Kevin Seraphin At Eurobasket: One Man's Perspective

by Mike Prada on Sep 11, 2011 1:45 PM EDT in Player Analysis

Zebulun Benbrook is the editor of SB Nation's Oklahoma City Thunder blog Welcome to Loud City. He has spent the last few weeks at the Eurobasket tournament in Lithuania, and has been sending some scouting reports to the SB Nation blogs about their players in the tournament. He sends in this report of Kevin Seraphin's performance for France. Enjoy.

Kevin Seraphin has spent most of the tournament on the bench, only coming in sparingly as the fourth big man option. But with France choosing to sit Joakim Noah and Tony Parker, Seraphin finally got a chance to shine against Spain.

When the Thunder held a few late first round picks in the 2010 Draft, I sent an email to Gregoire T. of Airball.fr, asking him to give me the lowdown on Seraphin. When asked to give an NBA comparison for Seraphin, he said, "It's difficult to compare him... he's to small to be compared with the Shaq, he is a great shooter in the paint but he has to work on his outside shot to be compared to Karl Malone or Carlos Boozer... maybe Emeka Okafor ? You could compare him physically to the french center Ronny Turiaf (Warriors) for his rebounds and blocks: he just don't have as much as energy but he could become way better offensively !"

After seeing what he has to offer tonight, I'd have to agree with his assessment. He's very skilled at scoring in the paint, combining athleticism and a nice touch around the basket. He can just as easily throw it down as he can go for a fancy hook or put in a basic layup. His skill in this area was good enough to overcome Marc Gasol, who had huge troubles trying to guard him. It's hard to ignore a guy who can drain a left handed hook and a turnaround jumper in the face of a Gasol. His jumper doesn't have very much range, and isn't good enough to become a calling card for him in the NBA. He can use it to great effect at short range though, and it only makes him more deadly in the paint.
However, he is also very, very raw. It's not as if he recently learned to play basketball, but it's more like he's still taking his time to get adjusted to a higher level of play. He can find himself caught traveling, committing a bad foul down low, or losing the ball really easily. He so raw that he actually went to the French coaches on a few occasions and asked them what he was doing wrong. The good news is that these things are fixable with time, so it's not a huge deterrent when considering his NBA abilities.

As Gregoire said, it's hard to compare him to a current NBA player. He has the inside moves to deal with the best of them, like a Zach Randolph. But he also carries with him the athleticism of a Serge Ibaka, though not quite the energy level of a Ronny Turiaf. He can defend well half the time, but he can get into foul trouble in the wrong situations. Regardless, he does have the skill set to be in the NBA, and it's just a matter of time before he sees extended action.

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Out of all the names mentioned, I'm surprised Nene's was no where to be found

That’s usually the one I hear the most as a comparison.

"Blake Griffin is the American Jan Vesely" - Jan Vesely

by PhenomenalSwag on Sep 11, 2011 2:04 PM EDT reply actions

Who is this Seraphin guy?!?

None of this sounds like the stone handed hacker we saw all last season. Seems like he’s worked on his conditioning this offseason and is gaining good game experience.

Face it, this team only makes the playoffs this year if there is dramatic internal improvement. We’ll see if Serif can carry this over and play real backup minutes this year.

AverageBro.com - @AverageBro

by averagebro on Sep 11, 2011 2:42 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

He's still too foul prone

So he might never be more than a backup, but I wouldn’t mind a burly, physical banger in the frontcourt who can play 15-20 minutes a night, rough some guys up, hit a few J’s and punish teams in the post if anyone tries to guard him with a weak player.

Formerly know as iNFamous SWaGG

by DMVLeGenD on Sep 11, 2011 5:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I heard his jumper has been looking pretty good so far

He’s looking more like a future PF now than a C.

Formerly know as iNFamous SWaGG

by DMVLeGenD on Sep 11, 2011 2:36 PM EDT reply actions

He made a turn around jumper that looked as good as Rasheed Wallace's

Or looked that good without seeing a replay. But he still thinks through everything on defense, and that makes his response time too slow to cover NBA PFs.

by djnnnou on Sep 11, 2011 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions

replay

@ 44:40. @ The Rasheed comparison was a little premature, but his turn around J shows some promise. He makes a bunch of nice plays beginning around the 20 minute mark, too.

by djnnnou on Sep 11, 2011 5:32 PM EDT up reply actions

He must be in much better shape than he was last season

He didn’t appear very athletic. Nimble on his feet, yes, but he didn’t get much lift last year. Never thought I’d see his athleticism compared to Ibaka’s.

"Blake Griffin is the American Jan Vesely" - Jan Vesely

by PhenomenalSwag on Sep 11, 2011 5:00 PM EDT reply actions

I kept on telling people he's more athletic than he showed last season

The extra weight really affected his ups.

Here’s a nice windmill jam he had during warm-ups:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l49LJ6uYLLY

Formerly know as iNFamous SWaGG

by DMVLeGenD on Sep 11, 2011 5:10 PM EDT up reply actions

Yes he was more atheletic @Cholet then I've seen him al yr in DC

He was even known for a little shotblocking back then.

A good lowpost banger with some offensive skill could be a good compliment to McGee’s above the rim play. As for quicker PF’s, McGee can guard those. I’d like to see him with Javale, not replacing him. Bit like why Booker and Javale suited better than Blatche and Javale. Blatche needs someone like a Marc Gasol or Cole Aldrich…. Think we can trade NDiaye for him maybe?

