Thabo Sefolosha, 6-7, SG/SF, 1984 International, Biella
Sefolosha arrived in the United States just a few days ago, but has been impressing everyone that has been out to see him so far. From the start of the workout, he showed off his mid-range shooting, where he elevates very nicely off the ground, and with consistent shooting mechanics throughout.
Compared with all the other players we’ve seen over the past few weeks, it was immediately evident that we are for the first time dealing with a professional player who approaches the game from a different perspective than most college players do. His new trainer Joe Abunassar explained to us just how impressed he was with the way Sefolosha has been “mentally locked in” since he arrived here, taking every drill and workout thrown at him with the professionalism you’d expect from a player who has been practicing twice a day and playing for a salary for the past 5 years.
In the mid-range shooting drills, Thabo’s footwork was very polished, and his release was nice and high. From the baseline, he was able to knock down all nine of his shots without missing once. Overall, Thabo shot 61% total in all of the shooting drills. It was a different story from the NBA 3-point line, however, where he’s only been shooting from for a few days now. Sefolosha’s release point changed a bit on his three point shot, and he struggled to get his body around square off of cuts, which lead to a lot of misses on the left side of the rim. Though his release point was different, Thabo’s form was still the same every time, and his elevation was more than acceptable. With his consistent form, it is easy to pinpoint the problem with his shot, which should make it a lot easy to fix. Thabo ended up making 50% of his shots from the NBA 3 point line, which is not terrible by any stretch for a player who is considered excellent in almost every facet of the game except for his perimeter shooting.
Sefolosha has more than enough athleticism to play at the NBA level. During the pick and roll drills and the cuts he made to the hoop, Thabo displayed his explosive ability to rise above the rim and throw the ball down with authority, not only quickly, but also from nice distances away from the hoop. His high level of athleticism and superb length will likely allow him to translate his already terrific defense from the European level to the NBA. He also looked very agile in making cuts to the hoop, and made quick movements with and without the ball. In terms of ball-handling, Thabo blew everybody in the gym away with his control over the ball. In one particular drill, the players were asked to dribble the ball like they were being pressured up the court. Here, Thabo used his superb length and feel to cross the ball over swiftly from side to side with one hand from just a few inches off the ground, often tapping it twice quickly in the same spot for good measure to further confuse his imaginary defender. Not only was it fancy dribbling, this is the type of useful move that will be very hard for defenders to stop, since it’s just not something you are used to seeing a 6-7 player execute, especially when talking about a player with his quickness and footwork. He dropped some glimpses of his passing skills as well in simple drills where he was asked to whip a 15 foot bounce pass to the left side of the low post while drifting right from behind the 3-point line, doing so crisply and accurately with the greatest of ease.
Overall, it was a very impressive workout for Thabo Sefolosha. Some of the other players in the workout seemed to be going through the motions at times, but Thabo was intense and consistent throughout. He looks a legitimate 6’7”, and has a monster wingspan along with a frame that should be able to carry enough weight. Watching him on tape is impressive enough from what you might have read on DraftExpress over the past two years, but he’s even more unique to see in person when you look at the unique way in which he approaches and plays the game. If he can improve his 3-point shooting, Sefolosha will be a very complete player in the NBA. He already has a number of workouts scheduled, with teams like Phoenix, Chicago, Cleveland, and Utah, amongst others. The only question for him will be how closely have GMs and Coaches been following the tremendous progress he’s made over the past few years, and whether they’ll be able to sneak a peak at him in the next few weeks.
