do this often, but he’s active hunting for the ball on that end after the shot and will have some positive moments. One more thing to point out, Battle (#99) on Gonzaga is the size Thomas is listed… so just reiterating that it’s better to update your mental portfolio when thinking of Malik. He’s not going to give you that 6’5″ length – but he is going to play strong inside.
Transition
San Francisco wasn’t afraid to run and they looked to do so whenever it made sense, but they also didn’t really prioritize it. Generally speaking, I think you can certainly have an effective transition offense with Thomas at the core. He’ll hit a three if you don’t cover him tightly, can break down a defense on a secondary break, like we’ve seen, and will look to make an outlet pass as well. That being said, this area of the game is where I most felt Thomas’s lack of elite athleticism. He couldn’t run away from guys with the ball, and often had his shots contested or the ball stripped while going up. It’s one of those situations where he’s good, but not as great as you’d hope he would be as such a high-volume scorer.
Here’s a look that I could expect us to see quite a bit of. Thomas grabs the defensive rebound and pushes the ball up the floor without hesitation, as most of our guys will be asked to do this year. He draws the focus of the defense under control, but uses that to clear out a space behind him, and flip the ball to the trailing Beasley for the open three.
I like this clip because it’s nothing crazy and it’s likely a great way to envision how our transition offense could look this coming season with Thomas in it. Thomas could push the ball there or be the trailer; and that smart basketball to create an open look just by hustling on the rebound and then finding someone running the floor to space should be pretty easy to replicate. Almost any target on our team is going to be a significantly better three-point shooter than Beasley’s 29.9% from deep.
This next clip just yields free throws at the end, as Thomas gets fouled taking a 4-on-3 all the way to the rack. I do think the look highlights a little the fact that, while he drew the foul, he didn’t have much of a chance at getting this one up on the rim. But the reason I show it is how the play to begin with was created by his hustle and just kind of savvy/aggression. After Washington State misses the layup, Thomas fights for it and chases it to the corner. He very easily (and virtually every team we’ve watched at UVa for the past 15 years would do this) could have just secured the ball and slowed things down. Play was chaotic at the moment and his teammate had just turned the ball over. Instead, when he reaches the ball with his left hand (at around 6 seconds into the clip), he keeps his dribble alive while spinning away from the Washington State player who was also chasing the ball. He takes off back up the court the other way without losing his dribble or needing to pass it, recognizing the numbers because the Cougars had one guy laying on cheerleaders and another who he’d just taken the ball from and left behind. This creates the 4-on-3 numbers and allows him to sustain and take advantage.
That’s the stuff I really love to see from Malik – when he’s aggressive but smart about it.
He’s also pretty solid at keeping his eyes up court and taking advantage of opportunities in these situations as well. Here, I love this execution of this leading bounce pass through the defense, ahead to Beasley, allowing him to throw the alley oop attempt.
And here, I love on the steal that he gets the ball out ahead quickly with some air under it so that his teammate is well-ahead of the defense for the easy dunk.
You can absolutely play fast with this guy, leveraging his aggression, passing, opportunism, (and his shooting and finishing as well).
I do want to highlight, though, that he wasn’t as consistently effective in these situations as I would have liked or expected. Here’s a look, for example, with a good opportunity against Gonzaga. Thomas takes the deflection and basically has one man to beat down the floor. He’s certainly not slow with the ball, but he also can’t take up that space from the defender. That’s Khalif Battle (#99) listed at Thomas’s height of 6’5″ getting back. But rather than maneuvering around him or attempting just to elevate over him (and likely draw the foul since he’s running full speed in retreat), instead Thomas does his go-to driving move in the lane where he lowers his shoulder to create space on Battle. It works on Battle but the problem is that it’s slow, and allows the trailer to get into the play and block the shot from behind.
That’s the thing when running at full speed – if it was just one-on-one here then Thomas probably finishes easily – but you’re also trying to beat taller guys chasing you down from behind. It’s better if you can just attempt to elevate over that defender or extend the shot by him with the left hand (or cross him over earlier and get to your right). That ability to finish or draw contact without breaking stride was lacking here.
Here’s another one in the same game where he doesn’t break stride, but still gets the ball stripped on the way up, knocking it off of him for the turnover.
I’m showing two of these; but for the volume of fast break attempts, and how many fewer there were than his standard driving attempts, this happened a good deal where he’d either get the ball deflected in traffic or just straight-up blocked. It’s like moving at that speed gave him a little less feel for where his opposition was compared to drives against a set defense.
Including this next one, below, just to show that sometimes he was entirely too aggressive with something that wasn’t really there. Here he just airmails a teammate on a long outlet pass that was completely unnecessary. It wasn’t just the execution of the pass, it also wasn’t open.
