·Why he can
Mam Jaiteh has had a NBA ready body for the past two years. Standing at 6’11 (with shoes), a 7’4 wingspan and a 260 pound-frame, he is able to battle in NBA paints. He knows how to use his solid frame to take the low-post position and weighting on the game. His body-control, his coordination and his balance are three more assets, and his ability to run the floor to score on a fastbreak offense is very interesting for coaches. His big wingspan and his ability to drop very quickly on the ball give him a good number of steals.
When we compare Jaiteh to all other international prospects that likely will enter the draft, he has got the most adaptable body for the NBA (K.Porzingis, I.Diop, M.Diagne, A.Pazecniks, R.Larsen). If we consider Porzingis as a sure top-15 pick, Jaiteh leads the race against other prospects from a physical point of view and it could be interesting for a late first-round choice.
Offensively, Jaiteh is a well-gifted player. He is efficient in the paint with a solid back-to-basket game and soft hands. He is able to score a hook shot with both hands very consistently, and his offensive rebounding abilities give him a second chance to score. Thanks to his wingspan, his huge hands and his coordination, he can catch passes effortless and then play his game close to the rim.
Jaiteh is now efficient in pick-and-roll situations (the most played action in the NBA last season) being aggressive after the screen and is able to finish in many different ways. He is able to attack the rim after one dribble from the low post, and he is able to outrun his opponent in transition to be an effective trailer and score easy points. With all of those tools, Jaiteh can be an interesting back-up for many teams, bringing points from the bench. Once again he leads the race against other international big prospects from an offensive point of view.
The French center is a great rebounder with an amazing instinct. During his first professional season with Boulogne Sur Mer in French ProB, he averaged 14.1 rebounds on a 40 minutes basis (22.3% of total rebounds while he was on the floor) without any knowledge about this aspect of the game. Jaiteh never boxed-out his opponent and only used his wingspan coupled with an excellent ball-trajectory reading to grab this amount of rebounds.
Last season in Nanterre, he worked hard about this aspect of the game, learning how to box-out opponents. Jaiteh may have focused too much on his opponent and less on the ball-trajectory so it decreased a bit his numbers with “only” 10.3 rebounds per 40 minutes but it was a necessary step for his future.
From an overall point of view, Mam Jaiteh has got a lot of potential and he is still very young, he will be 20 in late-November 2014. His talent is undeniable; at 17 years old he averaged 14 points, 11.2 rebounds and had a PER of 31.4 in the third French division against a much older team. During his first professional season in Boulogne in Pro B at age 18 he was named MVP of the league with 16.2 points and 9.7 rebounds per game and a 26.6 PER. Jaiteh faced more of a challenge last season in Nanterre because of the bigger players in the Euroleague.
Despite his young age, Jaiteh already has had a lot of experience at the professional level, with 14 games in European cups last season and two seasons in Pro A (2013-14 and 2014-2015). He is an ambitious guy, he said “I want to dominate the ProA before going to the NBA next year” and he is able to. Coach Donnadieu is very tough with him but Jaiteh needs it and a second year in Nanterre will be very good for his career.
We have watched during preseason games that he is more focused and more aggressive than last season, and he is now ready to shine at the highest French level. With a big season, he certainly will be drafted around the 25-28th pick. Just a reminder, Kevin Seraphin with a pretty similar game-type and some other common points with Jaiteh was drafted with the 17th pick in 2010.
·Why he can’t
Lacking of verticality and explosiveness is the biggest Jaiteh’s physical weakness. While more and more NBA bigs are playing above the rim, the French center just can’t. It always has been his problem and we have no sign of improvement for last 3 years. Three games in Treviso during the last Adidas Eurocamp we saw a perfect example of his weakness. He physically dominated Thon Maker and other U18 US centers, as much as prospects from the All-Star team camp using his strength to get closer to the rim. But, against the strong Canadian bodies from Carleton University, Jaiteh, even if he was much more talented, he was a terrible non-factor in the game because he lost this battle. The problem is, in the NBA he will face more Carleton-Type strong centers than USA U-18 skinny centers.
Offensively, Jaiteh cannot be considered as a threat further than 16 feet from the rim. He has been working on his elbow jumper for two years but there is still no significant improvement yet. He can score with a baseline jumper with an average consistency, but he is absolutely not reliable from another mid-range spot. His shooting mechanic is not good. By holding the ball too far from himself it does not allow him to master the ball perfectly to give it the right power and the right trajectory.
If Jaiteh is efficient from the low post, opponent teams quickly find the solution against him. His game vision is poor and when he receives the ball in or near to the paint, be sure he will not pass it three out of four times. With a double team or just a very physical defender, Jaiteh will seriously struggle. Once again, we have not seen a major improvement for the past two years. The conclusion remains the same; he will struggle against strong NBA centers.
Defensively, Jaiteh is solid enough to defend at the low post but his defensive understanding is still very low and he is often late in rotations or in helps. Being a bit naive on the court and not focused enough on this part of the game is not a good sign. Jaiteh’s pick and roll defense is below average, because of poor footwork and explosiveness, he can’t cover guards and then take back his man after the roll quickly enough. As we said earlier, pick and roll was he most played action last season in the NBA.
Another one of Jaiteh’s big defensive problems is his blocking abilities. He never was a great shot blocker and there are not a lot of reasons to hope it could change in the near future. Because of his lack of explosiveness and verticality due to an unsufficient lower-body strength, he is not an intimidator on the floor and cannot block a decent amount of shots for a center (1.3 blocks per 40 minutes in 2012-13, 1.6 last season).
Though, Jaiteh has weaknesses in his game it is still normal for a young player being not 20 yet, there are two huge warnings for NBA scout with him: efforts and motivation. Mam Jaiteh is a nice guy and a good teammate, but his effort level is “questionable” to be polite. His lack of intensity on the court is awful, the difference between offensive and defensive efforts is obvious and he still looks like a kid on the floor and not like a grown man. He does seem like fighting for his future on the court but he seems like he knows he is good and would not need to work painfully to get success.
After talking with former teammates, I know it’s not the reality, Jaiteh understands he has to work hard, though his indolence on the court can be easily misunderstood. With a high level of intensity he is able to have big games like in Euroleague versus Darjus Lavrinovic and Kiev (14pts 11rbds in 22 minutes) or in Pro A (5 games with an 18+ index). If he is able to bring a satisfying level of intensity and concentration every game he will be great, but he is not able to yet.
Finally, Jaiteh disappointed NBA scouts and executives the two times he had a huge opportunity to shine. At the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit he posted good numbers (6pts and 9 rbds) but his effort-level was low, and he looked soft and was totally dominated by his opponent with no sign of resistance. For his defense he had to face three Top-10 players from the strong 2014 NBA draft : Julius Randle, Noah Vonleh and Aaron Gordon.
At the 2014 Adidas Eurocamp he was the must-see player from the U20 France national team. After a solid game against a skinny U18 Team USA, he had a terrible game against Carleton University with 8 turnovers and an index of 5 in 29 minutes facing players he was supposed to dominate easily. His third game against an All-Star team from the camp was good, but this experience displayed all his irregularity and NBA executives are still very doubtful about him.
Photo: LNB
Twitter of the author: @Jordan_Sensi
