Hasan Efe Uzun Scouting Report

I’m Kuzey, 20. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I worked in Eurosport Turkey for two years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. Yeah, I’m looking for a job. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Paul Eboua, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Ekpe Udoh, Pero Antic, Maurizio Gherardini, Georgios Printezis, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams also some general athletes such as Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Ken Doherty, Alex Albon… I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. And my biggest goal is to be a real basketball scout. Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!

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DARUSSAFAKA TEKFEN — 2003 — SG — TURKEY

Hasan Efe Uzun was born on 2003, in Konya, Turkey. When he was five years old, he was interested in gymnastics in Konya, and a year later, in 2009, he started basketball. The biggest reason he started playing basketball was that his family guided and supported him.

Although Hasan Efe played basketball consistently until the age of 10, he completely embraced this sport as a hobby. He enjoyed playing football more. But at the age of 10, his love and interest in basketball grew much more and he focused entirely on this sport. At that time, he participated in the city tournament with basketball players who two or three years older than him.

In that tournament, Tufan Sabah scouted his talents and contacted him, but the names that brought him to the next level were Özcan Çakar and his head coach in Konya. He left his family in Konya and moved to Istanbul to play for Darüşşafaka. He received all his education there.

He has been playing Daçka’s youth category and also had Basketball Super League experience last year. Hasan Efe Uzun made his National Team debut last year, at the FIBA U16 Euro Championship where he averaged 8.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 0.7 turnovers while shooting 37.3% from the court and 30.6% behind the 3-points line.

I have seen him on the court as a person seven times and from the eye-test window, I think he is a coachable kid. He opens to learn, and also, he works hard.

However, while on the court and on the bench, he gives bad signals with some gestures. He looks like he doesn’t care about the game and just focuses on himself. He looks very cool while his team has raw emotions. But I don’t think he is someone who breaks all the peace in the team and disturbs the peace. He just has to learn to manage his emotions in my opinion.

Physical Tools & Approach & Athleticism

Standing 6-foot-3 with a 6-foot-4 wingspan and 185-pound frame, Hasan Efe Uzun has good length and average strength generally. But he has some significant rooms in the upper body. Also, he should work a lot to be a better athlete in my opinion.

Possesses average width on shoulders, HEU’s good upright degree on shoulders allow him to fill biceps and triceps in the future. However, he hasn’t done a good job so far there. The arms have good length but Uzun should work on add muscle to fill. Has almost no strength in front of the elbow and this affects negatively his wrists in terms of strength but good flexibility in both zones.

Has good stiffness on his neck, also, I can say that clearly his torso both flex and strong. However, hollow chest and average developed core muscles limit him as an athlete. I think his most critical improvement room physically about the upper body. But it’s not mean HEU’s lower body is excellent. Has average strength on legs, quick on his feet, can move very well in North-South and West-East directions, has limited vertical leap which affects negatively his around the basket finishing. I mean, the biggest issue in his lower body is about the athleticism window. Not about physical tools in my opinion.

Hasan Efe Uzun is not generally a basketball player who drives around the basket and tries to make money. So when I evaluate him from the perspective of athletics, I have very little data, but I think it is possible to understand that he lacks athletics from the sequences he has so far.

Average first step, cannot change direction easily, cannot finish through the contact, not someone who chases his man around the screens, has not good vertical leap, average hop, has not any burst tricks, has shown flashes where he had beautiful crossover and euro step moves but inconsistent, refined footwork generally, quick on his feet but he really just quick behind the 3-points line. Has good body coordination and balance but cannot integrate these abilities with leap, first step and general quickness. So all these problems make him a limited basketball player for the higher levels in my opinion.

Because players who play at the high levels in today’s basketball behind the perimeter, need to have above-average athletic tools and use them consistently in order to create their own position and damage the opponent’s defense. But it should not be forgotten that Uzun is only 17 years old. So all the doors are still open but it will not be too long, so, should work on athleticism rooms a lot and add some muscles with weight.

Offense

Hasan Efe Uzun’s offensive role is generally based on secondary ballhandler sets. Uzun comes from under the basket or from one of the corners to wing or top of the key using down, stagger, flare, or flat screens and takes the ball from the primary ballhandler and goes through three options.

The first option is usually shooting. The second option is to drive the basket. The third option is to provide passing flow in the drive and kick or perimeter channels in a classical way.

He occasionally plays as a primary ballhandler. This period includes sequences in which Uzun demonstrated his court vision, his ability to understand the game and to bring dynamism to his team. But overall, he’s more of a secondary ballhandler (with his shooting) than a self-creator or major playmaker.

However, I cannot define him as a dynamic, killer shooter. He has shown some excellent flashes as a shooter but some problems in his shooting form and versatility create question marks in my mind.

Firstly, he is not a major shot-creator behind the line due to lack of shiftiness (despite the occasional fake or euro step on the move, he lacks a degree of shiftiness and ability to change direction in my opinion), pump fake ability (cannot bite the defender very well) and instincts. And also, I think he has not a great awareness on the offensive end. Sometimes shoot the ball while his team still a lot of seconds to finish the offense and HEU has a pesky defense.

