Class of 2022 PF Maliq Brown (VA) COMMITTED/SIGNED TO SYRACUSE

[Grbac]

Yes I have. I've posted write-ups in each of the recruit's individual threads and you can sorta find a summary here: The view from here

As I mentioned in the linked post, I hadn't seen Brown play outside of highlights when I wrote his part so that's out of date. My thoughts on Carey were not included yet either, but to summarize my thoughts on Carey:

He's a promising developmental PF/C IMO. Just based on his physical build, I think he may be best suited to being a tall PF as I just don't think he's going to fill out a ton. But if he does bulk up, he might be able to pitch in at C here and there. He's very athletic; just loves to run and jump. Didn't really show much skill outside of being an athlete and being coordinated, but that's a good jumping off point and if things go well, he could give us a vertical element to our offense that we haven't had in awhile.

Really good stuff. I love that you are brutally honest and don’t sugarcoat what you see. It’s good to hear so we can know what to expect in a way. I have only seen highlights on our guys and that’s not always the best indication of a players total skill set.
Well done. I also encourage anyone else to read his analysis on our incoming freshmen if you have not.

 

[TheCusian]

The tie that binds all these players is that they are FRESHMEN. The most likely "narrative" is that not all frosh come in ready, with fully formulated skill sets, and with varying levels of readiness for the rigorous demand of what it takes to play high major collegiate basketball. And that often includes understanding how hard you have to work at the P5 level, on and off the court. That this occurs when some of these players are also acclimating to doing college scholastic work makes for a more difficult transition for some than others.

Additionally, how players perform as frosh is generally not the best indicator for how they might develop, or what they are capable of producing. Some guys come in ready -- like CJ Fair -- and don't make mistakes, which earns JB's trust. Some come in as blue chip recruits -- like Wallace, Owens, Coleman -- and produce like starters from the jump. And some come in not ready -- like Kris Joseph or Jesse Edwards -- but have the talent to develop into quality starters and do so once they get acclimated and adjust to the different level of play.

And some -- like MCW and Kadary -- come in show flashes, and get relegated to the bench anyway in favor of guys JB prefers to roll with. I'm not going out on a limb when I suggest that he has never used a big bench, outside of a small handful of years where the team had lots and lots of players who were good [and really, I can think of only two -- 2000, when we went about 8.5 deep, and 2012, when we could legitimately go 9.5 deep and did most games].

I'm a lot less sold on Woody than Kadary, but I do think that if Woody had stayed he would have remediated multiple problems plaguing last year's team -- primarily, athleticism, depth, and non-existent bench scoring.

Fair post and basically what I was getting at. I don’t think JB has guys he “prefers to roll with” as much as guys that play hard and guys he can trust. If you don’t develop that trust, you have to earn it.

Woody and Kadary were at different spots in their development, but ultimately both saw the path or situation untenable. Some will say that’s the HC being a turd and others will see players unwilling to work at gaining his trust.

 

[OrangeDW]

He scored 38 points the entire year and 18 came against Ryder and Niagara.

as for how your method of looking at stats is completely outlandish, guess who these players are:

50% from the field, 33% from 3, 20 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists per 40 minutes.

33.3% from the field 100% from 3, 24 points, 8 rebounds per 40 minutes

65% from the field, 10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists per 40 minutes
PER 19.5

50% from the field, 13% from 3, 14 points, 11 rebounds, 1.6 blocks per 40 minutes
PER 16.2

Guess we can’t use his bad soph. stats at Ok. state either then?

Like I said, he looked good early in the year for Cuse when he was playing. Then he got sick, and we were deep at forward and we never saw him again. Then he left.

Given that the coach’s cement footed kid had to play 40 a game last year, and we have little to no returning production at the position, I wish we had a Junior who at least had flashed some potential, in the program.

 

[Sbucketball]

I think there is great benefit to familiarity, repetition and good fit. Woody would no doubt be in a better place had he stayed than transferred. Same for Brycen and some others who have left.

Same with Guerrier, Braswell and maybe even Kadary. It's wild to see how many guys leave for greener pastures and do worse, or at least not better.

 

[althea]

Really good stuff. I love that you are brutally honest and don’t sugarcoat what you see. It’s good to hear so we can know what to expect in a way. I have only seen highlights on our guys and that’s not always the best indication of a players total skill set.
Well done. I also encourage anyone else to read his analysis on our incoming freshmen if you have not.

