A Scout’s Take: Evaluating Alex Toohey Against Tasmania

The Australian native and former Gonzaga commit has had early success in his first season in the NBL. Did it continue against the JackJumpers?

Once slated to become a Gonzaga Bulldog, Alex Toohey elected to stay home in Australia to join the Sydney Kings as a member of the NBL’s Next Stars program. At 19 years old, he’s a long-term NBA prospect that evaluators will be monitoring more closely after a strong NBL Blitz performance in the preseason. With the regular season now in its’ infancy, how did Toohey fare against the Tasmania JackJumpers and what are the key takeaways? 

Stat Line: 25 minutes, 14 points (5-of-12 FG, 3-of-6 3PT), 9 rebounds and 1 assist

Projectable NBA 3-Point Shooting

Toohey confidently drained 3-of-6 from deep including a couple of corner and movement threes. It’s a repeatable shooting motion with sound mechanics and a high release that passes the eye test of a projectable 3-point shooter, especially when his sprinkles of shotmaking are factored in.

Despite real belief in Toohey’s 3-point shooting developing into a reliable skill, his 25.7% 3-point mark on a fairly small 35 attempt sample size last season in the NBL1, a semi-professional league in Australia, is concerning. The hope is for Toohey to make tangible progress towards a more comfortable shooting projection-somewhere in the low 30s on similar or more volume isn't out of the question.

Consistent Defensive Effort

Toohey isn't blessed with ideal lateral quickness or recovery tools as you can see on the below clip, where he’s easily blown by and commits the and one foul. So, it becomes even more critical for him to give consistent effort and leverage his size (6-foot-8) and length (reportedly a 6-foot-10 wingspan) as much as possible to either competitively defend or create defensive events.

With that being said, the consistent defensive effort Toohey displayed through the game was encouraging, whether it led to a stop or not. Let’s take a look at a few of those possessions.

In the first possession, Toohey switches the pick-and-roll and does a decent job to recover for a serviceable contest to force the miss on a terrific space creating stepback jumper. 

On the next, he’s active in the passing lane for a deflection then slides his feet to give an excellent contest on Doyle’s tough made pullback one leg fadeaway over his outstretched arm. Make or miss, it’s not too much else you can ask for Toohey defensively there.

In the following two clips, we first see Toohey’s active hands on the pick-and-roll trap then him being willing to give up his body by diving on the floor in pursuit of the loose ball. Next, Toohey steps up to help to contest the floater and force the airball. Size and effort coming through to make defensive plays.

Volume Rebounder?

Toohey rebounded in and out of his area while actively crashing the offensive glass, leading to a game high of nine rebounds (two offensive). He nearly flushed a putback dunk in transition after running the floor that would have been one of the highlights of the week.

Rebounding is highly valued because it can end possessions and create second chance scoring opportunities, two key factors in winning games. 

Grab-and-go threats like Toohey can also push the ball in transition to create quality shots for himself and others. With about 30 seconds left in the game and the Kings trailing, Toohey had a grab-and-go pass to an open Bruce missed transition three that could have made it a one possession game.

He doesn't quite have the size and athleticism to be a volume rebounder in the NBA, but does possess the effort and heart to be an impactful rebounder. More rebounding outings like this shouldn't go unnoticed because they could be evidence of a supporting skill for Toohey to hang his hat on.

Closing Thoughts

Toohey offers intrigue as a wing with positional size (6-foot-8), projectable 3-point, ball skills and some switchability. He’s likely a multi-year NBL prospect whose draftability will be tied to tangible 3-point shooting progress and establishing at least one reliable ancillary skill. 

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