Sekou Doumbouya’s Detroit Pistons Summer League debut!
The Detroit Pistons 15th overall pick Sekou Doumbouya made his Summer League Debut last night!
The Detroit Pistons 2019 first round pick has officially seen NBA action. Sekou Doumbouya saw his minutes in the Pistons most recent Summer League game against Brooklyn.
Logging just 13 minutes was presumably a precautionary move by the medical staff, as he had been dealing with hamstring issues all week. Sekou posted nine points and just two rebounds.
It’s important to preface this next part with this: It was one game. It was one micro sample of what we will be seeing from Sekou this upcoming season. However, there were some concerns.
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Sekou appeared to have some difficulty with on-ball defense. Whether it was biting on a ball fake, getting beat on a dribble drive, or even what to do after getting caught in a ball screen, these will almost certainly be some points of emphasis by the coaching staff moving forward.
The aforementioned issues that Sekou had tonight weren’t necessarily anything new, as they remained consistent with the defense he played in Europe just a few months ago. The problem of course, is that the current competition is remarkably faster than what he saw in France.
Coach Casey has remained consistent with what he thinks about Sekou; he’s a ball of clay that Detroit can mold however they like, as Casey is notoriously known for being an exceptional developmental coach.
What admittedly did feel rather odd about Sekou’s brief debut, is if the plan was to give him some minutes, you would think that at some point, even if it was just one set, something would have been drawn up to get the ball in his hands. Nope. Most of his minutes on the floor seemed to be dedicated to high pick and roll mid range jumpers from Jordan Bone.
Sekou was able to show off his mechanics and that’s what matters. His jumper is smooth, with a high release and a high arc on the ball. However, he did finish just one of four from deep.
What could be chalked up to nerves coming into the game, or something that could be a glaring issue is that Sekou did have a few instances where he had troubling handling the ball. The Pistons had their fair share of struggles last season with mishandling passes, so this would certainly be an obstacle to overcome.
At the end of the day, the mold of clay that is Sekou Doumbouya is going to be fine. His role in the upcoming rotation remains to be seen, but Coach Casey believes we found a diamond in the rough, so let’s sit back and enjoy the kid play. He’s only 18 years old. He has plenty of growing to do with fan base behind him.
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Sekou, is going to be very special.