Yes, and his post was in reference to Maliq Brown. Surprisingly.

 

[Cuse181]

That’s what happens when you use stats for a player without a lot of minutes, many against subs. Heck, going to an extreme, if you look at SUs advanced metrics and per 40 stats, Chris Lavalle was our best player.

Exactly

 

[Cuse181]

Guess we can’t use his bad soph. stats at Ok. state either then?

Like I said, he looked good early in the year for Cuse when he was playing. Then he got sick, and we were deep at forward and we never saw him again. Then he left.

Given that the coach’s cement footed kid had to play 40 a game last year, and we have little to no returning production at the position, I wish we had a Junior who at least had flashed some potential, in the program.

That “cement footed kid” played pretty good and would’ve played far more minutes than Woody in any program regardless of his paternal status. I get the whole nepotism argument is one that is well loved here but s*^*-talking Jimmy got real old real quick when he proved he could play with the best of them.

 

[OrangeDW]

That “cement footed kid” played pretty good and would’ve played far more minutes than Woody in any program regardless of his paternal status. I get the whole nepotism argument is one that is well loved here but s*^*-talking Jimmy got real old real quick when he proved he could play with the best of them.

Lol. Why’d we go 16-17 then?

Somebody scores points even on the worst teams in the country.

“Play with the best of them”…..lol. He wouldn’t have played on any good SU teams.

 

[Cuse181]

Lol. Why’d we go 16-17 then?

Somebody scores points even on the worst teams in the country.

“Play with the best of them”…..lol. He wouldn’t have played on any good SU teams.

Boy you’re opening a can of worms brining up record lol… Your assumption is based on nothing more than your feelings, you have no clue where he would slot on a better (but not great) team, would he play 40 minutes? Of course not. Would he earn his 15-20? You bet. Also, he had a PER of 17 so he couldn’t have been all that bad using your own stat choice.

The player we are comparing him too however, we have the stats to backup newton could not even play 10 minutes on a .500 team (or one barely over .500 in 20). So I guess “stick to the stats”

 

[OrangeDW]

Boy you’re opening a can of worms brining up record lol… Your assumption is based on nothing more than your feelings, you have no clue where he would slot on a better (but not great) team, would he play 40 minutes? Of course not. Would he earn his 15-20? You bet. Also, he had a PER of 17 so he couldn’t have been all that bad using your own stat choice.

The player we are comparing him too however, we have the stats to backup newton could not even play 10 minutes on a .500 team (or one barely over .500 in 20). So I guess “stick to the stats”

We could’ve used Woody this year and we could probably use him next year.(I hope a couple freshmen are ready to play solid and Benny makes a big leap, but hard to know what will happen)

Glad you enjoyed this 16-17 season because Jimmy had some games where he scored points.

 

[OptimusOtto]

Watched this game and the one against Team Final (starring Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, and Dereck Lively (#1 recruit this year, headed to Duke).

Very different box scores from Maliq in the two games and very different team results. I have no idea what the final score was against Team Final, but Maliq's team clearly got their doors blown off (not exactly surprising given the difference in talent levels between the two teams). Maliq unofficially finished that one with 10 points, 2 rebounds, and a block. All 10 points were dunks or standing layups at the rim.

The other game, against Fork Union, Maliq was drifting for most of the game and then all hell broke loose towards the end as Fork Union couldn't handle a press to save their lives and Maliq imposed his will. He unofficially finished with:

• 29 points on 11/16 2 pointers (all dunks/layups) and 7/12 FT shooting for a TS% of 68.1%.
• 9 rebounds
• 2 assists to 2 turnovers
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

I'm going to give the other games a viewing as well, but personally, my expectations with him are very low. I can't really stress enough how poor the level of competition is. They'd struggle against even the bad high school teams I'm used to watching. And I just don't see Maliq's game translating against ACC caliber opponents (and honestly, pretty skeptical he can hack it at a mid-major level either).

The good with him is he's unselfish offensively. The ball doesn't stick to his hands; he either goes up with it/makes his move quickly or he keeps the ball moving elsewhere. His passing is also legitimately good; he made some nice pocket passes inside and one or two nice long passes to find cutters.

