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Pitt BB Recruiting

247 Sports’ Jerry Meyer Talks Efton Reid’s Game, One and Done Possibility

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Efton Reid, Via The Steward School, stewardschool.org

On Thursday, the outlook of Pitt basketball may change tremendously if the program lands a commitment from five star big Efton Reid.

Ahead of Reid’s highly anticipated commitment, Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with 247 Sports’ Director of Basketball Scouting, Jerry Meyer, who’s seen Reid play numerous times and thoroughly evaluated his game over the course of his high school career.

Reid, ranked as the No. 24 prospect in the nation by 247, is one of the most talented big men in the entire nation and one of the most intriguing prospects that is still uncommitted in the class of 2021.

“He is really skilled,” Meyer told Pittsburgh Sports Now. “He has good hands, has a reliable go-to move with his right hand jump hook, and then he can turn over the other shoulder as well. He has been trained and coached well, and has great footwork. He is not overly athletic or explosive, but he is mobile and he is a really long guy who takes up a lot of space. He has more of a traditional back-to-the-basket game but can also step out and catch and shoot from outside.”

Reid is listed at 6-foot-11, 225 pounds, and has a skinny frame. With that much height and a powerful lower half, he still has plenty of room to fill out and add muscle on, which Meyer thinks will be a key to his development at the next level.

“I think that it is going to be important for him to get stronger,” he said. “I call it functional athleticism. The ability to make plays in traffic and score through contact. He is going to need to get stronger to do that when he is playing consistently against guys that have a lot of size. In high school, here and there you will play against guys with good size. College? It’s going to be every night.”

Although Reid has not released a list of his top schools, Pitt is widely believed to be one of the favorites to land the big man. If that happens, Meyer thinks he could be in for a big role under Jeff Capel.

“You would think he would be the anchor down low,” Meyer said. “He passes well, he is comfortable with the ball in his hands. He knows how to seal and post up, kind of like an old-school player. He does a lot of work before he gets the ball. I think they would utilize him a lot in pick and rolls, and you also have a guy that can seal a man, get an angle, and play a traditional post-up game.”

With Reid being ranked so high by all of the major recruiting sites, one would think he has a good chance to go the one-and-done route straight to the NBA. However, Meyer is not so sure that will be the case with Reid.

“I would doubt that,” he said about the possibility that Reid goes one and done. “I think he’s got work to do on his body before he is ready to make that jump. But, you never know. You don’t know what his threshold is for how high he can get drafted. But I would not project him as a first round guy after one year in college.”

While his game is very advanced for a high schooler and he will most likely be ready to contribute at the college level early on in his career, Reid still has some things to work on, according to Meyer.

“Defending on the perimeter,” he said on what he would like to see Reid improve. “In today’s game it is very, very important for bigs to be able to defend out there because of all the ball screen action. And the fact that teams like to switch. If you have players who can switch it makes things a little easier. But I think lateral quickness for defense and then developing his body, those are the two main things.”

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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