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As the draft profiles roll on, today we head to the Lonestar State to take a strong look at SMU forward Jesusemilore Talobijesu Ojeleye, thankfully better known as “Semi”. (I can almost hear Mark Boyle practicing that full name now, can’t you?). Ojeleye, the son of Nigerian Immigrants Ernest (a doctor), and Joy (a registered nurse), grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, had a short stint at Duke, and finally transferred to SMU to finish up his collegiate career. Ojeleye was a highly sought after recruit and consensus top 40 high school player before beginning his long journey to where we are today.
Born 12/5/1994,he will be nearly 23 years old by the beginning of the season. Ojeleye is one of the older prospects in the draft, having been a part of the same Duke recruiting class as Jabari Parker, to give you a frame of reference. Ojeleye is highly intelligent in the classroom, and was a prominent member of the community in both Overland Park and in Dallas as part of his charity outreach, particularly with the “I have a Dream” foundation. He is also very highly thought of by his coaches and teammates, and is regarded as an extremely hard working gym rat who has matured into a player who now looks to fulfill his NBA dreams by being drafted 2 weeks from today as I write this.
Ojeleye excelled in the workouts at the NBA combine, finishing in the top 5% of all players in combine history in the summary of athletic testing. Measuring in at 6’6 ¾ height, at a rock solid 241lbs, Ojeleye looks the part of an NFL linebacker or tight end. Trained pre-draft by the excellent Drew Hanlon, Ojeleye measured in with a 40 ½ inch max vertical, in the top 3 overall in the lane agility testing, and in the top 8 in the sprint testing.
Ojeleye had good numbers on the floor for Tim Jankovich and the Mustangs last year as well. 19.0ppg, 6.9rpg, and 42.9% from 3 point land are all really good totals, and his very good 78.5% FT stats show that the gaudy 3 point numbers might not be a fluke. But how does he translate overall to the next level? Let’s put Semi Ojeleye under the microscope.
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Defensively, we need some careful examination of Ojeleye to take apart his game, which in my view has some real strong aspects to it, but also some negatives.
First, his body type is somewhat unique. Very very strong obviously, so despite the somewhat undersized height he has, I think Ojeleye will have little issue guarding most modern day 4 men in the league. This is a kid with a powerful lower body and willingness to get dirty and fight for turf inside, so I project his best aspect of post defense will to be to push guys off their spot, or to not allow them to get there in the first place. I also think he will have the nimbleness of foot to front people on the box if called upon to do so, so despite the height difference I don’t see teams making a living posting him up. Now, the premier guys will be able to just rise and shoot over him, because in NBA terms he has relatively short arms, and he is more likely to crowd people and disturb their landings than to rise up and contest them. He’d push out a Myles Turner or a LaMarcus Aldridge, but if they caught the ball they’d just rise and shoot over him. So, it’s mixed….but he won’t be a mismatch or weak link on the block defensively in my view at all, and his smarts and toughness will play his skills up.
I’ve studied his defensive stance (much more than anyone should ever actually do) trying to determine if I think he can guard legitimate NBA scoring wings. My answer is finally “sometimes”. I don’t think he is a traditional lockdown defender on most wing guys, but he’d be more like an “Allen wrench” defender…..a tool coaches can use for a specific use or matchup. I think he’d struggle against really good players in isolation situations, but if he switched a ballscreen and had to guard a ballhandler for a short burst of time, I think his strength and toughness and ability to move his feet in his short choppy slides can be really effective.
His stance, for someone his size, is really really really good. Ojeleye gets very low with an enormous stance, and plays with a low center of gravity. He does get handsy sometimes and gets his mitts out ahead of him, but when he gets away with it, his hands let him control your movement. If you rise up to shoot over him, he can’t rise up and contest your shot by leaping up with you, as he lacks that kind of quick twitch, but what he will do is chest up to you and then crowd your airspace…..Ojeleye defending you would make some players very uncomfortable…...but not all.
Ojeleye is smart and tough, good in a team scheme, and so strong it is hard to screen him. If he is forced to switch onto a quicker player, his short burst quickness lets him stay with them for 2 dribbles or so, but if he is left on an island he’ll get beat by top guys. So he isn’t a lockdown guy, and he will be somewhat dependent on the scheme, who his teammates are, and who he is matched up against. I project him to be above average defensively but not elite or anything like that.
