Devoe Joseph

A Canadian shooting guard heading to Minnesota next season, Joseph displayed both range on his jumper and the ability to get to the hoop during the game. The high release point on his shooting stroke combined with a quick release will get him minutes next season as a freshman, but there are other well developed areas of his game as well.

Joseph isn’t a jump out of the gym freak when it comes to athleticism, but he’s very smooth and controls his body quite well. In addition to solid ball-handling, the guard can finish against much bigger players in the paint.

At this point, Joseph remains a scorer rather than a point guard, and Juan Dixon seems like a good comparison when comparing them physically and skill-wise. It would help his draft stock if he could play the point guard at least part time over the course of his career, but his shooting stroke may give him a chance at the NBA regardless.

One of the top scorers of the tournament, Devoe Joseph took over the Canadian offense from the very beginning, assuming big responsibilities on the court. He is a sort of combo guard, a 6-3 skinny scorer. His body is noticeably underdeveloped, which makes sense since he is still one year younger than most of the players at the tournament.

Although he played the point for some stretches, he showed very little playmaking mentality. At least, team playmaking, because the great majority of his efforts have a single destination: his own points. The guy has a great ability to release his shot off the dribble, even against opposition, and enjoys a nice soft touch. Still, he takes way too many shots, eventually forcing them and becoming predictable, so his percentages suffered. He has nice ball-handling skills that he uses to unbalance his rivals in order to release his jumper or to attack them looking for the basket, where he shows nice ability to step into the lane and finish around the rim. Given his offensive prominence on the team, it does not come as a surprise that he is not the most devoted player on the court.
He is still very young and he shows a nice feel for the game, so we will see how he evolves. Considering his size and unspectacular athleticism, becoming a real point guard should be the key to playing at the highest level. Still, he might turn out as a valuable scorer in Europe down the road.