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Efe Abogidi out of Delta State, Nigeria is G League Ignite’s 2nd prospect from their African global academies. Abogidi played his last two seasons for the Washington State Cougars. While there, he made Pac-12 All-Freshman and led the Cougars to an NIT Final Four. After going through the draft process last season, Efe decided to delay entering the draft one more year. However, he decided to forego his remaining NCAA eligibility, opting to sign for G League Ignite. The 6’10” mobile big man brings on a versatile skillset for a rim runner, and provides team Ignite with a defensive anchor in the paint. His shot-blocking prowess may be one of the best in this class. He will look to showcase it against the many skilled big men in the G League.

Offense

Some of the most important things a big man can do on the offensive end are set screens, rim run and crash the offensive boards. Efe excels at these attributes, and also has some fun folds in his offensive game. Efe is a strong screen setter, and moves quickly and with intent towards the rim in the PnR. Alongside Scoot Henderson, Efe will be getting plenty of opportunities to show his strength as a lob threat in the PnR, and his ability to impact the game with his screen setting.

Efe’s soft touch makes him a great post threat. He showed this off with a few post fadeaways and hook shots early in the GLI season. Efe also has shown to be able to hit the midrange jumper, which he’s become more accustomed to with GLI. Last season at WSU, Abogidi shot 36.4% on 77 attempts, showing that he is at least capable of hitting the shot and a willing shooter. His 79% free throw percentage bodes well for hopes that Efe will be able to develop this shot, and maybe even a 3 pointer, to make him a more versatile player than your average rim runner.

Defense

Abogidi is a premier shot blocker, however sometimes to his detriment. An issue with many great shot blockers is they tend to assume that they’ll be able to block any shot. This sometimes leads to allowing a player to get past you in order to get a better angle on the block, rather than getting the best contest on a shot. Some players that exhibit this often are Myles Turner and Walker Kessler. While this can be effective in the stat sheets, it occasionally leads to blow-bys and open looks at the rim. Abogidi falls into this style of defense more often than not. However unlike Turner and Kessler, Abogidi is much more mobile. His 7’4″ wingspan and ability to get into a low wide stance make him switchable onto wings or larger guards. His quick foot speed helps him recover when he does get beat. Abogidi averaged 3.6 blocks per 70 possessions last season at WSU.

Efe excels by not sagging too close to the rim and using his long wing span to contest any pull up jumpers in drop coverage. Showing high could also attribute to the block chasing, but Abogidi is athletic enough to recover when beat off the dribble. This leads to many emphatic blocks. While not the perfect defender, it’s hard to ignore Abogidi’s impact around the rim, and the presence he imposes defensively.

Conclusion

There’s no better player for a center than an elite point guard, and playing next to Scoot Henderson will open many opportunities for Efe Abogidi. The Scoot and Efe pick and roll has already been unleashed in the G League, and will be a go-to for team Ignite. With consistency in his jumper and adequately anchoring the Ignite defense, Abogidi could prove to be one of the better big men in this year’s class.

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MarJon Beauchamp was drafted with the 24th overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2022 NBA Draft. The 6’7″ wing out of Yakima, Washington took an unconventional path to the NBA. Despite being a highly touted 4-star recruit, Beauchamp opted out of the college route, instead training at San Francisco-based training facility Chameleon BX until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beauchamp then played for his local Community College, Yakima Valley CC, where he averaged 31 point a game and over 10 rebounds. Beauchamp’s success in Yakima found him a spot on the 2021 G League Ignite roster. It was here that Beauchamp excelled, finding his role immediately. His ability to find open space in the half court and hustle on both ends saw him becoming Team Ignite’s energizer throughout the season. Playing in an off-ball role, Beauchamp still managed to have many big games. He finished the season averaging 15.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Alongside his elite defense, Beauchamp’s rise was enough to see the young kid from Yakima become a first round pick.

Offense

Despite struggling from deep, MarJon has one of the more aesthetically pleasing dribble pull-ups, and the rate at which he converts these bodes well for future shooting development. Shooting just 29.6% from 3, Beauchamp shot 42.9% on all off the dribble jump shot attempts. However, this pull-up game will likely not be where MarJon finds his touches to start his career. Even with GLI, MarJon came in as arguably the 5th highest-touted prospect, seeing him play more off-ball next to ball-heavy teammates Jaden Hardy and Dyson Daniels. MarJon’s role as a play finisher is due to his ability to cut to the rim, find gaps in the defense and attack in space. Sometimes, MarJon seems to even walk into open space. Shiftier than anticipated, MarJon is great at attacking closeouts, even without a consistent jumper. MarJon also excels around the rim, shooting an incredible 68.4% on rim attempts throughout the season. On a Bucks team with many shot creators and play makers, MarJon will find plenty of space to get open looks.

