Aptronym (noun): a person’s name that is regarded as amusingly appropriate to their occupation.
Do you ever feel like names are a form of predestination?
It’s astounding how often athletes with a particular name find a way to represent that name. Usain Bolt and Stromile Swift are extremely fast. D’Brickashaw Ferguson was an unmovable lineman. Homer Bailey couldn’t stop giving up homers. Kenneth Gainwell gains yards well. Prince and Cecil Fielder did a lot of fielding at first base.
Down in New Orleans, another contender has thrown his hat in the ring. Enter Dyson Daniels, the defensive vacuum.
Defensive Overview
The main sell on Daniels as a prospect was the ability to impact the game on the uglier side of the floor. He has certainly delivered on that – Daniels ranks first on the Pelicans in defensive box plus-minus, and the team defense improves by 5.3 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
As a combo guard, his 6’8″ frame and 6’10.5″ wingspan truly stand out and enable him to contribute in various ways. Let’s explore this further.
Elite Floor Raiser
It’s hard to find a guard with a more comprehensive defensive profile in terms of statistics.
Amongst combo guards, Daniels grades highly in terms of defensive event creation with a 70th percentile block rate and 91st percentile steal rate. He’s disciplined in his chaos creation to boot with a 49th percentile foul rate. In short, Daniels can create a ton of impact defensive plays without getting himself in trouble.
The blocks jump off the screen at times:
That length enables him to reach some incredible angles on shot blocks. The 34″ vertical he possesses is solidly average for guards but makes him lethal when combined with the wingspan. Those arms also serve to enable some absurd steals both on and off the ball.
Going into a semi-peel switch, Daniels shows a great bit of awareness and timing to split the ballhandler and roller in order to be in the right position for the deflection. The arms and instincts do the rest of the work.
This is a lazy pass by Reggie Jackson trying to make the post entry to Nikola Jokić. However, that shouldn’t discount how absurd Daniels’ length is and the kind of effect it has on this possession.
This isn’t to say that having Inspector Gadget arms is the entire reason Dyson is a successful steal vacuum. He has an elite sense of timing, again both on and off the ball.
Look how patiently he waits here for the chance to blow up Kyle Anderson‘s handle:
Daniels is consistently sublime in his sense of when to jump a passing lane, front the post, dig from the wing, make a last-minute switch; you name it, he’s gotten a steal out of it.
This one made me laugh – notice how both Dyson and Herb Jones noticed the passing lane opportunity at the same time and got out in transition together.
Lastly, Dyson just wants it more than the other guy in most scenarios. He’s a menace when behind the ball in transition and a constant threat for these kinds of steals:
Dyson is one of the most exciting and versatile turnover creators in the league and it’s time he got proper recognition as such. If New Orleans makes a leap as a team, more eyes will begin to notice his event-creating prowess.
On a last note for defensive floor raising: the rebounding is superb. Dyson’s 13.3% defensive rebounding rate places him in the 91st percentile for combo guards, another credit to his hustle. But we will get more into his rebounding technique later on.
Battling the Toughest Assignments
The burden placed on Dyson by their roster construction cannot be overstated. CJ McCollum‘s absence has decreased it somewhat, as Herbert Jones has entered the lineup in his stead. The normal starting lineup is a different story. Out of CJ, Dyson, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Jonas Valanciunas, it is abundantly clear who the best defender is.
Don’t just take my word for it.
Not only is Dyson taking on these difficult matchups, but doing quite well against them, especially in isolation.
Here’s one future MVP:
And another future MVP:
Granted, Shai is not the best matchup for him. That quickness is a lot for Dyson to deal with considering his lack of overall foot speed and change-of-direction prowess.
How about some former and future All-Stars?
Notice how well Dyson times that use of the off hand to discourage the drive after the crossover and force a pickup by Brunson. That’s almost impossible to teach.
Get over the screen, recover in front of Cade, and work to slow him down on the drive in order to give Valanciunas time to provide the necessary help. That’s the best you can ask for.
Though this ends in a basket there is a lot of good in the process. He shows small help on Trae to support a mismatched Zion but closes out with enough control to not concede the drive after a quality hip flip. Sticks to the drive while using the trail hand to maintain leverage, then contests the desperation late shot clock pull up.
This is a great example of Dyson’s ability to contest a shot on the move and use his hands. His hand technique is excellent while Kyrie goes through a series of jab steps, discouraging the shot without offering the chance for a rip-through foul. Bumps him on the drive, then anticipates the turnaround jumper to get a quality contest and help force the miss.
