Few voices in the women's basketball ecosystem carry as much influence as Shane Laflin.
The director of evaluating services at Premier Basketball, Laflin oversees ESPN's high school girls player rankings and participates on the McDonald's All-American Game committee. He and Premier Basketball are associated with 3 Step Sports, Select Events and the Cerebro Sports statistics platforms in various capacities.
Laflin understands the player development journey from several angles as a former college assistant coach at Texas, UT Arlington and Rice. Since transitioning from the college coaching space in 2016, Laflin and the Premier Basketball staff have become the go-to source for a national context on prospects and recruiting. He also sees the general trends of girls high school and grassroots basketball as the sport continues to skyrocket.
Steve Hewitt and Ethan Fuller invited Laflin on the HoopWise Podcast to discuss a wide range of topics. They talked about Laflin's approach to player evaluation, his advice for high school prospects, and his observations of how the game has evolved in the last decade. Laflin also broke down each of the four nationally-ranked New England prospects, detailing their strengths and their areas for growth.
Watch the video
Highlights
How closely are you looking at leadership and teammate traits as an evaluator, and what sticks out to you?
Laflin: "If you're a Division 1 player in high school, there's a likelihood that that means you're the best player or one
of the two or three best players on your team. How do you make other people feel better? And it's twofold. One, if you're competitive, you should not let a good thing go unnoticed. You should make sure that those people feel valued when they do the things like rotate, block out or make a layup because that's what you need them for and that's their skillset. You also are gonna be that guy when you get on campus so you can understand bridging that gap.
"It's why in development I encourage people to go teach or coach young kids. It helps you with your coaching dynamic. You're like, 'Oh, that's why they're so particular. That's why they want me to show my nonverbal understanding and communication when I'm being
coached. Because I'm coaching this little kid and they're not doing it. Now I'm frustrated.' So I like them to understand that."
Who is a non-WNBA or college household name who young players should watch for how they work?
Laflin: Veronica Burton ... It's perfect for the podcast; it's also perfect for the timing of what she did last night and what she's done a couple times, and what the Valkyries are doing in terms of style of play, expansion and what the future of the league looks like. If you are an aspiring W player and you are not studying how they play and how they're doing things — like every detail — you're crazy, because that's what the future of the league's gonna look like.
Listen
The HoopWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
