Shane Skyler

Strengths: An agile big man who has shown flashes at Dartmouth over this past year...When his motor is on, hustles with the best of them, corrals rebounds with his agility and relentlessness, and blocks shots relentlessly...Every week or so he pads a good stat line of rebounds and blocks...Has shown potential in clearing boards and becoming a super rebounder with his length and hustle...Takes pride as the self-proclaimed garbage scorer, gets a lot of offensive rebounds and tip-ins as a result...Has good touch and displays semblances of a solid mid-range jumper (but see weaknesses)...Long wingspan to offset his lack of great height...Slithery. Has shown some tendency to get to his place quicker than his man and score opportunistic baskets, as well as getting offensive rebounds...Dunks frequently...Very good coordination and motor can make him a notch up against most big men...Very smart player off the court, going to an Ivy League college with a 4.2 GPA at high school overall as well as being high school valedictorian...

Weaknesses: Extremely raw offensively...Shows touch on his jumpshot, but doesn't take many and tends to play within his limitations...Sometimes lack of offensive polish shows in badly missed jumpshots, layups or tip-ins...Few post moves, lacks weight to back down his man and lacks patience in doing so...Shoots at a high percentage merely because he doesn't take too many shots, a very conservative type offensively...Poor ballhandling skills. Fumbles the ball frequently upon receiving it and takes a while to gather himself so defenses can collapse on him and alter/block his shot quite a bit...Not the best decision-maker especially defensively, sometimes tries to do too many things at once, gambling for steals and blocks and losing his man or becoming excessively foul prone...Needs to be more disciplined defensively, even though gets a lot of blocks a poor defender at this point; for every block he gets, gives up a couple of points...Basically a center trapped in a power forward's body. At this point does not even possess PF weight yet although he can certainly put on more weight...Lack of height may neutralize him in shotblocking a la Brian Skinner in the NBA level...There are games where he neglects defensive rebounding and may focus on offensive rebounding...Due to offensive inefficiencies and lack of defensive discipline there are games where he could be rendered invisible and heaped with foul trouble...Motor can be turned off at times also rendering him ineffective...Poor competition playing in the Ivy League may arouse criticism, most of the opposition is around his height...