Mouhamed Faye Looks Like He’s Still a Few Seasons Away From Being Ready for the NBA

Mouhamed Faye is 6-foot-10, strong, long, and athletic. He boasts the physique of the modern athletic NBA center. A quick look at his highlights shows that he looks like he might have it all - capable of protecting the rim and switching onto the perimeter defensively, and a high-energy lob threat who can also exploit mismatches on offense. NBA teams who can’t land highly skilled bigs like Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, or Domantas Sabonis will next look for a stretch-five like Kristaps Porzingis, and then finally, the high-energy rim protector who fits well with ball-dominant teammates and helps cover for them defensively.

Faye could fall into that third category based on what we’ve seen from him this season. He is a constant lob threat and rim-runner in transition, capable of finishing with vertical authority, even with only semi-accurate passes. He’ll also attack smaller players switched onto him in the post and can even draw multiple defenders to box him out and keep him off the offensive glass. His offensive game is limited but also desirable. It fits well with any effective pick-and-roll ballhandler.

Faye has had another rewarding development this season, too. While he’s not an elite passer or anything close to it, even for his position, he has shown a greatly improved comfort with the ball in his hands even as he gets swarmed underneath the rim and has gotten much better at making the next pass and simply finding an open teammate. He’s not a dribble handoff or short-roll threat, but he’s not wasting possessions either and is often moving the ball in a productive way that can lead to an open shot.

On the defensive end, he is capable of both protecting the rim and switching, but he occasionally gets too aggressive. Emilia likes to blitz a lot of opposing pick and rolls when Faye is in the game, but he will commit to these blitzes too aggressively and doesn’t recover quickly enough, leading to an open dunk for his original defensive assignment. His defensive rebound percentage, however, is very impressive - 27.7 in domestic league play. Joan Beringer, the highest-rated international center in this class, is at 19.2, and Johann Grunloh, another likely second-round selection, is at 14 percent. Mathias Lessort, one of the best rebounders in Europe last season, was at 21.5 percent in domestic play for Panathinaikos.

Faye’s block rate of 7.1 percent in domestic play puts him at a similar level but behind the likes of Grunloh, 7.9 percent, and Beringer, 9.2 percent. Beringer’s separation here is why he has climbed into the lottery of most mock drafts and why Faye and Grunloh are often in the second round. Faye’s 7.1 percent is impressive, though, if you watch his film because, on film, his shot-blocking instincts and anticipation skills are not elite. He’s late on contests and doesn’t anticipate cutters well or cut-off driving angles as effectively as he should. Given that he’s only 20 years old and still has a solid block rate with these deficiencies, there’s reason to believe he could develop into a truly elite rim protector.

Should that happen and his limited yet effective offensive game persist, Faye could be a second-round steal for an NBA team. This development will require repetitions, though, and Faye would get the most repetitions by staying in Europe and continuing to be a key part of a team's big-man rotation and defensive approach. Faye should be stashed, and after a couple of seasons, he could come over to the NBA and immediately be good enough to be a backup center who also still has room to grow.

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