In early May, Orlando Magic center Mohammed Bamba showed us what he should have been if all went well from start to now: Bamba scored 19 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and delivered four blocks against the Boston Celtics. The game would have been meaningless if you wanted to — in fact, the Celtics beat the Magic 132-96 that night — but at the very least, it suggests that Bamba may still have untapped potential.
"Talent alone, if he continues to maintain this state then there is still a limit to discuss." A scout said. "He had a chance to play, but I don't know if he still has the motivation to reach his ceiling. He has the skills and can shoot at the same time. ”
Even the most optimistic scouts predict that the upcoming 2021-22 season will be a crossroads that will determine the future of Bamba in Orlando. Bamba is about to enter the final year of his rookie contract, in other words, for the 23-year-old, there is not much time left to prove to magic management that their decision to select him with the sixth pick in 2018 is the right one.
To get an idea of Bamba's current strengths and weaknesses, and the likelihood that he could reach his potential, I interviewed four scouts in the league to gather their first-hand opinions. That's also the second part of this summer's talk about the Magic's young players. Since they were not authorized by the team to publicly discuss a player, scouts were allowed to conduct interviews anonymously. Starting with the Scouting remarks quoted at the beginning of this article, scouts are named after Scouts A, B, C, and D.
Bamba is a bit of a fan because there are factors that are completely out of his control, which hinders his development – and also hinders the growth of many potential rookies. After playing halfway through his rookie season, he suffered a stress fracture in his left tibia, which directly cost him the season. In his second season, Bamba contracted the coronavirus, and the adverse reactions that occurred to him forced the team to isolate him again after playing only two games in the rematch park. Until this summer, he hadn't made any significant progress through training in the offseason.
Bamba's supporters believe he has not been given a steady playing time over the past 12 months or more. All-Star player Nicola Vucevic was the team's starting center until he was traded in March, and Ken Birch appears to be former head coach Steve Clifford's first choice as Vucevic's bench.
"I think Bamba is still talented." Scout B said. "I just don't think the last coaching team didn't like him very much and didn't feel very fond of him, and I think his self-confidence was hit by this."
Skeptics of Bamba usually retort that if Bamba is really as talented and energetic as he was bragged in the draft, he will definitely win those ten minutes of bench time in the match with Birch, and even squeeze out some of Vucevic's starting time.
After the mid-season trade, Wendel Carter Jr. ate the starting center time left by Vucevic, while Bamba temporarily lost the competition for various reasons (hamstring strains, big toe sprains, hip contusions and non-CORONAVIRUS diseases).
It was only after Birch was cut on April 8 and Carter suffered an eye abrasion in early May that Bamba's playing time began to stabilize. In games after the trade deadline, Bamba averaged 11.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 20.8 minutes per game. The numbers are a bit watery: Since the Magic need to swing to win high picks, Bamba usually plays alongside inexperienced teammates or newly signed marginal players, and someone has to fill the data column, and Bamba is that person.
But while the gold content of these figures should be suspicious, Bamba should not be blamed for seizing the opportunity. In a way, he is faced with a situation where he is not human: if he plays well, the outside world will also think that he is a meaningless brush. At least put this beautiful data in a team that loses all day, then the vast majority of people will put a question mark in their hearts for the first time.
Bamba's advantages
Scouts tend to focus on the two most positive factors, usually starting with the most obvious trait: bamba's stature.
Judging from the panel data, Bamba was 7 feet tall, and in the 2018 joint trial, Bamba's arm span was 7 feet 10 inches, which was the best in history at that time, until it was surpassed by Tucker Farr a year later.
Bamba's combination of height and long arms should be his innate advantage as a basket guard. His block stats are impressive compared to other interior players in the league. In the data provided by the high-end data website Cleaning the Glass, the annual block rate of Bamba in the three years since he entered the industry has been rated as "elite" or "close to elite". For example, when Bamba was on the floor last season, he had a block rate of 3.7 percent, outpacing the 91 percent of interior players in the league. (Note: The statistics below don't match the official numbers, as Cleaning the Glass excludes data accumulated during garbage time and ignores invalid actions at the end of the section.) ）
Bamba's annual percentage of blocks and fouls
"He can fan out the opponent's shots." Scout A said. "I think he forced his opponent to change his shot choice more times than he blocked it. On the defensive end, I'll give him 6.5 or 7 points, and if he's more mobile, I think he can get to 9 points. ”
Another skill that scouts mentioned in the interests of Bamba's career was his long-range shooting that was not yet reflected in the statistics. His career three-point shooting percentage is 32.5 percent, but that doesn't reflect his fluency in shooting or touching the ball.
