Your George Mason Patriots have brought in yet another recruit, this time, Malik Presley, a 6’6 redshirt sophomore wing, who redshirted this past season at Texas, and played as a freshman at Vanderbilt.
Presley was a high three-star in the class of 2023, being rated an 88 by 247Sports. His 247 Composite comes out to a three-star .8985, 178th ranked. He visited Vanderbilt, Arizona State, and TCU, along with having an offer from Houston.
Malik played for the Houston Hoops AAU team, which is run by former Patriot Justin Begg’s father.
Malik Presley By The Numbers
During his season at Vanderbilt, Presley averaged 11.8 minutes, 2.2 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 0.5 assists on 42.9% from the field, 12.5% from three (2-16), and 46.7% from the line. Those percentages look pretty bad, but a silver lining is that the 6’6 wing made 57.6% of his twos.
Malik did not meet the 60% minutes requirement, but his 61.3 free throw rate led his team by a large margin, and would have been fifth in the SEC. Of course, I bet there are people between him and the top who did not meet the minutes requirement, but let me play with the numbers here.
The season included five starts, and his minutes increased at the end of the season. That is a good thing, assuming it was more him taking the minutes than someone else losing then. In-season improvement!
As a senior in high school at San Marcos, the Texas native shot 52/186 from three, which is about 28%. You would like that to be higher of course, but it is better than the small sample size we have seen in college, albeit from a shorter line.
Malik Presley Scouting Report (vs. Florida)
Three things: First, Vanderbilt has my least favorite court in college basketball, and it is not remotely close.
Second, the first six-ish minutes of this game are cut off, but considering Malik comes in right after, and he is not starting, I am going to assume that we did not miss any playtime.
Third, this Vanderbilt team was really bad. Like really bad. For a wing who cannot shoot well, Presley was not in a good environment, and was likely not maximized.
Athleticism/Intangibles
To start with, Malik is very, very twitchy. He looked like one of the better athletes on the court with two SEC teams playing.
The athletic wing hustles hard and gets 50/50 offensive and defensive rebounds.
Presley played closing minutes for Vanderbilt in this game, which they ended up winning.
Offense
The most common thing Malik does is sit in the corner. A lot. Presley does best attacking closeouts. Can he be a good enough shooter to make guys challenge?
I enjoyed seeing that the wing was a good connective passer, was an instinctive and explosive cutter, and knew how to move to create space for the ball-handler. This shows good feel for the game that generally raises his floor.
In the fast break, Presley is good as both a passer and a scorer, as he is a lob threat, and I saw him make a nice anticipation bounce pass in the break.
On top of all of that, Malik gets extra offensive boards.
The Vanderbilt offense eventually devolved into everyone taking turns doing isolation.
Defense
Presley was able to guard shot creators, and was given scoring guard responsibilities a couple times. It went well.
Malik is a sticky off-ball defender, and a rangy zone defender. Woody Newton maybe? (I hope he knows how much he will be appreciated and missed).
The offense did not try him too often, which I take as a very big positive in the SEC.
Areas Of Improvement
The most obvious area of improvement is shooting. I am a bit worried about this, as he has not shot it well from any stats I can find. On top of that, his free throw percentage is hovering around 50 between college and high school, which is not looking like a good indicator of shooting improvement. It is not impossible that Presley becomes an average shooter, but it is not looking good.
Malik was not really asked to do much, but what he was asked to do, he did well. So I guess an area of improvement would be to become more well-rounded offensively to get bigger responsibility.
Joe time.
Malik Presley Scouting Report (First Half vs. Kentucky)
There’s the wing we were looking for! Malik Pressley, welcome to George Mason.
Malik is going to be an interesting prospect. He tracks as a bit of a project player for Tony Skinn and Co., as he redshirted last year at Texas after spending his Freshman year as a consistent role player at Vanderbilt. SEC pedigree is never a bad thing.
I watched the first half of the Vanderbilt @ Kentucky game from 2024, where Presley was a starter. That’s good.
The Vanderbilt team he started on was 8-21 at this point in the season. Not so good.
It is very evident and clear from the first tip that Presley is offensive option number five on the floor for Vandy. Even with his decent length, when on offense the system has Presley go stand in the corner and not touch the ball unless he is the only option open.
