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Scouting report on Tibor Pleiss

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Scouting report on Pleiss by Rafael Uehara:
https://basketballscouting.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/tibor-pleiss-scouting-report-2/
7-footer, Catch&Score Finisher
Tibor Pleiss Scouting Report
July 12, 2015Rafael Uehara

CONTEXT

Tibor Pleiss had a very productive 2013-2014 season with Laboral Kutxa Baskonia and scored a transfer to Barcelona last summer, but things didn’t go as well there. There was hope head-coach Xavi Pascual would do for his defense what he did for Ante Tomic, but that didn’t happen.

Pleiss was asked to guard pick-and-rolls above the foul line and was quite bad at it. Despite his size (seven-foot-two, 242 pounds), Pleiss was ineffective on defense and fouled a lot – averaging 7.2 fouls per 48 minutes – according to RealGM. The combination of the two led to him averaging just 13.7 minutes per game last season.

PICK-AND-ROLL OFFENSE

Pleiss’ top skill is his scoring out of the pick-and-roll. He is a good screener who consistently looks to draw contact, moves very fluidly in space for someone his size, has good hands to catch the ball on the move and can play above the rim as a target for lobs, which sucks in attention and can potentially open up shots for others around the perimeter.

According to gigabasket.org, Pleiss converted 40 of his 54 shots at the rim in his 323 minutes last season and 27% of his two-point field-goals in the Spanish league were dunks – per ACB.com.

PICK-AND-ROLL DEFENSE

Because Pleiss has good agility for someone his size, his last two coaches have tried stretching him a bit on defense and that hasn’t worked. Sergio Scariolo had him hedging-and-recovering on pick-and-rolls and Pascual had him going above the foul line constantly. We have two seasons of evidence now that Pleiss is simply not suited to guard in space, as he struggles changing directions and fouls a ton.

According to gigabasket, Barcelona allowed 102 points per 100 possessions with Pleiss in the lineup in the Euroelague, while it held opponents to 100.75 points per 100 possessions with Tomic in the game. According to RealGM, the exact same thing happened in the Spanish league as well.

It seems evident at this point that Pleiss is better suited to guard pick-and-rolls flat, dropping back inside lane to protect the front of the rim by using his size. Somebody who is seven-foot-two should be able to luck into more than just 39 blocks in 71 appearances (his totals last season) if he gets to stay close to the basket more.

POST GAME

Pleiss got a steady dose of post-up touches in his last season with Baskonia but those went away completely last season. His usage went down from 26.3% in 2013-2014 to 18.1% in 2014-2015.

His footwork is only so-so but he has proven able to establish good position in the block and has pretty good touch on short turnaround hooks with either hand. According to Synergy Sports, he finished his few touches last season at a 58% clip. That said, Pleiss struggles when doubled hard and his 18% turnover rate is sky high in the context of his usage rate.

DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING

Pleiss is a very solid defensive rebounder, collecting at least 24% of opponents’ misses in three of the last four seasons. He has a massive rebounding area but also looks to box out consistently and has decent quickness pursuing the ball off the rim.

GAPS

Pleiss is not, however, much of an asset in the other glass, despite a long wingspan that should help him rebound outside of his area. He simply doesn’t play with the sort of activity required to make an impact in that department.

Generally speaking, Pleiss also doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of skill. He is not a passer out of the low post, out of the short roll or helping facilitate offense from the elbows – assisting on just 3.6% of Barcelona’s scores when he was on the floor.

And he is not any sort of a threat jump-shooting; playing out of the pick-and-pop or spotting up on the weak-side – missing 22 of his 33 mid-range jump-shots in the Euroleague last season and 47 out of 73 against that same level of competition the season before.

FIT

Pleiss projects as an emergency option in the NBA. He’s about to turn 26, and should probably be viewed as a finished product at this point.

The Jazz are committed to Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert long-term. They played together some last season, with Gobert developing some great passing out of the short roll and Favors hitting 163 jump-shots, but the expectation is Quin Snyder would prefer having a floor spacer (Trey Lyles or Trevor Booker) paired with one of the two at center for 30 minutes a game.

Pleiss is likely to play whenever Favors or Gobert are forced to miss time, and he is probably not a fit long-term for what Snyder is looking to install on offense (a version of what the Hawks do) due to his lack of a polished skill-set.

Eventually, Pleiss will make it in the NBA (but probably not) if he ever gets to a coach that plays him in a Tyson Chandler role. But as we’ve seen throughout Chandler’s career and with all the subsequent Chandler prototypes, that’s not as simple as it seems.
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"And he is not any sort of a threat jump-shooting; playing out of the pick-and-pop or spotting up on the weak-side – missing 22 of his 33 mid-range jump-shots in the Euroleague last season and 47 out of 73 against that same level of competition the season before"

35% mid-range -- yet DL raves about his shot. I'm a bit perplexed. Is he expecting a QS miracle?
 
