Scouting Notes

Bolmaro is one of the top international prospects in this class and is currently playing for FC Barcelona’s senior team which competes in the top league in Spain and the EuroLeague which is the toughest league outside of the NBA..

 

I had a chance to watch Balmaro play last summer in Greece at the FIBA Under 19 Worlds Cup where he played okay, and not great, but it was obvious he was skilled and a better than his performance. 

 

 

So let’s take a look what makes Bolmaro one of the best NBA prospects in Europe...

 

1. Scoring off the dribble.

 

At 6’8 Bolmaro is an good ball handler and shows flashes of having a little shake and bake in his arsenal, Occasionally using crossovers or change of pace moves to get to the rim. At this stage in his career he’s comfortable creating for his own in certain situations or taking advantage of slower big out of pick & rolls. Bolmaro has also shown he’s capable of making pull up jumpers or floaters off the dribble.. He’s not going to blow by defenders with blazing speed or a lightning quick first step, but he’s crafty and gets to his spots at his own pace and never seems to be in a hurry. 

 

I like his potential as a secondary pick & roll ball handler in the NBA due to his scoring and passing which I’ll cover next...

 

 

1. Court vision and passing

 

I really enjoy watching players from Argentina and one day would love to spend time and learn their process for player development and producing so many high level passers and ball movers. It seems like every player from Argentina is not only a good passer but they’ve mastered mixing flash and highlight reel passes with fundamentals. 

 

Whether it’s the flashy 1 hand bounce pass in transition or a no look dump off to the roll man, Bolamaro plays with the flare and confidence like so many Argentinian greats that came before him. As I mentioned previously, he’s always a threat to score when he has the ball in his hands which allows him to create better scoring opportunities for his teammates. Over the past few years, NBA teams have placed a strong emphasis on wings that are secondary playmakers who can initiate the offense. I believe he’s best suited to be used to play a role similar to Joe Ingles in Utah. 

 

Playing off the ball

 

One of the first things I noticed about ability Bolmaro is how hard he works off the ball. He has the potential to

 be a dangerous off the ball motion player once he improves as a shooter.. He does a good job going from a full sprint to planting his feet into an balanced shot.

 

 

Transition 

 

Bolmaro is good athlete in the open floor and loves filling the lanes and scoring in transition. Nearly 20% of his possessions this season are transition plays where he’s shooting a respectable 60% from the floor..

 

 

 

Areas for improvement

 

Bolmaro plays with a lot of confidence which sometimes gets the best of him and his high risk high reward passes lead to turnovers. It’s not a major issue because his assists to turnover ratio is positive positive in ACB and EuroLeague games this season.

 

 

 

His success on the NBA level will be directly related to his shooting ability. While he’s a capable floor spacer, he’s far from consistent and has shot below 30% from 3 in his professional career. His low percentages are also related to his shot selection. He attempts 3’s off the dribble and coming off pin downs which are a lot more difficult shots to make than spot up 3’s..

 

 

Occasionally he has a tendency to play a little wild and out of control, but that seems to be more of an issue when he’s playing with his age group or on the junior level. In my opinion he’s actually looked better on Barcelona’s senior team than he did playing in the Under 19 World Cup this summer..

 

He’ll also need to improve as a finisher at rim on the NBA level. There’s better athletes and rim protectors in the NBA, but there’s also less congestion due to all the floor spacers…..so it will be interesting to see if his struggles at the rim are due to the lack of spacing in Europe 

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Rafael Barlowe -  February 24, 2020