In the last couple World Cup qualification windows, Kalif Young has become a mainstay in Canada’s frontcourt for the Winter Core. With the next qualification window here, I thought it would be a great time to do a deep dive into his most recent performances with Canada at the AmeriCup tournament. And if you’re interested, I did a similar deep dive into Thomas Kennedy last month.
Kalif Young is currently playing overseas with Medi Bayreuth in Germany. He’s had a strong start to the year, averaging 7.8 PPG to go along with 7.3 REB and 1.2 STL and 1.3 BLK! He’s still just 25 and spent his collegiate career playing at Providence.
Offense
At this stage of his career, Kalif Young is a pretty limited offensive player. At the AmeriCup, aside from a strong debut game against Brazil, Young was generally a non-factor scoring the ball, averaging just 3.7 PPG despite playing 24.2 MPG.
With his limited offensive arsenal, it makes sense that the majority of Young’s points come from finishing plays off near the rim, rather than initiating or creating. I had a lot of high hopes for Young’s scoring as a roller after watching these 2 sequences in the opening game against Brazil. Some flashes of explosiveness, but also fluidity and touch to catch the ball and score while airborne.
Unfortunately, for the rest of the tournament, these flashes never materialized into anything concrete. One thing I have noticed about Young’s explosiveness is he needs the momentum from a running start for it to really pop. From a standstill, he does not get much lift off of the ground. Combined with being undersized, the lack of vertical explosiveness really hampers Young’s ability to finish around the rim without a running start. This unfortunate intersection of physical tools was on full display on this sequence. Despite having inside position, Young doesn’t get much vertical lift and it results in him blowing the open layup.
And even though this sequence happens on the defensive end, I think its illustrates Young’s lack of vertical pop from a standstill.
Contrast the previous two plays with this next one here, where Young has a runway on the roll to explode for the thunderous finish. With this in mind, optimizing Kalif Young on offense involves finding ways to get him downhill before he catches the ball.
In the AmeriCup, Young rarely even looked at the net outside of the paint. This was one of the few shot attempts he had on the perimeter, and it wasn’t pretty. I’m going to cut him some slack here with the shot clock winding down, but the lack of aggression from the perimeter overall in the tournament is an indicator to me of where he feels his shot is at.
The next step for Young to take is definitely to try and get his jumper to be a place where he is comfortable taking open midrange shots when the opportunity comes. To Young’s credit, in the last qualifying window, he did seem pretty comfortable with this made jumper off the roll. However, I’m not very optimistic about the shooting improving. Young really struggles at the free throw line, shooting 61.5% in the AmeriCup and 37.5% for Medi Bayreuth this year. Although these two numbers are both from separate 6 game stretches (small sample size), Young has only eclipsed 70% from the free throw line in a season once in his pro and collegiate careers. Not the most encouraging numbers.
If he can start to bend defenses with a better jumpshot, it’ll open up more opportunities and reads for Young in the short roll. Plays like this could become more regular and all of a sudden Young is a more enticing offensive player. By the way, if you take a look at his overseas film, the passing definitely stands out more than it did at the AmeriCup.
While scoring the ball comes tough for Young, he does have some value offensively as a screener. He weaponizes his stocky strength really well and occasionally sets some borderline illegal screens for teammates. I found this specific offensive sequence hilarious and a great encapsulation of Young’s offensive involvement at the AmeriCup. Young sets a total of 4(!) screens on the possession, including making contact on a falling Brazil player, all before converting on the roll.
Young also has some more advanced screening techniques in his arsenal. On this sequence he sets a screen with his backside initially, before sealing in a “Gortat”-like screen to clear space on the Banton drive.
I think my favourite part about watching Young set screens is how much he seeks out making contact with the opposing players. From using his backside to screen and hand-fighting Young is going to make contact one way or another. Sometimes it leads to some blatant illegal screens that the FIBA refs just let go. Despite his smaller statue, Young is certainly a “bruiser” big.
Even when Young is not directly involved in a screening action, he just finds ways to create contact and clear space for his teammates. The early seal from Young here opens a lane for a layup that isn’t taken, but I love the activity off the ball.
Defense
The defensive end is where Kalif Young thrives. In the AmeriCup tournament, he averaged a stellar 1 steal and 1 block per game! Diving into the film, Young’s defensive activity certainly pops out. How many centers are running full sprint from the top of the key to the corner to closeout to shooters?
And here’s another fantastic defensive possession from Young as the middle big in Canada’s zone. Head on a swivel, tagging cutters, early rotations and finally going all-out on the closeout to run the defender off the 3-pt line. Wonderful stuff!
Aside from effort, Young has a couple physical tools that help him be an impactful defender. The one that immediately jumps out is his quick feet. Kalif Young is definitely one of the bigs that can hold their own on the perimeter when switched onto quicker guards. The lateral quickness from Young is excellent and when he does get slightly beat, its a quick turn of the hips and a pursuit for the block.
And its not just the lateral movement. Young is comfortable and great at back pedaling, allowing him to play effective drop coverage defense. By the way, this drop sequence was against Marcelinho Heurtas, former NBA guard, a wizard in the pick and roll. Very impressive defensive possession from Young.
His primary weapon on defense is to combine his agility with his outlier strength to stonewall and bump offensive players. We’ve seen how much Young seeks out contact on the offensive end (mainly on his screens) and defensively it’s no different. Young is a battering ram, but not the slow, heavy ones we so often associate with bruisers. Instead, he’s a terrifying combination of fluid hip rotations, lateral movement and strength that opposing players have fits trying to solve.
Even ex-Raptor Patrick McCaw is completely stonewalled when he tries to make a beeline for the rim. Watch how fluid and quick Young is when he flips his hips, and then how well he’s able to absorb contact before erasing the shot.
Again another defensive possession where Young uses his agility to set up his great equalizer against quicker players, his overwhelming strength. A couple bumps and the opposing player’s perceived advantage evaporates.
PSA to opposing ball handlers: don’t let Young make contact on your drives. More often than not it won’t turn out well.
While I love how hard Young plays and searches for contact, sometimes it can come back to bite him. One big issue for Kalif Young is he is pretty foul prone. In 4 out of the 6 AmeriCup games, he recorded 4 fouls and in Canada’s most recent qualifier game against Venezuela, he fouled out. Also, Young can get a little ahead of himself and overplay for contact, leaving him in vulnerable positions on defense. On this play, he anticipates and beats the opposing player to the spot and braces for contact. However, the contact never comes and Young ends up out of position, giving up the bucket.
And finally, Kalif Young’s quick, active hands contributes to his steal and block numbers. He does a great job playing the cat-and-mouse game in drop coverage all while keeping his hands in passing lanes.
Final Thoughts
There’s no question the Canadian SMNT has some depth issues in the paint, at least compared to the program’s guard depth. Kalif Young has filled in admirably in the last few senior competitions, whether it be at the AmeriCup, or as part of Canada’s Winter Core that helped punch our ticket to the 2023 World Cup.
With his consistent defensive activity and outlier strength, Kalif Young is truly an excellent defensive player. Despite his offensive shortcomings when it comes to scoring the ball, his screens bring some real offensive value. On a team with some offensive creation, Young slots in nicely. I’m excited to track his development as his career progresses.
