Kailyn Bell Player Evaluation

Interchangeable between the point and off-guard positions
- Main role when playing both is a distributor
- Her focus is to get others involved and run the team from the lead guard position
Consummate team player who understands her role and stays within it
Strong fundamentals
Very unselfish
Exhibits proper footwork
Plays a solid floor game
Understands how to move to the open areas against zone defenses and maintain proper spacing
- Will benefit from cutting with purpose more consistently against man-to-man defense
Playmaking – shows flashes of capable playmaking
- Penetrates with a plan
- Sets her teammates up nicely for quality looks

Will occasionally push the pace to draw and kick to shooters
Pick-and-roll play
- Uses good angles off the ball screen
- Patiently awaits the screener to get set
- Pass-first off the pick
- Conservative decision-maker
- Could consider being more aggressive by looking to turn the corner more often

Provides flashes of getting to the rim off the bounce, such as this nice hesitation crossover for the finish

Finishing
- Exhibits the ability to finish with her left hand
  - Will improve by continuing to strengthen this ability

Owns strength to finish through some contact

Can improve on:
- Finishing with two hands in traffic/against the contest to add strength and ball protection
- Maintaining focus on the goal in traffic
Will benefit from developing a runner/floater around the paint

Displays a knack for drawing shooting fouls around the rim
Effective positional offensive rebounder
- Uses her anticipatory skills to track the ball and judge where it’s coming off the rim
A note on getting open against the deny: she can walk the defender down, reverse pivot into them, making contact/impact with her shoulder and hip/behind as she moves into them. As she’s pivoting, she should use her non-pivot leg to seal them and then explode out to call for the ball.
As a screener, she does a good job of seeking out the defender to screen, as opposed to moving to a specified area
Showed the incorporation of a one-dribble pull-up that was nicely executed

Shooting

Still working toward becoming a more consistent shooter overall
Shoots it with confidence and provides glimpses of her potential from 3-point distance

Maintains good concentration on the rim
Choosy shot selection
- Majority of attempts in the games covered were from 3 or around the rim
- Would like to see her to be more aggressive in looking for her own shot
Form/Mechanics
- When shooting on the catch, the right foot is a half-step too far out in front of the left foot
  - Bring that right foot back ½ a step
  - This doesn’t appear to take place when shooting off the dribble
- Both feet are slightly angled to the left, away from the rim. This leaves the lower body slightly rotated to the left.
- Mostly on the catch, the initial shot motion involves a “loading” up of sorts, where she moves the ball slightly away from her body before bringing it back in to continue up into the shot motion
  - Eliminating this extra motion will increase the quickness of the shot and cut down on the overall movement, which should help contribute to more consistency (the less movement, the better)
- Appears to use the guide hand’s thumb, flicking it upon the release
  - Keeping the guide hand flat (or simply removing the thumb action) will improve consistency
- Release is from under the chin
- Shoots up to create a favorable shot trajectory
- Consistent follow through
Shoots a set shot
- Needs time to get the shot off on the catch
Comfortable shooting off the bounce
- Shoots off a jump stop
- Quicker release
- Less overall motion in the shot

Passing

Very willing passer; makes the right pass with a nice delivery
- Makes the extra pass without hesitancy
Displays good vision
- Shows awareness of where her teammates are and where they are going to be

Advances the ball well with the pass
Effective as a passer upon penetration into the lane
- Drive and kicks to shooters
- Dump-offs to the block/paint

Good post-feeder
- Uses the correct technique on her bounce passes and overhead passes
- Correctly uses an extra dribble to create the proper passing angle and places the pass away from the defender

Tends to put too much air on the pass in situations where more zip is warranted
- Has a greater tendency to pass with predominantly one hand instead of two
- Will benefit from cleaning up her technique by using two hands and flicking her wrists
Comfortable throwing passes with her right or left hand on the perimeter
- Uses the left-handed pass appropriately
Displays a nice touch on her passes overall

