ALEXANDRE SARR THE NEW EFFEIL TOWER

article by Jaspaire

Chet and Wemby are generational defenders who have changed their team's system and defensive dynamism.

Every year, a prospect has been described as a defensive unicorn (Evan Mobley, Jaren Jackson Jr, and even Mo Bamba in recent drafts).

If the term unicorn is overused, it's mainly because prospects are getting bigger and more mobile. But are Chet and Wemby UFOs in this discipline ? Can Alex Sarr be one of those seven-footers changing the face of his franchise?

First of all, let's look at Alex Sarr's profile. He is a Center/Power Forward of 2m16 for 95kg. In 2019, he joined Real Madrid to play two seasons in the youth ranks. He went through the Overtime Elite (in 2021) and has been in the NBL with Perth Wildcats since this year. Sarr's father, Massar, is a former pro basketball player from Senegal, while his older brother, Olivier, currently plays in the NBA for the Thunder.

OFFENSE

This season, Alexandre Sarr is averaging 9pts, 4.4 rebs, 0.9 ast, and 1.3 blk per game in 17 minutes of playing time over a sample of 24 games this season.

Let's look at his play types in synergy on offense with the Perth Wildcats.

Alexandre Sarr has the 6th most playing time in his team this season and has very often been on the bench for Perth this year. Perth failed to reach the semi-finals of the championship, a rather successful season for Alex Sarr from a collective point of view, but what about from an individual point of view ? Alex Sarr is mainly used as a player who has to stretch the court by shooting or playing off the ball. Often compared to Evan Mobley, the player will surely have a similar use in the modern NBA game. Here are Evan Mobley’s play types

One of Sarr's best skills is understanding space. It's a much sought-after quality for a seven-footer. Sarr has good intelligibility in the way he handles positive match-ups or when it comes to finishing in the paint. He can get to the rim very quickly, and he is very effective after dump passes or once he is in a good position in the dunker spot. He often has his hands ready to catch the ball. Per synergy, Alex Sarr is at 65% Fg for 46% of the time when it comes to shooting at the rim (71% in the Point Per Possession ranking in this same situation with the international filter).

Even though he spends little time as a roll man in his team, Alex Sarr has been fairly effective in the two-man game with Bryce Cotton and Jordan Usher, who are not great passers either. Most of the situations he creates for himself are after a ghost screen or when he slips the screen.

This is also because the French interior doesn't have very broad shoulders and a buff physique. This type of screen is very effective in countering the switch but also in maximizing Sarr's physical qualities: his mobility combined with his great size. The player has steadily improved in this area of the pitch since his time in OTE (Overtime Elite), when he was hardly involved in this offensive scheme. The player still needs to make progress in setting screens and when to roll (or not) after setting a screen. Some of the sequences and flashes show real intelligence in the two-man game. He often makes good use of Cotton's gravity to roll a little later when he has the space to get to the basket at full speed.

At 2m16 (7ft 1 in) and with a wingspan of 2m23 (7-4½), the Perth Wildcats interior is extremely effective in transition.

1,422 PPP (Points per Possession); 91% PPP rank and 76%FG, Sarr excels at using his length and size in transition.

He often favours euro steps or spin moves to promote his slender, long body. Highly mobile, he often manages to pick up the pace of a slower interior. In transition, his speed allows him to offer his team a lot of space because he makes good use of the gaps left by the defense, and also because he is quicker than the opposing Center.

Despite the fairly encouraging percentages in this area of the court, Alex Sarr still has a long way to go before becoming truly valuable, particularly on pick-and-rolls. The PNR is one of the most common systems used in NBA basketball. As mentioned above,he will be used in the same way as Evan Mobley, who is also rarely used on pick and rolls at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

There is a recurring problem with Sarr, which is why he is often described as a raw prospect in attack; Alex Sarr lacks decision-making and footwork close to the rim.

This might be due to a lack of footwork to put himself in the best position for an easy layup. But this lack of patience combined with his rather weak footwork doesn't allow him to finish actions as easily as he should.

Particularly on mismatches when he's taller, he struggles to punish positive matchups (0.07 BLK FGA/FGA). This number shows the number of shots blocked by the opposing team divided by the number of field goals attempted.

This puts him in unfavorable positions (when he shouldn't be) and his shot selection is rather questionable in the paint. This often happens with young interior players, but when you consider his ability to use his body on layups in transition or once launched after a roll, it's worth thinking about. His touch remains very good but he doesn't get to the line enough (1.9 Personal Foul Taken per game, 5th in his team).

As I said earlier, Sarr has room for improvement in the paint, whether it's through hook shots or simple shot fakes that could give him better access to the rim or even more free throws. Sarr's other problem, which is linked to his lack of attacking ability, is finishing through contact.