De’Aaron Fox wants to use strength to create leverage on the drive? Here’s a perfect body bump to deter it and force him back into the pull-up. As far as I’m concerned, if you force Fox into a contested PU3 you have won.
The range of matchups Dyson can handle is extremely impressive. From the premier big handling wings to shifty smaller guards, there’s no perimeter player he cannot bother in space. But there are issues that arise once screens come into play.
Figuring Out Screen Navigation
The tracking stats for Dyson’s defense against screen actions are not great. Per Synergy Sports, he rates as “below average” or “poor” against pick-and-roll, handoffs, and chasing off-ball screens. Granted, Synergy defensive stats are not a perfect science, and leaves out a lot of team context in addition to some imperfect tracking. There is some left to be desired on the tape, however.
Specifically, Dyson struggles building up speed in short areas. He is prone to getting caught on re-screens or screens that have not been properly communicated.
However, there are a lot of good moments of screen navigation that the stats seem to underrate.
Not possessed with a lot of lateral quickness, Dyson needs to use his length in tandem with body contortion. Look how he moves his head as well to see the screen coming and deftly dodges it to stay with the ballhandler.
You see a lot of the same principles in the above clip, albeit with more help from the help defense. Moves his head to see the screen coming, uses his body well to get under the screen without conceding much ground, and finds himself in a good position to intercept the ballhandler. That’s a clinical under on a player like De’Aaron Fox.
Despite the lack of lateral speed, I’m bullish on Dyson’s screen navigation. The length and awareness combination will continue to put him in good spots and eventually yield good results. Sometimes there’s just no defense against a perfect screen; Dyson should be able to make it work against the less-than-perfect screens.
Growth Areas
As we’ve established, the point-of-attack defense, on/off-ball event creation, and rebounding is superb. But there are places he can work to improve.
The primary area of concern I have is closeouts. He’s often messy with his technique and offers a mixed bag of under and overdoing the effort.
Here are some examples of the overdoing:
The second closeout of the second clip is great, but you can see why flying into it is a problem.
There are also instances of Dyson showing subpar effort on these plays:
The last one is the most frustrating to me. Closing out on a shooter with your arms down? Big no-no.
The reason I am frustrated with this is that Daniels is capable of far more. His length and ability to make multiple jumps while contorting his body to avoid putting his body into shooters is sublime, and looks fantastic when all put together.
In short: I want more here.
Another area where I’d like to see more effort and execution is with his off-ball tracking. There are far too many instances of him falling asleep for a defender of his capability and quality.
Not paying attention to off-ball cutters and shooters puts the entire defense in a bind. Ballhandlers are clever and can manipulate defenders by getting close and drawing attention before kicking. Dyson needs to work on that awareness to provide help without succumbing to the trap.
A last area of growth would be the transition defense. Too often I saw Dyson lose his man or give suboptimal effort in these scenarios.
That’s a bit too much jogging!
Would not recommend sinking off Mike Conley in transition.
Again, an uptick in effort would go a long way here.
To sum it up, Dyson Daniels has already capitalized on the potential to be one of the best wing/guard defenders in the league, checking all the boxes you want to see. A little tidying up here and there and you might be looking at the premier perimeter defender in the league when you include his ability to rebound and rotate in addition to the stopping and passing lane chaos. I fell in love with this tape.
Now, we dig into the interesting area of his game.
Offensive Overview
You’re surely wondering at this point: Charlie, is this entire series going to be about athletic defense-first guards and wings with offensive question marks? And the answer is yeah, probably.
Dyson is statistically one of the least effective combo guards out there. His 23rd percentile usage rate is not by accident: he ranks in the 13th percentile in points per shot attempt and 34th in assist rate. That’s not going to cut it.
There are statistical bright spots, to be sure. His assist-to-usage ratio is well above-average, and playing as a wing last year he posted the best ratio in the league. It’s also worth mentioning that 58% of his shots have come at the rim or in the short midrange. For a player without a lot of shooting gravity, he is certainly adept at getting himself downhill into the higher-value shots. That shot chart is lovely to look at.
Dyson is making adjustments to playing as a combo guard. And when you dig into the tape, you see flashes of a quality offensive player in there.
Budding Playmaking
I was quite impressed with Dyson’s playmaking skill when given the opportunity.
Though the reps are limited, he finds a way to make some fantastic reads with consistently excellent ball placement.
New Orleans likes to run him off double-drag screens to create extra advantages and he’s great at making reads out of them.
That extra length he possesses opens up the delayed passing angles for wrap passes and creative layoffs.
