how good is cody williams? 2024 NBA Draft scouting

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I felt it’s a good time to do a Cody Williams video of sorts this is not like a comprehensive Scouting Report or anything but I’m going to go through this UCLA game um people may know that I have been a bit lower on Cody throughout

This process and I think this could be a good opportunity for me to explain some of my thoughts concerns but I am getting higher on him and I haven’t seen this UCLA game or any of the clips so I’m going in totally blind and I’m just going to go through my

Scouting process as usual so let’s see here uh yeah one of Cody’s extremely good traits that I have no qualms about is his off ball play as I say you can’t play off the ball you’re not getting on the floor Cody is a really nice cutter

Really good at like setting up his moves going back door which I always appreciate guys who are really good Cutters it’s an important skill to have um me see a little push off here and this is part of my concern with Cody I mean he hits the shot with I like but he

He just isn’t super great at creating space and creating advantages without like pushing or using his size and I think against better bigger Defenders this could definitely be a limiting factor which is something that I’m pricing in in my evaluation that’s not exactly an issue against college players

Um great defense here that just happens to be better offense is that my guy Dylan Andrews no it’s not Dylan Andrews um great job staying attached here right contact on the screen but he maintains connection with the ball handler gets back in front contests with length and I

Mean Cody’s not like the the biggest longest guy in the whole world so there are going to be players who shoot over him but that’s about as good defense you can realistically ask for um careless turn over there I mean it just is what it is not something I really look at too

Intensely uh another careless turnover I do think there is like a decent amount of this stuff but not something I’m so concerned about as it’s a very common thing for freshman in college to be careless as this is a shot I really like okay this is good and

Something that we haven’t seen in ton from him this year and that’s a movement jumper of any kind I don’t like that it’s a long two but really nice to see him sprinting off of movement one two left right into a fairly fluid looking jumper again most of his jumpers are

Pretty open and uncontested which I think is going to be a swing like how can you get your jumpers off against NBA level defense um get a little lost here but nice job taking away this cut and then recovering as well um overall I’d say the defense is pretty impressive

Especially for a freshman but and then he drops the ball I don’t know like maybe he’s got to work on his hands get in that receiver room and and do some work there we see more of like my quote unquote creation issues here where when Cody doesn’t have a screen

One V one really not creating much separation at all all he does a good job passing out like this was terrible defense by Mac right here but you see it’s like he’s not the versti guy in the world his handle isn’t the greatest um it’s really easy for Defenders to beat

Him to the spot and he’s like got good feel he can definitely pass and I think the passing is a little I’m a little lower on it than some people seem to be so and we can see we we’ll see if he has any really good passes in this game

Because it definitely seems to be relatively inconsistent game to game love the the speed on this recovery here um he’s going to have good recovery tools cuz he is kind of falling asleep a little bit here he totally gets caught on the flare scre I mean this is this is

A terrible screen but good job closing out great technique High hands opens up his hips slides the movement skill on defense is something I really value and Cody has it in in troves like he has a lot of that movement skill on lock um or decent like

Gish stuff um I don’t know I don’t really have a ton to say about this play like decent little lift pass um raises is what he can do as like a guard initiator more screen work here as he definitely might have some trouble with like big guys like bonus setting screens

But he’s going to be physical he’s going to fight through he’s going to always make an effort to contest which I really appreciate and I think coaches and Scouts are generally going to appreciate another caress pass into traffic um quite a bit of that this game actually I feel like more than

Usual not a normal concern I have about him is like the careless passing and weird turnovers but I don’t know I’m not thinking too hard about it and and a very careless close out here just like and he’s not someone who’s like super jumpy usually but that is

Obviously not a good close out and he got lucky that this guy missed the shot but again those are things that I’m not thinking so hard about um cuz I don’t think they’re so unfixable like it it’s not hard to get guys to lock in and stop doing dumb like that especially

When they have obvious feel like Cody does o that was a beautiful move right there Sebastian Mack is a cool player um but let’s look at what goes wrong here and I think Cody like a lot of young Defenders like this is what happens when Defenders are turn and Chase Reliant and

This is like a Klay Thompson special I say this when instead of like staying committed to your slide you turn your hips and run with a ball handler this obviously has the advantage of helping you stay with them north south but if they stop change directions you’re going

To be totally cooked in in the dust and that’s like a technique thing right teaching players to like be confident in their slides rather than not being confident in their slides um was this a jump ball what do they call here what they call they call it a foul okay