Just trying to do a bit too much. We’re going to see, in the main offensive drawback section below, that it’s probably the biggest flaw in Thomas’s game – not always finding that appropriate line between pushing the issue and being reckless. On a per-play basis, though, I thought he had much less feel for the game and how he could execute within his skillset in the open floor than he did in the halfcourt. He’ll either need to practice this a lot (as he surely will with Odom) or just settle down a bit and play more under control this coming season.
Forcing Things
This was easily the biggest, and only real drawback to his offensive game. Thomas often seemed to feel like he had to make something happen… or he was playing so close to the edge regarding his control (as I illustrated earlier) that he often crossed-over to being out of it.
Sometimes it was a shot-selection issue forcing bad looks early in the shot clock, like here… where it seemed like he made up his mind he was going to shoot as soon as he had any whiff of an opening in transition:
Or here, hounded by a quicker guard and not generating an advantage, still trying to force a midrange jumper up there with 8 seconds left on the clock, and getting blocked in the process….
Sometimes it was just getting too spicy with a pass attempt, like here trying to thread the needle in the face of Gonzaga’s blitz and turning the ball over pretty badly to the sunken defender:
Or here, below… just some bizarre execution. It’s almost like he made up his mind he wanted to throw the lob pass no matter what, spotted the help defender last minute, and then tried to alter the pass so that it carried to the other side of the rim. The result was that his teammate wasn’t ready for it, though, and it created an avoidable turnover:
But most of the time… most of the time it came from being too aggressive, chaotic even at times, with his drives.
Let’s take a few looks at the impact of that, starting with this one below against Gonzaga. This was the first clip I pulled from all of these. We’re over 6 minutes into the game and, to this point, Thomas had missed one three-pointer and that was about it. He’d taken no other shots. He’d barely touched the ball and, on defense, Gonzaga was mostly just avoiding him. He pretty clearly wanted to make an impact on the game and got impatient. After the rebound, we see him push the ball up the floor, but this time he’s out of control as he attempts that extension dribble ahead of himself to split the Gonzaga help defense. He just loses control of it entirely and basically gift-wraps it into a sea of white.
When I talked earlier about him being on the edge of control on offense much of the time – this is the flip side of that coin.
Here’s a different look; very familiar in set up. It’s that nice slight shot fake to get into the lane… but this time he just kind of plows into the help defender bowling ball-style and gets stripped on the way up.
There are some nifty pivots in the midrange in this next one, below, with the up and under – but he pushes the limits on what he can get away with too far:
This next one, below, I think most betrays the mentality. He has his number called on this play. He decides to back his man down through the lane… but help comes from both sides. If you pause at 13 seconds into the clip as he’s pivoting backwards with his right foot, you see him surrounded by three guys. This would be beneficial if he would seize the moment and pass the ball to the strong side corner, or kick it out to Junjie Wang (#35) right there around the elbow. Some very clean looks for either. Instead, Thomas attempts to split everyone by pivoting back the other way into the masses, and skips himself into a travelling violation.
That one’s a really bad decision in a moment that could have been a very valuable play. When you can command three men collapse on you from backing down a guard from the point… that’s valuable; but only if you can identify and execute the kick out pass.
Here’s one, below, where he gets the ball in isolation against drop coverage. It’s another one where you’d like him to have a better kick out in his arsenal. He doesn’t take away the space of the shot-blocker effectively enough but gets close enough that he can’t get up a clean shot:
He was kind of smothered there and you’d like to see him realize that he didn’t have an advantage and look to kick.
This final one, you just see him get too sped up trying to step back after initiating the drive, and gives up a pick-six going the other way on the turnover.
So, yeah. I can’t really analyze the psychology of Malik Thomas. It’s hard to know how much of this pressing is just a natural part of his game that comes with creating some of the spectacular things that he does (that’s certainly some of it), vs. how much he could refine a little if he didn’t feel the pressure to generate such a large percentage of his team’s offense. Of course, he’s still probably going to take the most shots for us and will likely be our leading scorer – but there’s opportunity to get his assist numbers up, and there are plenty of alternatives to him doing something crazy and jamming the ball into the lane against so much traffic.
This is a big reason why establishing team chemistry and roles will be so important this offseason. I think we’ll be at our best if Malik Thomas views himself as one piece within a very talented puzzle of scorers and complimentary players. If he thinks he has to, or if he wants to, try to carry as much of a scoring load as he had at San Francisco; that’s where I think we’re going to see some of these efficiency concerns with the turnovers and with the midrange jumpers.
Keep the aggression, push the pace, and hunt offense… but also use restraint, don’t take everything on, and use your teammates more often. That will be the needle he’ll need to thread if we’re going to see the best version of this team.
Okay! Almost 10,000 words and we haven’t even started the defense yet. Some of the other pieces were barely longer than this in their entirety. I think it’s worth it, though, because Thomas’s offense has so much versatility and will play a defining role in how the season goes.
