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Brandon Bass

Brandon Bass profile
Drafted #33 in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Pelicans
RCSI: 15 (2003)
Height: 6'7" (201 cm)
Weight: 246 lbs (112 kg)
Position: PF
High School: Capitol High School (Louisiana)
Hometown: Baton Rouge, LA
College: LSU
Current Team: Liaoning
Win - Loss: 33 - 8

Articles

NBA Scouting Reports, Southwestern Division (Part One)

Jonathan Givony
Jonathan Givony
Matt Williams
Matt Williams
Joseph Treutlein
Joseph Treutlein
Eric Weiss
Eric Weiss
May 15, 2008, 08:00 pm
Overview: Young power forward who has some intriguing physical assets, and is starting to come into his own. Not very tall at 6-8, but is extremely strong and athletic. Loves to get physical around the rim. Was an impact player from day one at LSU, but entered the draft too early and fell into the second round. Still loaded with potential. Began to blossom under fellow Louisiana native Avery Johnson. Plays very assertively for a player his age. Comes off the bench ready to score.

Offense: More of an opportunistic scorer at this point in his career. Makes the most of his touches, and is only going to get better offensively considering his experience level. Gets most of his offense from post ups and isolations. Uses his quickness to blow by his man when facing up. Has great explosiveness at the rim, and uses his strength to create space. Puts the ball on the floor well for a power forward, and gets to the free throw line at a solid rate, where he shoots a very good percentage. Has a fluid shooting stroke, but is still working to develop consistency. Can knock it down out to about sixteen feet. Good catch and shoot player statistically. Can shoot of the dribble, and likes to when driving left. Does a great job timing up his duck ins around the rim. Gets good position underneath. Grabs his fair share of offensive boards. Likes to turn over his left shoulder, but isn’t predictable due to the fakes and pivots that he uses to get his man off balance. Doesn’t have a go to move just yet. Spins well in the paint, and can find the open man if the defense rotates. Can be turnover prone in traffic. Not a great passer. Doesn’t always have the size to get his shot off.

Defense: Solid defender due to his strength and athleticism, but is severely undersized, and lives a little bit too much off his instincts at times. Can use his strength to front the post and his speed to cover players on the perimeter. Not easy to back down for most players. Great lateral quickness for his size. Shows some susceptibility to bigger players when he gets switched onto some certain centers. Halfway decent shot blocker due to his athleticism, but doesn’t have the length to get after everything around the rim. More of a one-on-one defender than a team defender, but has shown that he knows where to rotate when he has to. Not as foul prone as some players his age, but makes some mistakes. Good area rebounder, and will go after just out of his proximity at times as well. Not the smartest player in the world, but plays hard.

Player Report: Brandon Bass

Eric Weiss
Eric Weiss
Jan 15, 2008, 04:11 pm
Brandon Bass is a very interesting player who has taken a long journey to arrive where he is now. Bass was criticized to some degree for deciding to come out after his sophomore year, despite his harsh family circumstances. Even though he was coming off being named SEC Player of the Year, it was clear that Bass had more development to do, as his size was going to force him to be a face-up power forward. Bass ended up falling into the second round, and was never really given much of a shot at a legit role with the Hornets, as they were concentrating on developing David West.

Still, right off the bat, Bass was not extremely impressive even in Summer League and training camp. He looked disinterested and lacked focus, and that made him look completely out of place on the NBA level for the better part of the first two years of his career.

Regardless, getting cut loose from the Hornets gave Bass second life, and he took his 3rd Summer League by storm for the Mavericks and quickly earned himself a contract as well as a feature role in the Mavs rotation. Bass did more than just show energy and passion, though. He has dramatically improved his face-up game and has much better ability taking defenders off the dribble than he did as a 19 year old rookie. Bass has even gotten his post up game up to a level where it can be effective at times against taller defenders, something he couldn’t pull off just a couple of years ago.

