Jonathan Mogbo: Unorthodox Skills and the Price of Shooting

Jonathan Mogbo was a standout this past season at San Francisco, but where exactly does his draft stock stand?

Sometimes players can impact the game in many ways. Think of someone like Derrick White. Sometimes players only impact the game in one way, and they do it really well. A name that comes to mind for that is Jonathan Isaac. San Francisco’s Jonathan Mogbo tends to fall somewhere in between these two categories of players. He has a couple of skills he is really good at, but can also take some things off the floor. The difference between Mogbo and many prospects is his bankable skills are very clearly positive and rare, but the skills he lacks tend to be some of the most important skills to earn NBA playing time. Mogbo continues to rise up draft boards after the former JUCO product turned heads at the NBA Combine, where in scrimmages he looked like one of the best players on the floor.

Playing Outside of the Box:

The traditional big man is a position that has gone out of style. The possession-after-possession post-ups on the block, as teams scratched and clawed their way to offensive ratings in the mid-100s are gone. Now centers across the league are asked to run DHOs, rim run, and step out and shoot. Only the premier scorers at the big man position like Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic are asked to post up opponents. Fortunately, Mogbo isn’t one of these outdated college big men. If you turn on his tape you will see Mogbo running the transition offense, being excellent in DHOs, operating out of the short roll, and occasionally even running ball screens. He is also an excellent lob threat. His statistical His intersection of block and steal rates, rebounding rate, and passing is something we haven’t seen statistically since Draymond Green. His passing is what really pops, and I would consider Mogbo the best current processor and passer among bigs in this class. His ability to hit cutters and not only make the right read but also make difficult reads is impressive.

This ability to play outside of the box with skill is something teams across the league covet, and the ability to plug Mogbo into a system as a backup big and continue to run unselfish offense is key. He is also a great finisher at the rim, ending the season at a 74% clip. Here are some of those skills on display:

Understanding One’s Limits:

While all those things about Mogbo are awesome. He does have one glaring flaw in his game. He offers nothing at all as a perimeter scorer. While he can put the ball on the floor in the perimeter if he can’t make it all the way to the rim to score he offers nothing as a scorer. Per Barttorvik, Mogbo shot a poor 31% on 2-point shots away from the rim, and the tape indicates that. He will throw up runners or floaters that often miss their mark by a wide margin, coming crashing off the backboard. He essentially has no touch in the mid-range and doesn’t offer anything outside of the restricted area. He doesn’t have any indicators to be a potential shooter either. I already mentioned his touch looks bad, but his career 57% from the line isn’t positive either. This past year at San Francisco it did improve to 70% but I would still consider him a shaky shooter at best who barring a miracle won’t become some stretch big. His two 3-point shots taken this year seem to agree with me.

Widespread Impact:

NBA teams continue to ask for big men who can protect the rim in drop coverage, or run a bevy of different coverage in a playoff setting to contest some of the best players in the world. Mogbo is one of these versatile Swiss-army-knife bigs. If you ask him to play in drop he can use his great frame, hand placement, and vertical pop to play both the lob and drive. He has the speed and fluidity to play at the level, or even blitz and recover. He slides his feet well and is good at leveraging his strength and length to compete with perimeter players. Mogbo is a who a coach can trust to execute these schemes, and I can envision a world where if he was a team like the 2020 Raptors Nick Nurse would unleash Mogbo on the world and he would be film Twitter’s new darling.

In the film above you can see Mogbo’s excellent use of hands and instinct on that end. A lot of his defensive playmaking leads to offensive opportunities, and he is a guy who contributes to a team’s offensive rating while improving their defensive line. The hands in particular just continue to jump out so much. Mogbo is also a good rebounder and uses his wingspan, frame, and pop to compete for rebounds with players who may have a height advantage over him. His motor never stops on the glass.

Outlook:

To compete at the next level Mogbo has to keep his great finishing ability and processing, as well as continuing to showcase his defensive versatility. A team looking to draft him will want a backup big who can continue to run unselfish offense through him, and allow them to not take anything off the floor defensively. He needs plenty of shooters around him to make his skillset work, but in the modern NBA, he could turn a player who is an average shooter but a good cutter into a better player, as he can showcase both of that player’s skills. Kevon Looney has continued to carve out a career for himself as a smaller 5 with as similar skillset to Mogbo, so I could see a team like Sacramento who wants to raise their defensive floor while keeping their offensive system intact without Domantas Sabonis on the floor to covet Mogbo in the 2nd round. He could also potentially play the 4 next to a 5 who shoots, as his perimeter defense is good enough to play the 4. This makes teams like San Antonio, Philly, and Indiana stand out, as the latter two’s uptempo style of offenses ran through the big man position via ball screens could be a good fit for Mogbo. Ultimately he is a guy who’s game I have fallen in love with in this cycle, and I hope for him to reach his potential and become a quality NBA role player.