"My logic fails all the time...especially when talking to females" Rook6980

by Dutch Hoopfan on Sep 11, 2011 5:54 PM EDT up reply actions

LOL @ the last sentence

Formerly know as iNFamous SWaGG

by DMVLeGenD on Sep 11, 2011 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions

I am just glad to see people taking Kevin seriously....

So much for the Euro bashing that went on when he was drafted… Now it is Vesely’s turn to convince the doubters.

by khrabb on Sep 11, 2011 6:30 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs

+1

Formerly know as iNFamous SWaGG

by DMVLeGenD on Sep 11, 2011 6:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Seraphin shooting caught me by surprise

He came in last season off knee season and now he seems 100% and so he looks quicker. He seems more confident in his game and he is clearly improving. No doubt, he can be a very good player for the Wiz. Even a steal for where he was picked in the draft. And HTTR! Great victory for Washington.

by hambonejackson on Sep 11, 2011 7:34 PM EDT reply actions

18 points for Kevin against the likes of the Gasol bros

Not bad! I hear that they call him the Agile Rhinoceros (or whatever the French equivalent of that name may be). Sounds about right. I hope they keep giving him minutes when it counts.

by satchmore on Sep 11, 2011 10:19 PM EDT reply actions

Ummm I'm wattaching the replay on ESPN web

Just finished the 1st quarter and Seraphin came in as a sub and has 10 quick points off a variety of moves. He looks fantastic out there. He’s doing this against Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, not some no name dudes.

What a nice surprise!

by formula0 on Sep 11, 2011 11:43 PM EDT reply actions

nice to hear that he's developing

STRAIGHT CASH HOMIE

by everybodylookin on Sep 12, 2011 12:43 AM EDT reply actions

I just hope that

Flip gives him a chance. That’s one thing you didn’t have to worry about with Eddie Jordan, he gave the big men chances down low (and we are talking about Brendan Haywood and Etan Thomas here…)

Will Flip go to Seraphin offensively when he’s in the game? Or will he settle for his usual guard oriented game making big men come out to get the ball away from the rim?

I really wanted to see the ball give to Booker in the post last season but rarely saw it. Same with Seraphin. Hope that turns around this season. The closer you are to the rim, the more pressure you put on defenses, especially when you got two big bangers who can put the ball in the hoop like Seraphin and Booker.

by gray16 on Sep 12, 2011 7:33 AM EDT reply actions

Watched Performance vs Spain... Looked GREAT!!!

Late in the first quarter, Serif came off the bench when a teammate got in foul trouble (Diaw and Batum also sat at the same time). His teammates started feeding him immediately. Here’s how he looked:

Missed on a nice looking postup over Marc Gasol.

Scored on a quick jumper from the foul line, showing very good form and confidence. All net.

Scored on a running right handed jump hook.

Was fouled by Gasol on a well executed turnaround jumper from the foul line (got the ball waaay too far out!). Showed good form, sinking two free throws.

Secured offensive rebound in traffic over Pau Gasol (boxed out properly) sealed off and scored easily on putback.

Scooped up a teammates miss (he wisely followed him to the basket after setting a pick up high) and scored on easy putback when Pau Gasol failed to properly rotate.

In the 2nd quarter, he had a great postup on Marc Gasol where he performed a textbook dropstep and scored easily with his right hand.

He then scored on a nice postup and turnaround jumper over Marc Gasol.

France got blow out in the 3rd, and I admittedly fast forwarded to late in the game, so I’m not sure what (if anything) he did then.

Rushed an easy postup move in the 4th and missed a point blank jump hook.

Bobbled a terrible mid-air entry pass from a teammate leading to an easy fastbreak basket by Spain.

Missed a point blank layup after sealing off Ibaka, and getting a nice entry lob.

Attempted same postup, but was fouled by Ibaka.

Scored on a wide open, smooth jumper from the foul line. Finished with 18 points, but didn’t seem very interested/effective on the glass.

In all, he showed some good footwork and a drastically improved shooting form when he did get touches. When he didn’t, he did little things like boxing out properly and following shots to score on putbacks. His effectiveness and focus seemed to wane in 4th quarter garbage time, but for obvious reasons we cas toss this out. Defensively, he had his obvious issues with the Gasols, but that’s to be expected given the height difference. On the plus side, he successfully used his bulk to prevent both Gasols from getting good position in the post and since he seems in better shape, his rotations were much quicker as we switched from the perimeter to the paint with relative ease.

He certainly looked far more mobile and in generally better shape. He seems to have dropped the 20 or so extra pounds and shaken last summer’s predraft injury. If this guy shows up in camp, I could see him scoring effectively against 2nd unit centers and giving us a solid 15-18 minutes a night behind McGee. I know it’s an inexact comparison, but he reminds me a lot of Vitaly Potapenko from his early days with the Cavs. Solid post scorer, iffy defender. Given our issues up front, this can only be a plus.

Completely random observation: Ricky Rubio looks totally lost out there. I mean, totally. He couldn’t throw it in the ocean, and the bigs on their team generally dominated the ball in the halfcourt, so you didn’t get any sense of his passing abilitiies. Minnesota may be in for yet another long season.

AverageBro.com - @AverageBro

by averagebro on Sep 13, 2011 11:33 AM EDT reply actions