But point being we see again part of my issues with like creation here um what did they call here I can’t even tell but Cody’s struggling to be a pretty slow big and ad a Mara around the edge defense recovers um but we can’t totally see what happened in that play just

Because of the things but I think this has been definitely a good game to show some of my issues with Cody let’s see how we can function on this drive really really nice there okay see what I do like a lot about his drives even if he’s not creating a ton of Separation

Initially he’s getting quite good at using his like late last steps and his touch is greater on the rim as well um quick little cross like to set up and the fact that he’s able to like separate like this with craft and with like some leverage stuff is really nice I I again

I worry about what this is going to look like against Real like NBA Defenders who will be able to cut him off and make him work and like NBA level Rim protection but at this level he’s a really effective driver and that’s for sure I love that love him taking that shot I

Think one of the reasons I was lower on Cody early in the season is because of how low his three-point volume was that’s such an important indicator and he’s definitely getting it up still this is not like contested but it is deep and NBA range is an important indicator that

I look for when evaluating shooting obviously important that prospects can shoot from the NBA line uh get stuck on the screen here screen navigation definitely a mixed bag for Cody but again as it is for many freshman Defenders screens can be difficult and it’s only going to get

Harder in the NBA because they’re just they’re just going to call moving screens um we we see him get around the edge the positioning here is not perfect as this is what I mean again like with like the turn and Chase habit when instead of like sitting down getting in

A slide and being ready to like chop his feet slide his feet move his hips East West to try to cut off the angle he’s like all right I’m going to bump with my hip and turn and Chase and he’s out a position this this guy blows right by

Him and he’s not able to to like get on him and this is going to get you see Cody be like he uses off arm but this is going to become even more difficult and priv in the NBA right when this is called even less than in college um and

That’s just a thing that you have to learn right to to be physical through that like off arm usage because it’s it’s just a part of pro basketball at this point um this the strength not great here it’s pretty easy to move him backwards and to get into his body and

Once Cody’s kind of behind the play on defense guarding the ball I should say it can be hard for him to recover we see again like like the turn and Chase habit what I mean we we we’re see this all game instead of sliding he runs with him

But this this ball here does a really good job slowing his momentum in the air and finishing with touch and that’s obviously a tough shot but I do think we’re seeing some of the concerns with the the current defense and I don’t think any of this stuff is like crazy unfixable

But of course the concerns are always worth worth noting and then worth talking about um and thinking about how and why a prospect could fail is always really important but this is good here good just just quick communication um switches like executes this switch really well Tristan D Silva blows out he

Doesn’t let ADM Bona get any space and end up grabbing the rebound so Cody dribble handoff I do like that Colorado has used him more in these like off off dribble handoff sets I think this could be something he thrives at in the league and this is also kind of kind of thing

Where I think his passing Vision as a driver isn’t the best like he will fairly frequently Miss reads like this and I understand that he gets fouled and loses the ball but the handle is just not super great in traffic this is a wide open dunk if

He lets the ball go a second earlier and while he’s a great off ball passer right when he’s cutting when he’s like close at attacking and transition but when they ask him to like ball handle and make passes off of a live dribble that is where I think he struggles the most

And that’s like the most important kind of passing for projection right cuz that that’s the ceiling razor what can you do when you’re passing off the ball great off ball work here again just like this stuff that’s like it’s it matters but it’s just not super needle movement for

Me because this is like scheme stuff within the flow of the offense and like every NBA player should be able to do that right and obviously Cody having the movement skills and the intelligence to get into his spots is nice but it’s not something that I’m

Like I want to take that top 10 let’s see what happens here as he loses the ball again unfortunately and more of my issues with the driving we can see he’s very susceptible to Diggs and that’s just like someone helping down from one away it’s too easy to swipe the ball away

From him and we can again see some of the potential issues as a playmaker right he’s not super comfortable like stopping and kicking out when a Defender is helping hard from one pass away and again these are going to be progress points that he’s going to work on if if

A team decides to employ Cody as a primary ball handler good good initial stuff on this screen possession here as Cody gets over does bona actually set a screen not not really okay um when when we’re watching screen navigation it’s like does the big actually set a screen

But look at what happens when he is like sliding but he will often bite really hard like one way leave too much space and this is just going to be like technique stuff footwork stuff um I think he’s like good enough moving and changing directions to where he can