98kg (216lb) is pretty weak for a seven-footer, and even weaker for a player who often lives in the paint and is expected to be a future NBA player. Alex Sarr can't finish in traffic or when there's contact with an opponent. As mentioned above, this may be due to his lack of patience/footwork, which prevents him from getting into the best position or creating the separation he needs to make an easy layup.

With a fairly frail upper body and thin shoulders, the French prospect is too easily at risk of getting moved by the defender.

So enough about his skills and weaknesses in the paint. Now we come to the shooting part of Alex Sarr's game.

SHOOTING

Here are Alex Sarr's synergy stats for the season. While the figures aren't overly positive, let's take a closer look at what they mean and how to interpret them.

Over 30 games, that's 28% from 3-point range for 1.9 attempts per game this season.

28% in the U19s, 30% in the Overtime Elite and 44% from 3-point range in the U17s on those previous occasions, is that worrying?Let's take a look at his free-throw percentage: 70%. This is his highest career total, with a much higher volume than previously (57% at U19 level, 65% at OTE).

If free throws are not an unequivocal indicator, it also shows the evolution of a prospect's shooting.

If we look at a similar seven-footer, Jalen Smith, who now plays for the Indiana Pacers. In terms of FT%/3P%: Jalen Smith 66% FT%, 27% from 3-point range.

So let's take a closer look at the shooting mechanics.

His preparation and positioning are pretty fluid, but it's mainly the elbows that are a bit tucked in and the follow-through could be a bit more consistent. It gives the impression of shooting on tiptoe at times. That said, the motion remains fairly fluid and the mechanics aren't broken.

We can and must hope for improvement in this area so that he becomes a real threat from distance (8/25 on unguarded and 4/18 guarded on 3-point shots, per Synergy).

To stay on a positive note, Alex Sarr never lost confidence and refused a shot. It wasn't me who said it, it was Steph Curry who explained it even better:

"Part of it is having the will to succeed. Knowing that you put the work in and having the confidence to let it show [...] It's a confidence that's built on the foundation of work and the reps I put in."

There's always an element of mystery, something intangible about the shot and its link to the mental aspect of the shot.

The real positive point about his shooting is his ability to punish from mid-range.61% FG (13/21) on short/medium jumper shots, he's much more at ease in that aspect of the court. Even better, he shows flashes of fadeaway jumpers and other mid-range shots.

PASSING

Another intriguing aspect of Sarr's game is his passing. Although the sample size is still quite small (and often the same as in previous years), this year he has shown a real ease in finding his team-mates after a short roll.

While his decision making is sometimes questionable, his court awareness is often present. It's not necessarily advanced reads, but it's an aspect of his game to keep in mind when using him and projecting him in the NBA.

And if we stay with flashes, he often manages to find his teammates on the move on backdoors. This is an aspect of his game that was already present in the OTE, where there is more space on the court. This is no doubt linked to the fact that Sarr has a more than decent handle for a seven-footer and has no problem taking the ball on the dribble or coast-to-coast.

This conditioning in finding teammates is also linked to the fact that Alex Sarr played power forward in 2022 and 2023 with France during the U17 and U19 World Championships.

The player was often paired with Wilson Jacques or Izan le Meut, both heavy center. Sarr therefore played in the power forward position and had to work with his team-mate to avoid stepping on each other in the paint. That's where he came into his own on the short roll, whether it was finding the shooters or feeding the player in the paint.

(1.45 Ast per game)

DEFENSE

Alex Sarr's greatest strength is his ground coverage. In other words, his ability to cover as much ground as possible in as little time as possible. It's difficult to quantify or to see in the stats, but it's a player's ability to defend several positions in several places on the court in the same action. Be careful not to associate this with energy and hustle, often a great capacity for ground coverage that doesn't require much effort but a strong understanding of defensive positioning. As we've seen even more this season with Chet and Wemby, when you combine great deterrence with great mobility, it completely changes a team's defensive scheme.

All the teams are looking for defensive diamonds capable of defending the many coverages on PnR, such as the Blitz, the Hedge, the Drop and the Ice.

Perth often defended the PnR with blitz, but we saw certain sequences where Alexandre Sarr defended with switch, or even drop coverage. With great feet, he rarely ends up on his heels. He's in the best position when he's making that 'back-brake' move, a term borrowed from football, where Virgil Van Djik excels when it comes to defending by moving backward without ever committing. Sequences like these are what make his floor and ceiling so high. His ability to cover space without making mistakes and by deterring as much as possible makes him an elite defender today. With his good communication skills and excellent ability to navigate the court after screens, Sarr is a disruptive player in stopping the opposition's attack. His greatest quality is his efficiency in the wide variety of defensive coverages he can perform from a PnR.

With an average of 1.3 blocks per game (2.8 per 36min) and a 7.9%BLK rate, Alexandre Sarr is an excellent rim protector, already one of the best in the NBL at the age of 18 (Birth: April 26, 2005).

