Andrew Nembhard: The Calm Canadian Conductor

I was recently watching Thinking Basketball's new video about Lebron's development as a passer and it brought up some very key ideas about what it meas to be an effective passer. Ben Taylor basically broke down a player's passing ability into 4 key skills: Directionality, Speed, Anticipation and Manipulation. I think these are essential skills for any elite passer and would even add Touch to the list as well.

I thought it would be interesting to examine how much these skills were prevalent in one of college basketball's best passers, Andrew Nembhard.

Andrew Nembhard is currently a sophomore for the Florida Gators. After a stellar freshman year that saw him receive SEC All-Freshman honors, Nembhard decided to return to school in hopes of winning a NCAA championship and raising his NBA draft stock. Standing at 6 ft 5, Nembhard is a big lead guard with a pass first mentality. Despite being just 19 years of age, he already possess one NBA level skill: his ability to pass.

Advanced Numbers

Season	G	GS	MP	PER	AST%	TOV%	USG%	WS/40
2018-19	36	36	1184	13.6	32.8	21.0	16.1	.114
2019-20	8	8	272	12.5	30.7	20.3	20.6	.103

Provided by CBB at Sports Reference: View Original Table

Nembhard's advanced numbers don't really jump off the page. This year his AST% is 30.7, which is slightly down from last year (he was at 32.8%). However, his TOV% has gone down to 20.6% this year. I'll admit that 8 games is a really small sample size, but we can already see that his advanced numbers are on track with his output last year as a freshman.

While the advanced stats can paint a picture of Nembhard's passing, his numbers are limited by Florida's slow, grind it out offense. Currently, Florida's pace is at 65.9, putting them at 318th in the country. He just won't get the chance to put up the crazy assist numbers that some of the other prospects will be able to. It's important to understand the context of the systems that players are apart of in order to get a more accurate evaluation of their skill set. And when going through the game film, I was thoroughly impressed by the reads Nembhard makes and the passes he executes. 

Directionality

Nembhard, like many elite passers is not directionally handicapped meaning, Nembhard is a balanced passer as he is able to make accurate passes with both hands, across both sides of his body and in all directions on the court. It's one of the things that makes him such a dynamic passing prospect. 

Notice in the first clip, Nembhard comes off the dribble hand off screen and begins his dribble penetration going to his left. We see Nembhard's great vision as he spots his teammate filling up to the wing. Nembhard then contorts his body to his right while in the air and throws an accurate over the head pass right in his teammate's shooting pocket. 

In this second play, we see more of Nembhard's versatility in terms of direction. This time he goes to his left and once he finds a passing angle, he throws a perfect pass with his right hand to his big. It's these types of reads and passes he makes that makes Nembhard a special passer.

And like any elite passer, Nembhard is capable of throwing one hand passes that are right on the money. Here he does it off the dribble and this left-handed zinger just looks so effortless and smooth

Unlike James Harden, who has a tendency to whip hook passes across his body (usually to his right), Nembhard uses a variety of pivots, jump stops and turns in order to throw accurate passes to his teammates in all directions. This type of variance makes it really hard for opposing defenses to scheme against and its really a sign of his high basketball IQ and feel for the game. One thing I have noticed though is he loves to throw the one handed pass with his left (from the clip above), especially off the dribble. 

Speed 

Another important skill for any passer to have is speed. Sometimes putting a little more power into a pass is the only way it can get through the defense and Nembhard excels at this as well.

On this semi-fast break, Nembhard sees his Centre beat everybody on his rim run. He whips this gorgeous chest pass in stride to Hayes for the dunk. I know its hard to tell the actual speed of the ball, but it looks like it was shot out of a cannon when it leaves Nembhard's hands.

And the part I love the most is Nembhard didn't need to have a long windup that would have telegraphed to the defense where we wanted to go with this pass. It was one dribble, and then it was out of his hand. Nembhard has the strength necessary to throw these fastballs and can go from dribbling down the court to whipping a pass in a blink of an eye.

