Your George Mason Patriots have brought in Michael Marcus, a 6’9 rising junior forward out of Appalachian State.
Marcus was unranked out of high school, and was also unranked as a portal prospect. I think the latter is wrong.
Michael Marcus By The Numbers
In his sophomore season at Appalachian State, the North Carolina native averaged 7.8 points, and 6 rebounds on 55.5% true shooting.
Offense
The Appalachian State forward made 32.9% of his threes and 56.3% of his twos, and was good for 58.8% at the rim, with a fine 57.4% of shots being assisted. He shot 69.1% from the line, so hopefully there can be some marginal improvement somewhere. The free throw rate is decent at 32. His offensive rating was 125.4 in conference play, which was sixth highest.
With Marcus on, App. State had a 49.9% eFG per CBBShotCharts. With him off, they were at 50%. That is close enough that it can be one shot going in or not, and on top of that, Michael is one of the better rebounders on this end, so they get more bites at the apple.
The box plus minus algorithm doesn’t like Marcus due to his low usage and assist rate. It has him at a -0.9 on offense, which is generally not good, but the numbers don’t look bad. His turnover rate was at 12%, which is low for a big, but a little high compared to his assist rate, but I will get to that later.
Rim and threes, love it.
Defense
The North Carolina native has a decent block and steal rate of 2.3% and 1.1%. He was committing 4.8 fouls per 40 and fouled out in his last two games, so that can be something to watch.
With Marcus on, Appalachian State had a 47.6% eFG given up, and with him off, 47.4%. Once again, that is within the realm of being random and him being neutral on a good defensive team.
Michael Marcus Scouting Report (Full Game vs. Ohio State)
Offense
Marcus sets wide screens, and is a great pick and pop target. Even though it only goes in 33% of the time, I am confident it is going in. He doesn’t move like Adair to make himself available, but also doesn’t drift into bad defenders.
With the passing, Michael was good in the short roll and on a separate play, made a crazy pass to his teammate when he got the helper in the air on a pumpfake. The passing did not match the 3.9% assist rate to me.
The forward is pretty good at getting inside position for rebounds but can get jumped over, albeit this was against a Big 10 team.
Defense
His athleticism lets him do so much. He moves very well in transition, and can defend the pick and roll in a variety of ways effectively.
Marcus can play the weakside rim protector while covering the corner and gets there on time.
The 6’9 forward can miss boxouts but will keep them once contacted.
Joe time.
Michael Marcus Scouting Report (Joe, Ohio State)
Thanks Palmer.
Now, as Palmer said, this was the only public video of Appalachian State basketball we could find on YouTube, so we watched the same 14 minutes of Marcus against Ohio State.
Also as an aside- fun to have a two first names guy. I need to figure out a nickname for him, as ‘MM’ is too boring. At 6’9, 255 though, I could just call him ‘Tank’ and it would work. Marcu is built.
Marcus had an interesting role on this Appalachian State team. It was a team that was not very good at hitting their three point shots, but took a whole bunch of them this year, finishing 48th in the country in three point attempts. For a guy his size, it was surprising to see him attempting almost as many threes as he did twos on the season, but that seemed to be the Mountaineers offense this year.
Marcus shot 33% from three and 56% from two, so you have to question that logic from the Mountaineers, but the form was solid. He was 1-5 from three against Ohio State, and I wouldn’t call any of the shots bad. He took them mostly when he was open and again they looked fine. I do think Mason would be right to try and get him to shoot more twos, he certainly seems to have the ability too.
The defense from Marcus was definitely a positive. Some of the Mountaineers’ worst stretches this game happened when he was off the court. He handled himself well against P5 competition, which bodes well for how he would do against the frontcourts of the A-10.
He mainly played the four this year, and with Stas Sivka in the portal it would not surprise me to see Mason pick up one or even two more players who can consistently play at the four spot after the depth issues at that position this year. Marcus and incoming freshman Shane Pendergrass are a great start to rebuilding that spot though. This feels like a pickup that will be underrated going into the season that turns out really nice for George Mason. I like it a lot.
Back to you Palmer.
Ratings
Horizontal Athleticism: 65 – This guy is 6’9 255 and can really move around. He’s fast, quick, and decisive. The movement ability is probably most like Jalen Haynes, although it doesn’t carry over to ball-handling.
Vertical Athleticism: 50 – I didn’t notice him jumping too high or too low, it was average.
Shooting: 50+ – 33.3% on decent volume is the definition of a 50, and he gets a little bonus for being a forward. The free throw being at 69.1% probably means you should not be banking on significant shooting improvement.
Driving: 40 – Is not very good with the ball on the perimeter.
Finishing: 50 – Average finishing percentage.
Screening: 55 – This guy sets wide screens.
Passing: 45+ – I am going to value my eyes more than the percentage, I think there is more passing juice in there than a 3.9% assist rate would suggest.
Rebounding: 50 – The rebounding was fine on both ends, neither sticks out a lot.
Hands: 55 – Did not notice anything at all, which is good.
Rim Protection: 50 – Didn’t see too much, was fine when he did it. Made the plays you would expect an average defender to make.
Post Defense: N/A – I don’t think I saw a single post rep because they played a lot of zone.
Feel: 50 – Saw some good and bad, the passing was nice in a small sample.
Where Does He Fit In?
I would assume this guy is primarily a four, but could see him playing spot minutes at the five.
To me, he is the more intriguing, albeit probably a bit lower, prospect at the four due to his movement ability at his size. I think there isn’t really a fail condition like there could be with Adair. Worse case scenario, Marcus is playing the same role with no improvement that he was in a decent Sun Belt.
My forward depth chart goes Adair, Marcus, Pendergrass, and Mendy. That is awesome.
If you really squint your eyes, you can see a Rasheer Fleming clone with lesser efficiency. The mobility makes me really excited for how Steve Curran can coach him up. The potential is limitless.
There is more to come, Mason Nation.
