By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas. Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic | Timofey Mozgov | Tiago Splitter | Pooh Jeter | Omer Asik

Kevin Seraphin was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the 17th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.  His rights were immediately traded to the Washington Wizards.  The 20 year old Seraphin is making the jump to the NBA this year as the Wizards and his French League team Cholet came to a buyout agreement.

This is a surprising move in my opinion, because I was expecting to see the somewhat raw Seraphin get another year of seasoning with Cholet Basket (Seraphin was starting to see more minutes with the French League winners, even starting a few games towards the end of the season).  To me, the reason seems to be that the Wizards want to be the ones developing Seraphin, rather than hoping that he gets minutes with Cholet.

Strengths

Athleticism

Kevin Seraphin is a very athletic big man for his size, and he uses that athleticism pretty well.  The two instances where you really see Seraphin’s athleticism stand out is when he runs the floor and when he rebounds.  When rebounding, Seraphin covers a lot of ground from when the shot goes up to when the rebound is available.  He is usually out of position when the shot goes up, but his athletic ability allows him to “go get it.”

In addition to his rebounding, Seraphin can run the floor very well, proving his guards options on the fast break:

He doesn’t just run the floor on the offensive end either, Seraphin can run the floor when getting back on defense, actually taking away fast break opportunities from opposing teams:

Here, Seraphin covers a lot of ground to even be involved on the play. What I love about this play is that Seraphin doesn’t run to the ball, instead he runs straight to the rim and lets the offensive player take it to him.

Post Defense

At 6’9″ and 258 pounds, Kevin Seraphin isn’t a super big center, but he is strong enough and uses his body well enough  that he has become a good defender in the post.

When playing defense in the post, Seraphin always seems to establish a very good base, and the clip above gives you a very good look at it.  He keeps his legs wide, and they are always under him.  Because he has such a strong base, he isn’t going to be pushed around, and that means he doesn’t have to use his hands on defense.  He simply sticks his chest out when the defender tries to post him.  Also, since he isn’t using his arms to push his man out of the post, he is able to get his long ups straight up in the air and bother the shot.

Above is another example of Seraphin’s post defense and strength. Here, you can see the offensive player take a ton of dribbles trying to back Seraphin down. He is unable to and is forced to settle for a fall-away jumper.

The Hook Shot

In DraftExpress’ latest look at Seraphin, they take note of his hook shot:

With that said, Seraphin shows interesting potential with his jump hook. He’s able to get it off smoothly and convert it with either hand. He also appears to have a soft touch around the basket, particularly with a good-looking turnaround jump shot that he executes with a high release point.

When watching Seraphin play, I noticed the same thing with his hook shot.

Here, Seraphin makes the catch on the block and takes two dribbles to time his move and then takes the hook shot with his right hand. Everything DraftExpress mentions about Seraphin’s move is on this clip. He has very good extension with his shooting hand, and that means most defenders aren’t going to be able to block that shot.

This move is not as smooth as the first, but it still gets the job done pretty effectively.  He takes two dribbles and makes the turn, but he loses his balance.  This is what makes the shot look a bit awkward, but he is still able to knock it down.

Weaknesses

Raw Offensively

Other than the hook shot and the pick and roll (where Seraphin’s athletic ability really helps him), Seraphin really struggles on the offensive end of the floor.  In the post, when the defense takes away his ability to turn to the middle and attempt his hook shot, he looks lost.

Here, Seraphin’s defender is taking away his turn to the middle and is completely giving up the baseline. However, Seraphin turns to the middle because he is only comfortable taking that hook shot.

In addition to defenders taking away his hook shot, Seraphin gets in trouble when he makes the catch in the middle of the paint rather than on the block. This is because when he gets it in the block he can work towards the middle for his hook. However, when he makes his catch in the middle, he doesn’t seem comfortable:

So what Seraphin does here is take one dribble to the block and then tries to spin back towards the middle. However, he just crosses himself up and walks.

In addition to his raw post game, Seraphin contributes little from the outside. Even as his game continues to develop with experience, I don’t see Seraphin being a guy who can step out and stretch the floor. When he makes his catch on the outside, he just looks way too uncomfortable, and his shot from the outside doesn’t look good. In addition to that, he struggles from the foul line. Seraphin shot 55.6% from the line during French League play (however he did shoot 75% in 6 Eurocup games, but that was only averageing 0.7 attempts a game).

Defensive Inexperience

When he is not playing one on one defense in the post, Seraphin also looks lost on the defensive end.  This is primarily due to his lack of experience. Seraphin has only been playing basketball for five years, and his inexperience really shows. One of the areas where Seraphin struggles is in pick and roll situations.  In his PNR defense, Seraphin’s hedges are actually very good (and this is because he has all of the skills to do it effectively), however, when he attempts to recover, that is where he really struggles:

Here, Seraphin comes out with a good strong hedge, but he returns to his man too early and that is what allows for the lay-up.

Here, Seraphin hedges out hard and for the proper amount of time, however when he tries to return to his man he gets lost. So lost in fact, that he ends up just running to the closes man (who isn’t his man). All this confusion leads to a basket for the opposing team.

Here is another good hedge from Seraphin (in terms of form and fundamentals) however, he shows too soon, exposing the middle of the court and the offensive player takes advantage.

In addition to that, Seraphin also struggles with the concept of help defense:

Here, Seraphin comes with the help, but it is slow and that creates a gap that the passer uses to hit his man for an open lay-up.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Kevin Seraphin just doesn’t have the skills (or the experience to really be a factor this year), but that doesn’t mean he is going to be a bust.  Seraphin is only 20 years old and he shows some skills and the potential to develop a few others.  He is probably coming over a year or two too early in my opinion, but that is probably because the Wizards want to be the ones in control of his development (rather then his French League team).

I think the D-League would do wonders for Seraphin’s game.  He would be able to work on developing new post moves and just getting experience on the defensive end in live-game situations.  If Seraphin gets a year in the D-League and a year of limited minutes (where he gets some minutes but is really getting his work in during practice), I really think that Kevin Seraphin can make a pretty big impact in year three (he’s only going to be 23 in the third year of his contract).