Outside of that, there isn't much positive that I can really say. He can run fine when he wants to, but he's not an explosive athlete. He regularly goes up for dunks and struggles to reach the rim. The lack of elevation shows defensively as well. He's able to pick up some helpside blocks where the offensive player just has no idea he's there or he gets to it before they get the ball up high, but he just doesn't get up well.

His highlights kinda sell him as a guy that plays like a dog and is always on the floor, making high effort plays and what not; his film is littered with lazy reach ins, getting blown by defensively, not boxing out/not trying to crash the glass, etc. There are flashes of him diving on the floor and stuff, but I wouldn't it's a regular thing with him.

I don't really think his scoring will translate in college; it's mostly a product of him being bigger than everyone else (though he did have a couple nice drives towards the end of the Fork Union game) and he looks like a poor free throw shooter to me.

All in all, I'm hoping I'll warm up to him more with the other couple games I've found, but to this point, he seems like a project player that doesn't have the athleticism to make the development time worthwhile. Maybe he just needs better trainers to unlock some additional athleticism; he doesn't look undeveloped physically so it's kinda confusing to me how little explosion he shows.

Peter Carey is a much more promising project to me. But you never know. I've certainly been wrong about recruits before. I just don't really see what makes Maliq attractive to us.

Appreciate the write up and insight, very helpful to those of us that don’t watch too much of the incoming kids. A little discouraging since the thought was he might be the most physically ready of the incoming forwards.

Very concerned where our rebounding is going to come from outside of Jesse. Hopefully Benny can bulk up and help out, but we’re going to need our guards to be more aggressive on the glass.

 

[Cuse181]

We could’ve used Woody this year and we could probably use him next year.(I hope a couple freshmen are ready to play solid and Benny makes a big leap, but hard to know what will happen)

Glad you enjoyed this 16-17 season because Jimmy had some games where he scored points.

Again you’re deflecting to statements I never made because your argument has failed on all fronts. I can recognize that a player played well while at the same time not commending the overall team performance. Perhaps you’re not able to separate the two.

 

[pearl31]

Watched this game and the one against Team Final (starring Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, and Dereck Lively (#1 recruit this year, headed to Duke).

Very different box scores from Maliq in the two games and very different team results. I have no idea what the final score was against Team Final, but Maliq's team clearly got their doors blown off (not exactly surprising given the difference in talent levels between the two teams). Maliq unofficially finished that one with 10 points, 2 rebounds, and a block. All 10 points were dunks or standing layups at the rim.

The other game, against Fork Union, Maliq was drifting for most of the game and then all hell broke loose towards the end as Fork Union couldn't handle a press to save their lives and Maliq imposed his will. He unofficially finished with:

• 29 points on 11/16 2 pointers (all dunks/layups) and 7/12 FT shooting for a TS% of 68.1%.
• 9 rebounds
• 2 assists to 2 turnovers
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

I'm going to give the other games a viewing as well, but personally, my expectations with him are very low. I can't really stress enough how poor the level of competition is. They'd struggle against even the bad high school teams I'm used to watching. And I just don't see Maliq's game translating against ACC caliber opponents (and honestly, pretty skeptical he can hack it at a mid-major level either).

The good with him is he's unselfish offensively. The ball doesn't stick to his hands; he either goes up with it/makes his move quickly or he keeps the ball moving elsewhere. His passing is also legitimately good; he made some nice pocket passes inside and one or two nice long passes to find cutters.

Outside of that, there isn't much positive that I can really say. He can run fine when he wants to, but he's not an explosive athlete. He regularly goes up for dunks and struggles to reach the rim. The lack of elevation shows defensively as well. He's able to pick up some helpside blocks where the offensive player just has no idea he's there or he gets to it before they get the ball up high, but he just doesn't get up well.

His highlights kinda sell him as a guy that plays like a dog and is always on the floor, making high effort plays and what not; his film is littered with lazy reach ins, getting blown by defensively, not boxing out/not trying to crash the glass, etc. There are flashes of him diving on the floor and stuff, but I wouldn't it's a regular thing with him.

I don't really think his scoring will translate in college; it's mostly a product of him being bigger than everyone else (though he did have a couple nice drives towards the end of the Fork Union game) and he looks like a poor free throw shooter to me.

