Keyonte George - Functional Athleticism Profile

Published 5/23/23

Keyonte George - Functional Athleticism Scouting

The first thing that stands out about Keyonte George is his wild shot making skill. The second thing that stands out is how badly he deals with traps. In the end, both of these things are connected through functional athleticism.

Keyonte George is a wild and electric player, with exceptional body control and shiftiness. He’s strong for his frame, and comfortably absorbs contact in the air. He is absolutely elite at adjusting his shot when powering through contact, or shooting over tight contests. He has the ability to vault himself into the air, with flashes of supremely impressive straight up and down verticality. 

Keyonte George moves almost entirely by vaulting himself into the air. His game is built around a certain “micro-explosiveness,” but in simpler terms, he’s constantly in the middle of shifty hop-steps and aerial hesitations. Without exploding into the air, Keyonte is a reasonably explosive, reasonably fast player with good body control. When you watch him in slow motion, you realize just how much he depends on becoming airborne. 

On a fundamental level, Keyonte depends on open space. His ability to move at an exceptional or NBA star-caliber level is dependent on exploding in vertical space. He struggles with traps and physicality in a way that’s almost difficult to believe, because he’s essentially floating in a vacuum as he moves around the court. He’s not the first player to love the hesitation; he takes it further. It’s his primary way of moving around the basketball court at all times. 

Keyonte’s ability to constantly move through small, explosive movements is something I’ve never particularly seen before, or at least never noticed in a player. This ability to constantly explode off the ground, so quickly and so constantly, is what translates into his ability to make difficult shots with momentum behind him. When he gets himself into the shot, he’s constantly beating his man into the air. I’ve never seen a player so quick off the ground, or more specifically so good at beating his man into the air. Watching him in slow motion is a total mind-f***. 

Keyonte has flashed the ability to hesitate, control his body, and move between grounded movement and explosive, airborn hesitations. The problem is he really lacks the strength and power to explode through physicality either way. He’s a fast, strong, controlled player in general, but has fairly average explosiveness in terms of raw power. Outside of his hesitation, he’s fairly average with spins or hard moves. He shows natural deceleration and hard stop ability, but outside of it generally lacks forceful body control, and has relatively poor acceleration ability from a standstill. He gets dumpstered by screens as a defender. Putting it together, he really struggles with any amount of physicality, and particularly with traps. The loss of momentum is difficult for him, and his first step is pretty poor. He needs his first step to get into his hesitation or speed; he needs to be moving to get moving. 

There’s a path for Keyonte George, but it starts with his shooting ability. He’s very sudden and explosive when making sharp, short movements front to back or left to right. He has natural shotmaking ability and natural stepback ability. He’s a clean shotmaker, who can use screens and short movements to free himself. 

With Keyonte, there are flashes of higher level raw explosion, and it seems like he’s decided to drop weight to better allow himself to use quickness, speed and burst to open up his hesitations. As a lead guard, he would be far from the first player to depend on screens all through his career. 

I view Keyonte George as a player who can use quick, tight explosive movements to become a scoring guard whose game is dominated by three point shooting. Someone who needs to be trapped and hopefully breaks traps comfortably. A decent positional defender, and player whose pull-up ability compensates and gives him potential in the 2nd level. I think the best version of Keyonte is a guard who primarily runs around behind the arc, and scores inside of it using quick shifts, hesitations and pull ups coming off P&R actions. Someone who hunts open space, and uses his quick trigger and body control to capitalize on it. With his shooting touch, size, and all around solid athletic package, you can expect some good off-ball value from Keyonte. He is not, simply cannot be a consistently dominant ISO scorer. He needs to play in flow, with the help of picks and defensive breakdowns. One physical defender stifles him, and traps destroy him. You’d like to see him explode or speed through contact, but more realistic is for him to use his strong body control and incredibly quick burst to shoot through it, and continue to make tough shots. 

Stylistically, he compares well to Beal, while in terms of value and athletic ability, CJ McCollum is probably the closest direct comparison. Although CJ has similar weaknesses, I don’t think he struggles quite as hard with physical defense, but at the same time, doesn’t really have Keyonte’s ability to power through contact, and make a living as a pure tough shot maker. Another name who can set a floor is Buddy Hield; Keyonte has the lift, touch and shot-making to most likely clear that hurdle, and he’s an engaged defensive player with better size and more dynamic ability. 

CJ and Dame have made a living as pick and roll scoring guards, and the fact they presented some similar weaknesses is why Portland got them both in the mid to late lottery. I like Keyonte George, and I think he’ll benefit so, so much from physical maturity. Bigger, stronger, more explosive, more dynamic, and more able to respond to situations where his momentum and explosion have been stifled. In time, he could make a good 3-level scorer. The P&R is where his money will be made, and his shooting will probably reach a floor that gives him extremely solid value. The runner needs work, and the isolation ability is a bit of a stretch. 

The low end projection for Keyonte starts with his total dependence on open space. He’s a small shooting guard, who lacks the athletic tools to really punish teams for overplaying him, and will probably naturally struggle with physicality. There’s plenty of open space in the NBA, but it’s not easy to succeed as a player who needs it absolutely. Keyonte George’s top end outcome is more about the ability to capitalize on very small amounts of it. He’s athletic enough to offer a lot of offball value, as a potential movement shooter and all around dynamic threat. Face guarding him with physical defense at all times is not a perfect solution, and he can make a living using screens to free himself on and off the ball. 

CJ and Dame also took their time learning to deal with traps, and Keyonte has showed some signs of life in that respect. He had an up and down midrange shooting year, and his efficiency was tanked by going 4-13 against Arkansas. My projection: a middle of the pack all-star level player, or slightly below. His pure shooting ability sets a very nice floor as a role player, and he offers some upside as a pure P&R lead guard and potential star. I much prefer the idea of him combining off-ball and on-ball shooting to give 20 or so a night. He’s physical, strong, and will only get quicker, faster and more explosive. He’s a very willing but unexceptional defender. He knows his role, and he plays well inside of it. His shooting is electric, and he might be the next evolution of the Curry/Klay/Huerter type in today’s NBA. When you combine what he might do as a shooter, his floor as a role player, and his potential to offer three level scoring on top of it, it’s difficult to pass on him. At the same time, he’ll always be more dependable in a diminished, shooting oriented role.