Brayon Freeman 6’2 165 2021 Bishop O’Connell High School (Arlington VA)
Brayon is a dynamic playmaker, shifty and quick with elite passing skills but also demonstrates tremendous scoring instincts and the ability to recognize offensive opportunities and exploit them. He understands how to get by defenders on the break and maneuver through traffic displaying excellent end to end speed. He is relentless at pushing the ball and getting to the basket with an innate ability to split defenders, and change pace to gain that slightest bit of space he needs to explode to the rim and score or dish the ball off to an open teammate. He has a tremendous basketball IQ and an abundance of court savvy, gifted athletically and sound fundamentally. Brayon is a creative and intelligent distributor of the basketball and gets the ball to his scorers where they can be effective, his passes quick and crisp. What stands out when watching him is his ability to attack a defender, stop on a dime with any number of breakdown dribble moves, create separation for his jumper or get the defender off balance and blow by him. His start/stop quickness is impressive and he has amazing body control. He stays on balance, always keeps his eyes up the floor surveying the defense and ready to strike with cat-like quickness when he sees an opportunity. He likes to initiate contact and play off that contact often with a spin move where he can attack the rim or use it to square up against his defender.
Brayon’s off the dribble variety is vast and he executes each move skillfully and effortlessly, has counters to go to making him difficult prepare for. He changes speeds nicely, varies the rhythm of his dribble and deceives defenders by using dribble hesitations, stops and starts and the threat of his jumper off the dribble to exploit defenders often looking more explosive as a result. He does a great job quickly breaking and launching into his pull-up jumper, has very good elevation and a sound shooting stroke. He has an excellent pop back dribble move and creates a lot of separation instantaneously be it off a pop back move or a lateral step back move shooting the jumper nicely off either of those separation actions. He has a nasty crossover dribble and uses it to create space for his shot or get his defender off balance.
While he can hit the occasional three pointer either stepping in off the dribble or on a catch and shoot, most of his shots are pull ups off the dribble which has proven to be an effective weapon for him as he displays sound fundamentals and a smooth release. He is an efficient scorer who thrives in the mid range. Brayon is a crafty finisher at the rim, able to hang in the air and finish contested shots and uses scoops and up and unders effectively. Brayon plays with very good intensity on the defensive end as well. He has excellent fundamentals and shows great timing jumping in the passing lanes. He is a solid on ball defender displaying excellent foot speed and lateral quickness. Brayon can dazzle you with his ball handling wizardry and flair for the spectacular but he is a disciplined playmaker, doesn’t over dribble and is a sound decision maker. He plays with great confidence and elevates the play of those around him. He has a tremendous ceiling and has already attracted Division I offers from Wyoming, UMASS and Mount St Mary’s. In addition he has interest from George Washington, George Mason, Rice, OSU, Longwood, Murray State, ODU and JMU. Pretty impressive for a player getting ready to enter his sophomore season! Brayon is truly an elite level talent with a promising basketball future.
Highlight Video Link: https://youtu.be/JbOQJadmdkI https://youtu.be/mUsuep9rnzI