Defense

Despite being one of the better defenders on G League Ignite last season, MarJon still has some struggles on the point of attack. His lack of hip mobility gives him struggles against shiftier guards. However, against players who liken straight-line drives, Beauchamp is able to use his strong frame to wall off offensive players and keep them out the paint. This, combined with his keen defensive instincts off-ball, show similarities to fellow “Roamer” Robert Covington. While both have their flaws as POA defenders, both make their impact as help defenders. Beauchamp averaged 2.95 deflections per game last season in the G League and forced 2.3 turnovers a game. His disruptive nature in the passing lanes and digging into ball handlers keep offenses on their toes. In the paint, his seven-foot wingspan allows him to keep up with bigger forwards and still cause problems at the rim. MarJon’s defense, albeit not perfect, makes him an impactful player, often making winning plays on this end.

Conclusion

One of the older prospects, MarJon still has plenty of room to develop. His unorthodox track to the NBA still had a great record. From being a 4-star prospect, to a JuCo star, to being the battery that sparked Team Ignite, Beauchamp has always found his role and excelled in it. Now, with his locker directly next to that of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Beauchamp is in the perfect environment to come along slowly on a winning team. An absolute work-horse, it is hard to see a world that Beauchamp does not stick in the NBA. The Bucks likely won’t let it happen either. Just look at how happy they were to land him!

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With the 37th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, the Dallas Mavericks selected former 5-star recruit, Jaden Hardy, out of the G League Ignite. Standing at 6’4″, Hardy brings an intriguing skillset to a Mavericks team in desperate need of more ballhandlers. Hardy loves to get to his shot and he flashed advanced shot-making and self-creation throughout his time with Ignite, though not without room for improvement.

While the flashes are nice, Hardy badly needs to improve his efficiency for him to have a positive impact on the offensive side of the floor. In 25 games for Ignite, Hardy rocked a 52% true shooting percentage and took far too many early clock and heavily contested jumpers for my liking.

Despite this, I remain confident he’ll improve his efficiency, as his free throw shooting (82%) and shot volume/diet are both great indicators of ++ touch while I trust an NBA coaching staff and a simplified role to clean up the shot selection a little bit. Where most of my concern lies with Hardy is his finishing at the rim. He shot a paltry 49% at the cup this past season and really struggled with size, length, and contact, pointing to functional strength and vertical pop deficiencies. Finishing against NBA bigs will likely compound this problem, and could seriously limit his upside as an on-ball creator if he doesn’t improve.

Luckily for Hardy, he should thrive in a more off-ball role next to a creator like Luka as his off-ball movement and catch-and-shoot ability are both at a good level at this point in his career. He’s shown the ability to attack closeouts well, and while the rim finishing will continue to hurt him here, his passing game really grew as the G League season went on, suggesting an avenue to success in attacking and making reads against a tilted defense. Meanwhile, his off-the-dribble shotmaking could give the Mavs and Luka a release valve similar to the one Jalen Brunson provided to the team.

Where Hardy has Improved Already

I’m going to quickly outline some areas that Hardy has already improved in to give us a good idea of his current development trajectory and where we can expect his improvements to come.

As I mentioned earlier, Hardy’s passing has improved a bit already, trading tougher shots that he was taking earlier in the season for smarter decisions. Overall, the game just slowed down for him as the season went on, showing some really nice instances of poise, control, and playing at his own pace in situations where he previously panicked or rushed to get to his shot. Continuing to improve in this area will really help his efficiency and even his finishing at the rim as he picks and chooses when to attack a little better.

Defense

The defensive end of the floor is a bit less promising for Hardy. As a point-of-attack defender, he gave up blow-bys far too often, frequently getting beat as a result of a poor gamble, body orientation, or screen navigation. With lackluster strength and recovery skills, a Hardy blow-by almost always guaranteed a good shot opportunity for the opponent and is something to monitor as Jason Kidd attempts to get him acclimated to playing defense at the NBA level. There may be room for optimism as Hardy’s plus wingspan and active hands already bother opposing players at times. A lot of growth could come from simply getting more minutes and understanding as a part of an NBA defense.

As an off-ball defender, Hardy wasn’t great either, rotating and playing passing lanes well at times, but also missing tags or rotations here and there due to ball-watching or lapses in concentration. Again, a lot of this should in theory improve with time, but it is still important to note the level he’s at now.

Conclusion

All in all, Jaden Hardy is a really fun prospect who, if he continues to make improvements to his game, could make a lot of teams regret letting him fall to the Mavericks. While he’s started the season out of the rotation, expect him to grow into a larger role for the Mavs as the season goes on.

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