Leo Menalo | Scouting Report

Name: Leo Menalo

Born: January 6, 2002

Nationality: Croatia

Team: Stella Azzurra

Height: 6’9’’

Weight: 205-pound

Shooting hand: Right

Medical history

N/A

Primary position: Small forward

Secondary position: Point guard

Archetype model: Point forward

Background

He was born on January 6, 2002, in Croatia. He started to basketball in Croatia eight years ago. His older brother played basketball. He has two sisters and one of them is one of the best prospects from 2005 girls’ generations. He participated in Basketball Without Borders Global Camp. He went to the USA and trained at the famous P3. He joined Stella Azzurra Roma in 2018, left KK Cibona.

Physical

Leo Menalo has outstanding size and frame to play as a guard. He possesses the ultimate torso and arm length. He has the ideal geometry from the neck to the chest. His wide shoulders, high head, and flex chest allow him to fill his arms comfortably. Menalo doesn’t have glorious muscle masses on his arms, however, has pretty nice popping on biceps. Triceps don’t strong, also, his forearms and wrists don’t give him flexibility which hurts his around the basket finishing and slashing (If the wrists are too tight, it will be very difficult to finish the ball inside hand angle or bump and fade even if you have made a perfect dribble for slashing. Menalo’s part from the elbows to the wrists looks a bit tight. It is good for his back-to-the-basket offense but at the end of the day, his slashing is more critical): LM feels the ball in his hands while shooting, and despite having wide hand, he shows pretty good coordination. His tight chest allows him to take advantage in live dribble situations, however, he doesn’t have good abs, which hurting his face-up defense. The Croatian prospect has good flexibility on his torso, it is possible to see it when he gets low and jumps. He improved his body over the last 1.5 years very well. Especially, I really liked his improvement on his lower body. He possesses good quickness for his size. This catalyzed by thin but agile legs, hip mobility, and average strength hamstrings. However, it is necessary to evaluate his quickness and speed here in two different ways. Menalo is very fast in straight line, but he has no lateral speed, and doesnt’t have ability to turn corners on defense and offense, this is a negative factor on his face-up defense. About lower body athleticism and coordination. Leo Menalo doesn’t have elite lateral movement but he can run on the floor linearly very well and has good vertical leaping. His rare combination (for his size) of quickness, length, and vertical leaping make him an exceptional scorer in transition and fast-paced games. He can get low using both feet as mechanical levers while shooting. However, his left kneecap is sometimes too close to his right kneecap, which causes scrambling in his dribble penetration and irregularity in his shot. Overall, Leo Menalo is a precious prospect because he has linear quickness and can play in backcourt spots as a 6'9'’ player. He is an explosive athlete but his lack of elite shiftiness hurting his athletic skills. Also, he still has important rooms to gain strength. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be forgotten that he has elite length and positional size that makes him fit one of the trendiest patterns in the NBA.

