In Part 3 of "Circling the Globe", I profile Ibou Dianko Badji. Badji is the quintessential 'draft and stash' player with enormous upside stemming from his gargantuan physical profile, coupled with an underrated developing skillset. While Fran Frascilla's patented "two years away from being two years away" billing is particularly apt in this case, Badji has only been playing basketball for the last four to five years (since 2016), so his current pace of development portends a bright future if he puts in the work. While Badji's core competencies as a prospect can be summarized in about a paragraph, this report will dig deep into his development process, providing you with a window into his improvements over the course of this season and ultimately pro basketball's vision for where he might be down the road.
On the qualitative side, some have called into question Badji's love for the game, considering the fact that he only started playing in 2016 at the behest of his dad (who played), after initially wanting to continue with soccer (LINK). However, the pace of his development has been rather remarkable considering this fact, and the progress he has made in the last year suggests that he is working hard on his game. Importantly, while he spent a lot of time ball watching on defense in the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup, his defensive activity level has improved considerably this season. On Barca's B team, he incrementally grew with each game, and this culminated in him now playing with Barcelona in Euroleague, as well as with Senegal in the Afrobasket Qualifiers. While he still has a long way to go to receive minutes at the highest level, considering how new Badji is to the game, I would not place too much stock into these concerns.
http://jtmbasketball.blogspot.com/2021/03/circling-globe-part-3-ibou-dianko-badji.html
Thoughts?
