NBA Draft Scouting Report: Iowa Guard Bennett Stirtz

Bennett Stirtz has been a transcendent college basketball player, starting out with two seasons at Northwest Missouri State in Division II, before moving on to mid-major Drake, and ultimately following head coach Ben McCollum to Iowa for his senior season.

He’s seen success at each and every stop as a 6-foot-4 floor general with a pretty specific style, albeit one that’s been very effective when surrounded with the right pieces. He’s a small part of what makes this lead guard class so dynamic, but is older than most of the other options at a few months shy of 23-years-old on draft night.

Stirtz’ major strengths are pick-and-roll scoring, pick-and-roll play-making, shooting, and feel for the game.

Strengths:

Pick-and-Roll Scoring

Stirtz is one of the more prolific pick-and-roll guards to pass through the draft ranks in some time, largely due to his skill in putting the ball through the hoop in these situations.

Just 25 games into his senior season, it seems any and all high-major translation concerns have officially been quelled. In terms of his general scoring, he’s averaging 20.4 points with Iowa, so far improving his efficiency overall and from three with the Hawkeyes.

With at least six-plus games left to play in his senior season, Stirtz’ has run 1,926 possessions in the pick-and-roll across his career. That is an absurd amount of volume in one play-type, and for good reason. Stirtz is scoring 1.12 points per possession in the pick-and-roll this season, good for an excellent grade per Synergy Sports, and good for 50% from the field, 61% from two and 38% from three. He’s has a great blend of twos and threes from the pick-and-roll, having shot 71 twos and 60 threes in total so far this season.

The high pick-and-roll, set near the top of the key, is far-and-away his most comfortable spot, able to give him the most room to navigate, accepting for 90 of his 131 total attempts. He’s taken 24 shots from the left side and 17 from the right, shooting 50% from the left and 35% from the right, a pretty normal drop-off given the latter side limits his space as a right-handed shooter.

Aside from the pure numbers, it is clearly evident that Stirtz is an elite pick-and-roll player on film. He doesn’t possess elite athleticism, but has a surgical level of NBA craft in navigating his way around the court. His elite conditioning affords him the ability to wear out on-ball actions, even accounting for nearly 37 minutes played per game.

His pace and poise is pretty unshakeable. He’ll putter to his spots, sit back evaluate, toggle speeds by pressing the go button with a much better first step than anticipated, set up by a freezing decel. He monitors space with a level of patience that isn’t often seen, and has premier creativity in attacking at all three levels, be it using a great handle or even some really ridiculous footwork or unique body control.

Stirtz is the complete opposite of rhythmic, like a junk pitcher that can't be predicted given he can mix it up in so many different ways.

He has elite touch at the rim, good for 71% despite a lack of verticality. He’s a deadly off-the-dribble shooter at 45% on high volume, and has no issue taking threes as we’ll get into later. He can squeeze shots off quickly, even in some situations you wouldn’t really expect him to have the advantage.

There’s just not a lot of evidence that he won’t continue to be an effective pick-and-roll aficionado at the NBA level. Now, there’s issues with that in that it involves giving him the basketball plenty, but the lack of athleticism or separation here doesn’t give me enough pause overall.

Ultimately this is what makes Stirtz such a legitimate weapon and what will eventually make him a first-round pick in the NBA Draft.

Pick-and-Roll Play-Making

In tandem with his pick-and-roll scoring is, of course, pick-and-roll play-making. It’s the natural progression for Stirtz given he needs to parlay his own gravity into success for others, and he does just that.

Stirtz is averaging 4.7 assists to 1.8 turnovers per game this season, notably on 26% usage. A 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio given just how much he’s handling the ball and creating offense is a great mark, and the film backs up his ability.

Where Stirtz has seen 178 possessions looking to score out of the pick-and-roll this season, he’s seen a whopping 436 possessions that include passes, helping the roll-man shoot 46% on 120 possessions and spot-up players shoot 43% on 105 possessions. Again, just absurd volume in this play-type that is valuable to the NBA in some way or another, and doing so by mixing it up constantly.