Swing factors

Shooting, passing, strength, decision-making

Offense

It is hard to say that Leo Menalo has special tea on offense. He can do a little bit of everything, which is important. Menalo plays point forward in Stella Azzurra’s offensive system. Sometimes he plays as primary ballhandler and sometimes as secondary ballhandler. However, the reason he plays as one of the main ballhandlers is not that he has a good passing skill-set, but because he can use his size & frame well in closeout and mismatch situations. When he attacks closeout or mismatch, he usually shows good body coordination. The Croatian native doesn’t’ have strong first step but solid. He is able to lower his stance to attack the defender’s hips while slashing. He does a good job to gets off-balance the defender. This catalyzed by rip move, quickness, and BBIQ. The situations where his slashing is most valuable are usually in high-tempo offenses. Although Menalo doesn’t have elite court vision as a passer, he can radar the court and choose the place where he should attack and can go there with the ball and score. But he has a very critical development room in his slashing: technique. It’s hard to say that Menalo is technically a slasher with good stuff, which is why he has a hard time finishing in traffic and gaining an advantage with his drive. He is technically weak when going to the basket against nail defenders. In such positions, he usually turnover or forcing the game and throwing the layup, but usually this doesn’t turn into money. He is a solid finisher overall. He is a quick load athlete who jumps high and finishes with a dunk. He can use both hands while finishing. Shows good body coordination and extension but lack of strength, changing direction ability, and soft-touch hurting his finishing a lot. That’s why he just made 13 of 36 attempts in the paint through five months of this season. However, there are some good signals for the future. It is hard to block his attempts because Menalo has high release point in the paint, is able to use left-hand, also, knows how to use the glass. If he can add strength and soft touch in the future, he definitely will be an excellent finisher with his perfect length. There’s something about Menalo’s offense that I think is most important of all right now: shooting. Menalo improves on shooting every year, but naturally there are some bad habits he still has. Tends to try unnecessary mid-range. He likes to use the long mid-range, and sometimes he uses the mid-range in a difficult position when there is still time. It is good that his ability to create his mid-range shot adding versatility on his shooting, but he shouldn’t be inclined to that. Speaking of shooting versatility, Menalo is a versatile shooter. He can find hits in many shooting categories such as off-screen, PnR, DHO, CnS, step-back jumper, spot-up, pulll ups, one leg jumper, but he is most productive as a shooter in CnS situations. Two-motion shooting form, mini and natural dip, have gravity due to feet, can use legs as leverages very well, gets low while ball comes to his hands, shows good shot pocket, loading time isn’t good he should be quicker, consistent elbow points, above the head release, solid touch in the air. There are three issues that limit Menalo’s shooting: off-hand timing, strength, and left knee alignment. Menalo’s left knee sometimes can be too close to his right knee and this affects his energy transfer. He usually shots the ball with his two hands but sometimes pulls off his off-hand early and this affects his arc. The most important issue is strength. He doesn’t have balance to adjust his shooting stroke. Despite Menalo’s 3-points volume looks low and his some mechanical problems, I think he could be a decent shooter at the NBA level. Because he already has versatility and mentality. In a team that has good creators in drive-and-kick situations, Menalo’s CnS shooting could be valuable and he also could add value with his mid-range threat. But again, he shouldn’t be prone to use a lot of mid-range shots and has to fix his some mechanical issues. He isn’t effective on post games. Has shown flashes of drop-step, face-up attacks, etc. but very limited. He shows good flashes as a stationary passer but I would like to him in drive-and-kick/dish situations as a passer because Menalo has that gravity effect. He is a solid ballhandler and knows how to protect the ball against pesky defense. However, he does a bad job in PnR situations. Because while attacking after the screen, if he attacks against help defense or a very active, smart defender, he is confused and turnover (made 10 TOs in 34 PnR offenses). Overall, he has PnR/P potential because has positional size and can shoot the ball. However, until now, he has been very ineffective in those offenses.

Defense

Leo Menalo promises versatility in defense thanks to his physical tools and shows some of that versatility in Stella Azzurra. Overall, his biggest problem on defense is about quickness and speed in my opinion. Although Menalo is very fast in open court and high-tempo games, he doesn’t have technical speed. I mean, he stays heavy when turning screens and moving laterally, also, going for closing out. He really gets beaten easily when closing out and has a hard time reacting to quick first steps. Actually, his leverage power and arm length allow him an advantage to contest the offense’s shooting angle but lack of technical speed hurting him a lot here. I have seen Menalo when he defending four spots. He is a positional defender due to length and defensive IQ. However, he sometimes dislodges by the quick ballhandlers if he didn’t take his island. He does a good job to cover substantial ground in front of wings. He combined with balance, wingspan, body coordination, and strong upper body reflexes. Despite he shows positionality on defense, it is hard to define him as a switch defender. Because it is easy to scramble Menalo in PnR situations due to his lack of lateral quickness. He usually goes under the screen but loses a lot of times to cover the ballhandler’s dribble path or roller’s rolling path. He sometimes does a nice job getting high on the hedge but he is inconsistent getting back to his man quickly in the paint. He should improve his recovery speed downhill. He isn’t a hunter in passing lanes or energetic defender on the glass. He doesn’t come with deflections, steals, or blocks. So, end of the day, Menalo’s defense is completely about projection and possibilities. If he can add quickness to his defensive IQ and length, he will be an all-around defender. Because he looks willing to make defense, is willing to create intensity for the offense and knows how to take his position. However, lack of required defensive tools like quickness, rim protection, and deflection hurting him a lot.He is a good rebounder just not because he has good length and also he is ready to fight in the air and on the ground. He knows principles of the rebounding and uses his length and BBIQ very well. This is a huge plus because he is able to start transition after grabbing the ball.