In early May, Orlando Magic center Mo Bamba provided a tantalizing glimpse of the player he might become if everything goes right from here on out. In a matchup against the Boston Celtics, Bamba scored 19 points, collected 15 rebounds and blocked four shots. Dismiss the performance as empty stats in a meaningless game if you want — indeed, the Celtics crushed the Magic that night, 132-96 — but at the very least, it hinted at Bamba’s untapped potential.
Advertisement
“Talent-wise, he has a ceiling that he could be really good if he’s locked-in,” an NBA scout said. “He has a chance, but I don’t know if his motor will let him get there. He’s skilled and he can shoot.”
Even optimistic talent evaluators predict the upcoming 2021-22 season will be a crossroads for Bamba’s future in Orlando. Bamba is entering the final year of his rookie-scale contract. Simply put, time’s running out for the 23-year-old to prove to Magic executives that they were right to pick him sixth overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.
To get a sense of Bamba’s strengths and weaknesses at this moment, as well as the likelihood that he will fulfill his potential, I spoke with four league scouts to gather their unfiltered opinions. This is the second installment in The Athletic’s multi-part series this year about the Magic’s young players. The scouts were granted anonymity because they were not authorized by their teams to discuss players publicly. Beginning with the scout quoted earlier in this article, those scouts are identified as Scout A, Scout B, Scout C and Scout D.
Bamba is a bit of an enigma because there have been factors beyond his control that have hampered his development — factors that would have impeded many prospects’ growth. Midway through his rookie year, he suffered a season-ending stress fracture in his left shinbone. During his second season, Bamba caught COVID-19, and the adverse impact on his conditioning prompted team officials to shut him down after two games in the bubble. Until this summer, he has never had an offseason as a pro in which he has been fully able to make significant gains.
Bamba’s supporters argue that he did not have a clear path to playing time over the last 12 months, if not longer. All-Star Nikola Vucevic was entrenched as the Magic’s starting center until he was traded last March, and Khem Birch seemed to be former coach Steve Clifford’s preferred choice as the primary backup to Vucevic.
Advertisement
“I think Mo’s got talent,” Scout B said. “I just think the last regime was just not a fan of his. They weren’t enamored with him, and I think his confidence took a hit.”
Bamba’s skeptics typically counter that if Bamba was as talented and as energetic as his draft slot indicated, he should have had no problems earning minutes over Birch and even should have been able to eat into Vucevic’s playing time.
Wendell Carter Jr. won the starting center job after his midseason trade from Chicago to Orlando for Vucevic, though Bamba was slowed somewhat by a series of minor injuries (a tight hamstring, a sprained big toe, a hip contusion and a non-COVID-19 illness).
Bamba’s minutes only started to plateau after Birch was waived on April 8 and Carter suffered an eye abrasion in early May. After the Magic’s trade-deadline moves, Bamba averaged 20.8 minutes per game, compiling 11.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Those stats come with caveats: Since Orlando was tanking down the stretch, Bamba typically played alongside either inexperienced teammates or recently signed fringe NBA players. Someone had to populate the box score, and Bamba filled the void.
Still, while the stats should be regarded with a splash of suspicion, Bamba shouldn’t be blamed for producing when he had a chance. In some ways, he faced a no-win scenario: If he played well, his performances would be discounted. At least putting up nice stats in those games was preferable to struggling.
Bamba’s strengths
Scouts tend to focus on two major positives, typically beginning with the most obvious characteristic of all: Bamba’s length.
The Magic list Bamba as 7 feet tall, and at the 2018 NBA Draft Combine, Bamba logged a 7-foot-10 wingspan, the longest wingspan in the event’s history until Tacko Fall surpassed it a year later.
Advertisement
Bamba’s combination of height and long arms ought to give him an innate advantage as a rim protector. His shot-blocking stats relative to other bigs throughout the league are impressive. Cleaning the Glass, a website that tracks advanced analytics, has consistently rated Bamba’s block percentage as elite or near-elite in each of his three seasons. Last season, for instance, Bamba blocked 3.7 percent of opposing teams’ shot attempts when he was in the game. He ranked in the 91st percentile, meaning that 91 percent of NBA bigs performed worse in that specific measurement.
(Keep in mind that Bamba’s numbers below do not match his official numbers because Cleaning the Glass excludes stats accumulated during garbage time. The website also omits end-of-quarter heaves.)
Mo Bamba's year-by-year block and foul percentages
| Season | Games | MPG | Block% | Block% percentile | Foul% | Foul% percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018-19 | 47 | 15.9 | 4.3% | 97th | 5.2% | 27th |
2019-20 | 60 | 14.1 | 5.1% | 99th | 5.0% | 30th |
2020-21 | 40 | 15.9 | 3.7% | 91st | 4.7% | 27th |
“He can contest shots,” Scout A said. “I think he changes more shots than he blocks. Defensively, I would say he’s a 6.5 or 7 (out of 10). If he had a better motor, he could be a 9 defensively.”