All in all, I'm hoping I'll warm up to him more with the other couple games I've found, but to this point, he seems like a project player that doesn't have the athleticism to make the development time worthwhile. Maybe he just needs better trainers to unlock some additional athleticism; he doesn't look undeveloped physically so it's kinda confusing to me how little explosion he shows.

Peter Carey is a much more promising project to me. But you never know. I've certainly been wrong about recruits before. I just don't really see what makes Maliq attractive to us.

damn parade meet rain!

 

[TinyManInside]

So Woody isn’t a P5 player because he didn’t do anything last year, but Benny is a guaranteed starter even though he didn’t do anything last year?

The way Woody/Benny are viewed here by some is fascinating.

*Woody showed more as a freshman at SU than Benny did.

Woody per 40 at SU: 17.7 ppg / 9.1 rbg / 1.5 bpg / 46.4% fg / 38.9% 3pt
Benny per 40 at SU: 7 ppg / 5.2 rbg / 0.7 bpg / 33.9% fg / 9.1% 3pt

 

[AlaskaSU]

Absent a portal enhancement we will have a worse season than last year.

 

[TinyManInside]

Also, I’m not even sure why this is a discussion, where was this fierce defense of him last year? I didn’t see any of it.

RF2044 was high on Woody in 2020-2021 year and posted that many times. Not his fault if you weren't paying attention. Woody had 4 pretty decent games early in the year (9, 9, 6, 9) then got cemented to the bench.

 

[Orangezoo]

RF2044 was high on Woody in 2020-2021 year and posted that many times. Not his fault if you weren't paying attention. Woody had 4 pretty decent games early in the year (9, 9, 6, 9) then got cemented to the bench.

A few of us were noting how much better his play was his last year of prep. Honestly a lot of folks were intrigued and excited about the early returns. I feel like that is too easily forgotten.

 

[longtimefan]

RF2044 was high on Woody in 2020-2021 year and posted that many times. Not his fault if you weren't paying attention. Woody had 4 pretty decent games early in the year (9, 9, 6, 9) then got cemented to the bench.

It was reported that Covid was involved, but we have no real details on the situation, nor should we.

 

[RF2044]

Woody per 40 at SU: 17.7 ppg / 9.1 rbg / 1.5 bpg / 46.4% fg / 38.9% 3pt
Benny per 40 at SU: 7 ppg / 5.2 rbg / 0.7 bpg / 33.9% fg / 9.1% 3pt

"Stick to the stats"

Wait...

 

[OrangeDW]

Again you’re deflecting to statements I never made because your argument has failed on all fronts. I can recognize that a player played well while at the same time not commending the overall team performance. Perhaps you’re not able to separate the two.

He played well for a Cornell guy who wasn’t even recruited at this level. He did his best. He had some good games and good moments. He was often overmatched for what was asked of him.

We were baaaad at forward this year, by SU standards, and by top tier program in the ACC standards. That’s a big reason why we stunk. Defense counts.

Hopefully Brown will be a big upgrade. Would be nice to have some size and athleticism on the court again, if he and Benny can be major contributors and play together some.

 

[Melancer46]

RF2044 was high on Woody in 2020-2021 year and posted that many times. Not his fault if you weren't paying attention. Woody had 4 pretty decent games early in the year (9, 9, 6, 9) then got cemented to the bench.

Kinda on this topic in regards to my negative scouting report on Maliq Brown, I was very underwhelmed with Woody and Jesse Edwards’ high school film. And though I was ultimately correct about Woody ending up transferring away, he showed more promise here than I ever expected. And obviously Jesse has really developed in a way that I did not foresee. So maybe Maliq will too.

 

[Tony DeFranco]

Lol. Why’d we go 16-17 then?

Somebody scores points even on the worst teams in the country.

“Play with the best of them”…..lol. He wouldn’t have played on any good SU teams.

Pretty sure we went 16-17 because the combination of Girard, Buddy and Jimmy playing all game is not going to work against kids that run a 4.4 and jump through the roof

 

[Melancer46]

I finished watching this as well as the other Blue Ridge game.

