2019 NBA Mock Draft: The Lakers are finished
Sekou Doumbouya. 12. player. 110. . F. Limoges
Whichever team pulls the trigger on Doumbouya will be very happy they did. The 18-year-old is the youngest player in the entire draft and will be 18 for half his rookie season. However, he reads the game in high-level international competition better than a lot of NBA players.
Nice help defense by Sekou Doumbouya in his fifth game back from thumb surgery. He just turned 18 two days before Christmas.https://t.co/ICrhBOawKn
— Brendon Kleen (@BrendonKleen14) March 12, 2019
Watch the instincts at work here by Doumbouya, who fills the lane on the weak side to cover for CSP Limoges’ aggressive blitzing defense (think the Big Three Miami Heat or last year’s Milwaukee Bucks), negates the layup from the rolling big man and then moves back to his man after a cut into the lane. Doumbouya finishes the play by blocking his original man’s shot and ending the possession. Again: he’s 18.
Hopefully, the discussion surrounding the way we react to Doumbouya’s performance against international competition is helped by doing this all a year ago with Luka Doncic. Sure, Doncic was playing for a better team and impacting the game to a greater degree on a nightly basis, but qualms about doing it against elite players should be lessened as a result of Doncic’s historic rookie season.
That and the fact Doumbouya is not in the running for the top overall pick means teams should not overthink this. Doumbouya has the tools and mind to be a dominant two-way player in time and the Heat, in particular, have the creativity and player development system to maximize the Guinean forward.