You wish he rebounded better. You’d think by looking at him he’d be a beast on the boards, but he really isn’t. Ojeleye doesn’t disengage from the blockout very well, and is more of an old school blockout and hold guy rather than a ball pursuing glass eater. He helps your team rebound by blocking out his own guy, but he won’t get alot of balls outside his area on the defensive glass. On the offensive end, if he has room to get a running start and track the ball he is very smart about getting his hands on it, and once those mitts latch to the ball no one is ripping it from him. He’ll be an average-ish rebounder I think, and you need some guys who rebound differently than he does to get all of the balls he won’t get. But, again it can be a matchup thing. If you are getting killed by a particular player on the glass and need to fix it, Ojeleye can go in and block him out for you.
Offensively, Ojeleye has some nice skills that will translate very well to the Association, and some that will most definitely not.
On the plus side, Ojeleye is a very good pick and pop player. I don’t have advanced metrics to tell it, but my eyes tell me that he might be the best pick/pop player in this draft. He has really nice touch from the foul line and key areas, prime placement for a ballscreen setter to get a nice pass from a creator and knockdown a 17 footer. He has an extremely quick and short jump shot release that is reliable and consistent from night to night in catch and shoot type situations. I like him in the middle of the floor, high post, elbows, etc in that role.
His numbers from 3 point land are really good in college, but he will have to extend his range to be able to make the NBA trifecta and I am not sure if he will get that done, mainly because I fail to see how he will be positioned in such a way that the defense will allow him to get that shot. Teams will give up long 2 point shots more or less, but defenders with length and athleticism will bother Odeleye, who because he doesn’t elevate well and has to fade away a bit to get his mechanics all together, I project will struggle from NBA distance to be consistent. He seems like a 20 foot range guy to me, but we will see, and I definitely could be wrong. We do know that he will work hard day after day to extend his range if that is what a team wants him to do. Also troubling to some teams perhaps: I think his mechanics on his shot (pretty good but a little flatter than you’d like) mean he will shoot worse from the deep NBA corners than some people….I think he is a middle of the floor offensive guy, and a short corner guy, but not a 3 point deep corner guy. We will see. Guys with bad arch I think shoot better from middle than edges, I believe.
Facing the basket as a driver, he has some strong points coupled with some clear weaknesses.
Ojeleye has the ability to jab step, survey the defender, and make a one or 2 dribble move into a pullup down pat. He is very strong with the ball and uses it as a weapon as he sweeps and rips the ball from a variety of angles. Clearly well taught, he sizes up his defender well and uses the proper counter measures to get space for his midrange jumper, which is really solid. I love his shot fake, which he sells very well, and I love how hard his last dribble is before he rises up. His mechanics stay consistent, and he fades away some to make up for his short arms and lack of elevation, which I am ok with.
But, there are some issues with this. First, to do all of that means he has to hold the ball, and he will freeze up your offensive flow with that kind of ballstopping….which will drive some coaches bonkers, since the reward for drying your teams sweat ends up being a contested mid range jumper. Not always optimal, since he will never be a team’s top option on the floor. Depending on the system he gets into, he likely will have cut all of that out of his game.
Next, if you crowd him and he is forced to drive, he lacks any shake or wiggle at all. Odeleye is a bull in the china shop, and will run over anyone in his path, or at least try and muscle and bully his way to the basket. That was fine against 19 year old kids in the AAC, but against grown men next season I don’t see that being very efficient. He is almost entirely right hand dependent, and as a below the rim finisher in traffic, his lack of stretchability means he is going to get rejected more than he ever has.
I think he can post up smaller, skinnier guys pretty well…..but how often will he get matched up with a guy like that? In this modern era, I don’t see his back to the basket post up game gaining much traction. He will have to make his bones by draining mid range shots, and perhaps extending his range to the 3 point line, even though I question his ability to do that.
Despite his obvious intelligence and maturity, there will need to be some growing pains for his offensive game next year in my opinion.
