This is what I wrote about Aristode after watching 4 Brewster games. He's good--very good--but I'm not sure we have room for someone with such a limited offensive skillset in our system. He dominates AAU because of his physicality, but in real games, he's basically a spot up shooter who can't pass on that end. Very good defender though. I wonder if we're waiting to see how his dribbling and passing develop before pursuing him more aggressively. I may have not posted this before because I didn't want to say something so negative about a recruits ability on offense, but... f it.
...
Overall: I watched 4 games versus the best competition I could find. He’s a big, strong, physically advanced wing. Built like a grown man and can jump. 6’7 205–he’ll probably show up to college 6’8 220. Excellent 1v1 defender. Absolutely lockdown. His offense outside of spot up 3s is underwhelming. Good spot up shooter at about 38%. I don’t see how he could effectively play anything but the 4 in college barring a massive improvement on the offensive end. I worry that without a huge boost in his IQ and comfort vs pressure and moving the ball on the perimeter, he wouldn’t fit in with the identity we’ve created. All high school juniors need to improve, but his skillset would need to improve more than any other recruit in the last couple years to fit in.
Defense: Physically advanced and locked in on defense. Effort is fantatsic. Terrific wing defender and always matching up on the opponents best perimeter player regardless of size. He is going to be a fantastic college defender and a leader of a team defense. On the defensive end, he could be the best perimeter defender on the team in year 1. He’s got the physical profile to shut down the kind of strong, driving 4s that have given us fits lately. He held VJ Edgecombe (#4 in the 2024 class) to something like 2/9 shooting when Aristode was his primary defender. Despite being a fantastic athlete, he isn’t all that good of a defensive rebounder. He’s physical and tough so he gets the offensive boards, but can’t track the ball well enough or doesn’t have the awareness to get defensive boards at the rate you’d expect considering his size.
Offense: This is where things go a bit haywire. He can shoot the 3 at a solid clip–about 38% between high school and FIBA on decent attempts. He will be a very good spot up shooter in college. Can’t shoot off the dribble effectively. Frankly, just about everything else isn’t up to our level at his current stage of development. He struggles mightily versus pressure because his handles and passing aren’t good enough. He only had 1 assist and 3 potential assists in over 100 minutes of playing time I saw him in. That is simply not good enough. A JV player would get a few assists just by moving the ball out of fear. His handles are not good, and he dribbles far too much for his skill level in close games. It leads to turnovers–almost 3 a game and those are almost exclusively from dribbling into traffic with no plan. He frequently slows down the offense by getting into this triple threat with his head down by his waist looking at his toes. With the ball on the perimeter, his decision-making is much too slow. It’s a 0-threat because he can’t shoot or pass with his head down, and he doesn’t have the handles to make something happen in anything but a wide open lane or in transition anyways. No left hand finish at the rim at all, nor does he have the Jalen Adams'esque creativity to get the shot off. Spends far too much time uninvolved and standing around on offense while his teammates make plays. His passing IQ is too low to be an effective part of a press break.
www.on3.com