Most of his blocks come from the weakside, the result of a highly mobile player with a large wingspan.

So it's easy to imagine the player being an excellent roamer in the NBA.To define what a roamer is, I asked azmatlanba for his definition of a roamer:

He roams around the rim, one foot in and one foot out. The objective is to make access to the rim as difficult as possible. To achieve this, the "roamer" has to stay close to the rim. The coaching staff therefore implement defensive adjustments and strategies to keep this player close to the rim, despite the movements of the opposing offense".

If he can defend effectively on the various coverages on PnR, as well as being elite when it comes to protecting the rim, then it's easy to see why the player is considered to be the first pick in the 2024 draft.

Per Synergy, Sarr limits his opponents to 26%FG on isolation (23% of the time). The native of Bordeaux often finds himself in isolation after a switch, and that's when he gets the better of his opponents. Quite remarkable for his age, he rarely gets caught on fake shots or drives (1.3 fouls per game, 8th in his team in this filter), proof of his maturity when defending out wide or on the drive.

REBOUNDS

With 4.4 rebounds per game for 18% of defensive rebounds, Alex Sarr needs to improve in this area. Indeed, a post 5 grabbing just 4 rebounds (10 reb per 40) is a poor result. So why is that? First of all, Alex Sarr is a player who defends out wide quite often because of his mobility, so he finds himself less often in the box battling for box outs.

Secondly, Alex Sarr's physique is still fairly thin, perhaps even too thin for a future NBA Center.

I think that's mainly down to his lack of width in his upper body. Even when he's well positioned in the box out, he's easily bypassed by much more muscular and wider inside players. So it's not necessarily a question of poor positioning or floor awareness, but more a lack of impact or physical size.

With 5.5 rebounds per game at Michigan State, Jaren Jackson Jr had some of the same problems as Alexandre Sarr.

But Jaren Jackson is a power forward who is the DPOY (Defensive Player of the Year) in the 2022-2023 season. The question of Alex Sarr's ineffectiveness is therefore rather complex, as it is closely linked to his defensive positioning. Alexandre Sarr has often played post 4 in FIBA with the French team and has even been paired with a post 5 at Perth, so he lacks the fundamentals in terms of box-out protection.

It's also worth noting that Evan Mobley and Jaren Jackson Jr are not seven-footers. Even though rebounding can be a question of physique and size, it's always better to be taller and longer than your opponent when it comes to grabbing rebounds. That's what you notice with Alex Sarr's offensive rebounds: it's more often thanks to his size and verticality that he gets them than through clever positioning.

Alexandre Sarr has often played post 4 in FIBA with the French team and has even been paired with a post 5 at Perth, so he lacks the fundamentals in terms of box-out protection.

“He needs to go somewhere that’s patient with him. He can be a really good two-way player you can build around in two years. I believe in his shooting and shot blocking.” an NBA executive told HoopsHype

Too thin to be a true center and not a big enough shooter for a power forward, Sarr is an anomaly.

Despite this, his defensive qualities are unparalleled in modern basketball. Capable of defending both wide and in the backcourt quite effectively, the role of roamer would suit him perfectly. His defensive versatility makes him an elite defensive weapon in the NBA. His lack of motor and ability to defend the post-up/rebound makes it difficult to project him as a fairly traditional pivot.

But as we said in the introduction, he's a seven-footer who can radically change a team's defensive dimension.

He is also a player who has played extensively in a professional league with players close to NBA level.

Although he remains rather raw offensively, he puts up some pretty interesting numbers with few minutes (17 minutes per game on average).

Extremely strong in transition thanks to his speed, explosiveness near the rim, and ability to coast to coast, he will be a great transition player.

His shooting remains his biggest upside, and without being a major threat in spot-up situations, he can be a positive player on pick-and-rolls, pick-and-pops, and also on cuts.

Despite some flashes of playmaking, I remain fairly positive about Alexandre Sarr's ability to find team-mates from the post, on short rolls or even in transition. He's already had his reps as a power forward with a pivot who stays in the paint, so he's acquired an understanding of spacing from a young age. That's why the question of his position remains unanswered, and that's surely what makes him so interesting: his versatility.

We're talking about a player who is extremely effective in roaming, but also in a more traditional system with drop and hedge, for example.

The importance and influence of a player like Wembanyama weighs in the balance when it comes to the hype of a French seven footer, but unicorns have often been feared when it comes to their selections in the draft.

His young age and lack of repetition on PnR and PnP should not be forgotten in his projection. Although the NBL is a favourable environment (professional staff and adversity), the Australian game is still a long way from the game played in the NBA.

Offensively, if we remove the criterion of shooting, we have a player who remains effective close to the basket even though he is often served on cuts and in the dunker spot. He also has a handle that allows him to coast to coast, an existing passing game and a concept of spacing that is not new to him. Not bad at all.