Ole Miss Eduardo Klafke Scouting Report
Ole Miss freshman Eduardo Klafke of Brazil has the toolset to become a crucial player for the Rebels over the next several years, and a possible NBA prospect down the road.
When attending the Ole Miss Rebels and Memphis Tigers game in December, Eduardo Klafke stood out to me as an impactful player for the Rebels. He immediately came in and hit a contested 3 (and another later), brought a ton of defensive energy, and helped the Rebels chip away at the deficit. A small development I noticed too was how he would hustle to the scorer’s table to enter a game, and to the bench when he was subbed out.
When just looking at the macro level of his game, Klafke struck me as a long-term prospect to keep an eye on going forward, and as a key piece towards what Chris Beard is building at Ole Miss. He’s a 6’5” wing that’s a knockdown shooter, competitive defender, and energetic spark off the bench. Those are the type of players that can thrive in college basketball, and eventually make it to the NBA down the road.
Background
Eduardo Klafke comes from a basketball family, as his dad Rorgerio Klafke played for the Brazilian team from 1994-2002, months while also playing professionally for Limeria and Basquete Cearense of the Brazilian NBB league — per RealGM.
Prior to coming to the Sip, Eduardo Klafke began his professional career at 14 years old with Franca of the NBB in the 2020-21 season — though rarely playing, totaling 28 minutes in 9 games across 27 games. After his time there, he attended the NBA Academy Latin America from 2022-2023. He also played for the Brazilian national teams since 2021— playing up his year in 3 of his 4 appearances:
2022: U18 South American championship (16 years old)
2023: U18 Americas championship (17 years old)
2023: U19 World Cup (17 years old)
The biggest boost for his game is his recent growth spurt. Around his recruitment, he grew up from 5’10” to 6’4” — with the NBA Academy and Ole Miss both listing him at 6’5” and 195 pounds. That growth spurt has shifted him from the guard spot, to becoming more of a wing — which is a positive towards his trajectory these next several years.
Ole Miss
So yes, the data doesn’t scream long-term prospect. This year, he’s averaging 1.7 points, 1.0 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 0.8 stocks in 10.8 minutes per game over 28 outings.
Let’s provide the context.
Klafke is in the rotation for Ole Miss. The playing time is infrequent, but he’s playing behind a veteran cast of players on the perimeter — Matthew Murrell (5th-year senior), Dre Davis (5th-year senior), Davon Barnes (senior), Sean Pedulla (senior), and Jaylen Murray (senior).
The reliance on upperclassmen has been a trend throughout all of high-major schools, as the minutes for freshmen have been cut in half since the NIL, COVID eligibility.
Purposely excluded the 2020 and 2021 data because of COVID. Yeah, the number could be because of the influx of seniors through the extra year or two of eligibility. Nonetheless, upperclassmen are playing exponentially more, and freshmen are relied upon significantly less.
Spanning to the SEC, only 18 freshmen are playing more than 20% of their team’s minutes. The majority of them come from LSU (4), Arkansas (3), Georgia (2), Alabama (2), and Oklahoma (2).
Eduardo Klafke is one of those freshmen, as he’s been a fixture in Chris Beard’s rotation — even in spot minutes each game. He’s had an impact when he’s played. Per Hoop Explorer, the Rebels score 125.0 points per 100 possessions and give up 97.5 points per 100 possessions when Klafke is on the court — off the court, those numbers dip to 107.7 and 101.3 (good for +17.3 and -3.8 swings).
Energy is the biggest thing, an element Chris Beard has pointed out when mentioning Klafke’s role and impact for this team. However, the key skill in his impact and further development is his outside shooting.
Although on low volume (23 total attempts over 27 games), he’s shooting 52.2% from 3 — while making 55.6% of his catch-and-shoot 3’s (18 attempts), per Synergy Sports. Tying back to the point about his playing time behind the older perimeter corp, his touches are also infrequent, as he’s only attempted 10 shots in 14 SEC games thus far. Nonetheless, he has impressive shot prep and repeatable shooting mechanics, which amplify his presence as a floor spacer.
His main offensive areas of improvement may come with just more experience in SEC play. He can be a bit frantic with the ball in his hands — loose handle, losing control a bit, or being ambitious with passing.
Even within the flaws, he’s flashed good feel as a ball mover and in motion.
Shifting back to his energy, his defense has been pretty sound. He understands defense within the team’s construct. While he can gamble here and there, he’s a “right place, right time” defender — cutting off potential passing lanes, digging on drives to cause turnovers, or helping to prevent shots near the paint. It’s a skill that’s allowed him to be rather malleable as a perimeter defender and low-man within the team’s defense.
In drive defense, he knows how to leverage his size and stay at a drivers’ hip to steer them into suboptimal angles. His main area of improvement defensively revolves around staying with smaller guards. He can have trouble staying in front of players that play with more burst, as exploited against guards like Braden Smith and Boogie Fland. In addition, he can force ill-advised fouls getting ambitious as a help defender.
While Klafke’s playing time has been limited, and his play in the SEC has taken a hit compared to his pre-conference production, his impact leaves optimism for further growth — primarily in the raw numbers — as he becomes one of the team’s more experienced players. In addition, Beard’s willingness to include him in the rotation — even in a spot minutes within a veteran ball club and the rigorous SEC play, in a NCAA that’s become less reliant on freshmen — offers a realistic path for such growth opportunities down the road.
