Rasheer Fleming Scouting Deepdive
The Saint Joseph's product is one of the best offensive forwards in the NBA Draft. What makes Rasheer Fleming special and how can he impact his team early in his career?
It is rare that you find a 6’9 player that can carve up teams inside the paint, on the perimeter, on the boards, and on the defensive end. However, Rasheer Fleming fits that description perfectly. After three seasons at Saint Joseph’s, Fleming solidified himself as one of the best players outside of the traditional power conferences. Now, just days away from the NBA draft, Fleming should expect to hear his name called within the first round. Let’s dive into what Fleming’s potential career looks like at the highest level.
The Physical Profile
During the NBA Combine, Fleming was measured at a shade under 6’9 with a ridiculous 7’5 wingspan. For his verticals, he registered a 32.5” max and a 27” no step. A couple of players that come to mind when looking at Fleming are:
One player that comes to mind is Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Reid is also 6’9 with a 7’3 wingspan. Reid has gotten better with each passing season and he’s developed into a strong offensive player. Reid shot 46.2% overall last year and 37.9% from deep on 5.8 attempts per game. Notably, he also racked up six rebounds a game last season. Reid is a better shot creator for himself than Fleming is at this point, but I think we can see Fleming have similar production if not even a bit quicker in terms of development in his first couple of seasons in the NBA.
Another player that I see in Fleming is Obi Toppin of the Indiana Pacers. Toppin of course is a ridiculous athlete with his dunks and verticality. However, Obi has developed into a lethal offensive weapon as well. He shot 36.5% from three-point on 3.8 attempts this season and 40.3% on 3.1 attempts the season prior. With Haliburton and Nembhard leading the offense, it opens opportunities for Toppin on the catch-and-shoot and cutting drives. Fleming is a much better defender, but there’s a lot to like about Fleming playing a similarly important role on a team like Toppin does for the Pacers.
Let’s chat about his athleticism quickly. He moves well and he can recover quickly, which combined with his 7’5 wingspan means that he can be a menace on defense. He can slash his way to the paint and carve out space for himself while rebounding and finishing in the paint.
What’s the Vision?
You can’t talk about Rasheer Fleming without acknowledging his outlandish offensive capabilities. On the season, he shot 64.6% from inside the arc which was 80th in the nation. He added on a 39% three-point shooting percentage which placed him at 287th in the nation following 159 attempts at 6’9. He finished 47th in the country in effective field goal percentage, 48th in the country in true shooting percentage, and 190th overall in offensive rating. Needless to say, Fleming is far above average on the offensive end. When you sit down and look at Saint Joseph’s team last year, Fleming wasn’t even the primary player as he finished third in scoring. The Hawks also had Xzayvier Brown and Erik Reynolds III, so Fleming was putting up these kinds of stats with two incredible players surrounding him.
Data aside, what makes him special on offense is his ability to be versatile. He is the definition of a stretch four in the modern NBA. He is incredible at cutting to the basket, finishing around the rim, coming off the roll, and stepping outside and knocking down shots from beyond the arc. His size gives him a huge advantage, and his athleticism makes him almost impossible to stop down low.
We’ve talked a ton about Fleming’s offense, but his defense isn’t far behind him in terms of talent. His wingspan at 7’5 gives him a tremendous ability to alter shots down low and passes in the paint. He featured a 4.9% block rate last season, which was 203rd in the country. He also featured a 2.6% steal rate, which was 475th in the nation. What I love about his defense is, if a team wants to run a small lineup Fleming is good enough to even anchor the paint by himself.
How Can It Break Down?
While Fleming has the potential to be one of the best offensive forwards in this year’s draft, there is a gapping hole in his ability to create his own offense. He pretty much cannot create anything for himself. He’s an incredible catch-and-shoot player, he does fantastically on cuts and off the pick-and-roll, and obviously his 64.6% finish rate inside the arc shows how well he finishes inside shots. However, when it comes to him being able to stretch the floor and shoot off the dribble, don’t expect much. The good news is, if you put him on a team in the NBA with a strong playmaker at point, he isn’t going to have to create his own offense. However, teams aren’t going to ask him to go out and lead a charge.
There is a bit of question around his consistency as well. Saint Joseph’s was supposed to be one of the best non-power conference teams in college basketball last season and a contribution reason to why that didn’t happen was the big three not being able to be consistent together. For Fleming, he had some stretches of being just okay vs stretches of being incredible. In the A-10 tournament, he averaged ten rebounds, but just 8.6 points per game on just 28.5% shooting overall and 21.4% from deep. That continued into the NIT where he went just 2-8 from the floor and 0-4 from three-point in a first round loss to UAB. Over the last eight games of the year, he managed to shoot just 22.5% from beyond the arc. The good news is, even though there were some inconsistencies during the regular season he would usually bounce back which is a sign of a good player that can battle through slumps and adversity. Plus, he still shot 53.1% overall and 39% from deep which shows just how elite he was in the other games.
What’s the Pathway?
There has been a lot of chatter about Fleming and what his potential to contribute in the NBA looks like. While the ability to create his own offense hinders him and the fact that he didn’t play in a power conference raises some questions, I don’t think either are anything of concern. The A-10 is a strong non-power conference league, against Texas he posted 16 points and 20 rebounds, against Texas Tech he finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Everything that he has shown throughout workouts, and the combine has proven that he is a first-round pick caliber player and he’ll fit in well as a stretch-four in the modern NBA. However, there are a couple of areas that I’d love to see Fleming develop:
Shot Creation – Admittedly, this is a long shot here. He’s just never proven that the potential is there to create his own offense, but this skill would take him from having an average NBA career to having a potentially strong career. At 6’9 with a 7’5 wingspan, if he could create his own offense, he’d mirror a skill set that of Pascal Siakam. What does he have to do to develop this skill? First, he’d have to be asked. At the end of the day, this isn’t why he is going to get drafted so there’s a reasonable chance that he doesn’t get the opportunity to develop it. However, if a team was willing to invest the development time in it, Fleming’s long-term stock skyrockets.
Playmaking – Fleming has improved each season with his playmaking abilities. He jumped from 0.6 to 0.8 to 1.3 assists per game over the last three seasons. He featured an 8.5% assist rate against a 14.2% turnover rate. He could use some work on that ratio, but it’s not like Fleming is going to be leading a fast break while handling the ball. However, he is so elite inside the arc and he can stretch outside that it’s going to open an ability to create opportunities for others. I’m not looking for 5 assists per game, but I could see 2-3 assists per game if he is able to take a step forward in this area. Imagine that he catches the ball in a little cut to the basket, kicks it back out to an open player outside. Vice versa, he catches the ball outside, shot fakes and kicks it to another with some nice ball movement.
For those of you that know me, I’m an avid fan of non-power conference schools. Let me tell you that after watching Saint Joseph’s many times this season, Fleming is the type of player that could end up being an absolute steal in the NBA draft. His mock position is a bit all over the place, but there is no doubt that he is a first round pick. Personally, I believe that he needs to go to a team that has multiple facilitators. I saw a mock draft with him going to the Thunder at #15 and I think he’d thrive in a lineup that features Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way.