Capable of making accurate passes off the live dribble
Sound decision-maker

Dribbling

Makes efficient use of her dribbles
Has a good, controlled speed dribble
- Fluid change of direction on the run
Nice posture – can be a bit too upright
- Will benefit from getting her body lower to the ground
  - Will help to maximize explosiveness and increase ball protection, control, and quickness
Has a tendency to change directions before crossing over. As a result, the ball is traveling slightly behind her.
Crossover tends to be “over the top” against ball pressure rather than v-shaped. The v-shaped crossover keeps the ball lower and decreases the likelihood of the defender getting a hand on it.
- Uses the “over the top” crossover effectively when putting pressure on the defense moving downhill
Will improve by working on dribbling around bodies with a focus on keeping the ball low and eyes up
- Work on change of hands and directions with the crossover, while incorporating other dribble moves such as between the legs and behind the back to add ball protection
Will also benefit from keeping her body between the ball and the defender more consistently
- For instance, when entering the ball into the offense by dribbling to the wing, step into the body of the defender using the shoulder/body and push/explode back off the planted foot to create the space to crossover
  - Be careful not to push off of the defender

Defense

Reliable; pays close attention to detail. A few examples include:
- Rarely allows cutters to cut in front of her face

When pressing full-court off of scores, she immediately locates and guards
Maintains a good balance of attention between ball and man off the ball
Excellent at getting back on defense to stop ball and defend the basket to prevent easy attempts
Strikes on backside steal opportunities without putting her team at a disadvantage

On-ball defense
- Impressive overall – makes the ball handler work, stays in front, and knows how to lead the ball handler into help
- Solid defensive stance
- Plays defense with her feet and generally does so without fouling
  - Usually preserves good balance
  - Crosses her feet when moving laterally to stay in front, which will be troublesome against quicker ballhandlers who are capable of effective misdirection/change of direction dribbles
    - Avoid bringing the feet together/crossing feet
- Does not quit on the ball and often cuts the opponent off as a result

Will benefit from more active hands
In the half-court, she meets the ball at half-court to apply pressure
Applies effective full-court pressure, turning the ball handler multiple times and successfully leads them into traps

Good communicator
Shows sound technique on closeouts
- Completes the closeout by turning and blocking out without fouling

Consistently blocks out
- Superb technique
- Makes a concerted effort to find a body when the shot goes up
- Has a tendency to focus too much on the block out and not enough on the ball itself
Possesses good hands that are capable of plucking the ball from defenders on-ball and from the help side position
Plays with anticipation
Does an excellent job of staying in her defensive stance off the ball

Basketball IQ

Excellent court awareness
Exhibits a sound understanding of moving without the ball
- i.e. Displays the knowledge/feel of when to use the back door

Knows how to draw the defense and understands when to make the pass as a result
Displays the ability to read the defense for fast break opportunities

Here’s a nice look without putting the ball on the floor to take advantage of the 2-on-1

Values possessions
Shows a feel for the game
Sound decision-maker overall
Has a firm grasp on offensive and defensive game plans
Understands time and score

Disposition/Presence

Dispostion/Presence

Brings stability to the floor for her team
Good motor on both ends; plays hard
Disciplined on both ends, too
Plays to win the game
- Competitive
Takes the game seriously
Celebrates her teammates’ successes
Gets on the floor without hesitation and is seemingly always in the mix
It sounds cliché, but she does a lot of things that do not show up in the box score

Physical/Athleticism

Good hand-eye coordination
Possesses nice timing and anticipation

Here she is anticipating where the ball is coming off the rim, and finishing nicely with tough left-handed 7-foot shot

Fair positional strength
Exhibits an overall toughness you like to see in the backcourt
Not afraid of contact
Restricted quickness and foot speed
- Can improve through various quickness drills, plyometrics, and speed drills
Room to improve conditioning

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