Could Tyrese Proctor be Australia's next superstar talent?

Watch the extensive video scouting report of Proctor's game, and production notes.

At 6’5, Proctor combines electric shot creation with spectacular playmaking and elite point-of-attack defence. Ranked as high as fourth in 2024 NBA mock drafts, Tyrese is about to begin his second season with the Duke Blue Devils, and looks poised to lead a stacked Duke team back to NCAA tournament glory.

But can he live up to the hype? And can he be the superstar that Australia needs? After months of scouting, The Pick and Roll's Michael Kruger takes an indepth look into Tyrese Proctor’s game, and how Australia's NBA Global Academy has produced yet another surefire lottery pick.

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To all the filmmakers, content producers, and video editors out there, I finally feel your pain.

Having “edited” basketball clips for articles, scouting reports, or even just Twitter, I thought I knew what it took to make longform video. I mean, how much harder could it be to put highlight reels to a script, bang music on and make a few jokes? Neither Coldplay, nor J Kyle Mann (who the tone of this video is clearly indebted to!), ever said it would be this hard.

After putting together my first ever narrative scouting report, I truly understand the amount of work, stress, and time that it takes to put something like this together.

The initial weeks weren’t actually too hard - I’d rewatch Proctor’s games, make notes, clip plays and identify themes in Tyrese’s game. Then, I had to write the script, which our wonderful editor, Kein Chua, had to read so many times that even he described experiencing “snow blindness” (ie having read something so many times you can’t really see it anymore). After that was “locked in”, I learnt that, annoyingly, what worked on the page didn’t necessarily work onscreen. Sections of the script dragged, weren’t engaging, or didn’t have matching video. At times, it felt like I was stacking a Jenga pile. For every new piece I added, I had to remove or change something – ultimately destabilising the entire structure.

I’d like to say sound, and recording my vocals was an easier process, but video and sound editing is a finicky balancing act. If I recorded a line with a certain pace, I’d have to match the video accordingly, which could throw out the timing of every other clip. If I realised I needed to entirely change a line, that could mean finding different video. Which could mean editing that section again. Which could result in recording that whole section of the script again. Refer back to my Jenga analogy.

For those attempting something similar, here’s my advice; bring in help early. In many ways, I wanted to, and needed to, teach myself many of the skills required. But towards the end, I sought out Benjamin Beauman – an incredibly talented professional video editor – to help me polish the project up. I also leant on our team: The Pick and Roll’s newest member, Adam Webster, put the final touches on my sound recording and mixing. Tony McLachlan designed the amazing title slides, and I had countless discussions with Kein on direction, accuracy, and engagement. Not only did the team make the end product better, the process became much more enjoyable.

On a more technical note, get video approvals sorted. There’s no point committing yourself to an idea that you can’t use without copyright. Learn about the challenges in working with multiple framerates (I wish I knew this earlier). Get good gear, hone your script, storyboard, and do proper audio recordings. Build your video around that audio script (not the other way around). Speed your workflow up.

I hope you all enjoy the video. After spending so much time on it, sometimes my relationship to this scouting report felt like Mr Burns after being trapped together with Homer in a log cabin.

But also, I’d absolutely love to make another. If you’d like to see a breakdown on some of Australia’s incredible next wave of talent, please share this video!

Thanks again to everyone who made the video possible, and to Kein for persisting with me throughout this entire project.