International Play
In the 2023 U19 play, Klafke showed more of his skillset as a 3-and-D perimeter player with his shooting and event creation.
By the numbers, Klafke’s shooting was a bit inconsistent:
If you expand it to his time in the NBA Academy Latin American team, he shot 40.3% on 62 three-point attempts in 2023 Basketball without Borders and 41.2% on 17 attempts in the NBA Academy Summer Session games, per Synergy Sports. I’m buying it’s closer to the 40-percent mark due to his touch from outside, shot prep, and his consistent mechanics.
Nonetheless, his ability to shoot in movement in the U19 play was impressive, as he maintains good balance while seeking out open space.
Defensively, Klafke’s aggressive drives and as a help defender were evident, even playing up in U19. However, his nose for the ball as an event creator really stood out — generating deflections, trapping and overwhelming ball-handlers, and turning turnovers into transition offense. He averaged 1.7 steals in both U19 (7 games) and at Basketball Without Borders (12 games).
When dissecting his game before Ole Miss, you can see more of his feel through his playmaking.
Through Basketball Without Borders, he looked comfortable as a pick-and-roll creator with some intriguing flashes as a 6’5” ball-handler. It wasn’t perfect — mainly with over-dribbling, maybe some wasted motion doesn’t fly with a shorter shot clock — but Klafke showcased some wicked promise in the pick-and-roll with his shot creation and playmaking.
Klafke’s main area of growth shown in these settings is his finishing ability. He’s a below-the-rim finisher which shrinks the margin of error for him a bit. He has to find his way to navigate through tighter windows and through contact. If he’s a poor finisher as a 6’5” wing, it’s going to diminish his ceiling as an offensive player, even though he’s a knockdown shooter.
While the competition and style of play is a bit different in college basketball, Klafke’s skillset prior to Ole Miss offers promise for him to handle more responsibilities on both sides of the ball when the opportunity presents itself down the road.
Potential player paths to study
I wanted to offer some potential player paths that’d be good to study. How I came to these names:
I pulled together a bartt query of players that are between 6’3” and 6’6” that were drafted later in their careers, even though they played fewer than 25% of the team’s minutes played as a freshman.
Of those players, try to draw comparisons between Klafke and potential players to study.
I landed on these three names.
Grayson Allen. Maybe a bit ambitious off the bat? Grayson Allen, antics aside, was one of the best 4-year college basketball players in the 2010s on a team that won a national championship his freshman year and contended for them throughout his tenure. Even if Klafke doesn’t make this sort of impact, the skeleton of Allen’s skillset offers a pathway to become a high-end producer with a pro outcome. The two core overlaps here are shooting and energy. Allen injected energy into games, even at the expense of antics, while also providing an ample amount of shooting — a skill that’s become a trademark for him in the NBA. As Duke’s cast of stars shuffled yearly, Allen also became a source of consistent secondary, and sometimes primary, playmaking — a combo guard that can facilitate the offense and create off the drives in closeouts.
Cody Martin. Martin isn’t the shooter of Klafke’s caliber. However, he made it to the league with steady defense and secondary playmaking as an older prospect. His toughness and defensive versatility have been the tickets to receiving a second contract. The Ole Miss coaching staff’s admiration for Klafke’s energy can translate to being a trusted defender that brings edge on that side of the floor.
Brandin Podziemski. Probably a drastic option, Podziemski took a monster leap in his sophomore year when he transferred from Illinois to Santa Clara on his way to the NBA. Not receiving much playing time his freshman year, the move to a mid-major allowed Podziemski to break out not only as an NBA prospect, but also as an NBA contributor fairly quickly. I’m not necessarily advocating for him to transfer, but the macro elements between Podziemski and Klafke are similar: shooting and energy. Podziemski shot 43.8% from 3 on 5.8 attempts his sophomore season. In addition, he excelled in the hustle stats, rebounding (8.8 per game) and steals (1.8 per game), while adding value as a playmaker (3.7 assists per game). It may not lead to an immediate NBA path, but Klafke has the skillset to garner a similar impact in his college career.
At the end of the day, there’s not a solo path to the next level — one-and-done, multi-year, sophomore jump, JUCO transfer, international, etc. So why not the freshman that’s a sporadic, yet consistent, fixture in the rotation on a veteran-loaded high-major team?
The shooting and energy are good core traits for Eduardo Klafke’s skillset. With his shooting, he’s a potent shooter that chases space and possesses good shot prep — an element of his game he should continue tapping into to amplify his offensive impact. His energy not only swings games — primarily defensively — but it’s a trait that earns the trust of the coaching staff.
Going forward, he should focus on building up his ability to be a reliable secondary, or tertiary creator — tightening his handle, being more confident with the ball in his hand, and finishing at the rim better. Adding more core strength should also help with his finishing and his point-of-attack defense. In addition, he should improve upon his defense on smaller defenders, which will make him more matchup malleable.
Nonetheless, the skeleton of his game — 6’5” knockdown shooter with a good motor and nice feel — is there. While the raw numbers immediately don’t stand out, I buy that Eduardo Klafke can be someone worth monitoring in his collegiate career as a prospect.
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