Can he be a mid screen/roll guy who short rolls to the foul line, then drive and dish to open shooters? Can he be a creator after a ball screen? Hard to say. His inability to drive left so far gives me pause, and I don’t see great vision so far on tape….but SMU played “caveman” basketball last year offensively, so there was literally no space and no one to kick the ball to for him. Ojeleye seems to have the intelligence and savvy to do things like that, I’d want to see him in a workout setting try things like that, and see if there is a potential hidden skill there. We know from the numbers that Odeleye was very careful with the ball, rarely turning it over…..it’s possible there for more skill than we’ve seen.
So, what do we have in Semi Ojeleye?
In total, I think we have a high IQ, very mature, tough minded undersized 4 man who has winning attributes, but also clear weaknesses that will mitigate his abilities in varying degrees depending on who he plays with. I think he will be a good to very good defender, knockdown mid range jump shooter if open, really good out of the pick/pop game, and a high character, quiet team leader type in the locker room, and a guy you want in your community. On a good team, I think he is a smaller piece to a bigger puzzle, but a guy who can be a cog in the machine of a good team.
I don’t think he has great talent, but his talent “plays up” because of the work ethic and intelligence. I think he has a solid NBA career as a role guy/rotation guy off your bench, maybe better than that if he develops his three point game, and if he has that hidden distribution skill I suspect might be there but can’t see yet.
With that said, I suspect that there may be better ways to go for Indiana at #18. I think he wouldn’t be a great fit next to Myles Turner, and I really don’t see him as a full time or really even a part time wing for a good team. I think he has to play a 4, and I think next to Turner we need a slightly different/better skill set long term. I wouldn’t hate the pick, and I like the player in general, but I don’t like him here necessarily. I think Indiana should and will pass.
It’s hard to see where he might fit best exactly. Sacramento is interesting to me at pick #34, as they need a high character guy for their culture, and he is a nice fit next to Cauley-Stein. Yet, I feel like he is better than that slot somehow. I think he also fits nicely in Toronto at #23, yet they seem to have enough bigs to me. System wise and personnel wise, I think he’d go nicely with the Lakers at #28, who need guys who can play in the ballscreen game offensively, and who are above average on the defensive end as well. I think he ends up in Tinseltown.
NBA comparison: Udonis Haslem
As always the above is just my opinion. Just 2 weeks away now!
Tbird
Born 12/5/1994,he will be nearly 23 years old by the beginning of the season. Ojeleye is one of the older prospects in the draft, having been a part of the same Duke recruiting class as Jabari Parker, to give you a frame of reference. Ojeleye is highly intelligent in the classroom, and was a prominent member of the community in both Overland Park and in Dallas as part of his charity outreach, particularly with the “I have a Dream” foundation. He is also very highly thought of by his coaches and teammates, and is regarded as an extremely hard working gym rat who has matured into a player who now looks to fulfill his NBA dreams by being drafted 2 weeks from today as I write this.
Ojeleye excelled in the workouts at the NBA combine, finishing in the top 5% of all players in combine history in the summary of athletic testing. Measuring in at 6’6 ¾ height, at a rock solid 241lbs, Ojeleye looks the part of an NFL linebacker or tight end. Trained pre-draft by the excellent Drew Hanlon, Ojeleye measured in with a 40 ½ inch max vertical, in the top 3 overall in the lane agility testing, and in the top 8 in the sprint testing.
Ojeleye had good numbers on the floor for Tim Jankovich and the Mustangs last year as well. 19.0ppg, 6.9rpg, and 42.9% from 3 point land are all really good totals, and his very good 78.5% FT stats show that the gaudy 3 point numbers might not be a fluke. But how does he translate overall to the next level? Let’s put Semi Ojeleye under the microscope.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Defensively, we need some careful examination of Ojeleye to take apart his game, which in my view has some real strong aspects to it, but also some negatives.
