Meet Quadir Copeland (Hello Old Friend)

The second member of the McNeese Cowboys has made his way to Raleigh to follow head man Will Wade. Quadir Copeland announced his commitment on Friday, although it wasn’t exactly a hard thing to predict. 

Copeland joins the Wolfpack after a one-year stint at McNeese, which followed a two-year stint at Syracuse. State fans likely remember his Cuse stint, which was memorable in Raleigh from his wolves down sign and his yelling “call a timeout” while down 10 in the ACC Tournament. Copeland is a passionate guy, and that can be annoying when he’s hanging 20 on your team, but it can be pretty fun when he’s hanging 20 on the other team. 

This is a basketball player who does everything to the extreme. One thing that he promises with a 100% money-back guarantee is that he will not be boring. The senior guard has one of the best assist rates in the country, shoots a high percentage from two, has one of the worst turnover rates around, and is one of the worst three-point shooting guards in America. He is chaotic, he is exciting, and he is coming to Raleigh.

Physically, Copeland fits into the mold for Will Wade, who is clearly looking to attack length and athleticism as a priority in the portal. Wade’s switch-heavy defensive scheme demands defensive versatility, and Copeland is another long, athletic guard at 6’6. He’s also proven at an ACC level with his two years at Syracuse, where he shot almost 60% at the rim and again had a high assist rate, high steal rate, high turnover rate, and couldn’t shoot. Kevin Keatts actually kicked the tires on Copeland last year, but moved on because of the shooting issue. I believe Keatts was interested in him as a four. 

Copeland also has an interesting history of role fit. He played with Judah Mintz at Syracuse, a foul merchant was also a ball-dominant guard. Copeland was off the ball there, but was the primary point guard at McNeese, a role he inherited following the injury to the other NC State portal commit. His college ball history is pretty weird. I do not expect to see Copeland as any kind of primary initiator in Raleigh, but he can absolutely be a difference maker situationally. There are certain defensive schemes he’s not really cut out to be effective against, but there are others where could be a huge problem for the other team. Let’s get into it. 

Copeland does a lot very well, one of the chief items being getting to the rim and scoring. He shot almost 55% at the rim at McNeese, and a lot of these buckets were dribble drives. He’s a good ball handler who attacks the paint well from the perimeter, and he has the ability and footwork to get into a little back-to-the-basket activity if he can’t create an angle off the initial drive. He uses his length well to finish and his bag contains an explosive spin move that he’ll get to on stalled-out drives. 

Because of all of that, I actually think Copeland is at his best offensively as an isolation player. He’s hard to guard one-on-one, and his ability to slow things down in the paint helps to neutralize the disadvantage his lack of shooting creates. He does not need to blow by you off the first step to get to the rim. He can score on players that maintain good position off the dribble drive, examples below. 

This is a get action. You can see the defensive guard cheat under the screen, and Copeland can't create the angle because of it. This is how a lot teams would defend him on the ball and it worked, but he's able to stop and use a move to get around his man. Then he shows his athleticism to finish.

The hesitation move should not work for Copeland, but it does here and he gets the climb step from the defender. You can see the cushion he often gets, and he shows you why with the acceleration and extended-arm finish. This is bad defense and good offense.

Pretty explosive!

Copeland is also an excellent transition player, as you can see above. He’s fast and long-striding in the open floor, and his passing acumen really opens up opportunities for transition threes. The passing is probably the strongest part of his game. He is really an elite distributor of the basketball. Copeland put up 4.3 assists per game last year, but played barely over half of the minutes, putting his per-40 assist numbers over 8. He had the 15th-best assist rate in all of college basketball. 

He's running the break here and sees he's got two guys and only one defender on the opposite side. He's got his eyes on that defender most of the way and skips the ball to whichever player the defender doesn't pick up.

Copeland will find cutters, but a lot of his assists come from drawing help off the drive. He’s very good at engaging help and kicking the ball, he can go from dribble to pass quickly, an underrated skill that lengthens closeouts and recoveries for the defense. This is the strongest part of his game. 

He uses the spin to create the advantage, draws the help in the lane, and dumps it off. There is a lot of this. This is what he does.

The location of this was nice. It's is a great pass to lead his man to the rim and prevent a recovery. Watch where he passes the ball to and where his teammate is when he does that. It's not necessarily a high-difficulty play, but it's a little detail that you'd notice if it wasn't there.

Copeland’s biggest weakness is his shooting, obviously. He’s a truly awful shooter, posting a 20% number for his career from beyond the arc. He has only 77 attempts in three years, so that 20% number is not produced by a high degree of difficulty. This is part of the reason pick and roll isn’t a great fit for him. It’s too easy for teams to cheat under ball screens and even cheat under the following flip screen. He has no ability to keep the defense honest there. The mid-range is also not in the bag. The senior has 93 career attempts on twos away from the rim and has shot 33%. Copleland’s effective field goal percentage shooting off the dribble sits at 23%, which is in the 2nd percentile nationally. The man is categorically a non-shooter. 

McNeese got into a lot of slip actions and Copeland was rejecting a lot of ball screens on the ball. It just didn’t make a lot of sense for him to try and use a screen to create an advantage, so he would let the screen to put the primary defender at worse angles to defend the ball because they’re looking to get under the screen, and then Copeland would attack the other side. Flat ball screens also became popular for him, as they’re harder to cheat under. 

In addition to the shooting, he has an extremely high turnover rate. Copeland is ambitious, I think would be the word I would use. Part of the polarized statistical profile is a product of high-difficulty footwork moves and passes that he’ll attempt. It leads to some incredible plays and definitely some turnovers. He travels a lot. When he gets going downhill but can’t create the angle against a cushioned defender, he can make some nice plays and put himself in some difficult spots. 

This is a great encapsulation of him. Lamar switches the ball screen. He attacks the switch, nearly falls down and fumbles with the ball, but keeps his balance and is able to spin into the finish. Chaotic but productive.

I think Copeland is a contributor in Raleigh, probably off the bench. There are some defensive structures that he’s built to attack more than others, and he could be a real difference maker situationally. It’s unlikely he’ll be on the ball often. That wasn’t even supposed to happen at McNeese. 

Role wise, I actually like him as a screener, particularly against defenses that want to switch ball screens or hedge ball screens. You can run a lot of 1-4 type ball screen actions and find him on the short roll if teams put two on the ball, where you dump it to him and he can attack the basket with the opposing five away from the rim. He also figures to be a really good second-pass player who can hit a shooter in the corner as the tag comes to him. Against a switch team, I think he gives you something in iso. Isolation is really his best look, and if you can isolate him on a smaller guard off his switch, you’re likely to draw help on the drive and he can spray the ball around. My bet is on a bench contributor in the 15ish minutes a game role, but there are certainly personnel or stylistic matchups where those minutes could spike.