The Good:

Bass is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Mavericks. After last season’s loss to the Warriors, Dallas needed a mobile forward who had the strength to contend on the boards and on the block, but the quickness to take on smaller, more perimeter oriented big men.

Bass has a great mix of strength, speed and terrific length with his 7-2 and ½ inch wingspan, which helps him to cover the Al Harrington’s of the NBA--something the Mavs were in desperate need of. He uses his body very effectively to ward off strong drives and force his opponents into tough fade-away jumpers or off-balance drives to the hoop. Bass establishes good position defensively on his man most of the time, and has been steadily improving in the fundamental techniques that coach Avery Johnson demands.

Once positioned, Bass is hard to move and he can usually keep his man from “finishing forward” on moves. He is good at neutralizing momentum with his chest or shoulders and then using his athleticism to spring up and put a challenge-hand up on the shot. Bass has consistently out-produced his positional opponent in the minutes he’s played, limiting quality shot attempts and depressing their production when he is in the game.

Offensively, Bass has really fine-tuned his face-up game nicely since coming into the league. He always had the trappings of a 15-17 foot jump shot, but his accuracy has improved to the point where it can be considered his primary weapon. Bass is almost equally as effective when challenged as he is when open on catch-and-shoot opportunities, which speaks to the confidence he has in his shooting. He still needs to work on his execution on pull-up jumpers, but he shows promise and is respectable enough at it to use it effectively to keep his defender guessing.

Bass is still improving as a post-up option, but is competent enough on the block to be used there, which is rare for an undersized forward. Bass prefers to face-up down low as well, but has shown some ability to play back-to-the-basket, especially operating off his left shoulder. He doesn’t seem to favor one side of the court in any offensive situation, in the post or away from the basket, which is a good tendency to have. However, he heavily favors going to his left on his moves, so he may want to work on switching it up more often.

Overall, Bass has set career highs in almost every statistical category, including:

-Career best pts/40 minutes pace adjusted (15.5ppg)
-Career best FG% (46%)
-Career best FT% (11% higher than ever before)
-PER: 15
-EFF/40: 18.7

Bass has produced a PER and EFF/40 rating that would qualify him as a solid starter based off the commonly accepted ratings in those two categories. His points and rebound production per 40 minutes is extremely strong as well. His 20 minutes per game is a reliable indicator of what he could accomplish in a larger amount of playing time, which seems to be in his immediate future.

The Bad:

Bass still has some work to do when it comes to defending larger opponents who like to operate frequently in the post. He is more adept at defending other face-up big men because of his excellent combination of strength and athleticism, but back-to-the-basket threats can still gain early position on him and shoot over the top, as he is only 6-7 ¼ in shoes. Bass will have to continue to focus on denying his opponent position and then working from there. If he does his defensive work early and forces his man further away from the basket, he possesses the strength and quickness to prevent the man from backing him in to close-range shots.

Offensively, Bass must continue to improve his post game. A reliable running hook and a consistent turn-around jumper would be solid basic weapons for him to utilize down low. He’s come a long way with his ball-handling, but more work needs to be done so he can effectively shot-fake and attack the basket with force.

Also, working more on maintaining control of the ball after contact would help him to shoot more effectively off the dribble as well as finish near the hoop. Bass has to keep both hands on the ball to maintain control when going to the basket and he double clutches at times if bumped when raising up for the jumper. This is especially noticeable on his offensive rebound put-back attempts, which he doesn’t convert at a high rate presently.

Outlook:

Bass looks to have found a home on the Mavericks frontline and should continue to grow as a player. He has the opportunity to play 20-30 minutes a night in his current role and as his confidence grows, his game should expand. Whether or not he remains a role player off the bench or eventually develops into a starting caliber player will be determined over the next two to three seasons.