First, his body type is somewhat unique. Very very strong obviously, so despite the somewhat undersized height he has, I think Ojeleye will have little issue guarding most modern day 4 men in the league. This is a kid with a powerful lower body and willingness to get dirty and fight for turf inside, so I project his best aspect of post defense will to be to push guys off their spot, or to not allow them to get there in the first place. I also think he will have the nimbleness of foot to front people on the box if called upon to do so, so despite the height difference I don’t see teams making a living posting him up. Now, the premier guys will be able to just rise and shoot over him, because in NBA terms he has relatively short arms, and he is more likely to crowd people and disturb their landings than to rise up and contest them. He’d push out a Myles Turner or a LaMarcus Aldridge, but if they caught the ball they’d just rise and shoot over him. So, it’s mixed….but he won’t be a mismatch or weak link on the block defensively in my view at all, and his smarts and toughness will play his skills up.
I’ve studied his defensive stance (much more than anyone should ever actually do) trying to determine if I think he can guard legitimate NBA scoring wings. My answer is finally “sometimes”. I don’t think he is a traditional lockdown defender on most wing guys, but he’d be more like an “Allen wrench” defender…..a tool coaches can use for a specific use or matchup. I think he’d struggle against really good players in isolation situations, but if he switched a ballscreen and had to guard a ballhandler for a short burst of time, I think his strength and toughness and ability to move his feet in his short choppy slides can be really effective.
His stance, for someone his size, is really really really good. Ojeleye gets very low with an enormous stance, and plays with a low center of gravity. He does get handsy sometimes and gets his mitts out ahead of him, but when he gets away with it, his hands let him control your movement. If you rise up to shoot over him, he can’t rise up and contest your shot by leaping up with you, as he lacks that kind of quick twitch, but what he will do is chest up to you and then crowd your airspace…..Ojeleye defending you would make some players very uncomfortable…...but not all.
Ojeleye is smart and tough, good in a team scheme, and so strong it is hard to screen him. If he is forced to switch onto a quicker player, his short burst quickness lets him stay with them for 2 dribbles or so, but if he is left on an island he’ll get beat by top guys. So he isn’t a lockdown guy, and he will be somewhat dependent on the scheme, who his teammates are, and who he is matched up against. I project him to be above average defensively but not elite or anything like that.
You wish he rebounded better. You’d think by looking at him he’d be a beast on the boards, but he really isn’t. Ojeleye doesn’t disengage from the blockout very well, and is more of an old school blockout and hold guy rather than a ball pursuing glass eater. He helps your team rebound by blocking out his own guy, but he won’t get alot of balls outside his area on the defensive glass. On the offensive end, if he has room to get a running start and track the ball he is very smart about getting his hands on it, and once those mitts latch to the ball no one is ripping it from him. He’ll be an average-ish rebounder I think, and you need some guys who rebound differently than he does to get all of the balls he won’t get. But, again it can be a matchup thing. If you are getting killed by a particular player on the glass and need to fix it, Ojeleye can go in and block him out for you.
Offensively, Ojeleye has some nice skills that will translate very well to the Association, and some that will most definitely not.
On the plus side, Ojeleye is a very good pick and pop player. I don’t have advanced metrics to tell it, but my eyes tell me that he might be the best pick/pop player in this draft. He has really nice touch from the foul line and key areas, prime placement for a ballscreen setter to get a nice pass from a creator and knockdown a 17 footer. He has an extremely quick and short jump shot release that is reliable and consistent from night to night in catch and shoot type situations. I like him in the middle of the floor, high post, elbows, etc in that role.
His numbers from 3 point land are really good in college, but he will have to extend his range to be able to make the NBA trifecta and I am not sure if he will get that done, mainly because I fail to see how he will be positioned in such a way that the defense will allow him to get that shot. Teams will give up long 2 point shots more or less, but defenders with length and athleticism will bother Odeleye, who because he doesn’t elevate well and has to fade away a bit to get his mechanics all together, I project will struggle from NBA distance to be consistent. He seems like a 20 foot range guy to me, but we will see, and I definitely could be wrong. We do know that he will work hard day after day to extend his range if that is what a team wants him to do. Also troubling to some teams perhaps: I think his mechanics on his shot (pretty good but a little flatter than you’d like) mean he will shoot worse from the deep NBA corners than some people….I think he is a middle of the floor offensive guy, and a short corner guy, but not a 3 point deep corner guy. We will see. Guys with bad arch I think shoot better from middle than edges, I believe.
