Does Olivier-Maxence Prosper Have the Size, Scoring and Defense for the NBA?
At 6-foot-8 and 230 pounds, Olivier-Maxence Prosper has ideal size for perimeter wing-forwards that the modern NBA is looking for.
Prosper is a 20-year-old from Montreal, Canada that has made his way to college basketball through the NBA Academy Latin America.
The draw for a prospect like Prosper is that he is a multi skilled offensive player, with a developing shot, that is willing to embrace his role while at the same time playing extremely hard on the defensive end and providing versatility.
Prosper currently has an impressive C-RAM score of 9.0 via Cerebro Sports without any individual metric being higher than a score of 77. This speaks to Prosper not necessarily excelling in one area but providing value in multiple.
Offense
On the offensive end, this value begins with Prosper’s ability to attack the basket. We will discuss his shooting ability more shortly but continued improvement with his shot will be two-fold.
First, Prosper will have to be able to make catch and shoot or pick-and-pop attempts to provide gravity and floor spacing.
Second, and more important for his individual scoring, Prosper is at his best when he can attack closeouts and attack the paint. He does not possess a ton of wiggle to his game and is more of a straight line driver and those opportunities will usually come from a closing out defender.
The junior has shown improvements with his 3-point shooting over his three seasons in college (one at Clemson and two at Marquette) and the form looks good. He simply has to continue to elevate the numbers of attempts and the efficiency he is knocking them down.
Plain and simple, 31% from behind the arc on 2.9 attempts will not be good enough to sell NBA scouts on his shooting even with the other positives aspects of his game.
Prosper does show some promise in some tertiary skills for his role. By no means is he a primary, or even secondary, creator but the flashing passes are good enough for his size and position.
While his subtle movements along the 3-point line could improve, his overall off ball movement is impressive. He shows good patience in waiting for the right time to make his cut to the rim and then finding the open spot to cut to for the attempt.
Defense
The NBA potential for Prosper may truly rest with his defensive abilities. At 6-foot-8, it is impressive to watch him play at the front of the Shaka Smart full court press and hound smaller guards.
While this assuredly will not be something he is asked to do on an NBA court, it still displays his willingness and abilities to give multiple efforts, change direction and stay with smaller players in the open floor.
It is one thing to be able to defend these types of players on the ball but Prosper also showcases an ability to chase them through and around off ball screens.
There are areas you would like to see Prosper be better at on this end of the court starting with his rim protection. He does a nice job with rotations but he simply does not have the knack for getting blocks or protecting the rim.
The jury is also still out on just how many positions Prosper will be able to guard in the NBA. With his frame, it is interesting to see him struggle at times to hold up in the paint and wall off offensive players.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper is far from a sure thing in the 2023 NBA Draft and very well may have to return to school and enter in 2024, but even then there is no doubt he is an intriguing prospect to keep an eye on.
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