ISMAEL BAKO: the tower of Manresa

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It’s Wednesday and it means only one thing: we are back with our new format about Euroleague-caliber players not playing in the Euroleague.

Last week we have analyzed Caleb Homesley of the Hamburg Towers, one of the most intruiguing prospects around Europe, and this week we don’t wanna lower the level, as we will focus on a player that is impressing all the continent with his plays and his presence on the court: Ismael Bako, of BAXI Manresa.

Bako is currently playing in the FIBA Basketball Champions League, where he led his team to the Top 16 after two seasons at Asvel Villeurbanne in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague but, as always, we gonna start from the very beginning, later analyzing pros and cons of the Belgian prospect.

BACKGROUND

Ismael Bako is a 26-year old (born October 10, 1995) belgian center that is now is his 10th season at a professional level. He made his debut in the Pro Basketball League (the first Belgian league) with the Leuven Bears when he was only 17, during the 2012-2013 season, and remained there for five years, increasing his time on the court from 1.7 to 20.1 minutes and reaching a production of 8.0 points and 4.1 rebounds during the 2016-2017 campaign, which put him on the radar of the Telenet Giants Antwerp.

Bako’s passage to Antwerp was his first big step in his career, cause it gave him the opportunity to play for the first time in a european competition, the FIBA Europe Cup in the 2017-2018 season, and finally the BCL one year later, where the young center shined by registering 11.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.3 block on an average of 22.6 minutes.

Bako impressed for his lenght and athleticism, and we know that the organizations of the Jeep Elite (first French league) do care a lot about these qualities, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he received a call by nothing less that Asvel Villeurbanne, where he moved for the 2019-2020 season. There, he had the chance to play for the first time at the highest european level, the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, covering the spot of backup center (of Tonye Jekiri in 2019-2020 and of Moustapha Fall in 2020-2021).

The native of Leuven was able to put up quite good numbers, having a great efficiency when on the court, but he didn’t manage to get a primary role in the team, so, after two seasons, he decided to make a step back to the FIBA Basketball Champions League signing with BAXI Manresa, with the only goal of giving himself an opportunity for an even bigger run up.

This season, Bako is proving the he made the right choice, as he is dominating the european competition with 10.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in only 22 minutes, with an incredible 70% field goal percentage. After this european campaign his return the Turkish Airlines Euroleague will be almost certain, with many Euroleague teams already asking information for him.

ISMAEL BAKO: PROS

LENGHT AND ATHLETICISM

As we have said, Bako’s lenght and athleticism have always been two of his distinctive characters.

Bako is infact a 6’10 (208 cm) center with an astonishing 7’3 (221 cm) wingspan, which makes him a great rebounder and an even bigger presence in the paint. In addition to this, he can also rely on his verticality when cocnluding at the rim, where he his able to make powerful plays like this one:

or this one:

From this clips, we can see how good the belgian center is when receiving the pass dynamically, especially while rolling to the rim. Bako is super coordinated for being a big man and, if he is able to catch the ball in this way, there’s litterally no one that can stop him, as it becomes impossible to contest the shot at such a height when not already well positioned.

Finally, a personal consideration. Last year I watch many Real Madrid’s games in the Euroleague, and I’ve seen very few teams able to keep Tavares under control, mainly through team defense. But when it comes to individually limit Tavares around the rim, there was no one able to do so. No one but Ismael Bako.

I am not saying that Bako is at the level of Walter Tavares, but he is one of the few centers in Europe with a sufficient lenght to contest his shots and make it difficult for him to grab rebounds. At the same time, Bako isn’t scared of anyone when finishing at the rim and this is a very good sign for a big man that has to consistently fight around the basket.

PERCENTAGES

We know how important field goal percentages are for a big man and Bako makes of them one of his strenghts.

Bako has always been a force under the scoreboards, but what impresses the most is his ability to efficiently convert most of the opportunities that he is able to create for himself or get from his teammates.

Over the last four years, Bako has always mantained at least a 58.4% 2-point percentage, going in the last three seasons above the 60% treshold, which makes him one of the most efficient centers in the Old Continent, even if we consider the top players in his role.

But Bako doesn’t stop here. He is infact an excellent free-throw shooter, always around 80% in the last 4-year span, with a peak of 82.5% during the 2018-2019 season. This makes it impossible, for his opponents, to try to repeatedly foul him to avoid easy basket, especially when the game is on the line in the late 4th quarter, giving the opportunity to his coach to keep him on the court to either protect the basket and grab rebounds on the difensive end, or putting pressure under the rim on the offensive one: one of the most looked-for qualities for centers in 2022.

ISMAEL BAKO: WHERE TO IMPROVE

VARIETY OF MOVEMENTS

Despite being extremely efficient around the rim as we have said, Bako still lacks movements in the low post to get past his defender when not receiving in a dynamic way.

His touch is not too bad, but the belgian prospect absolutely needs to increase his reliability when he has to create his own shot. Pay attention, we are not saying that Bako has to become a shot-creator, we are just saying that he has to improve his ability to play back to the basket, and also to exploit his favourable miss matches againts smaller players.

Right now Bako is an incredible rebounder and mainly scores his points from offensive rebounds or from pick and rolls, but this will clearly be insufficient to make him effective at a top-european level, so the next challenge will be adding variety of solutions both against big men guarding him and against the systematic switch of the rival defense.

PASSING ABILITIES

Over his career, Bako has kept his turnovers in a range of 0.5-1.5 (this year). But why should be turnovers related to his passing abilities?

Well, if we analyze his turnovers, we see that Bako has always had difficulties in passing the ball, especially when receiving the ball in the low post without being able to create an advantage for what we have siad above or when getting the ball in a pick and roll but without a clear way to the basket.

In many cases Bako showed serious problems in reading the defense and finding the (consequent) best possible solution, a fact that makes it evident on where the guy from Leuven has to work on in order to make the next step and become with no doubts one of the most interesting centers in Europe, Euroleague included.

Done so, we will have the opportunity to look at (one of) the prototype of the modern center: rim protector, great roller to the basket, ability to switch on defense and reliability from the free-throw line.

COMPARISON: RUDY GOBERT

As for Caleb Homesly, take this comparison as a way to show you the type of player that Bako could potentially turn into, not as the level he could reach.

The very first similarity is the physical structure: both players have an incredible wingspan compared to their size, which exceeds by at least 5 inches (13 cm) their height. In addition, they also have very long legs, an element that enormously facilitates their ability to efficiently run the court in transition and not be too passive after a switch on D as they are both able to recover and block the shots of the opponent guards even when they get beated from the dribble.

Second similarity, always related to their size, is their key role on the defensive end. Infact, both Gobert and Bako make it possible for a team to built a defensive system based on their presence in the paint, putting a lot of pressure on the ball and making the choice to remove the shooter form the three-point line and force them to attack the rim in the paint, where the two big men do the rest.

Finally, their offensive game is not that different, too. They are both aggressive rebounders and great rollers, but have difficulties when not in these situation, since they cannot rely on their shooting abilities from the mid-range or their game vision.

To conclude, Gobert and Bako are players with a part of their game already at an absolute level (the defensive end), and one that still has big room for improvent, and it’s there that Bako will have to work in the following year. Done so, the future will be bright for him.

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mfiorda26

manuelfiordalisi@gmail.com

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