Lowe: 10 Things I Like and Don't Like (Bamba)

[Knightro]

3. Hurt someone, Mo Bamba!

The rush to proclaim Bamba a bust is a little much. He is 21 and only recently cracked 1,000 career minutes. His 3-pointer has improved. Opponents are shooting only 49% around the rim when Bamba is nearby. The Magic are about even with Bamba on the floor -- a step up from last season. Sure, the Magic would probably rather have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander -- drafted five spots lower -- but let's give Bamba a fair shot.

Bamba defends like a 7-footer. Would it kill him to occasionally play offense like one? Bamba has to do better than this punishing switches:

https://gfycat.com/miserlysatisfiedindri

Bamba has recorded only 11 post touches this season, per Second Spectrum. Those touches have produced a grand total of zero points for Bamba or teammates who receive his passes. (Given Bamba's turnover rate, opponents have probably scored more off those passes than the Magic.)

He shows a similar passivity when little guys rotate to meet him at the rim:

https://gfycat.com/sillyimpassionedamazondolphin

Bamba has attempted 12 free throws all season. Twelve. It is really hard to be this large and get to the line so rarely.

Embrace your inner bully, big fella!

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28243840/ten-nba-things-like-including-miami-motion-blur

[PrimeThyme]

I feel like Lowe is a RealGM lurker

[Bigmagicfan82]

I 100% agree with this. I have nicknamed Mo Bamba, Mo Bumaclot and Mo Pu**y. Because every time he gets the ball I just want to say bumbaclot and he is just wayyyyyyyy to soft in the middle. He needs to be Mo Man and less Mo Pu**y.

With that said I have been somewhat impressed with his recent play but he still needs more of a mean streak. He needs to want to punish players down in the post. He likes KG so much, then he needs to play like him and try to put the opponent through the rim or floor for getting in his way.

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[MagicStarwipe]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

[Xatticus]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

This.

Time is on his side. His block and rebounds rates are good. He is getting more blocks this year while not selling out and chasing them as often. His improvement has been obvious to me. The ceiling is still really high and we can afford to be patient.

He has to stop bringing the ball down. The ball gets stripped entirely too often when he tries to gather, but he has nice touch around the rim. He is a really nice lob target on pick-and-rolls. I really don't care if he never develops much of a post game. He just has to improve his screening and avoid the turnovers when he is at point blank range and his scoring efficiency will spike. Fultz will feed him a lot of easy baskets when they build a rapport with each other.

[MagicFan101]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

What people continue to mistake as laziness from Bamba is simply a lack of conditioning. Now, after a year playing for a premier college program and going on two years in the NBA that lack of conditioning may be a result of laziness but they are distinct things.

However, his recent play suggests hard work is happening in practice. I expect to see that show up in his fitness and strength next season as well.

Bamba wasn’t my first choice of available players in that draft but he’s wearing a magic uniform now and appears to be working hard so he has my full support.

[j-ragg]

His body doesn't really let him get physical. His hands are the weakest part. If anyone is ever in the vicinity he can't catch the ball or really rebound in traffic. Great effort though lately either way. Great physical tools I just hope the work ethic gets his body to where it needs to be one day.

[tiderulz]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

Marcus Camby was slight in stature, but played with a mean streak and could bully people.

[ezzzp]

only recently cracked 1,000 career minutes

This is key. His detractors need to be way more patient.

From very early in the pre-draft process it was clear that he would be a raw "skill AND physical" project type player. Even right after the draft, Weltman, Hammond, and Clifford, ALL stated numerous times that he would need time and have continued to say it regularly. It was always going to be a 2-3 year wait before he would be ready for starting level type of role (if all went well)...there is/was nothing surprising about the expected pace of his development. Some just "chose" to ignore all that for their own reasons.

...and that was before he suffered a season ending injury midway through his rookie season.

That impacted and severely limited his rookie to sophomore summer...which is a considerable blow to any young player's development timeline. It affected what he could work on and how hard; and that continues today. As recent as last week, he's been on minute restrictions with no back-to-backs. Were it not for the Vucevic injury, he'd probably still be on those restrictions. He's still very much in the recovery stage from that injury.

All that has to be taken into account.

He has definitely struggled with conditioning and motor and that has limited his impact BUT that doesn't mean he's a bust or will never be a good player. Those accusations are extremely premature.

