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SHAMORIE PONDS

BIRTHDATE: 6/28/98

POSITION: Combo Guard

HEIGHT: 6'1"

WEIGHT: 175 lbs

SCHOOL/ TEAM: St. Johns

CLASS: Junior

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STRENGTHS

  • Fearless and efficient scorer over 3 years in college

  • Big time scorer that can put up numbers in bunches

  • Good athlete, shifty, agile and changes direction

  • Quick first step

  • Crafty, creative professional  scorer. Shoots fadeaways, reverse layups

  • Flashy NYC playground ball handler, shake & bake handle with deadly spin move

  • Good shooter can score in a variety of ways, off the dribble, catch & shoot, fade aways

  • Efficient scorer out of pick & roll and isolation 

  • Grabbed 4 rebounds per game

  • Plays with a swagger and heart

  • Attempted 5 FTs per game and shot over 80% from line

  • Strong enough to post up weaker/smaller guards

  • Much improved playmaker. Increased assists and decreased turnovers in 2018-19

WEAKNESSES

  • Tendency to be a ball stopper

  • Good but streaky shooter

  • Shot selection; Takes a lot of deep 3's early in the shot clock

  • NBA fit? Is he a 1 or 2

  • Not an explosive run and jump vertical athlete.

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Shamorie Ponds is about buckets. If you read nothing else of his profile, know that Ponds is a scoring machine. He came to St. John’s as a highly ranked guard out of the Brooklyn and individually he didn’t disappoint. He’s listed at 6’1” 170 lbs, he’s wiry strong and quick with a knack for putting the ball in the basket. As impressive as  averaging 17.4 ppg, looked in the basic stats, he did it pretty efficiently posting 44% fg, 38% 3fg, 57.1 TS. numbers as a freshman.

Coach Chris Mullin gave the young freshman free reign to shoot whatever shot he wanted. Ponds can shoot the 3 ball off the dribble or from a standstill and is not ashamed to let them fly at any time. He doesn’t play above the rim but is very crafty at the basket and finishes with both hands. The lefty naturally fades on his jumper which allows him to get his shot off vs taller defenders. When he beats the big off the dribble he uses the rim as protection and has a nice reverse layup package.

I’d like to see Ponds improve on his playmaking and shot selection. He’s a great scorer to a fault: he’s prone to throwing up a contested three pointer early in the shot clock or trying to finish at the rim in traffic when he should shoot the floater. He does have floater in his arsenal but he needs to use it more often. If he takes just two less tough shots a game, he’s leading the Big East in scoring. He averaged a solid 3 assists a game but he’s not the playmaker the numbers lead him to be. Couple that with him almost averaging 2 turnovers and you have room for improvement.

Look, I don’t think he’s ever going to be a pass first point guard or even a scoring point guard but there’s a role for guys like him in the league. I think he’s Lou Williams 2.0. Whether or not he’s an elite level scorer in the NBA like Sweet Lou is remains to be seen but Ponds has a future making money scoring the ball. If he can learn how to make a few reads out of the pick and roll he can boost his draft stock.
 

JAMES BARLOWE - SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

SUMMARY

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