Defense
Thomas plays defense with a similar mindset to how he plays offense – hunting the big play. The positive to that is that he was tied for 4th in the WCC in steals at 1.6, only .1 behind the three leaders. The downside is that his risk taking more often came with defensive consequences. His positioning was a little off as well – focusing a little too much on ball denial and sometimes not seeing the forest through the trees. He would often hold up well initially on the defensive side, only to seemingly lose concentration or patience, and try to make something happen proactively. I could see him benefitting from an attacking-style of defense like Odom played at VCU, if coached up a bit; but San Francisco would sometimes sub him out on the defensive side of the ball late in games to play offense/defense. In fact, even though the Dons were a good defensive team, Evanmiya’s site had Thomas ranked as the absolute worst defender on the roster (although it was still a positive number), which should give a sense at some of the lapses.
The good news is that I think there’s potential there. Thomas is strong and holds up well to bigger guards attempting to back him down. He’s very active and physical with his hands – initiating contact and trying to control the offensive player that way. This sometimes leads to hand-checking fouls, but is often effective. Sometimes you’ll think he’s almost not paying attention to the play at all away from the ball, and then he’ll just pounce and make something happen – nab the ball or force a turnover in another way. So, there’s something to build off of. Much like with his ability to distribute – there’s stuff to work with on the defensive end as well. The question will be, is he still capable of growing and can he elevate his performance against even better competition. I’d certainly like to see some of his technique coached up; which is definitely possible! Alright, let’s get into it….
On Ball
This first look is a clip from the Gonzaga game near the end of the first half. Firstly, watching him off the ball – his man is nowhere near the play, so he does sag down a little to deter driving lanes, but isn’t really active at trying to bother anything. Despite that, he’s caught asleep a little when the big with the ball turns and flips it to his man, setting a screen in the process. Thomas slips over top initially, trailing, but then regroups when his man backs up. You now see the essence of Thomas while on the ball. He continually kind of probes and steps forward, trying to attack the dribble or throw off the rhythm of the dribbler. It will cause some missteps and things can quickly turn from Thomas attempting to set the tempo to him getting beaten. Here Nolan Hickman (#11) initially has to retreat when Thomas pressures his cross-over, but then after he collects himself, he just blows by Thomas with the right hand and draws the foul.
We’ll see more evidently to come, but it’s not that Thomas isn’t quick enough to stay with this drive. He’s not the quickest player, and I don’t think he’s overly quick on the ball defensively, but he has some burst and strength. I think it’s more that he’s so intent on focusing on where he can create disruption that he loses concentration on stopping the drive itself.
Here’s another look against Washington State. Watch how often he’s lunging here, and it takes him wildly out of position even though the offensive player misses – it’s a wide-open drive. Initially, he jumps way out of position to try to deny the post entry pass, then he pursues Will Johnston (#4) out to the three-point line, kind of jumping at him so that his momentum is taking him toward the ball handler a little too much, trying to anticipate and disrupt. When Johnston simply sets up a fake toward his left and crosses back, Thomas is left completely out of defensive position, lunging at the fake. He’s left completely trailing on the play.
While it’s good that Thomas doesn’t give up and somehow forces some disruption and gets the rebound; this won’t fly. It’s unsound – he keeps pulling himself out of good defensive positioning by trying to be too active.
The same is true of him trying to defend ball screens. Too often he tries to anticipate them and pulls himself out of position in the process. Here, you see him initiating contact with the ball screener initially, all of his weight going in that direction… which keeps him from being able to deal with the quick drive the other direction.
Offensive quickness, in general, is probably his biggest vulnerability – but he’s making it worse on himself by trying to react to what he thinks is going to happen before it does. A savvy offensive player will just read and react the opposite way, like Nate Calmese (#8) does here.
Another look here, below, against LMU. This time he gets completely shaken attempting to read the screen and is just left in the dust. Wang (#35) helps him by switching off of his man, but Thomas doesn’t switch – and he isn’t able to get back into the play quickly nor aggressively enough to disrupt the pass back for the comfortable floater.
That defensive possession fell apart entirely because Thomas just was too eager to try to get over a represented ball screen.
Here’s another one that’s a little less obvious, but he takes a false step toward the ball screen in this next clip and Calmese just beats him with the cross-over the other way. He doesn’t have the quickness to stay in the play after getting beaten like that, nor the elevation to contest the shot vertically, so he gives the foul instead.
Now, normally I lead with the better plays in sections and then show the weaknesses. Here, I didn’t do that, because I do think this is a considerable concern around Thomas’s defense that outweighs the positive splash plays that he makes. That being said, there are absolutely times he speeds up his opponent and makes something good happen. Here’s a look, below, where he forces a travel on Johnston by generally being active on the ball and invading his space. It’s probably what gave Johnston the idea to attack him in the clip earlier.
