James Othuke Okemirie | 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, Sasa Obradovic, 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 main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. MY BIGGEST GOAL IS SCOUTING! Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!
Born: 30 December 2004
Nationality: Rwanda
Height: 6–8
Wingspan: 6–foot-11
Position: PF
Physical
Standing 6-foot-8 with a near 7-foot wingspan and solid frame, James Othuke Okemirie has good size and frame for a 16 years old Nigerian power forward in my opinion. Although Okemirie is only 16 years old, he has a much better physical package than many prospects born in 2002, 2003, and 2004. I think his legs are long and strong. JOO can move well laterally, vertically, and linearly in all types of movement. Footwork is not fast, he does not have techniques such as burst and go-stop-fake, but laterality and vertical pop make up on those cons. He needs power in his upper body, naturally, but for a 16-year-old African player, he has quite long arms and a strong core. I think these are the main reasons why he excels his opponents in contact play, his ability to get outstanding offensive rebounds, and his fluidity in transition games. His shoulders are narrow, and he has thin wrists, which negatively affects his shooting mechanics. Okemirie has very good tricks from the athletics window. I mean, when playing as an off the ball player, he can go smoothly to the rim right after he gets the ball, and he using a great, really great hop. In situations like transition, he shows his explosive athleticism and dunks using his vertical pop in my opinion. The Nigerian power forward has a very impressive second leap. I think the timing of this second bounce and the sleight of hand after taking the ball is dazzling.
Offense
James Othuke Okemirie has a classical European big man package on the offensive and in my opinion. He can play around the rim well, runs the court, has a good BBIQ, average court vision, and effective two hands finish. My favorite thing about his offensive performance is his combination of body balance and last touch. Because most of African players have unorthodox balance and touch bt Okemirie reads the game well, dribble with the ball, and finishes with a good coordination-balance, soft touch. He can’t finish position with one hand, also, sometimes forcing the scoring, it’s not good. But generally, I think that he has good BBIQ. For example, against one of the best interior defender Thierno Mamadou Sylla, Okemirie did a great job using his body fakes, footwork around the post zone, and nice hooks. Playing on the ball quite a bit for a forward, James is an average off the ball player. He knows how to create cutter positions for himself in my opinion but lacks a degree of consistency and elite strength hurt him here. He is not a great lob target guy but showed some flashes on that. In the general game philosophy in which Nigeria increased the ball sharing tempo, James Othuke took the role of flash and talked to his friends by his team awareness. JOO can create a gravity effect thanks to his ability to play very aggressively and quickly around the painted area, and this gravity effect allows spacing for the shooters. I mean, James is a player who can create spacing out the painted area and I think this is very important. On the other hand, he has a lot of room to be a real scorer in my opinion. He is not a player who can take responsibility in the critical moments. He is even not a mid-range shooter, not at all. Has a lot of room on his shooting. From looking to his free-throws, JOO’s lack of elite strength and lack of consistent experience hurt his shooting mechanism, has to change everything in my opinion. He is not a good passer, just knows read & reacts passing but not consistent. As a ball-handler and dribbler, James has a good skill-set for a 16 y/o big man in my opinion. He has not any tricks as a ball-handler but knows to create a shield around the ball. As a dribbler, he doesn’t force the game, just dribbling on the half-court.
Defense
I think James does everything on the defensive end, I’ll explain that, but it’s worth remembering that he has shown all his defensive performances so far against African players. Rebounds first. I think James is one of the best rebounders of the overall 2004 international prospect pool. He uses his second leap on both the offensive end (34 rebounds in seven games) and the defensive end. Also, his body coordination, game-reading skills, and ability to outperform opponents in contact play helps him here. As a rebounder, he has not any cons for now in my opinion. On the defensive end, my favorite thing on him is his ability to protect the perimeter with tallying blocks, impressive steals. While doing these things, he using his body coordination well again, showing his quick hands, lateral movements, and vertical pop. A high awareness player, JOO puts a lot of effort and fight on that against shooters and the pick-and-roll situations. He slides to guards well, also, he is not a player who has the potential to be Shaqtin A Fool, I mean, he knows how to stay in front of quick and shifty ballhandlers. He has a solid stance, showing his hip turns well. He can protect the rim well, aggressive, and has a good block timing, step moving. On the pick-and-roll situations, the Nigerian prospect slides to guard or forward, and stop him with his body. Against the physical and aggressive bigs, his body base, vertical pop balance (can jump with two-foot, two hands, lateral stance technique), and BBIQ make up for his lack of elite strength in my opinion. One con from defensively has to learn doing all these things in the transition situations. Other than it, he is an all-around defender in my opinion.
Summary
Potential versatility both on the offensive end and on the defensive and make the Nigerian prospect valuable in my opinion. Shooting consistency, lack of fundamental, and lack of elite size are the most important question marks in my mind about him