There are some instances of him being somewhat lazy with his passing reads out of these looks, and the fact that teams don’t respect his ability to finish at the rim is not helping:
Daniels is a strong passer on the drive on the whole and can manipulate the help in a variety of ways.
There are definite reasons why Daniels doesn’t receive longer playmaking opportunities. His handle can be quite loose, and the jump passes can get him in hot water.
The good and bad of his complex playmaking reps provide a foundation to be built on. It’s also a great sign that Daniels is exceptional at making all manners of the “simple” reads.
Dyson has a knack for putting the ball exactly where it needs to go when initiating plays for his teammates in off-ball sets or swings. Take these plays for example:
With Brandon Ingram curling above JV on the empty-side look, Dyson goes high-low and puts a bounce pass right in Ingram’s breadbasket that leads to the drive. Looks simple on the surface, but a lot of window recognition and execution has to go into this.
This empty-side PNR look is another example of crisp bounce passing and window recognition:
Another underrated passing skill is the swing pass. Speed and precision are often hard to master, but Dyson makes easy work of these.
Knowing the better shooter is at the top of the key, Dyson immediately slings it after drawing the closeout and effectively beating the Atlanta defense with a tidy 1-2 passing sequence. That’s excellent reading of the floor, but again it looks so simple.
Daniels also boasts some of the best lob placement in the game.
Okay, maybe the last one was slightly off, but I’m giving him a pass because he went from the lefty dribble to the right-handed lob so quickly.
I think the term “connective passer” is highly overused and extremely reductive. A guy who makes swing passes and the occasional layoff to a cutter or skip to a wing is valuable, don’t get me wrong here. But a true connector can make ALL of the looks, even if they do not have the requisite scoring skills to press those buttons constantly. Dyson is no primary creator but can recognize passing windows and execute on a variety of reads with timeliness and accuracy.
In my opinion, THAT is connective passing: doing everything a primary playmaker should when called upon and bringing up the ceiling of the offense despite their scoring shortcomings. Daniels fits this to a T.
Transition Dynamo
To further expand on excellence as a passer, Dyson is one of the better transition triggermen around. His court vision, touch, and quick decision-making are major assets when the defense is unsettled.
The zip on these passes, the placement, and the ability to get his head up immediately and find the windows working together in concert is outstanding. It certainly helps to have a Zion-type transition runner to throw to. New Orleans possesses all kinds of transition threats, with Zion and Herb Jones running for the rim early and often while Jordan Hawkins sniffs out pockets of perimeter space to get outlet passes.
Daniels’ transition excellence is not confined to his passing talent. If he’s out on the perimeter defensively when the shot is rebounded the opportunities to leak out present themselves often.
Notice the recognition of where his teammates are to pick the leakout opportunities. There is a numbers advantage for the Pelicans in both clips, so Daniels takes the chance that his compatriots will win the battle and find him streaking toward the basket. That gamble pays off frequently for him.
Even without a clean lane to the basket, Dyson finds ways to get it done against the unsettled defense.
The floater is an unsurprising weapon from him that we will explore more in a second.
The numbers of Dyson’s efficiency in transition jump off the page when compared to his halfcourt numbers. The scoring goes from 17th percentile to 40th when working against an unsettled defense, and the efficiency including passes goes from 37th percentile to 72nd.
Though it comprises less than 20% of his overall offense, it is an important factor to consider when the defensive excellence is factored in. He can dominate one end of the floor and be good (if not great) in one facet of the offense, making the halfcourt offense his main growth area going forward.
A lot of that growth is based on these next two areas.
Floater Dominance
Not only does Dyson boast a 77th percentile mark in short midrange accuracy (52% conversion rate), he gets those shots off with a 70th percentile frequency. Granted, much of this stems from his inability to convert at the rim (30th percentile accuracy) though he still manages to get shots there, which we will discuss later on.
That floater is lethal, and his length and fluidity open up a lot of these shots.
The floater/push shot is a big weapon for him when attacking closeouts and opens up more ways to find gaps in the defense when in rotation.
It’s already a high-quality weapon that he can use going both right or left. If Dyson begins to develop a left-handed floater, he should be a force in the 5-10 foot range for the rest of his career.
Though Dyson doesn’t find a way to get rim pressure on the drive very often, opting for the floater instead, he’s quite good at finding gaps in the defense when roaming off the ball to get shots there. It’s a great quality in a player that the defenses will choose to ignore.
That’s how a guard without a lot of speed finds himself with a 72nd-percentile rim shooting frequency. Mixing in these cuts and slips makes for a high-quality mix of showing a rim presence without directly pressuring it himself.