Now, you probably saw in some of the clips by now, Thomas’s physical traits aren’t overly imposing on the defensive end, which is probably one of the reasons he tries to be so proactive (although I do think he has belief in his ability to make something happen as well as his steal totals indicate). But you can see it here in this clip below where, he does a pretty good job of staying in front of his man, but gets a little sideways at the end and can’t really offer a very good shot contest, fouling in the process.
Here’s another look, below, and this time he’s guarding a much bigger player, the 6’8″ Alex Merkviladze (#23). Now, you can’t really fault him too much for not being able to get back and contest the shot on that spin move, Merkviladze has a lot of length; but you can fault him for being too aggressive on the catch, giving an advantage to the drive, and having to recover to cut off the angle, thereby enabling that spin move.
In some of the other matchups, especially against Calmese, he wasn’t as quick as the man he was guarding. He’s quicker here, though, but rather than playing to that advantage, he neutralizes it by lunging early.
So where does he make up for some of these mistakes and over-aggression and how does he manage to hold his own?
Mostly, just like he’s strong as a finisher around the rim, he plays with good strength on the defensive side. It allows him to hold up to players like Merkviladze (who, realistically, he’s giving up 4 inches to) when they attempt to post him up, like in this clip below where he uses a good defensive stance, initiates body contact with his chest to hold the point of attack, and reacts well to the movement.
He didn’t need to be over-aggressive on this matchup; he’s strong enough to play it straight-up.
Or here, below. This is the 6’9″(!) 220lb Michael Rataj, who Thomas picks up in transition. Rataj attempts to use his size advantage to back Thomas down, but Malik is unyielding, holding up to the pressure and forcing Rataj off balance when he attempted to spin off.
That’s very impressive strength, holding up to such a size disparity.
So, he is very capable of taking the assignment of bigger guards – I think he actually is better suited for it. In most cases when Sam Lewis isn’t on the floor, I expect Thomas will be guarding that SF position for us.
But where he does use this to his advantage against your more standard-sized guard quite effectively, is with his hands. Not in the lunging and anticipating, but by pushing, and leaning, and even grabbing at times. He gets called for fouls occasionally, but gets away with it more often than not, and tactfully uses it to throw his opposition off balance.
Here’s a first look at that, this time against the 6’0″ Damarco Minor (#0) from Oregon State. Watch Thomas’s hands throughout this play as he effectively influences Minor’s drives. At 4 seconds into the clip, he’s full on caught trying to get over the ball screen and you can see his left hand actually grabbing Minor’s off hand just enough to make him think he’s still there. He doesn’t pull or make it obvious, it’s a grasp and release. But, then, after Minor gets the ball back and Thomas prepares to fend off another ball screen, this time you see his right arm briefly grab Minor high on his left arm, steering him toward the baseline.
This is a good look at Thomas’s activity with his hands. Did he gain undue advantage in the play through this contact? Most of the time the ref is going to allow a little hand fighting when it’s not obvious that he did like this; but in both situations, Thomas was able to influence Minor and allow himself better positioning in the play.
Here’s another look against Minor again, which is a good matchup because Minor is smaller and quicker and it’s a lens on Thomas guarding the oppositions PG. Firstly, you see Thomas push through the ball screen with physicality early, keeping attached to Minor. He then plays under the kind of peek-a-boo action back and forth with the ball screen the second time, but his hands are very active on the screener, pushing and pulling him each way to allow himself momentum to get around. Then I think he does a pretty nice job of reacting to the driving angle and only lunging at the pass after Minor picks up his dribble. Of course, Oregon State gets the bucket after the entry pass here, but it’s a better look at Thomas playing through screens with toughness and not being deterred.
This last one I think really is just a good glimpse into Thomas as a player. He’s non-apologetic about pushing the limit on everything! He’s guarding the 6’2″ Josiah Lake II (#2) on the Beavers. Fighting over a ball screen, he uses his near arm to full-on contact Lake’s shoulder on the drive, pushing him and holding him back while recovering to get his body back into defensive position… and he gets away with it, stalling Lake’s drive out. Then, Lake pump fakes and Thomas jumps at the shot, giving a good enough contest to deter the attempt but leaving enough space not to foul. Both of these reactions to enough to shut the play down, but then he swipes at the ball on Lake’s subsequent ball fake and steals it… but not without getting called for the arm contact on the swipe.
I think most players would be happy just to have gotten away with the first two parts of this sequence! He manages to physically impede his man with a very aggressive arm bar, manages to jump at the jump shot fake without fouling… but then isn’t content with stopping the action or defending straight up, he makes another swipe at the ball.
I kind of love and kind of hate this. Like, I love the moxie, and that he’s going to force the refs to blow the whistle over some hand fighting and body contact. Some will, some won’t depending on how well you execute – but most won’t all of the time. I also think that the mentality of continually trying to get the ball is one that fits pretty well with Odom’s desire to pressure the opposition constantly. Still, I do wish he’d just play a little smarter and with more discipline. We don’t want him bailing out the other team after he gets that PG stationary!
