Scouting Report | Elijah Stewart

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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. 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, bla bla bla. Anyway, hit me on Twitter. @kuzeykg

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• Name: Elijah Stewart
• Born: November 14, 1995
• Hometown: Lousiana
• Nationality: United States
• Height: 6-foot-5
• Weight: 198 lbs

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• Current Team: Slask Wroclaw
• Primary position: Small forward
• Secondary position: Shooting guard
• Tags and archetype that fit with his skill-set: Versatile shooter, 3&D, explosive athlete, movement shooter, shot-blocker, long-range shooter, team player.

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• NBA Grade (The grades here are based on the player’s performance from 2019 to 2021 and skill-set): 80/100
• EuroCup Grade: 99/100
• EuroLeague Grade: 88/100

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• High school: Westchester
• Averaged 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 2.1 blocks at Westchester. He was selected the 2014 Los Angeles City Section Player of the Year.

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• Collage: USC Trojans
• Averaged 10.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, one assist, 0.9 blocks, 0.9 turnovers while shooting 39% behind the arc and 42.9% on the court. Stayed there for four years; from 2014–2015 to 2017–2018. Played 138 games and was a starter in 102 games. Played 27.1 minutes per game.

Elijah Stewart went undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft making him an Unrestricted FA. He signed a contract with the Paces and the Pacers placed the contract of Elijah Stewart on waivers on October 11, 2018. He went to G-League, played for one year there for three teams. He signed a contract with Helsinki last year. Averaged 18 points, five rebounds, 1.4 assists while shooting 39.7% behind the line. Signed with Slask Wroclaw. He is averaging 16 points, 1.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds, one steal, 1.1 blocks, one turnover while shooting 43.4% behind the line, through 24 games.

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Background

Elijah Stewart was born on November 14, 1995, in DeRidder, Louisville. His mother is Rosie Smith and they have a good emotional bond. He has three siblings. Evely, Cecil, and Ezekiel. Elijah considers his grandfather, Cecil Stewart Sr. as his hero & idol. Cecil Stewart was born September 16, 1949, in DeRidder. He worked for Boiuse Southern paper mill for whole his career. He was super active in some communities which help to improve young people’s living standards. He sponsored the Willie Brown Football Camp and a basketball camp. Elijah worked in the community with CDNC DeRidder and Fastbreat Sports. Elijah likes to play tennis and listening music. He was an economics major at USC.

Physical & Athlectisim

Elijah Stewart doesn’t have excellent measurements for a small forward. He is standing 6-foot-5 with plus 1 or 2 (eye-test, max) wingspan and 198-pound frame. Elijah possesses good width on his shoulders which allows him to shot the ball quickly. He has muscular triceps and biceps, also, super agile and able to absorb contact with his arms. His forearms are a little thin, but that’s good because this complements Elijah’s explosiveness in his game and the compactness of his shooting mechanism. His hands are of average length, he has tenderness in his palms, and he can fully grasp the ball with his fingers. He doesn’t have impressive mobility on his lower body but does a perfect job to transfer energy while shooting. He is very quick on the North-South way but occasionally, can lose off his balance while showing his quickness with the ball in his hands due to lack of elite balance and ground gravity but quick overall and this is good. The Louisville native moves laterally very well and it is possible to understand his lateral movement tricks while he chasing his man around screens and rejecting the screen in PnR offenses to cover his man. He is leaping off the one foot perfectly. He has shown flashes of posterized dunks, open court dunks, weak-side blocks, secondary rim protection and while doing those things, he was perfect at leaping off the one foot. Also, his core power and long arms, body coordination (upper body), and timing were good. So while he isn’t an elite explosive athlete due to lack of changing direction move, changing speed ability, elite slashing, and torso strength & flexibility (despite his core strength), Stewart does a good job as an explosive athlete when the opponent team scrambling and in transition situations, open court offenses in my opinion. However, he isn’t have desired smoothness and this is a problem. Because it will likely be easy to cover his 2-point game in set v set offenses.

Offense

Elijah is an excellent 3-point shooter and his game revolves around shot. He’s such a good shooter that it makes him a worthy fit for NBA level and a better European adventure in my opinion. He has one-motion compact shooting mechanics. Excels to set up his footwork and transfer energy from his lower body (heels on the ground). Doesn’t have perfect load timing but not too bad also. Has a natural mini-dip and does a good job to leverage the ball from his shot pocket with a good angle. It’s hard to say that he has above the head release but has a good angle. High release, quick trigging, and good sensitivity in the air while releasing the ball. Shots the ball with two hands, pulls his off-hand at right time. Bending degree on his hips isn’t desired but he looks comfortable with that.

He gives importance to alignment on his knees and feet, and I think this definitely gives an excellent signal of his shot IQ. As Elijah prepares for the freeze jumper after catching up the ball, he places great emphasis on pointing his toes towards the basket and aligning his knees at the right angle, which significantly affects his long-range shooting.

Elijah is a versatile and killer 3-point shooter. He is converting 57 of 140 3s. He scoring 148 points in 102 possessions in catch-and-shoot situations. 50 of 102 possessions, he shot the ball when his defender pressuring him and scored 75 points with 50 percentage. He scoring 1.23 points per game in jump shots and 178 points as a spot-up shooter. He is a long-range shooter who can hit the ball over the pesky defender due to his high-release and good BBIQ.