Again, these are just numbers, but in the tape you can get a great sense for how natural setting up others is for Stirtz. He’s an innate creator of good offense, making the right play most of the time. All the same things apply here: pace, patience, creativity. And his passing game specifically is highlighted by his processing, precision and live-dribble ability.

He can pass with either hand, placing touchy lobs, pocket passes and accurate bounce passes.

Stirtz doesn't have 99th percentile vision — cross-court sling passes are farther and fewer between than the simple stuff — but rather good awareness. He’s great at inputting the game, reading the floor, and doesn’t necessarily need Luka Doncic-level vision given he’s able to create the easy play most of the time.

And again, best of all, Stirtz simply takes care of the basketball, a real plus in any lead handler.

Additionally, Iowa runs a pretty clean system, but it’s easy to envision the spaced-out NBA helping Stirtz to score and play-make even more. If you give Stirtz a versatile big and some 3-point shooters, it seems like a recipe for success at any level.

Shooting

If it wasn’t clear from the previous tape, Stirtz is a great 3-point shooter, so much so that there’s some off-ball workability here outside of just the pick-and-roll.

Overall, Stirtz is shooting 40% on 6.2 attempts per game with Iowa, up from 40% on 4.6 attempts with Drake last season, both obviously enough volume to consider him an elite triple-taker. His form’s projectable and quick, he shoots with confidence, and his great free throw percentage on high volume, coupled with touch all over the floor, essentially cements that Stirtz is a shooter.

Stirtz has taken 155 total threes through 25 games, 60 of which have come as the pick-and-roll handler. He’s made 38% of those, and that’s a phenomenal mark given the difficulty of those shots.

But the question here is, “Does Stirtz add value as a shooter off the ball?” And the answer is a resounding… probably.

He’s hit 44% of simple catch-and-shoot threes, 46% unguarded and 42% guarded. In terms of non-PnR play types, he’s hitting 41% of spot-up tries.

One issue being, the sample for basically everything else is non-existent with Iowa. Taking out isolation, another on-ball pathway, he’s shot just seven threes off-screen and four in transition.

Given just how cerebral and sneaky quick he is, it’s somewhat shocking he’s not a better transition player — he’s taken just 22 total shots across 25 games. And all of this again speaks to the fact that his current system is just tailor made for him to wear out pick-and-roll and isolation reps.

To summarize, Stirtz is a clearly touchy shooter that should be able to take and make threes in different ways, but simply hasn’t done so yet. There’s plenty more concerns for Stirtz regarding off-ball roles that don’t stem from scoring, but in the least you can trust him to hit open shots, which is a start.

High IQ and Feel

Players like Stirtz don't grow on trees, with the ability to create at such a high level, play at his own pace, score at all three level and leverage that into success for others. Everything he does is predicated by his feel for the game and basketball IQ.

The way he innately changes his pace depending on space allowed, his usually correct awareness in when to attack, how he can counter and use set-up moves.

There’s rightful questions about Stirtz’ fit in NBA systems that aren’t going to be tailored to his specific strengths.

Could he be drafted to a pick-and-roll heavy scheme with an opening at point guard and weapons waiting for him? Sure. But the more likely outcome is that, for the first time in several seasons, Stirtz will be the one doing the adjusting. And the good news regarding that is that his feel for the game and high-IQ style lend itself to him morphing into more than just an on-ball savant down the line.

Areas of Improvement:

Athleticism

Athleticism isn’t the biggest area of improvement given how hard it is to simply become a better athlete in the NBA — possible, but hard — but it does need to be touched on. Stirtz is by no means a class-worst athlete or anything of the sort, but as far as NBA standards, he’s certainly under-average.

