Tyler Nagel

Tyler Nagel's overall athletic ability is nothing short of astounding. He possesses a quick and high leap, complete with great reaction time, long arms and a physically imposing body already at 230 lbs. which make him quite a terror on the defensive end especially. Nagel garners and accumulates many blocks just by pure leap alone, swatting away anything from layups to jumpshots whether from the weak or from the strong side. He plays with a mad passion which is often unparalleled by his teammates and his opponents on defense, hustling to the ground for possessions, using his long arms to continually gamble for steals, and recovering quickly with his great burst of speed and reaction time to make a spectacular defensive play. He accumulates steals and blocks at a fast rate, and already is feared defensively by pure reputation. Gets a lot of rebounds on the offensive end especially as well due to his great motor. He is already Ohio State's lockdown defender and often holds down his man extremely well, giving him a lot of potential to translate this to the NBA flawlessly. And of course, these same physical tools give him a lot of potential to be successful on the offensive end.

Nagel has a lot of primary weaknesses he would need to improve on; first of all, his offensive game, which is basically nonexistent. Nagel seems to have poor offensive basketball IQ combined with horrible touch which could offset some of the marvelous things he does at defense. Nagel has a great first step and good speed, but his ballhandling skills are horrible and he easily loses the ball to collapsing defenses in the half-court set, making him quite turnover prone. He also makes bad decisions, passing the ball at poor angles and not showing great awareness of plays around him. His touch is nonexistent, as he insists and continually airballs mid-range jumpshots, and he displays little touch and creativity in his layups, going through the same motions and missing them due to banging them off the glass too hard. He has started to dunk more displaying his athleticism but he finds it hard to dunk in traffic or in half-court sets; he scores the majority of his points in transition game where he uses his speed, build and athleticism to the fullest on the offensive end.

Questions also linger about Nagel's injuries; he missed a lot of his freshman season with injuries, and with the play he plays, he is prone to getting injured quite a bit especially in the rougher NBA. He often looks banged up on the court and that affects his motor at times. He ended both his freshman and sophomore years horribly, showing poor defensive IQ by jumping all over the place and affecting his team's offensive schemes by shooting and turning the ball over. Lastly, Nagel has had some problems regarding his outside image, as students have accused him in the past of stealing amidst other problems. He seems to be a bit too volatile at times off the court and hasn't shown great improvement in this area.

Overall, the combination of his off-the-court problems, his injuries, his poor judgment, and his extremely raw offensive game have really lowered Nagel's stock. He's a special player whose athleticism and defensive skills are among the top in the draft, but he hasn't harnessed them well consistently and hasn't polished up the rest of his game yet.

Strengths: A world class athlete, an athletic freak who will immediately rank among the better athletes in the NBA...Jumps high and all the time...Long arms and good wingspan...Very good at blocking jumpers, which is a rarity...Powerful shotblocker. Sends hte ball down the 2nd row...Good determination on defense, already the defensive stopper at Ohio State...Nice mix of determination and athleticism helps him vastly on defense...A great motor. Always plays with energy and hustles continually with the big men in the paint...Very good rebounder especially on the offensive end...Doesn't pick up too many fouls despite his energy...Plays bigger than his body...Very strong body, NBA-caliber for a player his age...Extreme transition player. Runs extremely fast...Groggling potential...

Weaknesses: Does not do anything well on the offensive side of the court, literally he can just stay on the other end on the court and let his teammates play 4-on-5...Horrible jumpshot, horrible mechanics, slow release, horrible accuracy...Has airballed a lot of free throws in his career...Despite his weight does not finish well around the basket. Just has horrible touch even on layups, bangs the ball too hard off the glass...Rarely dunks the ball for some reason...Extremely turnover prone, his decision-making is still in the high school level...Quite injury prone, missed chunks of the high school season and parts of his freshman season...Had a horrible end to his freshman campaign...Some questions about his outside image...