Detroit Pistons: Setting realistic expectations for Sekou Doumbouya

Offense right now

In the halfcourt, the rookie will probably get the OG Anunoby treatment. He’ll spend most of his time in the corners ready to shoot an open 3-pointer.

The good thing is he’s already used to that. He had the same role in Limoges and he managed pretty well shooting 14-for-37 on corner threes (37.8 percent) according to stats.nba and Synergy. He sets his feet quickly and utilizes a hop when needed to get into his shooting motion.

In addition, he has a quick trigger and his shooting form looks quick, perfectly aligned and in rhythm when he has time and space. Apparent problems are his relatively low release point, high arc and inconsistent follow-through.

Those problems led to inconsistent results but he got better during the season. Raised his free throw percentage to 79.3 which is a great indication.

As the season went on, he also showed off some ability to pull up from three and shoot off movement. Expanding his shooting arsenal should be the main priority of his offensive development, as it is the determining factor of his offensive ceiling.

With the offensive role mentioned in mind, the next thing he’ll have to do on offense this year is to attack closeouts. If he manages to shoot respectably, opponents will force him off the 3-point line and Doumbouya will have to show off his straight-line-drive ability.

His first step is impressively quick and he splits his feet on the air before catching the ball, which gives him a big advantage over the defender. He should be able to blow by his guy most of the time, especially if it’s a power forward. He was pretty efficient attacking closeouts in France but the NBA is a different animal.

As you can see, his handle is so loose that he won’t be busting any advanced moves. Neither did he show the ability to pass much off the dribble. But he did get to the rim some and made 74-of-119 (62.2 percentage) of his shots there.

Of course, at first, defenders will leave him open, which will open up some lanes for him to cut to the basket. Below, Doumbouya reads that his defender has his eyes on the ball and takes advantage. Good recognition on the cut and finish with nice extension on his off-hand layup.

My guess is he’ll be a good cutter from day one. European offenses utilize a lot of cutting and it seems like Doumbouya knows when and how to cut. That’s a big reason he had a good percentage and volume at the rim and it bodes well with his projected role.

As mentioned his ball-handling ability is poor right now even though it’s fairly ok relative to his size and age. Fans shouldn’t expect much in that area but the silver lining is that Doumbouya is generally a ball mover. Even though he won’t be able to consistently find the open player, he won’t be holding the ball very long either. He’ll make the simple play.

The lack of a tight handle also limits his pull-up game. He has some capacity to spot up, pump fake, attack the closeout and get into a two-dribble, pull-up but not much more than that.

However, in transition, things look very different. With more space, his handling deficiencies aren’t as apparent and his speed and agility allow him to get to the rim with ease.

And the best thing is he runs the floor even harder when he doesn’t have the ball, as you can see in previous clips. Expect the transition game to be a strength of his next year.