Draft Projection

TBD

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Background and Notable Stats

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Sasha Mattias Grant was born on February 15, 2002 in Cagliari. His mother played basketball professionally in Dolianova. His mother retired after playing basketball for eight years and scouted for three years in young teams. Grant's father is an immigrant British citizen from Jamaica. His father's family was very poor when she was in Jamaica. 

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SMG is a very good friend with Nicolo Melli and Gigi Datome. When Melli and Datome go to Fenerbahçe Germany, they meet with SMG.

He has several friends, among whom he is very good. A little timid. In 2016, he was injured from the left ankle but recovered quickly.

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He likes to be at GYM in his spare time. Arm and chest are the things he works the most. He experienced a loss of motivation at the beginning of 2018, but while he was preparing for the tournament in Novi Sad that summer, he listened motivational speech and recovered for a while.

6-7 forward played at Jolly Dolianova, Cagliari Esperia and Pallacanestro Reggiana, before the summer break in 2017 for Bayern Munich. After Grant first second in Bavaria's men's team in the Bundesliga ProB and in youth gained experience and demonstrated great progress, especially in the game year 2019/20. He was first used in the basketball Bundesliga in October 2019 at the age of 17.

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On 2017-2018 ANGT, he averaged 13.3 points, 1.3 assists, 2.3 rebounds, one block while shooting 48% from the court and 50% from 3PT. His average of 3P% in the last two seasons is 22.9%.

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I was first impressed by SMG at the 2018 U16 European Championship in Novi Sad. He averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 1.6 blocks while shooting 44.7% from the court and 38.1% from 3PT.

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Mentality

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I have mental doubts about Grant. He is a fighter, who can take responsibility in critical moments, but is not stable. Sometimes he is very much affected by bad things off the court. I do not trust him as a leadership mentality.

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Physical Tools

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He is a powerful athlete with an absurdly strong and developed base. SMG has a strong frame. He was undersize in 2018. But in the past two years, works changed. His chest and shoulders have expanded incredibly. He got very strong. His arm muscles were already good, he learned to use a little more fluid. I think his upper body is ready for elite levels. Mattias Grant lower body is different. In his shooting mechanism 1.5 years ago, the power of SMG from the feet was remarkable. In the last 1.5 years, he reduced the power from his feet and put the power on his shoulders with the main arc. While his upper body was developing, his lower body stayed weak. I like his athleticism skills. He is an explosive vertical athlete off one feet and two. The quick first step with nice acceleration. He can move laterally fast. He has good hips turns, specially on baseline. He can get up quicky in traffic. He's good at use of his athletic skills on offense. On defense, things are different. He's good rim protector and has fast hand-foot coordination. However, he cannot use his athleticism skills in defense. In fact, he can get in touch and reduce opponent team tempo but he can't do this.

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Offense

I like his shots. He is elite jump shooter who is in my opinion the top three movement shooter in the 2002 international class. He does a great job passing off screens and reading the defense line to find a comfortable area to cut to and which way to use the screens. His shooting balance is pretty nice. He can shoot coming off a screen from either dribble direction.

 

Sasha Mattias Grant is also very good at catch & shooter. He uses the right shot at the right time without ever hesitating. His shooting range is very wide. Italian guard has good rhythm, nice bounce, and a good release point. But now I will touch on the subject that I curios most. As I said, he's great shooter. But towards the end of 2018, SMG's shooting rhythm dropped. Because he made some minor changes to the shot mechanism. In general, he was making a great energy transfer from his feet to his upper body and shooting with an acceleration from his shoulders. But in the last 1.5 years, the energy transfer in his feet has decreased and he started to take off all the power from his upper body.

 

You can understand this by looking at the foot alignments and the acceleration of the ball during the shot. This mechanism made him better as a movement shooter, but in the role of c&s, which would make him valuable for the NBA, the new mechanism reflected negatively. Last six months, he is an inconsistent shooter. However, generally, I buy his shooting.

 

I like his smooth and explosive athleticism. He is an average finisher in the paint. Explosive and can rise off one or two, can finish with contact and has shown some nice touch finishes as well. I think what makes SMG's athletics special is the fluency of Grant's smart move during the step. Btw, Zvezda match at 2018 ANGT is a great example for this. His first step is too strong but the second step too soft.

 

In this transition, he does half-spin and passing the defense line. Perfect step IQ. He can play on both roles on pick & roll. Also on pick & pop. I think that's the good things about his arsenal for now. He is not someone I want making decisions out of the post or creating for himself. He has basic footwork, which isn’t very good. He can drive in straight line and SMG has a pretty nice spin. Has a solid handle package but not creative. In my opinion, he is not someone I would trust handling in crowded areas. He is not a great passer but not under the average. He flashed a few solid short roll passes but overall accuracy needs work. He can make quick and smart decisions if he knows where the open man is going to be. His court vision is average.

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Defense

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Sasha Mattias Grant needs work on defense all around. There are a few good things but it's not ideal for high levels. SMG's defense footwork is good. His hands are very fast. He can combine these two things and read the attack well and steal the ball. He does a nice job for his size rotating to protect the rim. SMG does a good job his strength to bump guys off their spots. Also, he can chasedown. He shows some flashes of good post up defense but needs to learn timing and proper leg positioning. 6-7 forward does a good job fighting over the screens but needs work on timing. I'm not a fan of his closeouts at all. Grant's effort here is bad. He is also not someone you want chasing around screens for off ball defense.

 

About his ISO defense, there are some flashers of quick hip turns with good timing and footwork but he does not have a good defensive stance. For now, he can only do something with his quick hands and hip turns. His defensive motor is questionable. Grant is a player with a high focus throughout the game. But while he's in defense, this focus is sometimes in vain. He does unnecessary help in a position to follow his man. I think this is because of the lack of experience. But I still think he will be a classic 3&D for NBA. While it may not be a 3&D like Trevor Ariza or Torrey Craig, he may be like Jeff Green. Remember how awful Green was in defense in collage and his rookie year.