Mohamed Bamba: 2018 NBA Draft player profile

Weaknesses

Strength 

Much like his length, you can look at Bamba and notice his frail stature. Where he needs the most work though is on his lower body. It is hard for Bamba to really show any kind of offensive role as a rim-runner without strength. His length will help some, but he needs to be able to finish at the rim through contact.

Here is a perfect example against Kansas. This is a very rare possession where Texas spaces the floor exceptionally well. Bamba gets an easy look at the rim, but is met by Svi Mykhailuik. Even though I like Svi, he is not exactly an intimidating physical presence and Bamba is unable to finish over him even though his length creates an easy opportunity.

I do not think Bamba’s lack of strength will hurt him too much defensively. There is a chance teams could pick on him down low if they have a quality post player. However, in the modern NBA, post-up possessions are very limited and a real back-to-the-basket post scorer is pretty much irrelevant now.

However, his lack of strength could hurt him tremendously on the boards, especially since Bamba rarely makes an effort to box out. He can easily get pushed off of his rebounding position by almost any big man at the next level.

Defending in space 

This is a very big deficiency for any big man looking to modernize himself in today’s game. With Bamba I think it is a matter of becoming more comfortable on the perimeter. His length will allow him to have more room for error defending on perimeter.

Here Bamba is matched up with Texas Tech guard Keenan Evans. While Evans is a very good player, he does not exemplify high quality NBA speed. Evans blows by Bamba, the big man bites on the shot fake and he fouls Evans. If this is an elite and quick NBA guard this is an easy dunk at the rim.

Earlier in the game, Bamba is matched up with Texas Tech forward Tommy Hamilton. Hamilton was a solid 3-point shooter at Texas Tech this year. Bamba is playing really far down and gives slight help on a drive from Zhaire Smith.

Smith kicks the ball out to Hamilton and Bamba just sprints at Hamilton full speed attempting to block an anticipated jump shot. Bamba did not even attempt to close out on Hamilton as he takes one dribble in and shoots a wide open mid-range jump shot. This is very alarming with the amount of bigs in the NBA today that can stretch the floor and shoot from deep.

Decision-making/passing 

If Bamba wants to transition into a rim-running role he has to be able to make quick decisions and quality passing reads on the move. The high pick-and-roll creates a mismatch offensively where you have a split second of four-on-three basketball that needs to be taken advantage of.

Here Bamba has a similar opportunity. Even though it is a three-on-three opportunity there is still good spacing on the sequence. When Bamba first catches the ball he has to be able to notice the TCU defender on right side shifting out of position and drawing his attention to the ball.

Rather than recognizing this and passing the ball onto the right side baseline to Jericho Sims, Bamba goes up with TCU’s big man and gets called for a charge.