Tari Eason: Watch Your Step Kid
How to evaluate a runaway freight train with dribble moves and the inherent upside of consistent improvement
Credit WBRZ Sports
Tari Eason - 21.1 - So
Forward - LSU
Height: 6’8 - Wingspan: 7’2 - Weight: 225
There just aren’t many athletes in the world like Tari Eason. His combination of strength and explosiveness is something you’d see from an NFL Combine standout not an NBA prospect. His athleticism, defensive anticipation, rim pressure and budding shooting touch provide the foundation of a prospect that could one day be a two-way wing creator. The box score ingredients are there, but the evaluation is not as straight forward as it seems on paper. A player this physical and aggressive needs a certain type of song to properly set the tone for this profile so hide your kids, hide your wife, and crank the Wu-Tang. Let’s get to it.
Box Score Stats
Pts/Reb/Ast - Stl/Blk/To - Fg/3p/Ft
16.9/6.6/1.0 - 1.9/1.1/2.2 - 52/36/80
Shot Distribution (% Assisted)
Dunk - Rim - Mid - 3PT
47/48 - 137/213 - 25/74 - 28/78
97.9% - 64.3% - 33.8% - 35.9%
(44.5) - (44.0) - (85.7)
Advanced Stats
USG/TS - AST/TO - 3PAr/FTr
30.8/61.5 - 10.1/16.5 - .214/.515
BLK/STL - OR/DR - OBPM/DBPM
06.5/04.6 - 10.5/19.8 - 08.4/05.0
Points Per Possession (Synergy %)
Transition - Spot Up - PnRoller
1.339 (90) - 0.974 (66) - 1.152 (71)
PnR OBH - Isolation D - Rim D
0.960 (88) - 0.852 (36) - 0.667 (92)Hits: Defensive Event Creation, Transition Offense, Shooting Projection
The biggest draw for Tari, despite the ridiculous counting stats, is his defensive versatility. LSU plays in an incredibly aggressive style and Tari has been their keystone, propelling them to be one of the best defensive teams in the country. His greatest value is as a rover on the wing, swinging through passing lanes like your neighborhood Spider Man and rotating down to blow up attempts at the rim. The proverbial Pick 6 steal is a hallmark of his game, tipping passes and racing down the court for dunks in transition. While it can seem like he teeters on the edge of over-aggression he rarely makes gambles he doesn’t convert resulting in the most impressive block and steal rate combo in the class.
He can look a little heavy-footed at times on the court but when he is locked in on-ball he has shown the ability to his feet with ball-handlers, shutting down Kennedy Chandler (a speedy micro-guard I will cover later this cycle) on more than one occasion in their two matchups. While his screen navigation is not always great, he showed signs of promise in switches with a real mean streak. I wouldn’t want him guarding point of attack every possession down the court but as someone who projects to play primarily at the 4 there isn’t a lot here, I would be particularly concerned about.
His explosive athleticism led to some pretty jaw-dropping moments throughout the year and that is on a team with quite literally the worst spacing in college basketball. He was a dominant player at the college level in a less than ideal situation. LSU had some of the worst shooting in the country with only Tari and Darius Days threatening the defense from the perimeter, yet he still found his way to the rim consistently throughout the season.
Tari is an absolute terror in transition attacking the rim and flashing some play-making potential off the grab and go. It isn’t hard to see how that will translate to success at the next level where many teams are looking to get out in transition after misses and even the occasional made baskets. Tari with a head of steam is a sight to behold and if drafted to a team that likes to push the pace, I would expect him to have a real impact from day 1. There just aren’t many players like him athletically at any level of basketball, he will put one on your head before you can blink.
The shooting projection is a truly exciting one. He started off the year struggling somewhat from deep but his FT% remained solid throughout the year. As he became more comfortable in his role at LSU, he not only began to convert more of his opportunities but started to experiment off the dribble, creating his own shot primarily through step-backs. While the actual results off the dribble were less than stellar, the comfort with which he can get into his shot is very encouraging. Paired with his positive touch indicators there is real optimism for growth as a shooter.
