It’s Been Motley’s Crew Early On For Baylor

Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

No one really knows how good the Baylor Bears will be this season. They lost a heap of talent in Brady Heslip, Cory Jefferson and Isaiah Austin, and Scott Drew is faced with the tall task of incorporating a whopping seven newcomers. What we do know, however, is that redshirt freshman Johnathan Motley is flashing some serious potential early on.

Through two games, Motley is the team’s second leading scorer at 13.5 points a game. On Tuesday, he put up 17 points and five rebounds on 6-for-9 shooting against South Carolina on the road, while playing a majority of the second half with four fouls.

A slender three-star player coming out of Houston’s North Shore High School, Motley was a relatively unheralded recruit. After putting on 20-odd pounds during his redshirt season, he now supports a sturdy 6-foot-9, 230 pound frame. While he is slightly undersized by NBA standards, his length is excellent. According to measurements from the 2012 Reebok Breakout Challenge, Motley sports an impressive 9-foot-1.5 standing reach and a 7-foot-3.5 wingspan. Athletically, Motley is smooth, runs the court very well and shows impressive agility for a big man.

My favorite thing about his game offensively is that he’s versatile, takes his time and doesn’t force the issue. He’s especially dangerous from the high post where he’s capable of finding open men, shooting or putting the ball on the floor.

Against the Gamecocks Motley showed nice touch on his jumper, finished through traffic at the rim and even displayed a nifty little back-to-the-basket game. South Carolina isn’t loaded with the stoutest interior defenders but his better-than-expected polish stood out regardless. Another simple but effective thing that Motley does well is keep the ball up high.

We haven’t seen it yet in his college career but Motley is a solid ball handler. It’s too early to tell but I don’t get the sense that Motley’s handle is tight enough, nor his lateral speed quite quick enough for him to slide over to the three. He is someone, however, who is capable of the occasional drive and of grabbing a rebound and pushing the break.

One of the things that will likely hurt Motley this season is Baylor’s lack of distributors. Their best passer is senior forward Royce O’Neale. Both of their starting guards have a tendency to go into shoot-first mode. In a combined 65 minutes in Columbia, Lester Medford and Kenny Chery took 23 shots and handed out zero assists. It should be noted that Chery averaged a respectable 4.7 assists per game last season and that Scott Drew raves about his leadership and ability to control the tempo of a game. Nevertheless, it’s never a good sign when your starting point guard and team leader fails to register an assist in 36 minutes of play.

Defensively, Motley stays active and has shown potential, but his timing has been slightly off. So far he hasn’t registered any steals or blocks in 59 minutes and he’s been a little slow to react to the speed of the college game. Baylor will need him to become a better rim protector as their big men are more bulky than they are long. Through two games he has the worst defensive rating on the team.

Motley also needs to learn to become a much better rebounder. He’s averaging 4.5 rebounds in 29.5 minutes a game and ahead of only Lester Medford and Kenny Chery in total rebound percentage. He doesn’t rebound well in traffic and timing is again an issue. This is compounded by the fact that he doesn’t always do a good job of boxing out. He did have the most important rebound of the game, however, when he tipped in a missed shot from Kenny Chery to put Baylor up by five with 55 seconds to play.

We won’t know what kind of prospect Motley is until we’ve seen him play more games but anyone with his combination of fluidity, speed, length and offensive versatility is worth keeping an eye on. It may be a couple of years in the making but the Bears may have found their next star.