2008 Draft Recap for Charlotte Bobcats - Alexis Ajinca
06/30/2008A little more info on the Charlotte Bobcat's second selection, at the 20th spot, Alexis Ajinca. As mentioned previously, he is really tall and really, really long - 7-1 height, 7-8 wingspan. Which means two things: He can dunk without jumping (well, almost) and he can block shots (without jumping as well, but as the following video shows, he likes to jump when he does it). Here is a link to some highlights from last season (I think), courtesy of LNBTV. He basically does 2 things in the clip, dunk and block shots. So that part of his game is covered.
From the blog EuropeanProspects, we receive some more commentary on Ajinca's developing game.
In February 2008, Ajinca had probably his best game of the season in the French Semaine des As, in front of many NBA scouts. (cont.) With 14 rebounds and 7 block shots, he was playing like a goal keeper in soccer.Those are some pretty solid numbers, so here is a link to Ajinca's stats for last season. Unfortunately, it is not the most detailed, but he seems to have shot the ball at 53.6% from the floor, 40% from 3, and 81% from the line. That would indicate that he does have some skill - but does not play in much of a league as I am struggling to find more comprehensive stats.
One place I can find better numbers for is from the Under-19 World Championships from last year: Here are Alexis'. In about 21 minutes of action per game, Alexis averaged 7.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks per game. Not bad, and at least against the US team, a more known level of competition as some other known names are listed, like Michael Beasley, Stephen Curry, and Deon Thompson.
And that is the best of what I have tracked down so far, from non-standard sources. It basically appears that we have a longer, slightly more skilled version of Ryan Hollins on our roster. I continue to be far from sold on this pick, as it seems that team management let a single workout overrule a larger body of work that showed a far from ready prospect.
Related posts:
2008 Draft Recap - DJ Augustin
2008 Draft Recap - DJ Augustin - Continued
Click here to comment/view comments for this post.