Despite his less than stellar assist numbers I really like Tari’s projection as a passer. He has a good feel on the court for where his teammates are and made some great passes throughout the year. He is comfortable operating out of DHOs and as a roller, two roles he will be asked to fill early in his career and should do so swimmingly.
Nits: Decision Making, Left Hand, General Refinement
The first thing that pops out to me from a negative perspective when reviewing Tari’s statistical profile is the low assist and high turnover rates. Watching his tape, the assist numbers bother me significantly less than his stats would suggest, LSU just didn’t have anyone who could actually hit shots at a consistent rate. The turnover concerns are not as easily dismissed as he does make some pretty questionable decisions with the ball and isn’t the most accurate passer.
For as high as his turnover rate is there are actually fewer of these bad passes than you would expect, but lord almighty was there a lot of charges. He fouled out of their second game against Tennessee on two brutal charges in quick succession as the game ended. From what I can tell there are two primary reasons for most of his charges with one being more worrisome than the other.
The first, and in my eyes least concerning, are his bouts with tunnel vision. There are too many possessions where he is driving into a thicket of bodies and plows through a defender rotating over in help. In these instances, there is almost always an available pass to make but he misses the read. It isn’t ideal and is a cause for at least some concern, but his team conext at LSU doesn’t do him any favors. There just aren’t shooters out there with him that teams fear leaving open which allows for aggressive help defense to deter his drives. Even if he was to make the “right” pass the odds of the recipient actually making a shot are worse than just about anywhere else in the country.
The second cause for many of these charges and one that gives me real hesitation regarding his translation is the lack of confidence using his left hand. His tape is littered with not only blown lefty layups, but charges caused by the defense realizing he will almost always try to get back to his right hand to finish. It was simply too easy for defenses to anticipate his intentions on drives, and he will need to take pretty major strides using his left to have any real on-ball equity in the league.
That is a development I am a little hesitant to predict. Handle, and in particular off-hand coordination, isn’t something that improves overnight. It can get there but is going to take a good while to be effective against pros. Fortunately for Tari he shouldn’t have to create much of his own scoring opportunities early on thanks to his projection as a spot-up shooter and transition threat.
One final nitpick of Tari’s game would be his defensive consistency and fundamentals. I really like a lot of his defensive tape as he does a good job utilizing his wingspan, but his defense contesting shooters is pretty hit or miss at times and the switch heavy scheme that LSU deploys makes it difficult to get a read on how he will fit at the next level. He did have flashes of great contests, even blocking jumpers throughout the season, but the consistent effort isn’t always there.
For someone that does such a good job using his wingspan and athleticism in other facets of his game I was left feeling a little cold here and that is supported in his synergy numbers. Obviously defensive tracking statistics are not the be-all end-all but ranking in the 31st percentile defending all jump shots and the 3rd percentile against dribble jumpers is pretty rough and indicative of some room for growth.
To me this is more a reflection of a general lack of refinement found throughout his game. He does a lot of things well, but they tend to come in flashes. He stands flat-footed defensively more often than I would like but that may have more to do with the fact that LSU switches so often they are almost playing a zone. He has good instincts and can really turn it up in big moments, but I would expect some growing pains as he is asked to play in a more complex defensive scheme early in his career.
Fits: San Antonio, Sacramento, Oklahoma City, Indiana, Houston
Tari in San Antonio is another one of my favorite potential fits for the club. The 9th pick might be a little high, but I would have him in that general tier going into the draft. He would have plenty of opportunity to grow into his skill set, attack in transition, and wreak havoc defensively at an enormous position of need for the team. The spacing from Devin Vassell, Josh Primo and Keldon Johnson’s meteoric rise as a shooter makes him a great fit with the existing young talent on the roster and could make him a key piece of the rebuild going forward.
Sacramento is another fun one as he would provide a real boon to their rim protection with Sabonis soaking up most of the minutes at the 5. A transition attack spearheaded by De’Aaron Fox and Davion Mitchell with Tari on the wing would be deadly, though it would be nice if there were a few more shooters filling out the roster.