On the defensive end of the ball, Presley was actually given some important duties. He got placed on both Star Kentucky freshmen in Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard at points on the court and did a fine job. I don’t think I would’ve blamed him for any one of the baskets Kentucky had in the first half.
In my opinion, there’s a lot of comparisons to Saquon Singleton here. Long armed wing who is solid on defense with not a whole lot of shooting upside. However, unlike Saquon, who the staff at the time tried to put in different boxes that he did not fit in, Presley will probably go right into the role that will fit him the best. A wing defensive stopper off the bench.
However, right at the end of the first half there was a play that showed off the ceiling that can exist for Presley. In transition, Presley was down the court and got a pass just outside the three point line. He showed impressive quickness to beat two Kentucky players to the basket and threw down a very fun one handed slam.
Presley does have that ability in him. He has good athleticism, which is what made him so appealing to these SEC teams in the first place. Is his shooting raw? Absolutely. Is his defense solid? Yes. Is there a much higher ceiling that potential exists for him? Yes. Do I think Tony Skinn and Co. can bring that potential out of him? Yes. I am excited to see what Malik can do at this level.
Back over to you Palmer.
Ratings
Ratings time again yay. You know the drill. 20-80 scale, 50 is average, every 10 away is a standard deviation.
Shooting: 30 – As mentioned above in the Areas of Improvement section, this is not too good. If the free throws were in the mid 70s, I would probably give him a 35 due to the 28% from high school.
Driving: 45 – When everything goes well, this is a 60, but his handle is not up to par with his speed.
Off-Ball Movement: 55 – This would be a 60 with a jumpshot, but since he is not really a threat from out there, the 55 is from the cutting.
Rebounding: 55 – This is in the context of a 6’6 wing. He gets extra boards.
Athleticism: 60 – Definitely a plus athlete at the A10 level. I hope Malik can use it.
Passing: 50 – Makes connective passes, but not any high-level reads that make you think that he can be a secondary playmaker.
Perimeter Defense: 60 – Presley was giving the Florida shot creating guards trouble. I think he covered all of them except Walter Clayton.
Off-Ball Defense: 55 – The 6’6 wing is usually sticky, but has some moments where he gambles and gets sent way off.
Where Does Malik Presley Fit In?
Next season, I think a good outcome for Presley would be the idea of what fans thought Otis Frazier would be. A median outcome would be something similar to a more athletic Saquan Singleton, except this time, he will not be the preseason starting point guard.
I wanted at least one of these types of pickups. A transfer down who could use a change of scenery, I will definitely take a guy who redshirted on a tournament team after playing a decent amount of minutes in the SEC as a freshman.
The reason I like this type of pickup so much is because Mason does not “need” him to pan out. It would certainly help, but I have been comparing this pickup to Akil Watson with UMass last year, with Mason being in a better spot roster-wise. UMass needed the Arizona State transfer to be an impact piece, and there was a massive hole when he was not.
Presley can play the three or be a smaller four, and I count four guys who could reasonably play the three ahead of him in Jermahri Hill, Jahari Long, and Masai Troutman. All three of those guys can play the two or three, so there is a little bit of space for Malik to get minutes, but if he is not able to, then the Patriots are not suffering.
I guess now is a good time to give my depth chart, along with their positional versatility.
PG – Kory Mincy (1-2), Brayden O’Connor (1-3)*, Isaiah Skinn (1)
Guard – Brayden O’Connor (1-3), Jermahri Hill (2-3), Jahari Long (2-3)
Wing – Masai Troutman (2-3), Malik Presley (3-4), Devin Booker (2-3)
Forward – Dola Adebayo (4-5), Allenspach (5-4), Emmanuel Kanga (5-4), Stas Sivka (4-5)
Center – Nick Ellington (5)
The asterisk is because I think BOC is starting at the two, while also being the backup point guard.
I enjoy Stas Sivka, but I think that he could use another year of development, and Emmanuel Kanga’s pick-and-roll defense may be more ready to play now.
The italics are who I think will be out of the rotation. Nine deep is very possible.
Overall, the shooting is worrying, but the athleticism, hustle, and defense give a Saquan Singleton-esque floor, in a likely reduced role, that makes me confident Presley will see some quality minutes throughout the season.
If Presley was a consistent 33% shooter last season, he is probably safely in Texas’ rotation, that is how much I believe that shooting is his swing skill.
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