Charlotte Hornets 2021-22 preview: Scottie Lewis
By Quinn Everts
Well, What Is He Good At?
Plenty of players have failed to crack NBA rosters even with freakish measurements and “bounce”. Oftentimes, they don’t actually know how to translate their natural gifts into useful on-court skills. How can Scottie Lewis differ from other “freak athletes” who couldn’t carve out an NBA career? Well, those other guys didn’t get a profile on Swarm and Sting dot com, the greatest basketball site on the internet, so Scottie already has that going for him. He also uses his measurables and athleticism as a weapon. Probably moreso the second thing.
What does it mean to use athleticism as a “weapon”?
For starters, he did this. Which sums it up pretty well.
Overall Defensive Impact
Whether he’s on the floor in Charlotte or Greensboro, Lewis’ best attribute will be his constant defensive intensity.
The “eye test” is an important part of determining a player’s defensive skillset, but relying solely on what is visible during the constant up-and-down pace of a basketball game makes catching some of the nuances of “good defense” difficult. This is when advanced stats become more useful. When the eye test is examined in conjunction with a player’s steals, blocks, defensive win shares, DBPM, defensive rating (sometimes), etc, then a clearer view of “defensive impact” starts to form.
Well good news, loyal Swarm and Sting readers; Scottie Lewis passed the “eye test” on the defensive end at Florida with flying colors, using his foot speed, lateral quickness, length, strength, anticipation, and vertical ability frequently enough to stand out on film. And he was pretty dang impressive in most advanced defensive categories, too. Let us take a journey into Scottie Lewis’ defensive upside. (All stats are from the 2020-21 season, and are courtesy of sports-reference.com).
Steals:
Per Game: 1.6
Per 40 Minutes: 2.5
STL%: 3.5
Having arms akin to those of a Wacky Wavy Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man™ is pointless unless a player can use them to wreak havoc on the defensive end, and Scottie Lewis did in fact use his pool noodle-esque limbs to irritate offenses and infiltrate seemingly every passing lane in the Southern U.S. His Steal Percentage of 3.5 was second-best in the SEC for the 2020-21 season. He was great at swiping the ball from defenders hands, intercepting lazy passes, and had a knack for baiting offensive players into making passes and then immediately jumping in the lane, often causing a steal or at least a deflection. (Youtube clips courtesy of users AC Hoops and Swish).
He also has great defensive instincts. Lewis anticipates the screen here and begins to fight through it before it was even actually set, which allowed him to easily work around the screener and steal the pass.
Blocks:
Per Game: 1.0
Per 40 Minutes: 2.3
BLK %: 4.4
Lewis finished 10th in Block Percentage in the SEC last season, and was comfortably the shortest player in the top 10, a list where all but two players (Lewis and Yves Ponds) were Centers. Lewis was not afraid to challenge anyone at the rim, and seemed to be consistently good at jumping straight up when contesting a shot, not letting his arms come down towards the offensive player and committing a foul.
He also had multiple chasedown blocks, using his length and leaping ability to swat the ball off of the backboard after using his speed to run down a player, and multiple more help-side blocks, where he hedged off his defender and got a block on a driving player.
Defensive Box Plus/Minus:
Listen, if you’re still reading this article about the Hornets 56th overall draft pick after nearly 1000 words, you are the real MVP and deserve to be compensated for your time.
Now let’s talk about Scottie Lewis’ DBPM at Florida. Ah, it appears he has the 17th best career DBPM in the last 14 years of SEC basketball. Promising! Lewis was in the top five of DPM in the SEC during both seasons he played (fifth his Freshman year, and second in his Sophomore year.)
Defensive box plus/minus certainly can not be used in isolation when determining a player’s impact, but Lewis having extremely impressive STL% and BLK% in addition to his DBPM show that Florida was a considerably better defensive team with Scottie on the floor.