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Draft Report: Serge Ibaka Of L'Hospitalet

Authored by Christopher Reina - 18th June, 2008 - 2:53 pm

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Serge Ibaka is one of the rawest players in the draft but has the kind of natural ability at his size teams rarely see, and any GM would like an opportunity to see if the Congo native can be converted into the caliber of big man he is visibly capable of becoming.

Ibaka has a good jump hook, releasing the ball at its absolute peak with a soft touch and good arc.

He gets as long as possible when he goes up for a shot in the post.

He will invite contact in the post and will bounce off that contact for a baseline jumper from about eight-feet out. He also has nice abilities with his spin moves, using them to get into the lane or to setup a fadeaway jumper.

Ibaka needs to work harder in the post before he gets the ball; if he can improve where he catches the ball and how open is, he will more frequently get open looks. He is conscious of the repost, though.

He still leaves his feet too often when making a pass, which makes him turnover prone, but he should become a serviceable passer although not great. He is smooth on the handoff to guards.

He is surprisingly good on the catch and shoot, and that largely begins with his great hands. He can make an occasional 3-pointer and has good form and nice elevation on his jumper. He has the potential of being one of the better shooting big men in the game.

He also makes great use of the glass when suitable.

As a screener, he is very active and makes sure he gets his body on his teammates’ defenders.

For a player with limited floor experience, Ibaka has really impressive improvisational abilities and court awareness. On a broken play near the top of the key, Ibaka took a strong dribble drive to the bucket and converted a layup.

He is clearly a raw ballhandler still but is passable and shows a definite ability to improve in this area.

When he grabs an offensive rebound, he will keep the ball high for a put back. He is even quick enough to follow his own 8-foot miss for a power put-back slam. Ibaka is difficult to box out and always hustles for second chance opportunities.

He has terrific speed in the open floor on transition; he will catch a pass cleanly and finish a dunk in one fluid motion. Ibaka seems to really enjoy this part of the game and would become a key cog on a team that looks to attack in their early offense.

Ibaka is very agile and quick footed although he still has a distance to go on some of his basic basketball coordination.

Defensively, he still needs to have a better understanding of basic concepts of help defense positioning and how to body up an opponent in the block, but he unquestionably has good instincts.

He will close out to shooters quickly and in a way to affect the shot instead of giving a token flyby.

Ibaka elevates nicely for defensive rebounds but needs to be more consistently stronger when he comes down with it to make sure the ball doesn’t get stripped or poked away.

- Click here to see our full list of 2008 Draft Reports which has new additions daily

Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. He can be reached at Chris.Reina@RealGM.com where he may use your draft questions in a future mailbag edition

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