Hmm, not that positive. It will be interesting to see what Snyder & staff get out of him.
 
Sounds like a back up center
Just what we need
 
Sergio Scariolo had him hedging-and-recovering on pick-and-rolls and Pascual had him going above the foul line constantly. We have two seasons of evidence now that Pleiss is simply not suited to guard in space. . .
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You have your 7'2" center in space on the high pick and roll with FIBA Zone Defense rules? That isn't a failure on the player. That is putting him in a position to fail. Only a handful of 7 footers in the world can do that at the top competitive level, hell, maybe ever. . .

It seems evident at this point that Pleiss is better suited to guard pick-and-rolls flat, dropping back inside lane to protect the front of the rim by using his size. Somebody who is seven-foot-two should be able to luck into more than just 39 blocks in 71 appearances (his totals last season) if he gets to stay close to the basket more.
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Well, yeah. Pretty sure this is how he will be used on the Jazz because Quinn isn't an idiot. Plus we have one of those ultra rare 7 footers that CAN guard the P&R high.
 
We have "two" 7 footers who can guard the P&R high with D. Favors being the best. And Rudy recovers great to shot block where as Derek can stay in front of his man better.
 
Tibor Pleiss had a very productive 2013-2014 season with Laboral Kutxa Baskonia and scored a transfer to Barcelona last summer, but things didn’t go as well there. There was hope head-coach Xavi Pascual would do for his defense what he did for Ante Tomic, but that didn’t happen.

Pleiss was asked to guard pick-and-rolls above the foul line and was quite bad at it. Despite his size (seven-foot-two, 242 pounds), Pleiss was ineffective on defense and fouled a lot – averaging 7.2 fouls per 48 minutes – according to RealGM. The combination of the two led to him averaging just 13.7 minutes per game last season.
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Sounds like Xavi Pascual is as bad as Ty Corbin. Plays worthless vets like Ante Tomic over promising young talent and cannot teach them any defense. I can't wait to see what our coaching staff can do with this guy. I'm projecting the next Marc Gasol within 3 years max under Quin Snyder.
 
No way is this the most sarcastic thread ever.
 
framer said:
You have your 7'2" center in space on the high pick and roll with FIBA Zone Defense rules? That isn't a failure on the player. That is putting him in a position to fail. Only a handful of 7 footers in the world can do that at the top competitive level, hell, maybe ever. . .



Well, yeah. Pretty sure this is how he will be used on the Jazz because Quinn isn't an idiot. Plus we have one of those ultra rare 7 footers that CAN guard the P&R high.
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Some teams he simply won't be playable against. There is no substitution for lack of lateral speed in this league.
 
P3 and the Jazz coaching staff will do wonders for this kid. If he can come in when Gobert needs a rest and not be a total turnstile on defense, then he's a step up on that end of the court over Kanter, Evans and Cooley. That's all the Jazz need right now. Their investment in him is to be able to rest Gobert and be functional on offense when he plays. It's the defensive side of his game that is the bigger concern and hopefully the Jazz scheme and coaches an help improve that area.
 
Jazz4ever said:
Some teams he simply won't be playable against. There is no substitution for lack of lateral speed in this league.
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We will never have him playing the high post against Marc Gasol. We have two other players to do that. How many bench Centers are triple threats from long distance? How many Euro league Centers are? That is why having him cheat up on the outside p@r was so baffling. Maybe I'm just delusionally happy with Quinn, but I get the feeling that there are at least a few of his deficiencies that can be attributed to the poor manner in which he was used. It will also be fun to see Quinn work with the starters that we intend to finish the year with from the very start, with no more trying to play people to increase trade value. I have a feeling this will be a very good start to solving our anemic offense woes.

I guess that I am an ugly American, because whenever I see FIFA ball with NBA players I cringe in how misused they are. I watched Turkey's guards keep shooting contested midranges and not looking for Kanter. If Kanter is going to be on the court, you should probably toss it inside some. You take the hit on defense either way. When the International teams finally say "screw it!" and turn the stars loose, they do well. Kiri for Russia and Gobert for France. Generally however, these studs generally have to defer to the 38 year old 6'2" greybeard who has been the "heart and soul" of his sucky team for two decades. Screw that, feed your studs!
 
My thoughts is that this Nephilim is what we need to back up the best one in the world. We are lucky we can find two and we can have them both for 3 more years.
 
Too many pages for a couch scouting report. This dude scouted articles, stats and forums. What a waste of time.
 
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