"I think he has some skills to help him keep up with today's NBA trends." Scout B said. "He was able to pull outside the three-point line and hit some three-pointers."
Bamba's disadvantages
Alas, scouts generally agree that Bamba has more shortcomings than strengths in his performance.
Even Bamba's blocks were suspected by three of the four scouts.
Scout C said: "Since Bamba's height arm span is swinging there, he can definitely be capped, but I think he still can't read the game fast enough. ”
"His instincts on the defensive end are not very good, always slowing down opponents. His stature allowed him to cap, which looked pretty good. But can you still rely on him when he doesn't feel good? It's hard. ”
Bamba's physique has improved somewhat. He weighed 226 pounds in the 2018 joint trial, compared to 250 pounds released by the Magic last season.
Scouts believe that the increased weight has not led to a significant improvement in Bamba's physical fitness. On March 30, Bamba was blown up by the Los Angeles Clippers' Ivits Zubac. Four of Zubac's eight offensive rebounds that night were grabbed on Bamba's head. To be fair, Bamba was adapting to return to the rotation, and in '18 Bamba came to the Magic as a potential stock and had a lot of room to improve, but Zubac was only a year older than Bamba and didn't have that much of an advantage in terms of hanging meat at the time.
When scouts evaluate Bamba, they always come back to the theme of "mobility": in their view, Bamba simply lacks sufficient range of motion, energy, or strength.
"I put a question mark on his athleticism." Scout A said. "I think he has potential and (on the offensive end) he has the technique. But I also think he's a stupid guy who can pull out and shoot 3 points, and has no presence on the inside. ”
Scout added: "In my opinion he's just a great big kid, but he doesn't seem to have the energy to continue growing. ”
It's no surprise that Scout D said clifford liked to use Birch last year, as Birch worked harder than Bamba for the most part (uh, probably all times).
At the same time, however, it should be stressed once again that there is a legitimate reason why Bamba did not make the physical progress that the Magic team had hoped. His fractures during his rookie season and subsequent bruises kept him in the summer league limits. The diagnosis of COVID-19 and the aftermath of the end of the season also hampered his growth in the second half of the 2020 season. At the end of last season, when Bamba finally began to accumulate experience on the field, he seemed to have found his place.
"I must have seen a young man who was trying to fight hard." Scout B said. "I've definitely seen [Bamba's] progress."
The prospects of Bamba
For Bamba, his time was tight — but not to that extent.
On the one hand, with Bamba approaching the final year of his rookie contract, the Magic must decide his future for the team before the free agent market opens in 2022. More complicated, Carter Jr. is also a rookie in 2018, and he has also entered the final year of his rookie contract. It's unreasonable to expect teams to sign long contracts with two players at the same time, and it doesn't make sense to limit a large portion of the salary cap to two players in the same position.
From another point of view, Bamba still has a lot of time in terms of his own development. He was not yet 24 years old in May 2022. At worst, if the Magic had promised to keep Carter Jr., Bamba would surely have other teams willing to gamble on it. His height and projection attributes are too special to ignore.
"Even though he's in great shape and projection, I'm not sure I really believe the lottery ticket can still be scraped out." Scout C said. "He may have to be more successful in the next team – even he can touch his ceiling. Either way, his athleticism was always an issue. ”
Scout D agrees, saying that barring a leap forward in the following year, Heussa will eventually have Bamba join a brand new team after the start of the 2022-23 season and then start over with the new system.
That being said, there are current indications that the Magic's management has no intention of abandoning Bamba. Although the team signed a one-year contract with 33-year-old veteran center Robin Lopez this off-season, Bamba is still Carter's regular substitute center. In fact, one of the reasons the Magic signed Lopez was to help Bamba improve himself through one-on-one matches in the team's internal training.
There's one last, but perhaps the most critical, factor to consider: The Magic have a brand new head coach, Jamal Mosley. If Bamba needs a fresh start, or at least a second chance to make a first impression, now Mosley and his almost brand new coaching staff have arrived at the Amway Center. The main task given to Mosley by the top in the coming year is to develop young players, not to win games. This means that Bamba will definitely get the chance to show himself.
It will be his best chance so far, and perhaps his last in Orlando. He must seize the opportunity or he will be considered one of the biggest parallel goods in the history of the Magic.