The lack of premier verticality can get him in trouble around the rim, he just doesn’t have explosiveness while leaping, mostly relying on his versatile finishing package to see at-rim shots go through. He has dunked the ball nine times through 25 games, which points to him not being a completely below the rim athlete, but blasting off is certainly not a strength.

Given his level of touch, NBA decision-makers likely won't be massively worried about the verticality aspect, though it will likely rear its head a little more at the next level.

The more concerning aspect of his athleticism would be the lack of flexibility, bend and lateral speed. He’s a little bit of a stiff mover, and this is what causes a lot of the aforementioned separation and defensive issues.

Probably the most concerning outcome with Stirtz is that he’s totally unable to create offense outside of ball screens, and potentially even worse struggles to create via screens due to just how outmatched he is as an athlete in the switch-heavy NBA.

That won't likely be the case, again given the level of craft and feel he brings to the table. But NBA teams will need to feel certain he can translate over to the NBA from an athleticism standpoint before drafting him.

On-Ball Defense

Finally, we’ll touch on Stirtz defense, which is a bit of a mixed bag, but far-and-away his biggest area of improvement in terms of pro translation.

We've specified on-ball defense, given Stirtz’ off-ball defense can get to a workable enough point. He’s a smart player, and has that natural feel and awareness for positioning, which can help him to grab steals and stay engaged away from the action. He has quick hands, having posted a 3.5 steal percentage with Drake, and his 1.4 steals per game with Iowa is a pretty solid number.

The much more concerning aspect is when Stirtz is forced to guard on the ball. The aforementioned lack of lateral speed and explosiveness, mixed with general stiffness, leaves the door open for him to be hunted at the next level.

Especially burtsy guards don’t have a ton of issue simply going around Stirtz. For as good as his footwork is on offense, it leaves plenty to be desired on defense. His lack of elasticity makes directional changes and quick-twitch movements especially difficult, and that can especially make screen navigation, both on and off-ball, challenging.

Another issue being, his spindlier frame and height at just 6-foot-4 does not offer much hope that he’ll be able to guard bigger twos or wings with much consistency. This is perhaps the biggest area you can see a lack of NBA strength.

Again, Stirtz fine off-ball ability makes hiding him within a rotation-heavy team-scheme a viable option, but given the level of offensive talent in the NBA, it’s hard not to see Stirtz being outmatched. And thinking ahead to postseason-level basketball it’s fairly easy to envision isolation possessions featuring Stirtz should he be on the floor.

The potential is there for Stirtz to maximize his defensive potential with feel, but NBA teams will ultimately need to weigh whether they think he can consistently get stops. This adds to his specificity as a player, given he’ll need to be pretty great on offense to outweigh some of these negatives, and again his offensive success could be tied to having the ball.

Outlook:

Bennett Stirtz is a highly specialized player. There’s genuine star-power to be tapped into given his feel for the game and pick-and-roll prowess, but maximizing his strengths could take a very particular approach by NBA organizations.

Ultimately, Stirtz feels a worthy gamble given how much feel he has, potentially some of the best in the class.

There’s a world where a few lottery teams look at Stirtz and see a player that could galvanize their offense, but the more likely scenario in this draft specifically is that a few high-upside freshman take up those spots, leaving Stirtz to fall to a potentially better situation in the mid-to-late first round.

Some good fits for Stirtz inlcude the Mavericks, Cavaliers and Hawks, given those team’s affinity for the pick-and-roll, their offensive weapons and defensive coverage.

NBA Draft Scouting Report: Iowa Guard Bennett Stirtz

Bennett Stirtz Scouting Report

Strengths:

Pick-and-Roll Scoring

Pick-and-Roll Play-Making

Shooting

High IQ and Feel

Areas of Improvement:

Athleticism

On-Ball Defense

Outlook:

Range: Mid-to-late first

Role: Lead Initiator, Backup Floor General

Impact: Starter, Rotation

Swing Skills: Defense

Best Fits: Mavericks, Cavaliers, Hawks