Facing the basket as a driver, he has some strong points coupled with some clear weaknesses.
Ojeleye has the ability to jab step, survey the defender, and make a one or 2 dribble move into a pullup down pat. He is very strong with the ball and uses it as a weapon as he sweeps and rips the ball from a variety of angles. Clearly well taught, he sizes up his defender well and uses the proper counter measures to get space for his midrange jumper, which is really solid. I love his shot fake, which he sells very well, and I love how hard his last dribble is before he rises up. His mechanics stay consistent, and he fades away some to make up for his short arms and lack of elevation, which I am ok with.
But, there are some issues with this. First, to do all of that means he has to hold the ball, and he will freeze up your offensive flow with that kind of ballstopping….which will drive some coaches bonkers, since the reward for drying your teams sweat ends up being a contested mid range jumper. Not always optimal, since he will never be a team’s top option on the floor. Depending on the system he gets into, he likely will have cut all of that out of his game.
Next, if you crowd him and he is forced to drive, he lacks any shake or wiggle at all. Odeleye is a bull in the china shop, and will run over anyone in his path, or at least try and muscle and bully his way to the basket. That was fine against 19 year old kids in the AAC, but against grown men next season I don’t see that being very efficient. He is almost entirely right hand dependent, and as a below the rim finisher in traffic, his lack of stretchability means he is going to get rejected more than he ever has.
I think he can post up smaller, skinnier guys pretty well…..but how often will he get matched up with a guy like that? In this modern era, I don’t see his back to the basket post up game gaining much traction. He will have to make his bones by draining mid range shots, and perhaps extending his range to the 3 point line, even though I question his ability to do that.
Despite his obvious intelligence and maturity, there will need to be some growing pains for his offensive game next year in my opinion.
Can he be a mid screen/roll guy who short rolls to the foul line, then drive and dish to open shooters? Can he be a creator after a ball screen? Hard to say. His inability to drive left so far gives me pause, and I don’t see great vision so far on tape….but SMU played “caveman” basketball last year offensively, so there was literally no space and no one to kick the ball to for him. Ojeleye seems to have the intelligence and savvy to do things like that, I’d want to see him in a workout setting try things like that, and see if there is a potential hidden skill there. We know from the numbers that Odeleye was very careful with the ball, rarely turning it over…..it’s possible there for more skill than we’ve seen.
So, what do we have in Semi Ojeleye?
In total, I think we have a high IQ, very mature, tough minded undersized 4 man who has winning attributes, but also clear weaknesses that will mitigate his abilities in varying degrees depending on who he plays with. I think he will be a good to very good defender, knockdown mid range jump shooter if open, really good out of the pick/pop game, and a high character, quiet team leader type in the locker room, and a guy you want in your community. On a good team, I think he is a smaller piece to a bigger puzzle, but a guy who can be a cog in the machine of a good team.
I don’t think he has great talent, but his talent “plays up” because of the work ethic and intelligence. I think he has a solid NBA career as a role guy/rotation guy off your bench, maybe better than that if he develops his three point game, and if he has that hidden distribution skill I suspect might be there but can’t see yet.
With that said, I suspect that there may be better ways to go for Indiana at #18. I think he wouldn’t be a great fit next to Myles Turner, and I really don’t see him as a full time or really even a part time wing for a good team. I think he has to play a 4, and I think next to Turner we need a slightly different/better skill set long term. I wouldn’t hate the pick, and I like the player in general, but I don’t like him here necessarily. I think Indiana should and will pass.
It’s hard to see where he might fit best exactly. Sacramento is interesting to me at pick #34, as they need a high character guy for their culture, and he is a nice fit next to Cauley-Stein. Yet, I feel like he is better than that slot somehow. I think he also fits nicely in Toronto at #23, yet they seem to have enough bigs to me. System wise and personnel wise, I think he’d go nicely with the Lakers at #28, who need guys who can play in the ballscreen game offensively, and who are above average on the defensive end as well. I think he ends up in Tinseltown.
NBA comparison: Udonis Haslem
As always the above is just my opinion. Just 2 weeks away now!
Tbird
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