T.J. Warren Scouting Report

Profiling the leading scorer from the ACC.

One quality that can’t always be coached is leadership; it’s something you’re born with. Some people are meant to be leaders, others aren’t. There was a good bit of adversity surrounding the NC State program this offseason. Starters Scott Wood and Richard Howell both graduated, C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown left Raleigh early to enter the NBA Draft and freshman phenom Rodney Purvis decided to transfer. NC State entered the season with low expectations, but T.J. Warren has stepped up and held the program together with an incredible season.

Before NC State’s devastating loss against North Carolina, in which Warren dropped 36 points, Warren was averaging 23.3 points per game which leads the ACC and is 4.5 points better than the player in second place. If you take a closer look at his stats they’re seriously ridiculous. Warren currently leads the ACC and is seventh in the NCAA in total field goal attempts with 463; he’s converted on 52.3 percent of these attempts which also is first in the ACC. Also Warren is boasting a PER of 29.6 which – you guessed it – is first in the ACC and his 3.1 offensive win shares are also leading the conference.

Just off reading that paragraph alone, you would have to assume Warren has no offensive weaknesses, but he struggles to shoot three pointers. Currently all of Warren’s stats are pretty much eye-popping in a good way, until you see his three point percentage which is at a dismal 29.7 percent. Many teams will not want to invest a high pick in a small forward for the future if they don’t believe he’ll be able to make three pointers at the next level. On straight drives to the rim, Warren is near  impossible to stop because he often looks to draw a fouls, but this will obviously be more difficult at the next level.

To spend so much time on the wing Warren is also a very good rebounder, averaging 7.1 rebounds a game, ranking seventh in the ACC. He has also totaled 81 offensive rebounds this year; second in the conference. Simply put: T.J. Warren is relentless around the rim in multiple phases of the game, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see teams experiment with Warren at power forward either.

Defensively I don’t see Warren having many issues, especially if his primary position remains small forward. He’s very active on this end and is averaging 1.7 steals a game. Thanks to possessing a decent amount of athleticism and quickness Warren shouldn’t have too many problems staying in front of players at the next level. I don’t see him ever being an elite defender, but he won’t be a liability on this end either. Size won’t be a problem either; Warren is 6’8” and has a wing-span of about 6’9.5”; he also weighs in at 220 lbs.

For months now I had never really taken T.J. Warren seriously as an elite prospect because I’m really turned off by his inability to shoot from range, but that was a poor assessment in my part. His shooting liabilities obviously haven’t kept him from scoring at an extremely high rate this season. It’s a shame Warren has such little help around him this year so his team can’t make any serious noise, but he’s clearly one of the better players in the country and he’s still so young.  I’ve had him in the 20s in every one of my mocks I believe, but I think he’s more than worthy of a top-20 selection and possibly could even sneak into the lottery.

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