Off Ball
Thomas spent much more of his time off the ball than most of the perimeter defenders on his team. This was definitely by design. It appeared to be a dual measure of saving his energy for offense and also allowing him to take less threatening offensive players. Of course, it wasn’t universal, and Thomas would guard 1-3, including the opposition’s PG, as we saw above, during certain subbing patterns. It was true enough that he spent much more of his time away from the play, though. Most of his steals came in this way, where he attempted to pretty aggressively deny passes to his man or would freelance to make something happened. Sometimes I was impressed; especially with the odd off-script attack, but there were many times where I thought his technique off of the ball got him lost, and/or made him slow to react to help. It was almost like he viewed his primary responsibility as just keying in on his own man as a shadow, and it’s possible that’s how he was told to play, but I doubt it given who he was often guarding.
Let’s hop in, first showing some of the positives this time. I mentioned that he averaged over 1.5 steals per game… and here’s a really nice look at this. Thomas is at the top of the screen away from the ball. He does a nice job fronting his man on help side, denying the most easy pass around the hoop after his teammates double team the drive to the bock. Then he reads the pass to the wing and jumps the passing lane. I like that he tries to just yam it on the 6’6″ Tomas Thrastarson (#5) here; and draws the trip to the foul line in the process. Leave no doubt and force the foul.
Most notable, to me, from that play, though – is that Thomas did read and recognize the opportunity. He didn’t rotate back to and jump the pass to his own man. His own initial man is who he fronted. Rihards Vavers (#15) was open because his man left him after his cut to the hoop to help out on the initial drive attempt. Vavers then floated out to the three-point line. So, Thomas after fronting his own man, actually recognizes this and jumps the passing lane to Vavers instead. Nice one!
Here’s a different look where, initially, Thomas is on the ball and has to hold up to another ball screen. He gets caught on it, and his teammate, Carlton Linguard Jr. (#2) sags to stop the drive and then recovers to his own man. Thomas initially moves just to recover back to his man, but he notices quickly that Linguard gets his hand on the pass back to ND Okafor (#22). As Okafor attempts to collect, Thomas launches down on him from his blind side, steals the ball, and throws it off of Okafor out of bounds.
It’s great alertness and opportunism. Like I said, Thomas always has his eye out for that splash opportunity to make something happen proactively.
I love this next one. Thomas plays some light ball defense early in the possession, but the action happens when Jevon Porter (#14) attempts to take his man off of the bounce. Porter crosses over from right to left, and then plants his pivot foot to spin back to his right side. Somehow Thomas identifies this seemingly before Porter even starts his spin. Pause the clip at 14 seconds in, and you’ll see Thomas starting to leave his man as Porter is still driving to his left and before any spin is initiated. Nevertheless, Thomas knows exactly where to go and is in the perfect position. When Porter spins back, he sticks the ball right in Thomas’s chest as if he were a quarterback giving to a RB. Thomas rips the ball away with his strength, and LMU is probably lucky this was called a jump ball rather than a holding foul on Porter or letting Thomas run out uncontested the other way.
That’s some next level anticipation that either comes through being very prepared with film study or just having an uncanny feel for the game. I’d love to ask Thomas what he saw here that made him go initially.
And, not always leading to turnovers, but thematically on point with his ability to scale up size-wise on the interior; watch his defense fronting the post, below. In transition, he’s once again matched up against the 6’9″ Rataj. This time, Rataj tries to post him up and call for an entry pass, but Thomas clings tightly to his body, absorbs the contact, and then pulls himself back to front an entry pass. From there, he effectively bangs with Rataj on the inside and holds him off, even ending in good rebounding position when the shot goes up.
I love that toughness and willingness to fight in there and am encouraged by how hard he was to gain traction against with larger players.
But here’s where there were also some underwhelming elements to his game at times, and downright lacking areas at others. To set the table, let’s take a look at this possession against Gonzaga, below. It doesn’t end terribly, and he collects the rebound at the end; but he’s under-impactful in the buildup. When his man is directly under the hoop, he’s face-guarding him, with his back virtually to the ball. This happened far too often with Thomas where he’d either almost or flat-out turn his back on the ball handler to keep his eyes on his own man. Despite that, though, he still loses Khalif Battle (#99) on his cut; Battle walks him like he’s going to come out one way and then brakes off of a stagger screen from two players to Thomas’s left. Thomas gets caught on the second one, fighting over, but switches assignments and does a decent job of clinging to/riding Michael Ajayi (#1) down the lane toward the hoop, even forcing him deep under the hoop with a body push. That being said, Thomas attempts to take off before the rebound is secure, and runs away from the deflection, allowing Ajayi to collect the ball. Malik is there to rebound Ajayi’s miss on the midrange jumper, but not until the Zags got two looks at the basket.
