PLAYER PROFILE

BORN: 12/08/01

HEIGHT: 6’5

WINGSPAN: 6’7

WEIGHT: 210 lbs

NATIONALITY: American

HIGH SCHOOL: Mayfair (CA)

AAU: Vegas Elite (EYBL)

COLLEGE: Arizona State

OFFENSIVE ROLE:
Scorer

DEFENSIVE ROLE:
Team/Awareness

HIGH OUTCOME:
Two-Way Secondary Handlers

LOW OUTCOME:
Offensive/Scoring Secondary-Handlers

ATHLETICISM/INTANGIBLES

  • His burst is nothing special. Can be explosive out of dribble moves or on cuts but is inconsistent.
  • Average vertical leaper. Need time to load into his jumps.
  • Well build 200 lbs body. Doesn’t shy away from contact, plays physical – especially on his drives. Can absorb contact very well.

Christopher is the youngest of four siblings, all of whom have played basketball. His brother, Patrick, played professionally, including a brief stint with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Patrick’s godbrother is former NBA player Tayshaun Prince. Christopher’s sister, Paris, played college basketball for Saint Mary’s but suffered a career-ending injury as a freshman. His brother, Caleb, plays collegiately for Arizona State. Christopher’s father, Laron, is a musician. His parents are devout Christians.

Christopher is often known as “Jaygup,” a nickname created in his childhood

OFFENSE

  • Physical finisher, great footwork in traffic. His deceleration on euro steps is pretty elite. He can absorb contact with ease while decelerating to finish at the rim. Shows good touch around the rim using advanced techniques to finish.
  • Transition “wrecking ball”. Runs the floor hard and attacks the rim.
  • Controlled, crafty dribbler. Ball on a string and a good array of dribble moves. Loves to use a hang dribble to freeze his man and explode afterwards. Well-timed change of pace dribbles to gain advantage.
  • Lack of vision/willingness to pass the ball. Can survey the floor directly in front of him and play simple lay downs.
  • More of an on-ball wing player. Not that comfortable yet playing without the ball in his hands.
  • Shooting: Left biased upwards motion on FT and shot attempts. Seems to be a far better pull-up than catch and shoot player because he is more comfortable dribbling into his mechanics rather than just catching the ball and going up to shoot. Far better shooter going left than going right due to his current shooting form.
  • His shooting percentages don’t reflect his actual ability. He generally creates a lot for himself and takes tough shooting attempts off the dribble. He seems to have a pretty good touch on midrange shots and has a good track record of hitting long 2s, which is often an indicator for range extension in the future. His FT and 3P percentage numbers are not ideal at the moment.
  • Shot selection leaves to be desired. He tends to take some pretty bad off the dribble or fade away shots even against multiple defenders.
  • Something to note: Coach Hurley’s setplays seemed to be designed that Christopher gets many opportunities curling on the left side, going right – which seems far from ideal considering that JC is right-handed and has a left sided shot line bias. He simply can’t get into his shots very well going right. An Easy short term fix could be using JC more going the other way to make sure he gets better body alignment on his shots and drives.

DEFENSE

  • Makes rotations, but it takes him some time to do so. At this point of development, Christopher is a rather slow processor on defense.
  • Off-ball gambler, can also get caught ball watching from time to time.
  • Seems to be engaged most of the time, has to iron out some technical issues with his stance. It Is relatively easy to beat off the dribble because of it.
  • When he is really locked in, he can be a good on ball defender with his above average strength and solid wingspan.
  • Tends to overplay on closeouts and rotations and creates defensive scramble situations which are far from ideal.

BOTTOM LINE


AS OF: 2/01/2021