Become a good on ball Defender for sure even if right now the technique is limited and as I keep saying even when he gets screened off he’s going to turn and Chase and he does a good job getting back into this play recovering obviously the the ball handler wasn’t pressing super hard

There but still good for good to see Cody not give up on the plays like a lot of freshman especially will give up on plays when they get screened off or are out of it um and and Cody doesn’t usually do that which is something I really appreciate I love his janky spin

Moves his janky spin moves this is like his best move honestly he like really janky High spin moves this is obviously like again like it’s it’s impressive to see a guy with his size being able to like spin back but this is still fairly loose if there’s a Defender here it

Wouldn’t be hard to pluck it and like two guys fall over and he ends up getting a wide open layup so I think this is the stuff where some people are really impressed by it and like this is like a big Handler a big ball hand but

For me I see like okay what happens when there’s a dig defender in in this area or what happens when there’s an actual low man rim protector like what does he do to counter and that’s the stuff that I’m still waiting to see and the stuff that I’m less confident

And this was really great and he ends up fouling but I still really like what this like getting through the screen this is like a legit screen he’s really solid getting skinny um like keeping himself between the man and the screener stays in in front uh ends up just like

Fouling but I don’t know if that was a foul honestly just just just from like maybe he swiped his arm somewhere but that looked clean um point being getting back in the play fighting over screens again uh we see him fouling just you know young players foul whatever I’m

Not thinking very hard about that one let’s see here good job taking that three nice um th this is like a shot that he wasn’t taking early in the season at least not as consistently as he is now which I which I appreciate that development a lot like it’s still a

Little bit slow we can see like how long it takes him to get into his shot but it is good that he’s confident getting into his motion if that’s like one of the most important things for projecting shooting is a guy confident willing to take shots willing to do

That but yeah um we can kind of again see the the handling the the driving issues the creation of stuff that I have problems with very reliant on just like going by and through Defenders I think he’s going to benefit a lot from getting stronger like I think strength cre might

Be his main way to win but really just like doesn’t have the counters the pacing the change of Direction the handle and he gets a lot of charges called this level um and that’s probably going to go down at the NBA level right they just don’t call them as much in in

The NBA um this is a pretty difficult assignment here but overall he’s not equipped to like guard guys sprinting through elevators at this point um just a little bit lacking in the awareness the reaction speed and that’s okay like this is a hard action to guard and his teammates

Certainly were not helping him out on this play right like that was they were not really giving him any doing him any favors um let’s see we got here Cody backing down this is just like a simple set play um it seems like he wasn’t really even trying to score there he was

Just like running the play which is you know that’s part of basketball sometimes you just run whatever play your coach says let’s look at this screen rep again kind of gets stuck here and this time he’s just a little behind the play but that’s good good enough defense

By the big man there um obviously not you know at there’s a good chance at the NBA level he’s going to have a much more competent and disruptive big man Defender to help him out um which is something that he has just like everyone else is going to

Benefit from more janky spin moves I love it absolutely love it this is definitely his best creation thing um he gets walled off he doesn’t really have the burst to get around but feels this Defender leaning really hard one way spins back the other way great

Finish here but again I do worry about like how loose this looks like he’s spinning up to like his his like his chin here and if there is a Defender digging like an NBA Defender like herb Jones or someone right here like you’re losing the ball and ball control is is

Is fixable for sure but I think I worry a bit more about just like how generally stiff he looks cuz that can be a bit harder to correct than just like losing the ball because and there you go good job fighting over that screen the the screen defense has been like inconsistent in

This game but we see the good flashes right he’s physical getting over he doesn’t he doesn’t jump immediately he stays down he contests with great length so I definitely think he can become a good screen Defender and this was it but yeah I think this was honestly a really

In like good game for this purpose like like he wasn’t this wasn’t his best game for sure of the year it wasn’t his worst game and I think that can be an interesting place to look at strength and weaknesses I’m impressed by the off ball movement some of the off ball

Passing and and driving some good defensive stuff but I hope I was able to relay some of the concerns I have about his creation ceiling um which is part of why I’m just not super enthused about taking him in the top 10 yet if the shot

Is really real then maybe I could get there but and like I said I’m open to again I I I will go back and forth on these players many times uh before the draft and I will probably change my opinion on him again but this is where

I’m at right now with with Cody Williams