Today’s NBA is looking to go smaller and more skilled on offense, while also maintaining the size and athleticism to be quick, yet deterrent on defense.

That can be a tough needle to thread when finding role players, especially on the wing. Go too far in one direction, and you limit yourself on offense, a la Andre Roberson or Solomon Hill. Go too far in the other, and you get someone like Allen Crabbe. Those players are valuable and useful, but they can often be schemed against, especially over the course of a seven-game playoff series.

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That need to hit both sides of the spectrum is why many of the elite two-way role players in today’s game have traditionally come from later stages of the draft than you’d expect. Not only does the player need to have the right mentality and maturity levels, but the skill set needs to be versatile enough to complement a team’s star players. And way too many times, versatility is less likely to stand out in the crowd versus a player with a singular elite skill. The two-way, multi-talented, role-playing wing is maybe the second-hardest player type to find outside of a star player. Guys like Khris Middleton and Jae Crowder, for instance, were second-rounders in part due to the fact that they did everything well, but not one thing exceedingly well until they got to the next level.

That’s what makes players with diversified portfolios so valuable. That’s what makes a guy like Semi Ojeleye so intriguing.

Ojeleye has an interesting story on how he got to the precipice of the NBA. Out of high school, the 6-7 forward committed to Duke and played a season and a half there before transferring to SMU to receive playing time. There, Ojeleye blossomed under the coaching staff, led by Tim Jankovich after Larry Brown left the program. Instead of turning into a true big, Ojeleye became an inside-out threat on both ends of the floor.

“We really emphasize player development,” assistant Jay Duncan said. “And with Semi, it was easy. His work ethic is second to none. He just lives in the gym. You can’t stress that enough. How much time the kid puts into perfecting his craft is crazy. We’d get back at something like 2 a.m. from a road game, and he’d be in the gym getting shots either after the game or first thing in the morning.”

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That work ethic is easy to see in both his frame and improvement. Ojeleye is a behemoth of a human, standing 6-7, 241 pounds with under six percent body fat. His arms are so muscular that it was suggested to me by one NBA executive that they affect his standing reach negatively because he can’t lift them as aerobically over his head after a measurement came in at just 8-6. But that hasn’t affected his quickness, as Ojeleye is terrific at sliding his feet — as shown by a 10.58 lane agility drill score, third among all NBA Draft Combine participants.

That strength and speed combination plays itself out best on defense, where Ojeleye has shown the ability to defend multiple positions. With the Mustangs, it was not abnormal to see Ojeleye guarding someone like Tacko Fall from UCF on one possession in the post, then switching out onto a perimeter player the next. He doesn’t force turnovers at a high level, but he provides positional versatility at a time when it is more valued than ever.

Look at how deep Ojeleye sits down in his stance in order to slide for his opponent on the perimeter for multiple steps. He also understands how to use his quickness on the block to front bigger players as well as use his lower body strength to walk skinnier forwards off the block. For a player his age and weight class, he’s extremely mature in terms of his mechanics. When mixed with his athleticism, it presents as an NBA-ready defender. He attributes this to staying “mentally focused,” while also noting that he understands defense is how he can make his early NBA mark.

“Being a rookie, all the teams told me that (defense) is going to get you on the court,” Ojeleye said. “They have the All-Stars, they have the all-world type guys. So unless you’re a lottery pick, you’re not going to go in and shoot 15, 20 shots a game. Playing defense and keeping it simple on offense, then expanding your game each offseason is what’s going to get you on the court.”

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It’s interesting that Ojeleye mentions expanding his offensive game, because that’s exactly what he’s done over the last two years during his time off. He averaged 18.9 points per game while 48.8 percent from the field, 42.4 percent from 3 and 78.5 percent from the line. He’s become one of the better shooting forwards in the class. Among the 625 players to take at least 150 jump shots this season in college basketball, Ojeleye finished 20th with a 61.9 effective field goal percentage.

But even beyond just the shooting aspect, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year also displayed the ability to attack closeouts out of the spot-up situations that were often created for him. Ojeleye utilizes a strong pump fake that allows him time to either get into the midrange for a pull-up jumper or get all the way to the rim where he can explosively finish off a one-foot leap.

He also can post smaller defenders and is terrific in isolation. He knows how to utilize either his first step or strength to take advantage of the slightest edge he has on a defender. He even showed some creativity as a pick-and-roll ball-handler in limited possessions this season.

None of this stuff will be his calling card, though, as it’s questionable how much of his creation ability will translate. And beyond that, he’s not a perfect prospect. He does struggle sometimes with quick guards. His lack of standing reach and wingspan will make him easier to finish over than other players of his ilk. He’ll struggle to finish around the rim against bigger players, like the ones he’ll see in the NBA.

But if we knew that he had those skills for sure at the next level, he’d be uniformly considered a top-20 player in the draft. Even without them, Ojeleye has all the makings of a solid 3-and-D role player. He has the mentality to step in and do what his coaches ask of him, the skill to hit shots from deep and attack closeouts and the versatility to defend screen-and-rolls as well as switch onto different players. As the NBA downsizes, teams continue to look for players who can play both big and small — Ojeleye has shown he does exactly that.

“It helps me out, guys like Draymond (Green), Crowder, (DeMarre) Carroll, they definitely opened the door for a guy like me,” Ojeleye said. “Being able to guard the 4 and being able to come off a ball screen. If you can do it all, it just makes you that much more valuable.”

And given his work ethic and mentality, it seems unwise to think he won’t carve out an NBA role.

“He’s such a hard worker that I wouldn’t bet against him,” Duncan said. “He’s going to make it work, one way or another. That’s what he does, every single day. I’ve never been around a kid who punches the clock more like a professional every day. I have no doubts he’s going to be successful.”