There’s another way that Dyson finds himself getting there with effort and timing.
Elite Guard Offensive Rebounding
I mentioned earlier that Dyson posts elite rebounding numbers for a guard, and I wanted to explore the why and how under the offensive of the ball. The more difficult rebounds being done successfully warrants further scrutiny.
There are three key areas to this as a guard. Timing, technique, athleticism. Dyson constantly displays these traits while menacing his opponents on the glass.
First, the timing, which often goes hand in hand with anticipation.
As soon as the shot goes up, Daniels breaks inside to get the leverage and puts himself in a strong possession to get the miss. The anticipation here prevents him from being boxed out of the play and results in an easy two after the hard work is done.
Now here’s what the technique looks like:
Killian Hayes recognizes the shot at the same time as Dyson and gets low preparing to box out. Dyson hits him with a swim move like a non-racist Nick Bosa to immediately flip the leverage and find the ball, then lays it off instantly to Larry Nance Jr. for the second chance bucket. That’s going to be tough for any opposing guard to stop unless they can match his size and length, which few can.
And finally the athleticism:
The timing and spring on the jump needed to get to this ball are beautiful. Alperen Sengün is not the best vertical athlete around, but it’s still a lot of height to make up for just to get a hand on the ball. You can even see Alpie look back as if to say “who the hell did that??”
It’s not just flashes; Dyson is producing results. He’s an 89th percentile combo guard offensive rebounder, which is huge for a team that is already full of length and size. If EVERYONE on the floor is a threat to go and get it on the offensive glass, that is a major problem for any defense trying to close out possessions.
So, where do we go from here?
Growth Areas
I would be remiss if I went through this entire offensive section without diving into the shooting (or lack thereof).
Plain and simple, Dyson is one of the worst shooters at the guard position around. He’s sitting at 33% from the corners and 23% above the break, which are 26th and 5th percentile marks respectively. That’s not going to cut it.
He primarily operates out of the corners, and though he’s not opposed to lifting above the break, a lot of his shots are those high-value corner shots. There are a few things at work here: length and lack of touch are working against him, and I believe there are some technical aspects that can be cleaned up.
He has a very pronounced dip in his shot in addition to a narrow base set by his feet. The first issue causes problems with consistent load time and energy transfer, the second issue leads to inconsistencies in accuracy by allowing the body to move slightly based on the momentum of the shot. A wider base usually leads to steadier upper body mechanics and is, in my opinion, better for a taller player.
I won’t pretend I am seeing something the Pelicans have not. They still employ Fred Vinson, arguably the best shooting coach in the same, and working with Daniels on his mechanics is surely a priority. Working on shot mechanics can be a touchy thing: do too much and you may cause irreparable harm to their shot and their confidence.
This isn’t to say there are no positive signs. Daniels is often left completely alone, and it allows him time for an extra hop into his shot, which seems to be a good way of controlling his momentum and aligning his mechanics.
He also flashes moments of brilliant shotmaking off the dribble when called for, a sign he at least has confidence and the ability to self-create a good three.
The results through Dyson’s first two seasons beyond the arc have been quite poor. No doubting that. But, eternally the optimist, I think there is reason to believe he can creep toward average from beyond the arc, which would do wonders for the rest of his offensive game.
The second major area where I’d like to see improvement comes with his left-handed finishing. If given a clean lane and encountering little help, he can certainly make the look:
But when pressed on the ball or faced with the rotation, he tends to slide back to using his right-handed floater instead of using the left. This is tough to control when going to the left of the basket and forcing yourself to fade away from it.
The left hand also serves to better protect the ball from blocks by using the body as a shield. So, in short, Dyson just needs to try harder to use the left in order to boost his rim finishing numbers.
I maintain a cautious optimism that there is a good, if not great, offensive weapon lurking beneath the surface with Daniels. A little mentality adjustment here, a shot tweak there, and he would be a serious force multiplier for a team that already boasts a powerful scoring trio in CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.
Future Outlook
As New Orleans continues to rise as a young power in the highly competitive Western Conference, so too will Dyson rise, the vacuum that sucks in tough assignments and spits out shutdown nights.
If he continues on this pace defensively while bulking up his frame, there could be future All-Defensive conversations to be had once he takes the reins of real starter minutes. That will be contingent on the offensive game following suit.
His ceiling on that end is tough to project. If he remains a guy who acts as a high-level connector, creates second chances, cuts/sinks and dominates in the short midrange, that may be enough. A step forward with his handle, left-handed finishing, and some real shooting results could take him to the next level.
There’s only one way to find out how far Daniels can go: more games.
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