This one isn’t terrible and, honestly, it mostly comes down to misreading that his team was going to secure the rebound and taking off early. Still, I put this one in here because it tends to feel like a lot of his possessions. Overly focused on his own guy to the point of not being alert at the rest of the play, but still not doing an amazing job at keeping Battle from getting the ball anyway….
That lack of alertness was frequently on display, like here, below, he has his back turned to the play behind him, and has his eyes only on Battle and the ball until the pass is actually made to the backdoor cutter. He doesn’t see the play developing nor react in enough time to do anything about it despite the fact that he’s the most logical defender to do so.
Here’s another one, below, illustrating that he was pretty regularly late on these rotations away from the ball. This time Thomas is at the top of the screen. Unlike some of these, it’s not that he’s in especially bad help side position. He should be able to see and react to the ball – he’s just a step or two too slow here to react. He doesn’t really start moving toward Calmese (#8) until he’s taken about three steps after beating his man and his shot contest isn’t terrible but isn’t going to offer rim protection. If he was as proactive in his movement as he was in that Porter clip above, he might have well been in position to take a charge! But, more realistically, a reasonable reaction to this drive would have put him in position to try to deter it before the shot elevation.
This next play you start to get a more extreme glimpse into the issue, technique, and prioritization of how to play team defense. If you pause at 4 seconds into this clip on the Porter (#14) drive, you’ll notice that Thomas has his back to the ball out by the three point line. He’s glancing over his shoulder, basically, to try to keep track, which isn’t even allowing him to see his own man, either. It’s just very poor technique. As a result, he gets hit with a back screen that he doesn’t see or feel coming, and gives up an easy duck from his man as a cutter.
He needs more depth there on his angle. Drop back and open his hips such that his line of sight can both see the play and his man. If he’s so focused on playing ball denial, this isn’t the way – he needs to be closer and even making ball denial at times. His depth tells me that’s not his defensive charge (ball denial to one guy, forsaking other defensive responsibilities); so he’s doing some kind of hybrid that gets lost in the sauce.
Another variation of this out on the three-point line, below, shows this. He’s at the bottom of the screen now guarding his man on the weak side while the ball is on the other side of the court. At first his positioning isn’t bad, but once LMU drives toward the baseline, watch Thomas. First of all, he should be helping down on Aaron McBride (#16) when his teammate, Linguard Jr. (#2) leaves to help on the drive. This was San Francisco’s system to send the nearest player to help and cut off the baseline here, so it wasn’t foreign to Thomas. Instead, he has his back entirely to the play at 5 seconds into the clip. He can’t see its development. He should be diving down and fronting McBride at this point. Fortunately for the Dons, LMU doesn’t see the pass and pulls it back out, spinning the drive back toward the middle of the lane. This is the part that kills me because Thomas is basically ignoring everything to keep his eyes on his man… but because he has very little vision on the play, he still gives up the pass to his man! What’s the point of playing as he is, then? He recognizes too late, but still lunges late to try to get the steal. The lunge takes him out of position, and he gives up a three!
The fact that it was banked is whatever… this play illustrates how Thomas’s off the ball technique here hurt two-fold. He failed to recognize and rotate to help with other responsibilities, AND his technique on his primary focus, still caused him to give up a quality shot to his own man.
The most bizarre example of this I could show is probably below. He starts in the bottom corner with the play away from him again. Once again, his back is toward the play and he’s looking over his shoulder while opening his body to his own man. Once again, I don’t like this technique and want him to open his body up. He does eventually do this around three seconds into the clip, although I’d still like to see him playing closer to the paint. He often plays defense like he’s Revis Island, but without the lockdown part. But as the ball starts to swing back toward him, watch at six seconds how he literally intentionally turns his back to the ball handler again to try to be in the passing lane to his own man. This technique is called on-the-line, up-the-line where you’re supposed to be standing closer to the ball than the man you’re guarding, trying to keep eyes on both, with a hand in the passing lane. This is far too extreme of an angle, though, Thomas keeps turning his back as the ball approaches, and when his man breaks back door to take advantage, he doesn’t even appropriately sense the movement. He actually jumps out toward the three-point line in response to the action rather than back toward his man’s cut. Fortunately, help side defense comes and LMU has to kick the ball out.
It’s an issue with technique and vision… and maybe even role understanding. I don’t want to say that entirely, because a lot of San Francisco’s defenders had some on-the-line, up-the-line looks – but none were as extremely angled and you didn’t see them losing track of the play so badly. Thomas’s field of vision on this one actually saw the movement from his cover and interpreted that as something he needed to cut off around the three-point line; not recognizing that it was cutting toward the hoop!