In this one, I have him unofficially down for:

• 2 points on 1/1 shooting
• 4 rebounds
• 1 assist to 1 turnover
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

In his high school game, I have him down for:

• 16 points on 7/8 shooting and 2/5 FT shooting for a TS% of 78.4%
• 11 rebounds
• 2 assists to 0 turnovers
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

On the good side, the last high school game was a February 2022 game (compared to the rest of these games that occurred in summer or winter of 2021) and it was IMO the best that Maliq has looked athletically. He gets pretty high to block the shot below after looking like he just couldn't really jump much in the 2021 games. It was the easiest he's looked trying to dunk the ball too.

He showed a bit more effort in this game as well. His opponents had nobody that really stood a chance of defending him with his size and he actually tried to crash the glass as a result. And his passing from the perimeter continues to be impressive.

On the bad side, we have pretty much everything that occurred in the AAU game against Utah Prospects. Once again, he's just a guy out there. His only involvement in the team's offense is occasionally catching a pass and immediately handing it off as quickly as he can. Defensively, he's not much of a presence out there. Utah's big man, Zach Keller (#116 on the 247 composite and headed to Wake Forest) pretty much had his way with Maliq and he got blown by on a few switches with guards as well.

Through these 4 games, the difference between his production in AAU against real competition vs. in high school against weak competition is very stark. Averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds in the two high school games vs. 6 points 3 rebounds in the AAU games despite playing probably the same number of minutes across the board.

Hopefully this most recent high school game is a better barometer of his athleticism. That would give him something to build his game around, but I remain pretty skeptical of him.

 

[Sbucketball]

Very concerned where our rebounding is going to come from outside of Jesse. Hopefully Benny can bulk up and help out, but we’re going to need our guards to be more aggressive on the glass.

Benny doesn't really need to bulk up -- he's 6'8" 210-215lbs with a sneakily-muscular frame. Maybe a few more pounds this summer as long as he doesn't sacrifice athleticism. For comparison, Jesse is 230lbs. Benny just needs to realize he's playing against grown men, not high school boys. Hopefully he learned that lesson from Trayce Jackson Davis at the end of regulation of the Indiana game, and applies it going forward. I fully believe Benny will be a big contributor on the glass next year. Hopefully whoever starts at the 3 (probably Taylor/Bunch) learns to rebound quickly. Also, hopefully with more athletic guards and wings, there will be less good 3s attempted, which on the misses often result in forward rebounds instead of center rebounds.

 

[pearl31]

I finished watching this as well as the other Blue Ridge game.

In this one, I have him unofficially down for:

• 2 points on 1/1 shooting
• 4 rebounds
• 1 assist to 1 turnover
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

In his high school game, I have him down for:

• 16 points on 7/8 shooting and 2/5 FT shooting for a TS% of 78.4%
• 11 rebounds
• 2 assists to 0 turnovers
• 2 blocks and 1 steal

On the good side, the last high school game was a February 2022 game (compared to the rest of these games that occurred in summer or winter of 2021) and it was IMO the best that Maliq has looked athletically. He gets pretty high to block the shot below after looking like he just couldn't really jump much in the 2021 games. It was the easiest he's looked trying to dunk the ball too.

He showed a bit more effort in this game as well. His opponents had nobody that really stood a chance of defending him with his size and he actually tried to crash the glass as a result. And his passing from the perimeter continues to be impressive.

On the bad side, we have pretty much everything that occurred in the AAU game against Utah Prospects. Once again, he's just a guy out there. His only involvement in the team's offense is occasionally catching a pass and immediately handing it off as quickly as he can. Defensively, he's not much of a presence out there. Utah's big man, Zach Keller (#116 on the 247 composite and headed to Wake Forest) pretty much had his way with Maliq and he got blown by on a few switches with guards as well.

Through these 4 games, the difference between his production in AAU against real competition vs. in high school against weak competition is very stark. Averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds in the two high school games vs. 6 points 3 rebounds in the AAU games despite playing probably the same number of minutes across the board.

Hopefully this most recent high school game is a better barometer of his athleticism. That would give him something to build his game around, but I remain pretty skeptical of him.

Thanks again for your insightful reports on our recruits. My "rain/parade" comment above was just in jest... but yeah, Maliq is intriguing but also a bit of an enigma - and I have thought, even before your breakdown here, that he would be spot minutes off the bench until at least his soph season here - and am now a little perplexed/skeptical of folks seemingly slotting him in as the primary backup to Edwards and getting significant time at the 4...