Rasheer Fleming: When Fun Flashes Evolve Into Consistent Dominance
Rasheer Fleming has been one of the most consistently impactful forwards in the country for Saint Joseph's and continues to look more and more like a first round lock in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Flashes are fun, but they don’t always mean the same thing for all prospects. When a raw freshman at a major program gives us incredible flashes without the consistent performances, it’s unfortunately different than when one does it at a mid-major program. Rightly or wrongly, mid-major players typically have to establish a sense of consistent dominance to be legitimate draft prospects, which is a lot easier said than done. Since his freshman year, Rasheer Fleming has given us some incredible flashes. This year, though, the 6’9” 240-pound junior forward from Saint Joseph’s is finally giving us the consistent dominance we’ve been craving, making him one of the most rapidly rising prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft class.
The second that Fleming stepped on the court for Saint Joseph’s, it was obvious that he had the size and athleticism to compete with NBA athletes. It also didn’t take long for him to prove that his rebounding on both ends of the floor and defensive playmaking was very real. Unfortunately, there would be long stretches where he struggled to impact the game and the questions with his offensive role continued to surmount. This year, though, Fleming has squashed those questions with fantastic performances on a nightly basis against myriad levels of competition.
When we just do simple box score watching, it’s easy to get enamored with Fleming’s game, as he’s averaging 16.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.8 steals on shooting splits of 56.9/41.7/67.8. Things get even more impressive when we start looking at the advanced numbers.
Per Synergy, Fleming ranks in the 96th percentile in overall points per possession (PPP), the 88th percentile in transition, the 93rd percentile as the roll man, the 100th percentile on cuts, the 92nd percentile on all jumpers, the 82nd percentile shooting off the catch, and the 90th percentile scoring at the rim. That is bonkers levels of efficiency. If you look closely, there’s a common theme among all of those numbers and play/shot types. All of them are in a play-finishing role.
If you’re hoping that Fleming could be a sneaky contender for a point forward offensive initiator, I’d throw those expectations out the window. Never say never, I guess, but it would be one of the most outlier developmental stories as there aren’t any indications of that happening. As of writing this, Fleming hasn’t attempted a single jumper off the dribble, has run two total possessions as the pick-and-roll ball-handler that accounted for zero points, has run two total possessions in isolation that accounted for zero points, has a negative assist to turnover ratio, and is going on his third straight season with an assist rate under 10%. That’s a tough look. Also, I don’t care. Like at all. Not even a little bit.
The reason that none of that matters to me is because that isn’t the role Fleming will likely ever be asked to play, so what’s the point in scouting him for it? Instead, Fleming is most likely going to be used as an athletic versatile defender who grabs a ton of boards and finishes plays on offense. This season, he is one of the best in the country at doing all of that.