Shooting very well in catch-and-shoot and spot-up situations, Uzun has two-motions shooting form. Elbow points very good, close to the torso and looks flex. He can bend his knees and backs, rotates the hips quickly, has pretty nice jump, above the head release but not too close to the head (this allows the defender to contest his shot), average quickness on loading, good release arc and balance hand’s momentum. However, there are two major issues. First, Uzun’s knee alignment is inconsistent. Sometimes great, so, close but sometimes looks unorthodox. Second, the last touch in the air. As the ball leaves his hand, he holds his right hand in the air too much, giving an unnecessary last touch and that makes his shot harder, which I think is not a good thing.

He is filling up the transitions quickly and can finish these situations to make money or make an assist. Has good decision making BBIQ here.

Drives to his right better than his left, Uzun does not get to the basket often, but is a solid finisher with solid touch when attacks. Knows how to use the glass to give momentum and arc to the ball. Has shown some good flashes to attack bigs from closeouts. That’s where his solid handling, a few hesitations and BBIQ come into play. Can finish both hands but not too much with left. He does not a good job on floaters and soft touches but also not too bad. However, I cannot define him as a good creator to attack the basket and I would like to see him more aggressive under the basket. Cannot finish in traffic and through contact. Dislodged by the defender easily…

Just a shooter in off the ball situations, has not good PnR weapons, not a post-up scorer, so, he should work add some creative tricks in his offensive arsenal in my opinion.

The passing ability with handling and dribbling is the thing that I want to see him better a lot. Despite HEU has not elite physical tools, he is a 6-foot-3 17 years old guard at the end of the day. So, he has good length. However, he cannot use this advantage on drive to the basket.

So if he starts playing as a consistent point guard he could be a much more valuable player. He has shown many types of pass in the matches he has played so far. He has good timing and palm precision in drive-and-kick situations, knows where to throw pass in transition attacks, knows the arcs, and provides good overall flow around the perimeter. But as a passer, Hasan Efe, should do better in ballhandling and manipulating the opponent with his dribbling tricks. Also, has room to grow in awareness issue. Because he can show his creativity more comfortably, easily and create tons of space for others.

He’s already promising as a shooter. So if he can add tricks to his pass arsenal from handling and dribbling (he needs to work tons on PnRs also) and shoot a little more consistently, I think he could have a much more effective career as a point guard. Thus, he will also make up to his deficiencies in drive to the basket issue.

Hasan Efe Uzun does not have a great deal of defensive versatility but brings a huge fight and BBIQ to the floor competing and doing some important things on the ball defense.

Defense

Hasan Efe Uzun does not have a great deal of defensive versatility but brings a huge fight and BBIQ to the floor competing and doing some important things on the ball defense.

On the ball defense, his lateral movement, speed, good hand-eye coordination, ability to transfer energy from his feet and quick reactions make up his physical tools to lack of strength and elite length. He has no perfect steal or deflection ability in any area of ​​defense, but is very good at covering all angles of his opponent and doing this for 22 seconds from the full court. He gives up from time to time but there is no inconsistent prone.

However, when his man going to the basket with using his physicality, his on the ball defense is not working. So is struggling to defend from within two steps of the perimeter.

As I said, I’m not a fan of his overall team awareness but I think he’s a little better at this on the defensive end. He’s not someone who talks to his teammates, always does the right rotate, and he’s never a defensive playmaker either. But he does a nice job guarding his man along the perimeter and also knows how to protect the shell, go to open man / extra pass / sliding, etc. He does a good job tagging the roll and recovering to his man. However, he sometimes does an unnecessary help-defense.

Pick-and-roll defense, he shows good anticipation and a degree of tenacity guarding handler. His smooth stance and quick body reaction work. Not switchability a lot.

I’m a huge fan of his transition defense. In transition, he is good at returning to his half-court as quickly as possible and closing his opponent’s angle with his hands and BBIQ, and he also knows how to make a right foul.

Does a great job closing out. His quick body and quick reactions make him a good closeout defender in my opinion. Does not have great athlectisim tools in terms of smoothness or popping when getting out to shooters but his coordination and motor help him here.

Need some works on off the ball defense. Despite he does a good job running around the screens, and his BBIQ, Uzun’s athleticism tools limited him. Struggles against the second screen or burst fakes too much. Also, sometimes he gives too late reactions.

Overall

Hasan Efe Uzun has good personality and overall, good kid. Has shown his effort a lot to all of his coaches, including Darussafaka’s senior team head coach, Selçuk Ernak. Has not raw emotions but it’s not a big deal. My biggest question mark about his personality, mind about his game awareness. I would like to see him better in this issue.

On the court window, as I said, if he can add some creativeness with good handling and dribbling abilities as a point guard, his career projection could be excellent in the European competitions. Because physical point guards who can make 3-points, has an average vision and passing skill-sets are very important for our era’s basketball. I believe that his defensive minus are not too critical. If he can add some experience with good coaching, he can make up these cons easily. He still has time to improve and the first step about athleticism room.