Your George Mason Patriots have brought in the second highest rated recruit in school history for the third straight offseason. This time, it is MJ Curry, a 6’6 wing in the class of 2027 out of Loganville, GA and Grayson High School, the same school as Caleb Holt, a 2027 lottery pick.
Marcus “MJ” Curry is the 69th ranked player on ESPN, 71st on 247, and 104th on 247Composite. He is a consensus four-star, with a rating of .9430.
Curry holds offers from Georgia State, Florida State, Alcorn State, Kennesaw State, Xavier, East Texas A&M, Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, South Florida, Clemson, Presbyterian, USC, Indiana, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, FAU, and Auburn.
MJ took unofficial visits to Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida State, USF, and Tennessee. He took official visits to Georgia Tech, Ohio State, UAB, Mason, and Sacramento State.
Those are pretty good names to be mentioned with. Even UAB and Sacramento State have shown to have stepped up their game recently.
MJ Curry played with the Florida Rebels in this year’s Peach Jam. He averaged 6.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, .9 assists, .9 steals, and .6 blocks in 15.3 minutes per game (32 minute games) on 48.7% from the field, 37.5% from three, and 50% from the line on the championship winning team. The stats may not jump off the page, Curry was very active on the defensive end.
Earlier in the EYBL season, Curry played for the Georgia Stars and had a much higher usage rate, averaging 16.3 points per game across three sessions.
MJ Curry Scouting Report (Peach Jam Championship vs. Drive Nation)
Curry had one of the top players in the class of 2027, Cayden Daughtry, who had an absolutely nuts bonkers tournament, running point for his team. He helped a decent bit with taking the defensive load off of Daughtry’s shoulders.
Physicals/Athleticism
MJ has very long arms, and might have massive hands. He was palming the ball before his free throws. Think of Mikal Bridges.
Curry has great horizontal and vertical athleticism, although the horizontal was used more from what I saw. He is so athletic, and runs very well in transition on both ends.
Offense
This was definitely the boring side, and that is ok when you are on a championship team. His shot is very fast when he catches and shoots. I loved his straight-line drives on closeouts, they were very fast. If his three is respectable, he will be very useful on both ends.
Some feel for the game was shown, as MJ tapped a ball out on an offensive rebound right to his man for an open three.
This dude will have some high-flying dunks as a freshman. If his defender takes a step toward him, he is at the rim.
Defense
Early in the game, his role was to be a roamer that affected pretty much the entire court. He would run toward the ball if a teammate missed an assignment, and if everyone held up, Curry would sneak toward the ball while covering his man and get some good pressure.
The team made a change in the second quarter to make Curry the primary defender on the opponent’s star, Elijah Paez, 93rd in the country with a Boston College commitment. It went pretty well.
MJ can switch onto the point guard at the top of the three-point one and stay in front pretty easily. He is so good at walling off his man on drives and forcing shots farther from the rim and more contested than expected.
The 6’6 wing won’t give up anything easy in the fast break, and can also pressure very hard in the zone press.
His athleticism and feel/IQ was shown when he fell on offense, but sprinted down on defense and got a no-look deflection. Curry saw the opponent put his hands up to catch it and he broke it up like an NFL defensive back.
I also really liked how MJ saw his man get beat and set up for a charge when they were up 8 late. They randomly called it a blocking foul.
Areas Of Improvement
The first area of improvement would be shooting. Curry shot below 30% when he had a real amount of volume with the Georgia Stars. Along with that, the free throw percentage is in the mid 60s. Neither are low enough that it is extremely concerning long-term, but it does mean that I would be very happy if Curry came in as a low 30s shooter.
The second is offensive involvement. This was likely a coaching decision to let him focus more on defense, but MJ was pretty inactive on offense in the Peach Jam game. This makes sense with your point guard having the Peach Jam of a lifetime next to him, but I would have liked to see more than transition closeout attacks as the only form of offense.
I watched a little bit of his high school game to see, and the lack of self-creation from a standstill was still kind of there. That is ok, since the defense makes up for it, and there is potential to grow. He is very fast in a straight line with the ball, and that can develop into a more expansive game.
Joe time.
MJ Curry Scouting Report (vs. UPlay Canada Peach Jam)
I think this kid is going to impact the defensive end quickly. Long arms and seems to be in the right position most of the time.
I did not see the shot really all game, shot 38% from three at peach jam so I’m guessing it’s not god awful.
Curry made lots of good cuts to the basket, teammates did not help him in the game I watched.
The previous point is not helped by fact Rebels didn’t seem to have a real true center on the roster. I think a true force down low would’ve gotten him a lot more buckets with the cuts he was making.
MJ will need to get more aggressive on the boards in college. If he comes here, this staff will make sure of it.
Dude can go zoom. Not Baraka level zoom, but zoom.
Curry could become that big ish wing if he bulks up a bit Mason has longed looked for under Tony.
Back to Palmer.
Where Does He Fit In?
It is way too far out to project a freshman’s role, but I’m going to try anyway. I would expect Curry’s role to be somewhat similar to Devin Booker’s in 2025-26, but with him breaking into the rotation on opening night. I think the offensive game is slightly more advanced than Booker and with higher upside. Booker’s shooting translation to the college game was disappointing, but MJ can use his speed with the ball already.
The dream would be a Brandon Jennings type player early in his career with the offensive game developing in the background, and then one season he shows up with a Loyola Des Watson type offensive game with the defense still at a high level.
The player I see the most in MJ Curry is current Detroit Piston Ron Holland. Holland struggled as a shooter but had good feel and punish closeouts. He makes his money doing dirty work on the defensive end. Of course, that is scaled down to the A10 level…mostly. If the defense and speed with the ball translates, then there could be some long-term NBA potential here. The physical traits are there with the decent height, wingspan, and hand size, along with the vertical and horizontal athleticism. The offense is two years away from being two years away when considering the NBA. The shooting will have to really come around.
Calling my shot many years in advance, this guy will be playing in the NBA Summer League when his college career is over. That actually might be pretty reasonable for a guy ranked in the high 60s low 70s.
Overall, this is a guy who is pretty guaranteed to give value whenever he touches the floor, even in game one as a freshman. This dude is the second highest recruit ever to come to Mason, and you can really tell by watching him.