There were plenty of other moments like this where you’d see him getting lost but it wouldn’t actually hurt the team. Here’s a look in transition against Washington State. Thomas does a nice job picking up the ball and fighting over a ball screen to force the momentum away from the basket. But then, from there, he gets into a familiar defensive position with his back to the play. Note that his assignment is Calmese (#8) at this point. Calmese fades all the way to the corner and Thomas loses track of him entirely. Why did he stay where he did, did he leave his man to attack the ball? No, his back is entirely to the ball and he doesn’t see it coming despite the fact that it almost dribbles right into him.
He’s just caught in no-man’s land here and it’s unclear what he’s trying to do. It’s so surprising to me that someone with such game and tempo awareness on that collapse on Jevon Porter’s spin move is also doing the stuff we’ve seen in the last few clips.
Similarly, here’s a different look where he’s help side again. This time he doesn’t lose sight of the play, but his rotation still lacks awareness. Graham Ike (#13) beats his man and drives the middle of the lane, drawing a switch. Thomas recognizes this and drops down to help shade the pass. What he doesn’t recognize is that Ike’s original man, the 7’2″ Saba Gigiberia (#10) is recovering back into the play and closest to the switched defender. Thomas needs to step down to deter the pass and then be ready to recover back to his own man here. Instead, he just leaves his man entirely and collapses down on the switch, pinching the offensive player along with Saba, and leaving his own cover wide-open for the three.
Of course, Beasley (#0) could have also recognized this and rotated over to at least try to contest the shot. The fact that no one moved toward Battle at all when he caught the ball on the three-point line was very discouraging as a San Francisco fan. But, make no mistake, this was Thomas just misreading his rotation and leaning hard into it.
I’d just close by saying that for as many negative plays that came up from Thomas being overly focused on his own man, sometimes he’d just relax at odd times, like here on the close out in the corner where he actually is in a good position to try to deny the ball from getting there and just isn’t even close enough to close out well:
Here’s the play Oregon State drew up at the end of the game to try to get a bucket, down one. It’s a stagger screen on Thomas from the corner, allowing his man to curl into the paint and finish over help defense:
Oregon State was attacking Thomas’s defense by the end of this game. Here they anticipated he’d get caught on the screens and would have trouble getting back in the play. One of the clips I showed earlier about his on-ball defense was at the end of the game as well. It was such that, after San Francisco hit a three to take the lead and Oregon State called time out for a final shot, the Dons took Thomas out of the game on that defensive possession (they still gave up a quality look and the Beavers missed an easy bucket around the rim).
So, what does this mean in the context of our team and am I worried about Thomas’s defense? A little. I do think it means that Thomas might not be just the crazy minutes-eater that many (including myself prior to doing this piece) anticipated. I was thinking 33-35 mpg. Now I’m probably more in the 28-30mpg area which doesn’t seem like a huge difference but acknowledges that there will be times we’ll probably want to lean in more defensively. I think it creates a more clear role for Elijah Gertrude, for example, to come in and really hound someone on the defensive side. I also think it creates a few more opportunities for Sam Lewis to get onto the floor and use his length (assuming he can figure things out off the ball too).
That being said, I’m also not incredibly worried yet. For one, Thomas’s offense should make up for some of these lapses; but I also have a lot of faith in Odom’s ability to coach up a defense and make the system greater than the sum of its parts. At both UMBC and VCU (Utah State didn’t have the athletes), Odom’s defenses were high-pressure, risk-taking, relentless teams that tried to disrupt the opposition while protecting the rim with their Center. I outlined his system in detail here, if you haven’t read it and are interested. And so I think Thomas has two things going in his favor: He’s already very aggressive in how he plays – he just needs some refinement to his positioning and technique; and I think these are things Odom coaches up very well. Additionally, we will have Ugonna Onyenso, or Johann Grünloh (who is also a good shot blocker) backing him up if he does miscalculate. This will be one of those things like his ability to create for others.
Can he harness some of what he does naturally well (attack, generate turnovers, anticipate some plays as they develop) while learning some better ways to see the court and playing more fundamentally on that side of the ball? I think there’s a good chance. At the very least, I think he’ll be given more freedom to freelance and attack and have more support around him to make that happen; which should create more positive plays and chaos for our opposition to navigate, even if his off-ball technique doesn’t improve (which I think it will).
Transition
Not going to belabor the point here in this section, but a lot of the same themes exist when he’s defending in transition as well. Sometimes he anticipates well and will positively impact a play, like here, below. I really like how he sees and undercuts the pass to the trailer, and then wastes no motion closing out (and giving an intrusive contest) on Calmese’s (#8) three-point attempt.
That’s good activity, motor, and awareness while identifying a developing play.
But then, you’ve also got the times (and this is pretty common) where he is far too focused on picking up his own man and isn’t as attentive to what’s happening elsewhere, like here, below. He’s well ahead of this play on defensive balance, but he gets no depth and doesn’t try to make sure he’s securing the rim. Instead, he floats out on the wing and picks up the man he’s supposed to take once the defense is set. The result is that Gonzaga actually executes a 3-on-2 for an easy layup because Thomas doesn’t recognize the need to get back and make it a 3-on-3 (because the open man is on the opposite side of the floor.