Even now we are starting to see the rough outlines of what kind of player he "could" evolve into...there are zero guarantees that he will develop to that peak, but I like his chances under this FO. They wisely chose on developing him in a good context and not accelerating or skipping development steps for PR hype reasons.

[Knightro]

Perhaps we're not there yet with Mo, but at some point the "he's not in good enough shape to have a higher motor" excuse isn't going to fly.

It's his job as a professional athlete to take training as seriously as he can and to get himself into the best possible shape he can be in, ya know?

[SOUL]

Been real happy with him lately, but this is his next step.. actually being a threat around the rim on offense.

[zaymon]

I get why we drafted him even tough i didnt like Mo at all before the draft. His combination of length, post defence and potential shooting is highly valueable in the nba these days. Question is how much he will develop becouse right now he is not a good basketball player and his deficiencies are hard to improve.

[SD2042]

only recently cracked 1,000 career minutes

This is key. His detractors need to be way more patient.

From very early in the pre-draft process it was clear that he would be a raw "skill AND physical" project type player. Even right after the draft, Weltman, Hammond, and Clifford, ALL stated numerous times that he would need time and have continued to say it regularly. It was always going to be a 2-3 year wait before he would be ready for starting level type of role (if all went well)...there is/was nothing surprising about the expected pace of his development. Some just "chose" to ignore all that for their own reasons.

...and that was before he suffered a season ending injury midway through his rookie season.

That impacted and severely limited his rookie to sophomore summer...which is a considerable blow to any young player's development timeline. It affected what he could work on and how hard; and that continues today. As recent as last week, he's been on minute restrictions with no back-to-backs. Were it not for the Vucevic injury, he'd probably still be on those restrictions. He's still very much in the recovery stage from that injury.

All that has to be taken into account.

He has definitely struggled with conditioning and motor and that has limited his impact BUT that doesn't mean he's a bust or will never be a good player. Those accusations are extremely premature.

Even now we are starting to see the rough outlines of what kind of player he "could" evolve into...there are zero guarantees that he will develop to that peak, but I like his chances under this FO. They wisely chose on developing him in a good context and not accelerating or skipping development steps for PR hype reasons.

This.^^

The main thing that has always piss me off is that some people allow their impatience to determine their judgement on players before the final results comes in. In a nutshell, it's like rushing Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel in a week.

I've been a supporter of Mo's since the draft. Even Mo's draft profile suggest that he will be a project in development all around. To those who oppose Mo, give him time to produce the results necessary to become the player who needs to become in the long run.

[drsd]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

Bamba needs to learn some post moves as he muscles up. It is ridiculous that someone with his wing-span is not screaming for the ball down-low.


..

[fendilim]

He just needs to get stronger. Looking at him right now, if he gained any muscle in the offseason, a lot of it is gone now. He can't "bully" anyone.

Yeah. Actually all of his deficiencies have been because his lack of strength. But who knows, he is too long, we might not even notice if he already put on 20lbs of muscles. Haha

[pepe1991]

There are lot of skinny guys who can post up and lot of muscular, strong guys who can't. It's not about weight but skill. KG, McHale, Parish, Mikan, Worthy were all skinny guys.

Bamba perfers staying on 3 point line.

[tiderulz]

There are lot of skinny guys who can post up and lot of muscular, strong guys who can't. It's not about weight but skill. KG, McHale, Parish, Mikan, Worthy were all skinny guys.

Bamba perfers staying on 3 point line.

Parish had weight. Worthy was a mobile PF at 235, right about the weight he should be for PF

those weight listed for older players that you found, likely their drafted weight.

[Popsicle1228]

I feel like Lowe is a RealGM lurker

I felt the same when I read this. Specially the SGA comment.

[Magic#1]

Bamba has shown improvement the past couple of games and has even looked good at times since Vooch has been out. The offensive problem is that his hands are terrible. Besides not having post moves yet, I think part of the reason Cliff probably tells him to stay on the perimeter is that his hands are terrible when he gets it inside. While Dwight didn't have post moves at first, I don't remember him having hands that were this bad. Bamba is a good kid who seems to be putting decent work in, but he needs to have more hunger. AG and JI both are well natured guys, but you can tell they have competitive streaks too (especially JI on defense). Bamba's competitive streak may come out more once he doesn't have to think so much and can be more instinctual, but it's hard to say how he will develop right now. By year two, there are usually more signs that we've got a future star, but Lowe is right that he has missed A LOT of time thus far in his development.

[T-Cat]

Training with Olajuwon this summer and getting stronger will help him immensely!