Aidan McCarty 2020 NBA Scouting Report - #1 OVERALL PICK?

This is the Aidan McCarty NBA draft scouting video. Aidan has an ideal NBA body at 5'10" with a 6'2" wingspan, similar dimensions to a LeBron James viewed from 50 feet away. These dimensions make for an ideal finishing package, very difficult to stop around the rim, especially with limited or no defense. You can see that Aidan prefers to finish with his right hand even when on the left side of the hoop. This extreme right-hand dominance often leads Aidan to attempt impressive, if ill-advised, finishes. But this skill of finishing difficult layups with no defense at all should translate directly to NBA practice drills and pregame warmups. Aidan shows incredible creativity in doing literally anything to avoid finishing with his left, going deep in his bag with spin moves, crossovers, and Eurosteps while finishing acrobatic and off-balance shots. Aiden does occasionally make shots more difficult than they have to be. Here, for example, going to the up-and-under layup when there's no defenders in sight.

And here, going to the Eurostep floater, again with no defenders in sight.

There's no defense in these clips, but you can just imagine Aiden breaking ankles before lofting these layups just over the outstretched fingers of a Giannis or Rudy Gobert.

Here you can see a shot chart of Aiden's last 3 months of training. He took less than 10% of his shots inside the paint and still hit 36% from 3 and 59% inside the arc. Aidan is a polished, 3-level scorer who can make shots from anywhere on the court if left wide open. Scouts aren't sure if this level of efficiency can translate to the NBA, so we asked a few for their opinions.

I gotta be honest with you, you know, Aidan's not really even on our radar. I can't tell you that he's He's on our big board. When you look at his frame and those scoring numbers, you gotta remember that that's against no defense at all. NBA defenders are absolutely gonna eat this kid alive. I feel bad for him, to be completely honest.

When you take a look at Aiden's scoring numbers, you have to remember that he's doing this on a double rim and he's doing it outside. When you take that into account, it's really remarkable the scoring rate he's been able to achieve. And when you look at the numbers, just analytically, this guy jumps off the charts.

"Aiden's the best basketball player I've ever seen. Period.

It's that simple." When you look at the tape, you can understand why Aiden is so polarizing. While many of these moves are impressive, they are only defended by the defenders Aiden imagines while shooting to make himself feel like a real basketball player. Would a Kevin Durant or LeBron James be able to alter these pull-ups, make them lower percentage?

Probably not.

Aidan's quick changes of directions often look out of control, as if he doesn't realize that he's not as athletic as Russell Westbrook. This can make Aidan injury-prone as he flails around trying to do things that a 5'10" white boy has no business doing. His last major injury was from a collision in his family's annual Thanksgiving showdown. Where he led his team to victory shooting 25% from the field and 10% from downtown. Aidan has assured NBA teams that his health is dramatically improved as he's taking care of his body by playing just a few times a week.

Watching Aidan's tape, it often feels like his game is highly optimized for the one-on-zero world of COVID-era basketball. He falls in love with these mid-range pull-up tough fading jumpers even when there's no defenders in front of him to prevent a straight drive to the rim. Aidan does have a nice quick-release game for a mediocre athlete like himself, showing off his dollar bill hops on these looks. In some clips, it even looks like he thinks he's Steph Curry, just much less athletic and coordinated and cool. He never passes, even to wide-open strangers off to the side of the court, and he needs to learn to first have and then find open teammates. Aidan's defense is also questionable, though in a small sample size. There's no clips in the film we have, but scouts have said he's completely incapable of stopping his 53-year-old dad in the post, getting bullied under the rim into fadeaway after fadeaway after fadeaway. But Aidan's mentally tough, so it doesn't bother him.

By far the biggest question mark surrounding Aidan is his rate of improvement. He dropped out of college to maintain his draft eligibility. But proceeded to go undrafted in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Despite these setbacks, Aidan remains optimistic, undeterred in his belief that he will be the number 1 pick in 2020. The problem is that Aidan often looks no more bouncy than he did even a year ago. Here's a 23-year-old Aidan demolishing a 9-foot-5 hoop. And here's him doing the same on a 10-foot hoop. Today. So what can we expect from Aidan in the league, wherever he gets drafted? Watching Aidan unleash his huge array of dribble moves into feathery jumpers brings to mind a 13-year-old Steph Curry, a slow-motion Allen Iverson, or a 10-year-old LeBron James.

His ceiling?

If Aidan today is like Steph at 13, in just 17 years, by the time he's 41 years old, Aiden could develop into a 2-time MVP and 3-time champion. The sky is the limit. But his floor? Prime Allen Iverson's 6-month-old daughter. It's hard to know how good Aiden can be. Is he like a young Michael Jordan, but 5'10", skinny, and not very athletic? Or like Zion Williamson, but half the size and worse at basketball? Or is Aiden the next coming of Steve Nash? Will Aiden go number 1 overall as expected, or will NBA teams again fail to realize his MVP potential? All we know for sure is that we'll all be watching intently on draft night to see when, and if, Aiden's name will be called.