With everything focused heavily on the high school prospects we switch gears a little bit this afternoon and take a look at a couple of talented young 8th grade prospects with a tremendous amount of potential. This morning we checked in on a talented 2019 prospect in the state of Michigan and now we slide back over into Wisconsin to look at a talented duo making a lot of noise in the Badger state.
Menomonee Falls has hosted one of the most athletically gifted prospects in recent memory earlier this decade as Jean-Pierre Tokoto emerged as a bona fide high major prospect that eventually landed at North Carolina and currently is delivering high level performances on the pro side in Australia. His younger brother Seth Trimble has quietly been making his own name for himself and after a solid summer that included an invitation to the GNBA Top 40 Camp, the young floor general is on deck as one of the premiere 8th grade talents in the 2022 class regionally and perhaps nationally.
Standing at 5-6 but far from a finished product growth wise, Trimble is a talented and instinctive floor general equipped with handles, vision, breakdown ability, and a perimeter stroke that can be made consistently at the mid-range level and beyond the arc. One asset that’s critical to Trimble’s potential is he has excellent feet in terms of both his ability to move laterally defensively and his ability to put himself in a position athletically with dribble drive penetration and first step explosion off the bounce. A natural young leader, Trimble’s footwork and athleticism go hand in hand with his family as his grandfather was an exceptional soccer player, a sport that the young Menomonee Falls native also excels at in elite fashion. Expect to hear a lot about this class of 2022 standout who is one of the very best on the rise in the state of Wisconsin.
While Trimble is heavily regarded by many in the know, 6-3 plus length wing Steven Clay is right there with him as one of the bright young prospects on the rise in Wisconsin. A teammate of Trimble both during all seasons who also participated in the GNBA Top 40 Camp, Clay is a long wiry slashing wing who can score in transition, half court sets, on put backs, and with a developing perimeter stroke that has range beyond the arc on occasion. Clay is one of those young Stacy Augmon type wings in that his body structure is athletic, very long, and very lean and he has that natural slashing and finishing ability in a smooth fashion. Whether he gets to be anywhere near the player Augmon was is yet to be determined and not the point of the reference, he just has all those qualities for a young prospect that makes him very intriguing moving forward. The key to Clay is his activity on both ends as he can flat out dominate and fill the box score when fully engaged and he has lockdown potential defensively at all five positions given his size, length, athleticism, and agility.
The recent history in the state of Wisconsin boasts so many talented prospects including, but not limited to, Tokoto, Sam Dekker, Deonte Burton, Kevon Looney, Henry Ellenson, Jordan McCabe, Tyler Herro, etc. Whether the future continues to follow that trend time will tell but with young phenoms like this on deck the potential is there if the young players continue to focus on the books and develop physically and skill wise on the hardwood.