Devontae Shuler: How He Fits

A rising junior from South Carolina Devontae Shuler has quickly gained offers from top programs across the country.  His stellar play has garnered respect, as he is on the ESPN Top 60 for the 2017 class.  NC State is interested in the crafty 6’3″ guard who will be suiting up for Oak Hill to conclude his final two seasons of prep basketball.  This could be great news for Gottfried as he has had success in recruiting kids from Oak hill.  Most recently Cody and Caleb Martin, but also Tyler Lewis.  Lets breakdown Shuler’s game and see what he could bring to the Wolfpack.

Offensively: 

Shuler excels at getting to the rim by utilizing a wide variety of hesitations, in-and-out dribbles, and mixing up his finishes.  One thing that Devontae does that is way beyond his years (he is a rising junior) is that he uses the rim to shield the ball which allows him to finish with consistency.  Another strength for Shuler is his ability to play in the open court, he is very fluid and has amazing body control.  He is capable of contorting himself to slither through double teams and big enough to absorb contact and still convert.

Playing at Oak Hill will help Shuler develop better play-making abilities through passing.  With his age he hasn’t had much of an opportunity to play-make, as he as been looked upon to shoulder so much of the scoring load.  By playing with more talented players he should have more opportunities to be a true point guard; however, I think he may be best suited as a combo guard.  He reminds me a lot of Trevor Lacey in his ability to create his own shot, and in the way he is built.  Check out Devontae’s moves below:

One thing you will notice in the video is he is great at changing speeds, he is very comfortable at lulling his defender to sleep and then he bursts out of his moves.  This is something so many players struggle with.  Shuler can beat a lot of guys because he understands this principle.  I would say he is an above average athlete, but his understanding of pace makes him extremely difficult to defend.

Defensively: 

As good as Shuler is offensively he still has a lot of work to do on the defensive end.  He is not a terrible defender by any means, but he is prone to reaching and gambling unnecessarily.  This shouldn’t shock anyone as he hasn’t even started his junior season, and I am sure Oak Hill will demand more effort and teach Devontae the keys to being a great defender.  One thing he has going for him is the fact that he plays hard!  He competes on defense.

As you can see Shuler gambles at times and is beaten by his man, but this doesn’t stop him from trying.  At the 50 second mark he picks Seventh Woods pocket and finishes a nifty layup which was contested.

Intangibles: 

It is apparent that Devontae is sound from a fundamental prospective.  He knows how to use angles and pace in order to beat his defender.  By bringing that cerebral approach to the game you can tell that it rubs off on his teammates.  In the tape that I have watched it is clear that he is a coach on the court, he tries to teach his teammates throughout the game.  More importantly they respond to him because he does it in a way that is not berating them or talking down to them.  These are qualities that coaches love in players because all players need to be teachable.

Improvement: 

A couple things that Devontae needs to work on are defense and his play-making.  At the next level he will need to be able to play the point guard position at times which will require him to initiate the offense and get his teammates involved.  Thus far I haven’t seen great court vison from him and he is prone to getting tunnel vision for his own shots, but its’ hard to blame him.  I will be interested in seeing how he plays with Oak Hill, where he will be surrounded by upper echelon talent.  He will have more opportunity at getting others involved as he will not be asked to shoulder as much of the scoring load.

Defensively he needs to brush up on his fundamentals of how to defend the pick and roll.  He must stop playing pick and rolls indecisively.  Sometimes he is unsure if he should go under or over the top.  This will improve with experience as well as scouting reports.  Lastly he will have to stop reaching in.  Defense is played with your feet not your hands.  Once again this should improve over time.

Summary: 

Watching Shuler play one can easily see why he is so coveted.  Things appear easy for Devontae on the offensive end as he is smooth with the ball and strong enough to finish in the paint.  Not only is he great inside the paint but has to be respected with his ability to knock down three’s and a decent pull up.  I am anxiously awaiting his season at Oak Hill to start, as it will give a more accurate sample of what we can expect from Devontae as he plays against top talent.  One thing that I love about Shuler is that he has lots of room for improvement.  He has tons of upside and should start to unearth some of this upside under Steve Smith at Oak Hill.  Time will tell if Gottfried can gain the commitment of Shuler…it will probably be a while before a commitment comes from him.