Dick Rutatika Sano | Scouting Report

I’m Kuzey, 19. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I have been working in Eurosport Turkey for the last 1,5 years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams. I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. MY BIGGEST GOAL IS SCOUTING! Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!

Born: 31 January 2004

Nationality: Rwanda

Height: 6–9

Wingspan: 6–11

Position: PF

Several interesting Rwandan basketball players have been playing in the US in recent years. Arnaud Nkusi, Emmanuel Habimana, Osborn Shema and Cadeau Shema are plays in different colleges. However, I think Dick Rutatika Sano promises a better career than any of these prospects. Among the general African players, Sano is one of the six best African prospects with Thierno, Joshua and four players. He was born and raised in Kigali. He has one brother and one sister. He started the basketball thanks to his father, Emile Rutatika. Emile, bought him basket-balls and they always played basketball. He started to go train at Club Rafiki, in Nyamirambo, and then at Cercle Sport in Kiyovu.

Physical

Dick Sano’s size and frame looks perfect. His shoulders are not wide but look strong. DRS’s upper body is not strong overall but his core muscles and triceps looks perfect. Rwandan player’s arms are long and he has average power on arms. My favorite things about his physical tools are his lower body. Sano’s lower body is both very strong and fast. By the way, his arms are not very strong, but thanks to his quick use of his wrists, he can overcome his deficiency. His lower body is strong and fast for his age. Hip mobility is impressive. The first step is strong. The second jump is excellent. He grabbed the offensive rebound in the FIBA ​​U16 African Championship thanks to his second jump in 24 positions on offense. Eight of these 24 positions, he used FTs. He found 26 buckets in 13 positions. Did not happen the other three. I mean, he knows very well how to use his strong lower body and average upper body. He knows how to take contact. His vertical pop timing is perfect. He is not an explosive athlete, but he can use his vertical pop fluently. You can see the best examples of this in the matches against Angola and Egypt.

Offense

First of all, I want to say that Dick Rutatika Sano has not good fundamental. I think he needs basketball training in the USA or Europe. For example, think Khalifa Diop or Dianko Badji, these guys are not perfect around 2016 and 2017. However, when they came to Spain, they found opportunities to increase their basketball IQ and gained global recognition. I think DRS needs that because his pure skills are better than Diop and Badji. He can finish in traffic with a strong first step, soft touch and very good timing. Also, he can change direction on the ground. As I said, I am a big fan of his second jump. Really, Sano’s second jump timing and vertical movement are dazzling. Sano is a prospect who can create spacing for himself after the PnR with lateral movement, drive fakes and quick movement. He knows how to take contact for the bucket. His off-screen games are good. You can see how Sano is a good off-screen and PnR player in his matches against Angola, Egypt and Guinea. Also, you can see his open court quickness and high dribble in his match against Cote d’Ivoire. Okay, I’ve come to the most important thing his career projection. Shooting. During the U16 tournament, Sano used five three-points, 29 FTs and 17 mid-ranges. He found only one three-point shot hit. He found 15 FT and eight mid-range hits. These numbers aren’t very high, but I think Sano’s only three-pointer and mid-range shots are important. In a triple hit against Cote d’Ivoire, he shot with great confidence. In general, his release is high and his timing is good. However, he has not a shot fundamental and IQ. As I said, Sano’s pure skills are very impressive. Because he’s not just a dominant painted area player. Within a year or two he needs to learn fundamental in a good place.

Defense

I think Sano’s lack of fundamental does not hurt him here too much. He showed more good things with his IQ on defense. DRS is not a painted area defender who can play with high energy and can make impressive blocks. He plays with his brain. I mean, Sano is a player that you want to follow his opponent on off-ball motions. While doing this, DRS reads the game well and follows his opponent with good timing. with quickness. He has pretty quick hands and also his eye-hand coordination is very good. We do not see much that a 15–16-year-old player has consistently put his opponent under intense pressure on defense. In Europe, Paulius Murauskas, Teodor Simic, Zinedin Mulic and Urban Klavzar are good at this. So is Sano. As I said, he is not a perfect rim protector. He should better about it. Lateral movement is good. He is a good post player on offense but a bad post up defender. His reaction to the fake is not good. He knows where to rotate after PnR but cannot defend the guards. While defending the guards, he looks so unbalanced. I think he’s a very good rebounder. He has excellent intuition, especially about getting offensive rebounds. So is defense. Highlights ob the defense are the ability to read the game, off-ball defense and PnR defense.

Summary

In my opinion, Sano is one of the best prospects of Africa. Really. He and Thierno are promising African prospects for NBA. For DRS, his pure skills are dazzling. He can dribble on the open court with quickness. He knows how to finish around the basket. He is not a reliable handler or passer but has classic read and react package. I am a big fan of his defense. But at the end of the day, I say that he needs fundamental to be a good player at the NBA level or even the NCAA rank. Because he showed all these skills only in African Championsiphs and NBA Global Kamp. Now, for a high level, he needs to stay in a place like NBA Academy Africa (he played there but program ended a couple months ago).