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Penn State Basketball: Josh Reaves NBA Draft Profile

By Dylan Burd

EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 31: Josh Reaves #23 of the Penn State Nittany Lions drives past Miles Bridges #22 of the Michigan State Spartans in the second half at Breslin Center on January 31, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - JANUARY 31: Josh Reaves #23 of the Penn State Nittany Lions drives past Miles Bridges #22 of the Michigan State Spartans in the second half at Breslin Center on January 31, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 29: Josh Reaves #23 of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts in the second quarter against the Utah Utes during the 2018 NIT Championship game at Madison Square Garden on March 29, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 29: Josh Reaves #23 of the Penn State Nittany Lions reacts in the second quarter against the Utah Utes during the 2018 NIT Championship game at Madison Square Garden on March 29, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Weaknesses

Shot Creation:

Josh Reaves isn’t a guy who’s going to generate offense himself. He’s not someone who’s going to shoot off the dribble.

Since Reaves isn’t a player who’s ball dominant, he also doesn’t get to the free throw line much, if at all. He averaged less than two free throw attempts per game during the 2018-19 season, and didn’t do much with that as he only shot 65.6% from the charity strike.

This is a weakness in his game that’s caused him to not be higher on draft boards. Last season, Reaves only shot 42.6% from the field, which was a significant drop off from the 2017-18 season where he shot 48.7% from the field.

While Josh Reaves isn’t someone who’s going to generate offense, his catch-and-shoot game isn’t bad. He did shoot 37.7% from three-point range in the 2017-18 season and 35.6% from three-point range in the 2018-19 season.

The hope is for Reaves to be a 3&D player in the league. If he is going to fit that mold, the three-point percentages need to come up a little bit.

Handles/Erratic Play:

As I said before, Reaves doesn’t create much offense himself and one of the reasons is his limited ball-handling abilities. The majority of the time he did put the ball on the floor in the half-court, it was dribbling into the paint with his left hand. That type of one-dimensional play is why some scouts aren’t very high on Reaves.

Sometimes if a pass wasn’t there when driving into the paint, Reaves would attempt a crazy, erratic, awkward-looking type of shot that wouldn’t be even close to going in. This is something that Reaves has improved upon as he matured as a player, but it still happens from time-to-time.

Turnovers:

Reaves was never a turnover problem until this past season, where he averaged 2.5 turnovers per game. His turnover percentage went up from 13.5% last season to 17.3% this season.

If I had to guess, part of the reason this happened is because of the adjustment he had to make with the departure of Tony Carr. With someone who was as ball-dominant as Carr on the floor, Reaves was able to play the game he was comfortable playing on offense and that’s moving off the ball.

This past season, he did have the ball more in his hands, which is why the turnovers could have increased. In the NBA, I don’t think this will be a major factor as he’ll never be handling the ball when he’s in the game.

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