Breein Tyree elected to return to Ole Miss for his senior season in hopes to lead the Rebels to the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, with the season’s cancelation, that dream was unable to be accomplished. However, he continued to produce at absurdly high levels despite being the clear focal point on opposing team’s scouting reports. His scoring jumped in each of his 4 years at Mississippi from non-conference to conference games. In other words, despite facing more difficult competition and teams getting a read on Tyree, he still produced better in conference games. As a senior, Tyree averaged 19.7 PPG, 2.5 APG, 3.7 RPG, 1.3 SPG, and 2.5 TOPG on shooting splits of 43/36/82.
Name: Breein Tyree
Height/Weight: (awaiting official results and will be updated when released)
Wingspan/ standing reach: N/A
Hand size: N/A
Position: Guard
College/ country: Ole Miss
Tools: Quickness, spot up shooting
Pros:
- Excellent in transition
- Great at changing speeds
- Great spot up shooter
- Good in P&R
- Quick first step
- Plus lateral quickness
- Active hands defensively
- Plays the passing lanes well
- Strong ability to go left
- High understanding of the game; very coachable
- Moves well off ball; good cutter
Cons:
- Undersized for a combo guard
- Projects to be a poor defender
- Lacks great playmaking skillset, making him a tweener
- Poor shot selection
- Needs to add strength
- Needs to perfect release timing on jump shot
- Gambles too much defensively
Overall:
Breein Tyree is an undersized combo guard with high-level speed and the ability to shoot both off the dribble and from a standstill. While Tyree is undersized and plays below the rim, he possesses excellent quickness, the ability to explode from a standstill, and equal speed going both left and right. His speed helps him greatly, both to get to the basket and to create space. Tyree is able to slow down almost as quickly as he can speed up, which allows for him to make his man overcommit and have a wide open jump shot. Tyree can also thrive as an off-ball shooter, meaning he can catch & shoot at a high rate. According to Synergy, Tyree ranked in the 80th percentile of all NCAA D-1 players on catch & shoot jump shots in 2019-20, and in the 97th percentile in 2018-19 on an even larger sample size . While Tyree shot well from 3 in college and his free throw percentage indicates translation to the next level, he still has to work on shot selection, release timing, and taking less moving jump shots.
Tyree’s passing ability is severely underrated by his 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and his 2.5 APG. It’s hard to rack up assists without disrupting the natural flow of the offense on a sub-.500 team, so many of Tyree’s passes that led to open shots were not converted. Tyree is not a selfish player and has good vision, but plays as an undersized combo guard. At 6’2, it is hard to be a combo guard, so he is best suited to finetune his point guard skills either overseas or in the G-League before making the NBA.
Defensively, Tyree is as productive as you can ask for from a 6’2 combo guard. He gets beat off the dribble too easily and is not strong enough to switch consistently. However, a good coach will be able to hide his defensive deficiencies by having Tyree play off-ball defense and play to his strengths: the passing lanes. Tyree is at his best on defense when he is in a position to rack up steals, whether it’s from his quick hands or his ability to read plays.
NBA Comparison: Floor: Norris Cole; Ceiling:Keyon Dooling
Projected draft range: Late 2nd- undrafted
Best fit/ fit with Mavericks:
It’s hard to project a specific fit for Tyree, but there is a specific playstyle and coaching style that Tyree fits. Breein Tyree has been known to be incredibly humble and coachable at his time in Ole Miss, which is why some of his best games in his 4 years at Mississippi came after some of his worst games. A team that has a history of making the most of their bench unit and maximizing a player’s strengths while minimizing his weaknesses is exactly what Tyree needs. Generally these teams have the top coaches in the NBA, so this means teams like Boston, Toronto, Dallas, San Antonio, etc. could develop him well.
If Tyree was signed as a likely undrafted free agent and made the roster in some capacity in the future, he would likely serve as a spark plug off the bench. The Mavericks’ offense already incorporates heavy off-ball movement, which is a strength for Tyree offensively. Defensively, Rick Carlisle has hidden negative defenders for over a decade, so Tyree shouldn’t be an exception. I consider Dallas to be one of his best fits due to his on-court and off-court strengths.
