pepe1991 wrote:For 2 years in a row Mo Bamba averages 6,5 fouls per 100 possessions and per 36 min, he is also heavy -4,8 fouls a game.
I agree Bamba is very foul prone right now, but that's pretty normal for a young big who attempts to block a lot of shots. It also isn't necessarily an indicator that he won't be able to become a starting C in the near future.
Rudy Gobert at age 21 = 6.9 fouls per 100
Mitchell Robinson at age 21 = 6.7 fouls per 100
Mo Bamba at age 21 = 6.5 fouls per 100
So it stands to reason Bamba will be able to improve this as he gets older and more experienced.
pepe1991 wrote:There are many nba centers with solid tool-box that simply do not have talent, mobility and durability of Gobert. If you look at guys like Ian Mahinmi, Thon Maker, Capela, Ayton, Thomas Bryant, McGee, WSC... lot of them are actually strong, fast and athletic, yet nobody comes close to impact that Gobert has. And non of them is actually worth taking in lottery.
You specifically mentioned Ian Mahinmi, Thon Maker, Clint Capela, DeAndre Ayton, Thomas Bryant, JaVale McGee and Willy Cauley Stein as examples of strong, mobile centers who didn't make a Gobert level impact.
My counter to that would be that Bamba is a whole lot closer defensively to Gobert than any guy you mentioned on the list and he's showing much more skill as a shot blocker and rebounder at a much younger age than any of those guys did
Bamba's career best BLK/100 is 4.8 and his career best REB/100 is 16.8. These both came at age 21.
Mahinmi
Played 23 total minutes as a 21 year old and didn't play 500 minutes in a season until he was 25
Career best BLK/100 = 3.0 as a 27 year old
Career best REB/100 = 16.0 as a 28 year old
Maker
2.5 BLK/100 and 10.0 REB/100 as a 21 year old
Capela
3.1 BLK/100 and 16.5 REB/100 as a 21 year old
Ayton
2.4 BLK/100 and 17.1 REB/100 as a 21 year old
Bryant
2.1 BLK/100 and 14.4 REB/100 as a 21 year old
McGee
3.5 BLK/100 and 13.6 REB/100 as a 21 year old
WCS
In college at age 21
2.2 BLK/100 and 12.0 REB/100 as a 22 year old in the NBA
So as you can see, Bamba is the best shot blocker of the group of players you mentioned by a mile and also the best rebounder of the bunch outside of Ayton.
pepe1991 wrote:Talking about his jumpshot, while we talk about player who played 107 games, made 58 threes on 33% , while being wide open on 85% of them, and who got 1 three point shot contested in his nba career ( literally, one), and who can't even pass 65% on FT line, while shoots 34% from mid range as " shooting range that develops nicely" is borderline crazy talk to me.
The context of age and position matter GREATLY here. If you're comparing Bamba to guards and wings then of course his shooting isn't going to look as impressive. But when you compare it to centers and specifically young centers, you'll see why it's developing nicely.
Bamba attempted 5.8 threes/100 and hit at a .356 clip this year.
A few centers like Nikola Jokic, Brook Lopez and even our very own Nikola Vucevic have hit this mark in the last 2-4 years, but only one other player has ever done it at age 21 or younger and that's Karl Anthony Towns.
Midrange shooting is essentially useless for the vast majority of NBA players, so I don't care if he's not shooting well from that area as I wouldn't want him taking many shots from there anyway.
You also said his FT% has never topped 65% which A. isn't true as he was 67.4% this year and B. ignores the fact that from Year 1 to Year 2 he raised his FT% almost 10% which is a very good sign for his future prospects as a FT shooter. There's also a key piece of context that's being left out which is just how poorly most centers actually shoot free throws. Only 9 qualified centers in the league are over 68% this season. Just 16 the year before and just 12 the year before. Typically less than half the starting centers are over 70% and Bamba is trending in that direction at a young age.
pepe1991 wrote:What's actually bizzare and depressing is that he shoots 34,9% from pick&rolls when he rolls and brings 0,82 points per possession when he does it.
That's your 6'11 center with 8 foot wingspan that can almost dunk a ball without jumping, missing 65% of shots where he needs to do between 0 to 2 steps and dunk. To comparison to Gobert, he shoots 64% from same plays.
Of all the things you said, this is the one I agree with the most. Bamba did only convert 19.4% of his shots from 3-10 feet this season, which is just way too low.
To be fair, Gobert at the same age only converted 13.3% of his shots from the same area. Rudy has since improved to the upper 30s percentage wise as he's gotten older.
This is an area where Bamba definitely needs to improve and do it quickly. I agree.
pepe1991 wrote:As for his motor, it's not just motor, it's understanding of basketball all together. Mcgee had nice motor, but was always too dumb to play more. We all know basketball defense in 99% of cases is not about shotblocking, rather making right decisions that will not put you in position where your center needs to save you. Tim Duncan couldn't jump over phonebook last 5 years of his career and was easly one of best defensive centers out there based on intelligence alone.
Fair point, but in Bamba's case though, I just don't think see it as a lack of basketball IQ. He's a smart kid. I've watched enough of the games to see that the wheels are turning in Mo's head in terms of knowing where he needs to be, he's just often gets there too late or never gets there at all because of a lack of effort. Some of that can be tied into poor conditioning and some of that can be tied into the fact he just isn't the type of player who plays balls to the wall at all times.
pepe1991 wrote:And given where Magic took him, being in objective range of landing Doncic or Young, and passing on SGA, passing on Porter Jr ( both could have been traded down for ) , and having Mitchell Robinson being BETTER player than Bamba, while providing everything Bamba provides - while being taken 36th, really makes whole logic behind that draft night head scratcher.
This whole "objective range of Doncic or Young" thing has to stop. It's silly. Those guys were picked 3rd and 5th in a pre-arraigned trade and the Magic were selecting 6th. There was just no scenario after the draft lottery went down where the Magic were coming away with Luka Doncic or Trae Young. Suggesting they should have lost more during the regular season is a completely different argument.
If the Magic wanted SGA or Porter Jr., they would have needed to select them at 6. You can't just say "oh well they could have traded down" like that's something that can be willed into existence. There has to be someone that someone wants to trade up for in order to move back.
I wasn't high on him at the time, but I can buy the argument that they could/should have picked SGA at 6 over Bamba even though most everyone had Bamba ranked as a significantly higher prospect at the time. Michael Porter Jr had a nice season in a limited role with Denver and it appears he's primed for more, but he's also a pure PF and very likely can't play anywhere else, so you'd have the same logjam problem with Gordon/Isaac/Porter
pepe1991 wrote:And even if Bamba was that new Gobert ( while they simply turned blind eye on everything negative reported about him), it would still not make that much difference because what makes Gobert - Gobert is fact they don't really need him to do much on offense rather just set picks and roll off, as they have Ingles, Mitchell, Conley, in past Rubio, now even Bogdanovic...
So even in Jazz vacuum, Gobert MIGHT be the most important player ,but without Mitchell and supporting offensive cast, they would still be lottery team.
This whole "you shouldn't draft Player X until you have Player Y" argument just makes no sense to me because you're just not always going to be in a position to find or already have a star. If a complimentary piece to a star is the best thing you can acquire at a given time, then you pick him up and try like hell to find the star later on.