Again we can see the speed of his passes on this next play. Watch as his teammates bounce pass is so slow and could've been easily picked off if Nembhard wasn't so wide open. Compare that pass to the speed at which Nembhard is able to swing the ball to the corner for an open three. This pass just gets there so fast that the defensive rotation is barely out of the paint when Johnson goes into his shooting motion.

Touch

Nembhard's passes also contain obvious signs of great touch and finesse. After all, it'd be no use if a player could only throw the ball fast on every pass. Nembhard's able to read the defense, assess the situation and throw in these gorgeous passes.

Throughout his season last year he threw this post entry pass numerous times with great success. Watch as he floats this ball in with just enough arc and distance so that only his guy can get to the ball. It's honestly like watching a star QB place a deep ball perfectly above the secondary and in an area where only his receiver has a shot of catching it.

Again just another accurate floating entry pass to his big.

And here's one more.

All of these floating entry passes really stands out to me because it shows how well Nembhard understands the game of basketball. When he needs to, Nembhard can throw fastballs and hit his teammates in stride. If he needs a high-arcing pass, Nembhard takes some speed off and throws these gorgeous floating passes. The IQ of knowing when to throw what pass is just off the charts.

Nembhard's touch is also elite off the dribble. I mean I think this play speaks for itself.

Anticipation

I think these last 2 elements are what sets the the elite passers from the rest of the bunch. For many point guards, anticipation and manipulation are developed over many years when players get used to defenses in the league they play in. As basketball fans we've been blessed with a couple young point guards over the past couple of years who possess these 2 incredible high IQ elements of passing (guys like Trae Young, Ja Morant and even Lamelo Ball come to mind). Nembhard is no different and has found ways to incorporate both anticipation and manipulation into his game.

Over this past summer, Nembhard gained some great experience playing at the FIBA World Cup with Team Canada. And he really impressed me with the way he was able to hang and even control certain parts of games. 

This play here just oozes of basketball IQ. Nembhard uses the screen from Klassen and goes to his left. When he gets cut off by the New Zealand big, he throws this beautiful bounce pass around the defender perfectly into where Klassen will be on his on role to the basket. The anticipation to see this play here is one thing and the touch to throw the pass this perfectly is another.

Here's another great example of Nembhard's elite anticipation. I mean he throws this alley-oop pass when his teammate is at the elbow of the key. And, of course, it's right on the money.

This time Nembhard operates out of the pick and roll. Almost immediately after coming off the screen he reads the defense and knows where he wants to go. Up high where only his big can reach it. If you want to nitpick the pass is a little off the mark, but its the thought process that really showcases Nembhard's basketball IQ and passing ability.

Manipulation

One the aspects of passing that Nembhard has mastered already at such a young age is manipulation. He uses a variety of head movements, ball fakes and uses his eyes in order to make defending players think he's going one way, leaving them out of position when Nembhard makes the pass to his teammates.

Take this clip from an exhibition game between Canada and New Zealand this past summer. Nembhard drives hard to his right, beating his man. When the help comes, Nembhard keeps his gaze forward, manipulating the defenders into thinking he's going to try take it all the way. Then he drops this beautiful no look dump off to his big for the easy bucket.

Another example of this manipulation. On this play, it's a 4 on 3 man advantage for Canada. With they way the defense is aligned, Nembhard knows that his one of his two teammates to his left will be open. He brilliantly stares at Kajami-Keane as bait, and the defense bites in an effort to try and contain the pass. Nembhard is one step ahead as he throws this gorgeous no-look pass to the corner for a wide-open three. Already at this stage of his career, Nembhard is able to manipulate even professional defenses to his choosing.

Nembhard is also great at manipulating defenses through his dribble penetration. Watch this pick and roll sequence where he freezes and completely fools the help defender with the lookoff and then fires a pass to the open roll man.

Nembhard is also excellent at driving to the basket, attracting help defenders and then dumping off to an open big. Here he executes this to perfection and it turns into an easy bucket for this teammate.

While I've only showed Nembhard's passing highlights in this piece, like any young point guard he's prone to mistakes and turnovers. Despite this, I think its the skills and tools he is using and displaying when he passes the ball that makes me so excited to see Nembhard develop.