Abdoulaye Donzo | Scouting Report

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Abdoulaye Donzo

Born: August 14, 2003

Height: 6-foot-9

Wingspan: 6-foot-11

Nationality: Guinea

His uncle played in local teams.

Physical

Standing 6-foot-9 with 7-foot wingspan and strong frame, Abdoulaye Donzo has good size for a 17 years old African forward and a good combination of vertical pop and lateral quickness. Long arms, wide shoulders, stiff core muscles and strong chests for his upper body, should add weights as muscles. His lower body needs a lot of things. Yes, has vertical pop and lateral quickness but needs strength and should learn how and when to use his athlectisim package. Donzo is a lob target guy, can make highlight dunk and protect the rim with high gravity. Also, he can defend his opponents vertically. I think this is very important. Because as you know, versatile players are too many nowadays. Your athletics package needs to be wide to gain an advantage when defending or attacking these players. Donzo’s package is good but never a fluid athlete. I think this is the biggest problem with his general playing style. Because Donzo has the potential to become an elite versatile player, but his lack of smoothness and offensive fundamentals hurt him here.

Offense

Doing a bit of everything on the offensive end, Donzo makes his best contributions as an off-ball player. In my opinion, AD’s basketball BBIQ is good. Perfect for creating spacing for himself by using screens. Not only from corners, but he can also create channels all around. While running, he surprises his opponent using go-stop-go and burst techniques go in the opposite direction of the screen, and most importantly, he decides what to do within three to four seconds after taking the ball. He played as an off-ball motion player 27 times at the 2019 FIBA ​​U16 African Championship and scored 40 points from these 27 positions. A good lob threat who can produce miscellaneous when he’s dialed in, Guinean forward shows some inside-outside shoots on catch-and-shoots situations while impacting the game with his athleticism on the glass and in the open floor as well. Here I want to say a little more about his shot. In my opinion, Donzo has strange shooting mechanics. Abdoulaye can use his mechanics very quickly after taking the ball, aligning his feet but his release and arc are very low. I mean, for someone with 6-foot-9, he preparing up his mechanics quickly but throws slowly. Donzo, who can create his own shot with fake and body balance around the mid-range and perimeter, is generally lacking in fundamental. He can’t dribble in the half-court, can’t give even read & reacts passes, can’t find easy hits in some easy layup positions because his final touch is not, and he uses his impressive track and field package unbalanced. As I said, Donzo doesn’t have a perfect dribble package, has a lot room to learn, but can finish positions with explosive dunks using vertical pop as he has excellent momentum in transitions. In half-court, he is inefficient when drives right, better when drives left. In the African Championship, he played with 15% efficiency in positions he drove to the right, and 70% in positions he drove to the left. He is not a roller or popper for now. Can finish both hands but as I mentioned, his last touches are problematic. Needs to learn half-court dribbling, read&reacts passing, at least solid handling and rolling.

Defense

Possessing good length and instincts on the defensive end, Abdoulaye Donzo is the prolific rebounder (grabs the ball very high and begins the transitions, cannot create for others, just for himself; for offensive rebounds, nice vertical pop and timing but lack of elite last touch hurt his second chance points) and plays with discipline and physicality. Combining of lateral quickness, vertical pop and aggressiveness, Donzo can guard multiple positions, of course, average levels. He can stay in front of quicker guards thanks to his lateral tools (footwork, hip turns and balanced stance), can stay in front of physical forwards thanks to his physical tools and active hands, can stay in front of bigs thanks to his natural skill-set. I mean, Donzo can protect the rim (the explosiveness to block shots emphatically) and his mobility and length allow him to be a good perimeter and post defender, who covers pick-and-roll and post up situations average. End of the day, I think he is a good on-ball defender. However, needs to be more consistent in general and has to learn off-ball defense and intensity. I mean Donzo knows how to stop his opponent, but he can’t do it consistently and intensely. In some positions, he looks like sleeping. For example, in their match against Nigeria and Mali, he gave 16 easy points to guards who were physically bad and not very fast. AD has to learn to put pressure on defense. Apart from that, he should learn to use his off-ball BBIQ on offense, in off-ball defense. He must learn how to run around the screens. Also, after pick-and-roll, he sometimes does very simple fouls, needs to learn to play balanced.

Summary

I think, Abdoulaye Donzo is a promising modern-era player with shooting repertoire, versatile defensive performance and painted area plays. However, has a lot of room to be “elite” prospect. Needs dribble, handling and passing package, also, should stronger.