Despite being in the league for three years already, the 22 year old Bass is just now gaining the experience that only playing time can bring. His first two seasons were wasted on the Hornets bench, and Bass certainly didn’t look to be the type of player that stayed involved in other ways. Now that he’s seeing regular minutes, the offensive skills and rebounding ability are starting to establish themselves. Fellow Louisiana native Avery Johnson has already shown a lot of faith in Bass early on, and has been rewarded with growing consistency from the young forward.

Regardless of how Bass develops, it’s a safe bet that the 22 year-olds next contract will be more lucrative than his last. He is well on the way to establishing a long and productive career in the NBA-something that was in doubt before the season began.

Brandon Bass NBA Draft Scouting Report

Sep 12, 2004, 03:39 pm
Strengths
Brandon Bass is considered to be one of the premier Freshman Power Forwards coming into the NCAA this year. He has all the skills you could ask for out of a PF and he is developing other skills that could make him more of a perimeter threat as well. He has a very bright future ahead of him and if he continues to work hard he will be a first round draft pick when he decides to come out. The first thing his coaches will tell you about him is that he's an extremely hard worker and a very motivated young man. Everyone that's worked with him agrees that he is a very coachable player and strives to do all he can to get better as a player. He takes his academics very seriously and was named student athlete of the month in December. You would never guess that he is only 18 years old. He has a solid NBA body, big soft hands and a nice wingspan which allows him to play bigger then his height. He's getting a ton of minutes and playing a big role in LSU's offense already in his freshman year. He has no problem playing 30+ minutes a game because he keeps himself in excellent shape. He rarely gets more then 5 minutes of rest in an entire game and he seems to have no problem with that whatsoever. Bass made a name for himself in high school mostly by being a force in the paint. He blocks a lot of shots and rebounds extremely well. He knows how to establish position in the paint and box his man out for the rebound on both ends of the court. He's very hard to move out of the low blocks once he's established position. Very good upper body strength. Even though he is very big and bulky he is a mobile player, runs up and down the court extremely well and can get off the floor in a second to catch the alleyoop pass and throw it down. He's a very good athlete and he uses his skills well. Bass was a late bloomer, started growing pretty late and you can tell that he was used to being more of a perimeter type player up until his final years of high school. He'll sometimes step out of the paint and attack the basket off the dribble or pull up for the 15 footer. His jump shot is getting better everyday, if this trend continues he will be an extremely tough player to guard on any level. He is already an excellent free throw shooter by all standards and that might imply that he has what it takes to become a solid outside shooter down the road as well. We're not talking 3 point range here but more of a 16-18 foot jump shooter like Chris Webber or Jermaine O'neal. We'll see how that comes along. He's got a beautiful shooting stroke for a big man right now and all it will take probably is a lot of hard work to get where he needs to be.

Weaknesses
Bass is undersized at 6-8 for a Power Forward and this will be the main knock on him when he'll be up for the draft. Defense needs work, he is used to getting a lot of blocked shots but that won't be as easy in the pros. Midrange game is a work in progress but is improving. Handles are questionable. Needs to become a better dribbler to successfully take his man to the basket from the outside in the NBA. He looked a little mechanical in the couple of times that I saw him this year early in the season. He is obviously trying to do what his coach tells him in practice, but it looks like he's thinking too much. This might be just a freshman thing. He doesn't improvise at all. He gets a little nervous when he is double teamed and doesn't quite know what to do. His passing skills definitely need work.

Competition
N/A

Outlook
Bass will probably wait until he finishes at least his sophomore or junior year before he decides to come out. He is in a pretty good situation at LSU, playing very close to home and next year with Lloreda graduating he will have the team all to himself and should be able to showcase his talents every game in the SEC. He definitely has some work to do to show that he can play both Forward spots effectively in the NBA. Regardless, Bass has NBA written all over him.

Comments
None.

Facts
A McDonald's All-American in 2003, scored 14 points, blocked 3 shots and pulled down 3 rebounds in 17 minutes for the East.

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