The clear-cut MVP of the Adidas Nations tournament,
Cory Joseph (#25 Scout, #7 Rivals, #30 ESPN) led his team to within a single possession of winning the championship game, while leading the entire camp in scoring. The more you watch Joseph, the more you feel like hes destined to become a fantastic player at the college level, even if there remain some question marks about his long-term potential.
Josephs physical attributes arent great, as his body is just OK and his athleticism not much more than average. He makes up for that though with his ability to play at different speeds, an excellent basketball IQ, and a fearless attitude. Joseph has a great demeanor on the floor and a real winners mentality. Hes a calm, steady, competitive guy who tends to dominate the ball, but can absolutely score with the best of them.
Offensively, Josephs best attribute is clearly his jump-shot. He is terrific with his feet set and almost just as dangerous pulling up off the dribble, which he likes to do quite a bit after creating space for himself in the mid-range area. He lacks the explosiveness to get into the paint and finish at a high level, but is very crafty using his body around the rim and has a very nice floater he likes to utilize.
Defensively, Joseph is limited by his average lateral quickness, but he does put a good effort in, showing nice intensity and a good feel for staying in front of his man.
As a point guard, Joseph is mostly a mixed bag at this stage, as he clearly needs to dominate the ball to be most effective, but is far more comfortable looking for his own shot than he is running a team. His shot-selection leaves something to be desired at times, but its possible that with better teammates around him, he could show more in this area than we were able to see. He doesnt appear to be a selfish player, and seems to have a very good demeanor on the floor.
Joseph has skyrocketed up the recruiting rankings since we last saw him in November of last year, even moving up into the top-10 on some peoples boards (Rivals.com for instance). While he may not share the upside of some of his counterparts in that part of the rankings, he has been incredibly productive in every setting hes been in as of late, most notably the FIBA U-19 World Championships. He has a chance to emerge as a
Stephen Curry type scorer at the college level if he continues to improve his all-around game.
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