Oklahoma City offers plenty of on-ball creation with Shai, Tre Man and Josh Giddey while desperately needing defensive talent at the forward spot. A 4-man group of Shai/Dort/Giddey/Tari would be really fun assuming Tari continues to develop as a shooter. They have a long way to go before they’re competitive but that 4-man group with whoever they draft in the top 5 could be competitive in a few years.
Indiana is another interesting option as a team that could really use someone that can get to the rim and draw fouls. The possibility of the Pacers winding up with both Tari and Jaden Ivey is really intriguing and would fill their biggest gaps on the roster. Haliburton/Ivey/Duarte/Tari/Turner could be a playoff team sooner than you would think given their dismal record post-trade deadline.
After one year of tanking the Rockets were able to fill their coffer with two potential foundational pieces in Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun while finding three solid role players in Usman Garuba, Josh Christopher and Daishen Nix later in the draft. There is still a long way to go before we see a competitive basketball in Houston, but Tari would fit like a glove. He would be a fun pairing next to Sengun and would provide some much-needed defensive talent at the forward spot. I still remain unreasonably high on Garuba and they do play a similar position, but if Tari is able to shoot I think he would pair well with the like sized defensive specialist in hyper-versatile small ball lineups.
Wits: How do you value a player that requires a specific kind of team fit on a big board? How much can a prospect develop their off-hand at the next level? What does consistent improvement mean for the ultimate upside of a powerful athlete?
Watching Tari tape has been one of the more exciting and befuddling parts of the 2022 cycle. While bursting at the seams with strength and athleticism it was the flashes of skill that really caught my attention. I hesitate to use the terms “raw” or “project” when discussing Tari because at the college level he was one of the most impactful players in the country, yet there is so much in his game that screams a need for refinement. Despite not having much of a left hand or competent shooters around him he was able to get to the rim consistently and showed some real potential with the ball in his hands.
The typical “jumbo initiator” indicators aren’t there from a statistical perspective with low assist and high turnover rates, but I don’t find that potential outcome to be entirely outlandish. He has flashed the ability to pass on the move, has great touch around the rim and experimented with real shot diversity throughout the year. I wouldn’t bet the house on him growing into a primary option on offense, but the flashes are enough to consider the possibility at the very least.
The handle is the biggest limiting factor here in my eyes. He has confidence with the ball in his hands and has the strength to lower his shoulder on drives but his struggles with his left leave me more than a little concerned, particularly in a prospect with a draft age of 21+.
Regardless of handle development there is enough juice in the rest of his game to make a lottery selection worth the squeeze. He will thrive in DHOs and in the short role either at the 5 in small ball lineups or next to a big that can stretch to the perimeter. He should be able to convert catch and shoot looks enough to force contests and use his athleticism to attack closeouts. Paired with his potentially elite defensive impact and transition dominance you have all the necessary ingredients for a productive rotation piece for the next decade.
Tari’s high percentile outcomes are going to be very dependent on his developmental context, but the fact they even exist is enough reason for me to get excited. In a class filled with low floor/high ceiling prospects that weren’t particularly productive in college Tari’s combination of certainty and potential are particularly appealing. He truly is a mismatch nightmare, blowing by bigs and beasting smaller wings. Teams will need to guard him with like-sized athletic forwards and that provides tremendous value. Doug McDermott is not going to cut it guarding Tari.
Tari has improved his game not only between his freshman and sophomore seasons but during the year as well. His teammates repeatedly speak of him as a highly competitive individual with a penchant for hard work. Powerful athletes with a growth-oriented mindset and positive shooting indicators don’t grow on trees, especially those standing at 6’8 with an enormous wingspan. Tari checks all the boxes I look for in calculated gambles, the only question now is just how high he can climb up boards.
A message to NBA rim protectors: Protect ya neck, the Tari freight train is coming, it might be in your best interest to just get out of the way.
All Box Score Stats provided by tankathon.com
Shot Distribution and Advanced Stats provided by barttorvik.com
Points Per Possession Stats and Percentiles provided by synergysportstech.com