It’s hard to define him as a shifty shooter. I mean, he isn’t good to create his shot with advanced dribble moves but good to create his shot with basic moves like in-and-out, etc. ES does good things on off the ball motions to create his shooting space. This catalyzed by his drifts and lifts behind the 3-point line from corners to wings or top of the key. Very willing to hit the shot and not someone who forces the shot but yes, also isn’t a super goo

Despite Stewart scoring 49 points in 46 possessions as a pick-and-roll ballhandler, I don’t think he has any other asset (in terms of set v set offense) on offense that makes him a higher-level player. He isn’t a good slasher or playmaker or PnR operator due to lack of advanced basketball moves and physical tools. However, there is a huge asset that he has in spontaneous offenses. Well, Stewart isn’t a crazy good 1v1 operator in a 2-point game but if the defender or the opponent’s defensive geometry scrambled, Eiljah can fill up this space to make a dunk. So as you know, NBA teams are willing to have those types of players. I think that Elijah can transform his explosive athlectisim to the NBA level because this isn’t his primary asset and uses it in special possessions.

He can finish with both hands, has solid touch, shows good body coordination in the air, and knows how to protect the ball with his body. Speaking of his ballhandling… He isn’t a playmaker or excellent slasher but does a good job to protect the ball when he dribbling to the basket or preparing himself to shot. Low TO ratio throughout his career and usually shows awareness to protect the ball.

He is an aware player on offense. He doesn’t narrow his team’s space and always cutting or drifting-lifting to create space. He isn’t a ball-dominant basketball player and shows respect on Strahinja Jovanovic and Garrett Nevels’ playmaking. Motor runs high and rarely comes and goes.

Defense

Elijah Stewart is a fantastical shot-blocker for his size. He made 25 blocks so far this season and displayed versatility as a shot-blocker. What I mean by “versatiltiy” is that he does a good job on weak-side blocks, transition blocks, 3-point shot blocks, and aggressive one-handed blocks. He such a good blocker that he can do the “contest and block” combo behind the 3-point line. He has blocked 12 3-point and mid-range shots. This catalyzed by his high-motor, willingness, explosive athlectisim, defensive instincts, body coordination, leaping, timing, and BBIQ.

Despite Elijah is being a little bit lanky for a 6–5 forward, he excels at using his body while preparing himself to block the offense’s interior action. While extending to block the ball, he can coordinate his body and avoid a foul

He is active in passing lanes and can come with tons of deflections and steals to the table but sometimes, plays gamble a lot and this creates a huge gap on his defensive side but not always.

Besides his blocks and steals, technically, what he does best on defense is close-out defense. He has a pretty classic but effective technique to closing out. His hands always up, he runs balanced and quickly, shows solid stance movement, maintains his distance to avoid giving the offense too much space in case of slashing instead of shooting, and excels on contesting. He is allowing just 0.84 points per game in spot-up situations.

While he isn’t a switch defender, his ability to chasing his man around screens and making pressure on him allowing Elijah to play in PnR situations. He does a good job to move laterally to cover his man’s path as an active PnR defender and also is able to chase his man around screens quickly. Can use his close-out technique to make pressure on off-screen shooter. He is allowing 0.18 points per game as an off-screen defender and 0.78 points per game as a PnR ballhandler defender.

He can be a little bit overhelp as an off the ball defender and this is a problem. Also, isn’t a good transition defender.

Overall

Elijah Stewart isn’t the top scorer or one of the top scorers or one of the top-2 players at Poland Basketball League. He doesn’t have impressive physical tools and isn’t a good slasher. Also, he hasn’t experienced playing at EuroCup or something like that competition. However, he is an excellent system player in my opinion. He can play with ball-dominant and be effective on both sides of the court. My main reason to see him as a player who should play at a EuroCup/EuroLeague team with NBA jump potential is his skill-set. His skill-set is translatable to every level in my opinion. Because he is a versatile shooter, open court athlete, good defender, and team player. However, there are three concerns/questions to think about. His position. Well, I think he will be full-effective if plays as a shooting guard consistently. Because finding a 6–5 shooter and defender is rare to find. His playmaking is awful. However, if I had a good playmaker who can be operating 2-point sets and assists and a small forward who is a good slasher, above the average passer from wings, and a solid defender, Elijah Stewart could be an excellent fit for that team. So he can be kind of Joe Harris type of player. Harris plays with Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden but is still effective with his shot and solid defense. OF COURSE, Harris is a better shooter than Stewart, however, Stewart’s defense is a critical plus. In this case, my last concern/question about his defense. While I am thinking that his defense is translatable to higher-levels, have some concern about the quality of the league. I’m okay with his blocking and close-out defense. Those things are pretty good. However, I am thinking that how can be effective as a PnR defender against super-smart ballhandlers. The team play can make up for this, of course. However, a little bit of concern here, of course. At the end of the day, I would like to see him at a team that plays at VTB/ABA/Turkey/France/Spain and EuroCup/EuroLeague games. Then, there will be more certain criteria about his NBA projection. Nevertheless, he definitely should be on the radar of the NBA teams without waiting, in my opinion.