Mo Bamba & Expectations for Season 2
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:35 pm
Mo Bamba, hopefully our last lottery pick of this rebuild, perhaps the player we're most in the dark about for the future. In limited minutes last year he flashed, but was clearly not ready to be a contributor to a playoff team.
It's hard not to have high expectations for a player that high of a pick, especially when you see guys like Luka, Trae, JJJ, etc putting up numbers and getting attention from day 1. Some may have seen him out there and see him as a disappointment, but as a 20 year old raw prospect his numbers as a rookie were historically promising.
Overall for the year he averaged a modest 6.2 PPG and 5 RPG with 1.4 BPG in 16.3 MPG. His advanced numbers of note were: 7% BLK, 16.3% TRB, 3.1 DBPM, 1.7 WS, a 105 Offensive Rating and a 103 Defensive Rating.
Comparing these numbers all time, we see he's in some decent company:
List of Rookies with a 16%+ TRB and 7%+ BLK (qualifier of 7+ MPG)
Ok, kind of a mixed bag here, but mostly positive. If you make add a qualifier of 5+ PPG, the list narrows down to:
Interesting smaller list, but not really saying much right? Two rookies from this last year, one superstar, and then Tree Rollins. Still, unique numbers nonetheless. Let expand the list to include some more players, dropping the TRB% to 15 and the BLK% to 5 we get:
Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Obviously Shaq, Robinson, and Zo were on another level even as rookies, but we can see a trend of good players coming out of this bunch. The only players that weren't productive NBA players here were Tyrus Thomas and Tree Rollins. The most significant finding from this though was how close Mo was to one of these guys..
Serge Ibaka (20 years old)
6.3 PPG / 5.4 RPG / 1.3 BPG / .3 SPG (18.1 MPG)
54.3 2P% / 63% FT / 56.2% TS
15.2 PER / 17.2% TRB / 5.5% BLK
Mo Bamba (20 years old)
6.2 PPG / 5.0 RPB / 1.4 BPG / .3 SPG (16.3 MPG)
55.5 2P% / 58.7% FT / 53.9% TS
14.9 PER / 16.3% TRB / 7.0% BLK
Now Serge obviously kept making improvements from here, improving his shot and defense even more, and had a good frame that he kept adding weight on. But if Mo can follow a similar path to Ibaka, while being taller and longer, we could have a very valuable and special player on our hands.
Another promising stat for Bamba.. he shot 78.8% (67 out of 85) from 0-3' and 41.2% from 16'-3pt range. This is what really sets him apart and shows his potential IMO. For comparison to the rest of the list:
Now obviously there's more factors at play here, i.e. volume, role, ast%, dunks per game, etc.. but Bamba's percentages are encouraging for having a good touch around the rim with finishing ability, and good range to build off of for the future.
The key to his development will be his body, strength and conditioning as we all know.. but as far as skills go, the metrics and advanced stats show him trending in the right direction.
A quick closing stat to leave on, which is interesting more than significant.. the only players ever to hit 20+ 3s in a season and have a 7%+ block percentage and PER above 14.. Andrei Kirilenko, Serge Ibaka, Myles Turner, Joel Embiid, and our own Mo Bamba
Happy offseasoning everyone
It's hard not to have high expectations for a player that high of a pick, especially when you see guys like Luka, Trae, JJJ, etc putting up numbers and getting attention from day 1. Some may have seen him out there and see him as a disappointment, but as a 20 year old raw prospect his numbers as a rookie were historically promising.
Overall for the year he averaged a modest 6.2 PPG and 5 RPG with 1.4 BPG in 16.3 MPG. His advanced numbers of note were: 7% BLK, 16.3% TRB, 3.1 DBPM, 1.7 WS, a 105 Offensive Rating and a 103 Defensive Rating.
Comparing these numbers all time, we see he's in some decent company:
List of Rookies with a 16%+ TRB and 7%+ BLK (qualifier of 7+ MPG)
- Joel Embiid
- Tree Rollins
- Michael Stewart
- Mitchell Robinson
- Mo Bamba
- Hasheem Thabeet
- Greg Ostertag
- Chris Anderson
- Rudy Gobert
- Clint Capela
Ok, kind of a mixed bag here, but mostly positive. If you make add a qualifier of 5+ PPG, the list narrows down to:
- Joel Embiid
- Tree Rollins
- Mitchell Robinson
- Mo Bamba
Interesting smaller list, but not really saying much right? Two rookies from this last year, one superstar, and then Tree Rollins. Still, unique numbers nonetheless. Let expand the list to include some more players, dropping the TRB% to 15 and the BLK% to 5 we get:
- Shaquille O'Neal
- David Robinson
- Alonzo Morning
- Sam Bowie
- Anthony Davis
- Benoit Benjamin
- Joel Embiid
- Tree Rollins
- Andre Drummond
- Mitchell Robinson
- Serge Ibaka
- Mo Bamba
- JaVale McGee
- Erick Dampier
- Tyrus Thomas
Ok, now we're getting somewhere. Obviously Shaq, Robinson, and Zo were on another level even as rookies, but we can see a trend of good players coming out of this bunch. The only players that weren't productive NBA players here were Tyrus Thomas and Tree Rollins. The most significant finding from this though was how close Mo was to one of these guys..
Serge Ibaka (20 years old)
6.3 PPG / 5.4 RPG / 1.3 BPG / .3 SPG (18.1 MPG)
54.3 2P% / 63% FT / 56.2% TS
15.2 PER / 17.2% TRB / 5.5% BLK
Mo Bamba (20 years old)
6.2 PPG / 5.0 RPB / 1.4 BPG / .3 SPG (16.3 MPG)
55.5 2P% / 58.7% FT / 53.9% TS
14.9 PER / 16.3% TRB / 7.0% BLK
Now Serge obviously kept making improvements from here, improving his shot and defense even more, and had a good frame that he kept adding weight on. But if Mo can follow a similar path to Ibaka, while being taller and longer, we could have a very valuable and special player on our hands.
Another promising stat for Bamba.. he shot 78.8% (67 out of 85) from 0-3' and 41.2% from 16'-3pt range. This is what really sets him apart and shows his potential IMO. For comparison to the rest of the list:
- Tyrus Thomas shot 60% from 0-3' and 11.5% from 16'-3pt range
- Serge Ibaka shot 62.4% from 0-3' and 40.4% from 16'-3pt range
- Andre Drummond shot 68.8% from 0-3' and didnt make a shot past 16' until his 4th season
- Mitchell Robinson shot 73.4% from 0-3' and didn't make a shot outside of 16'
- Anthony Davis shot 71.3% from 0-3' and 26% from 16'-3pt range, and didn't hit 41% from 16'-3pt range until his 3rd season
- Joel Embiid shot 64% (89 out of 139) from 0-3' and 48.6% from 16'-3pt range
Now obviously there's more factors at play here, i.e. volume, role, ast%, dunks per game, etc.. but Bamba's percentages are encouraging for having a good touch around the rim with finishing ability, and good range to build off of for the future.
The key to his development will be his body, strength and conditioning as we all know.. but as far as skills go, the metrics and advanced stats show him trending in the right direction.
A quick closing stat to leave on, which is interesting more than significant.. the only players ever to hit 20+ 3s in a season and have a 7%+ block percentage and PER above 14.. Andrei Kirilenko, Serge Ibaka, Myles Turner, Joel Embiid, and our own Mo Bamba
Happy offseasoning everyone