The other skill that scouts mention in Bamba’s favor is a skill that does not yet show up in his statistics: his long-range shooting. He is a career 32.5 percent shooter from beyond the 3-point arc, but that percentage does not reflect the smoothness of his shooting motion or his touch.
“I think he’s got some skills that can help, and that translates to what the NBA is becoming,” Scout B said. “He can step out on the perimeter, and he can make some 3s.”
Bamba’s weaknesses
Alas, scouts tend to see more weaknesses in Bamba’s performance than strengths.
Even Bamba’s shot-blocking numbers are regarded skeptically by three of the four scouts surveyed for this piece.
“He blocks shots because of his length, but I don’t think he sees the game quick enough,” Scout C said.
“His instincts on the defensive end are not very good. He’s always going to be playing from behind. His length will allow him to at least block shots and look good. But to consistently rely on him when his feel is not great? That’s tough.”
Advertisement
Bamba has made some strides with his physique. At the 2018 combine, he weighed in at 226 pounds. The Magic listed him tipping the scales at 250 pounds last season.
The way scouts see it, that added weight has not led to a significant improvement in Bamba’s physicality. On March 30, Bamba was badly outplayed by the LA Clippers’ Ivica Zubac, with Zubac easily outmuscling and outhustling Bamba to collect four of his eight offensive rebounds that night. To be fair to Bamba, he was in the process of acclimating to being back in the rotation, and Bamba also entered the league as a project, with massive room to improve. But Zubac is only one year older than Bamba and has not had that much of a head start on building strength.
When scouts assess Bamba, they almost always return to the subject of his motor: In their opinions, Bamba just doesn’t play with enough activity, energy or force.
“I question his motor,” Scout A said. “I think he has potential, and he’s skilled (offensively). But I also think he’s just a perimeter big with no inside presence at all.”
The scout added: “It seems to me like he’s a great kid, but it seems like he has no level of energy.”
Scout D said it was no mystery why Clifford seemed to favor Birch last season. Birch appeared to play harder than Bamba on most, if not all, occasions.
At the same time, however, it should be reemphasized that there have been legitimate reasons why Bamba has not made the physical strides the Magic have hoped for from him. His rookie-year stress fracture and a subsequent setback during summer-league play limited him during the summer of 2019. The aftereffects of his COVID-19 diagnosis and the truncated offseason hampered him throughout the entire latter half of 2020.
And as Bamba finally started to accumulate consistent minutes late last season, he seemed to find his footing.
Advertisement
“I saw a guy who was trying harder, for sure,” Scout B said. “I definitely saw improvement.”
The big picture
There is — but also isn’t — a time crunch in Bamba’s case.
On one hand, because Bamba is entering the final year of his rookie-scale contract, the Magic will have to decide on his future with the team no later than the 2022 free-agency period. Complicating matters is that Carter also hails from the 2018 draft class and also is in the final year of his rookie-scale contract. It is not reasonable to expect the team to make significant long-term financial commitments to both players simultaneously; it wouldn’t make sense to tie up a large percentage of the team’s salary cap in two players who occupy the same position.
On the other hand, Bamba has plenty of time in a general sense. He won’t turn 24 years old until May 2022. In a worst-case scenario in which Orlando commits to Carter, Bamba almost certainly would get a chance to latch on somewhere else. His length and shooting touch are too special to overlook.
“I’m not sure if I really believe in the talent, despite the size and the shooting,” Scout C said. “He’ll probably have to find more success with the next team — if he even can find real success. The motor is always going to be a question.”
Scout D concurred, saying that barring a breakout season for Bamba in the year ahead, the Magic likely will be best-served to let another team invest a roster spot and developmental resources in Bamba beginning with the 2022-23 season.
That said, there is a sense that the Magic front office is not ready to give up on Bamba just yet. Although the team signed 33-year-old veteran center Robin Lopez this offseason to a one-year deal, Bamba still figures to receive the bulk of the minutes as the backup center to Carter. Indeed, one of the reasons the Magic signed Lopez was to help Bamba improve through one-on-one competition during team practices.
Advertisement
And there’s one final, perhaps crucial, factor to consider: The Magic have a new head coach, Jamahl Mosley. If Bamba needed a fresh start, or at least a second chance to make a first impression, he has it now that Mosley and his almost entirely new coaching staff are on the ground at Amway Center. Mosley’s primary directive from the front office in the year ahead is to develop young players, not to win games. Bamba almost certainly will receive every opportunity to gain momentum.
This will be his best chance yet, and perhaps his final chance with Orlando. He must seize the opportunity or risk being regarded as one of the bigger busts in Magic draft history.
Related reading
Robbins: What scouts are saying about Cole Anthony’s future
Robbins: Orlando Magic will sign Robin Lopez, with Mo Bamba’s development in mind
Robbins: What I’m hearing about Magic center Mo Bamba and his playing time
(Top photo of Mo Bamba: Fernando Medina / NBAE via Getty Images)
