Skylar Mays: Weaknesses
Of course, most people will point to Mays’ draft age as a weakness. And yes, if you’re looking for All-NBA talent, your odds are better if you’re drafting someone before they turn 21 as opposed to if you don’t. Still, over the past five seasons, nine of the 25 players selected to the All-Rookie First team were 21 years old or older when they were drafted, including Kyle Kuzma (22), Donovan Mitchell (21), and Jordan Clarkson.
Mays’ numbers on defense are not super impressive, yet most who covered the team will say he’s a pretty serviceable point-of-attack defender and a decent team defender. However, Mays’ ranked within the 47th percentile in allowed points per possession guarding the pick-and-roll, and was not immune from getting beat by the occasional back-door play as seen below.
Last year, something that I have mentioned a decent amount with Skylar Mays was how often he lost his man on defense (or got backdoored). Same story here vs USC pic.twitter.com/cq2N0nM3qc
— Zach Milner (@ZachMilner13) March 31, 2020
Furthermore, because Mays’ doesn’t have great lateral quickness, he can get beat off the dribble and struggles to recover to his man. Using Adam Spinella’s scouting report, fast forward to the 40-second mark to find the first of 5 clips that show Mays’ defensive limitations. He struggles to get through screens, and even when he’s in a decent position, with his hands up, Mays still has difficulty with keeping quicker guards in front of him.
Offensively, Mays is not going to create a lot in isolation plays. Alex Brown of Advanceprobasketball.com points out that Mays is clearly more comfortable in catch-and-shoot situations and even noticed some inconsistencies in Mays’ shot mechanics when he incorporates his dribble. That being said, Mays shows some promise, as he can get to those shots, and finished within the 89th percentile in half-court shots off the dribble.