Basically, he needs to take more responsibility with team defense and not simply for the purpose of trying to create a splash play. Once he does this, there will be a huge improvement in the defensive side of his game.
Rebounding
Thomas secured around four rebounds per game and I thought he actually did quite a good job crashing the defensive glass, boxing out, and helping his teammates collectively secure the ball. He’s active and, once again, his strength helps him keep offensive players (typically smaller ones but also larger ones too, as we saw in some of the looks above) at bay. He’s not going to be a Justin Anderson-style plus rebounder from the SF or SG spot, but he won’t be a weakness here.
Here’s a look at him pitching in against the 6’9″ Parsa Fallah. Fallah probably secures the offensive board here if not for Thomas’s efforts to crash down and deflect the ball away from him to his teammate.
And here’s another, below, of Thomas crashing down from the wing and doing a really nice job of high-pointing the rebound. This one probably goes to the 6’10” Jevon Porter (#14) if Thomas doesn’t attack the glass.
A very nice play and one he could leverage into starting a run out the other way, as well. Given Odom’s emphasis on pushing the ball after a rebound, I imagine Thomas’s skillset on the glass will lead to a lot of transition points for us.
In Conclusion
Malik Thomas plays with a mentality that should fit very well with how Ryan Odom wants to play. He’s aggressive to a fault at times. Odom will prefer to reduce the faults, but he’d surely rather his players be trying to make something happen proactively rather than being passive.
Thomas is unlike anyone else we’ve brought in during the portal area. Armaan Franklin is the best comp in his body type and in how he plays – but Thomas is just a way more polished offensive player (and a worse defender… much worse by the time CTB got through with Armaan). There’s a real and credible reason for the hype surrounding him – he’s very likely going to be our highest scorer and will accomplish that in a variety of ways. He should be able to fit into what we’re doing systemically ideally. He’ll be incredibly effective at converting open looks outside, he’ll use screens well to get open, and he’ll be very effective at creating off of the bounce – especially as a late shot clock option. It should be no surprise given his offensive versatility, but everything he does plays so well into what Odom likes to do on that side of the ball?
Will he be our best player? That depends. I have a hunch it’s going to be Thijs De Ridder… but for Thomas, I think it’s going to depend on how all of our pieces fit together and how he can adjust his game. I think we’re going to want him to become a little less one-dimensional (not in how he gets his points, but that in his focus is primarily getting buckets and making splash defensive plays) and a little more well-rounded.
He can play 1-3 on offense… and I think his ability to take on those PG responsibilities is something many, including myself, have slept on a bit. It could unlock some different lineup combinations.
He can also play 1-3 on defense, although there’s more to caveat there. In a situation, say, where he was playing PG on offense and Jacari White was playing SG – you’d probably rather just put Jacari on the ball and play Malik off of it. But when Sam Lewis isn’t on the floor, you probably almost always want Thomas on the opposition’s biggest (and slowest) guard.
You’re going to get fireworks on offense either way. Similarly, I don’t think his defensive issues will hurt you as much as his offense will help you most of the time; but the difference between how good this team has the potential to be and how good it will be, in my opinion, largely rests on Malik Thomas’s coachability and evolution within this roster and Coach Odom’s systems. If he can force his own offense just a little less, and use his gravity to create shots for others just a little more… and if he can become an agent of chaos on defense, flying around more proactively and trying to be disruptive, as opposed to this odd half-shadowing technique, then I think he will be our best player and that will be the best version of this team.
The worst version of this team is still going to be a pretty darn good team, in my estimation, but in that version Thomas still has a good deal of tunnel vision on offense and is attacked enough on the defensive end that you feel more compelled to pull him out some for defense; calculating that you can still get enough offense from the rest of your team. Don’t get me wrong, there almost certainly will be times where you’ll want the flexibility to go to, say, a Gertrude, White, Lewis lineup for defensive purposes – but you don’t want to feel like you have to go that direction or you’ll be vulnerable because of how Thomas is defending.
I’m hoping for the best reality, of course, but it’s going to be fun to watch either way and I’m looking forward to seeing Thomas “don” the jersey and light up the scoreboard for us this season!
Wow! So that was the finale in my Tracking A Transfer series this year. What a ride! I still haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to tackle the incoming two international players, Thijs De Ridder and Johann Grünloh. Together, they bring plenty of actual professional experience to our frontcourt and, along with Thomas, are probably the biggest story of our offseason. There’s plenty of video on De Ridder, but am mostly finding just highlights for Grünloh. It’s also a different level of competition and a different playstyle. I will do something, but it may be a slightly more abridged version or a combined piece. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
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