School: West Virginia

Year: Junior

Height/Weight: 6’8, 250 lbs

College Stats:

(Only 8 GP)

13.6 PTS, 8.0 REB, 1.4 AST, 0.8 STL, 2.8 BLK, 2.1 TOV

43.5 FG% (10.6 FGA), 39.1 3PT% (2.9 3PA), 81.3 FT% (4.0 FTA)

Strengths:

Sagaba Konate is a strong body down low. He is someone who can help anchor a defense with an above average shot blocking presence.

He seems to move well off the ball in the post area to allow himself for easy shots around the rim. We also saw a good display of touch around the rim to make himself an offensive threat on the block. It’s apparent that he runs the floor fairly well which is important for a young prospect who is still evolving.

Weaknesses:

The biggest aspect that stuck out for us is that he is undersized. 6’8″ may be big enough to play a big in college, but not so much in the NBA. He doesn’t show much ability to stretch the floor with his jump shot as well. We don’t think his athleticism is superior enough to allow him to play undersized at the power forward spot in the NBA.

The injury concern has to also be mentioned. During his junior season, he only played all of 8 games because of an injured right knee. It had been nagging him all year and didn’t allow for him to return to the team at any point in the year even though we would see him occasionally during shoot-around. Let’s hope that knee is back to normal.

Future Outlook:

We believe that Konate has a chance to slip into the late second round of the draft this year. Sagaba needed to show the ability to stretch his range out to the perimeter and he did happen to do that (even in the limited time). He still needs some type of weapon to make up for being undersized paired with his average athleticism. This will be the biggest question if he can become more comfortable on the perimeter offensively and defensively at the next level.

With Konate being only 6’8″, he will be expected to have the ability to switch onto the smaller guards in pick and rolls. He’s shown that at times, but the NBA team that selects him will need him to do that consistently.