Jonathan Mogbo Scouting Report
A switchable big man who impacts the interior with rebounding and rim protection is intriguing for almost every NBA team. What's more to like about Mogbo and his potential NBA role? Find out below.
After playing two seasons of JUCO basketball as an underclassman, Mogbo brought competitive fire and fundamentals to his first opportunity at the D-1 level. After finishing as a top-5 offensive rebounder and shot blocker in the Missouri Valley Conference, Mogbo transferred to the Bay Area, committing to Coach Gerlufsen and the staff of the University of San Francisco.
As of 16 March 2023, Mogbo leads the WCC in total rebounding, steals, and field goal percentage, while taking on a role as the team’s leader, which put him on NBA radars.
Physical Profile
At 6’8”, Mogbo is a bruiser who’ll primarily play as a five at the next level. He has a 7-foot-plus wingspan that makes up for the lack of size. However, the plus value is in his excellent upper body strength combined with his fluid hips. This makes him mobile while being able to handle physical contact consistently.
Mogbo is a great athlete who gets quickly off the ground with his vertical pop. Combined with his huge hands, he has the tools to be an above-average roll man at the next level. A potential game-changer in the above-mentioned areas is Mogbo’s excellent burst which opens up the ability to guard multiple positions at the next level.
Defense
One crucial trait Mogbo will offer an NBA team is to guard the perimeter effectively. In a switch-heavy NBA game, the ability to defend in space laterally becomes more important, especially considering that downhill driving is still one of the most used weapons to collapse a defense.
In Mogbo’s case, he recognizes when to rotate and when to keep up with his assignments. He slides his feet well on defense; the most important thing that stands out is his ability to maintain his balance at all costs.
However, at 2.6 personal fouls in 29 minutes per game, Mogbo could be more aggressive at times when defending at the rim, with the first and second play below being an example. Another area is his often gambling on defense, with the third play being an example. At times, that’s an effective way to force mistakes, but in this case, the whole weak side was wide open, leaving his opponent with an easy lay-up at the rim, Mogbo gambling for the steal would have been more beneficial if he had the strong side to cover in case it failed.
Another area of his defense that’ll serve Mogbo well is his ability to close out quickly. What stood out was that the process from rotations to contest perimeter shots was consistent throughout his junior year at San Francisco. This is something an NBA decision-maker will value when determining his draft profile.
In the first play below, Mogbo covers the paint well by stepping in front of his opponent to eliminate the drop-off pass from the baseline driver. The moment his dribble got him between the low post and the paint, Mogbo already knew the kick-out pass was coming, leading to him quickly relocating to the perimeter to contest the three.
After the roller got hit with the pass in the second play, Mogbo rotated well and stopped further penetration to the rim. His excellent hips are visible in this play due to the speed of his turning around and rotating to the elbow shooter.
In the last play, we see Mogbo reacting to a potential wide-open dunk after the dropoff pass, but after his teammate gets back to his assignment, Mogbo recovers and returns to the area of the free-throw line. Although the contest was a tad too late on this play, it did show the level of focus and ability to read the offense, which will likely continue to translate at the next level.
An area of development for Mogbo is that he must find a healthy balance between expecting teammates to rotate or keeping up with his man at times. He’s making the correct play more often than not, with the first play being an example. After the cutter launched to the rim, his teammate had to rotate, which fairly was Mogbo’s expectation during the play.
However, he did look lost on the second play. Mogbo was too focused on the ball handler, that he didn’t see the relocating teammate moving toward the elbow, whereafter he rotated himself, leaving the opposing big man open for the dropoff pass. It’s a good sign for Mogbo that he’s continuously moving on defense, making him better prepared for a faster-paced NBA game with more ball movement. The same happened in the third play; Mogbo is dialed into what the ball handler will do, leading to him getting the backdoor cut from his assignment.
Defending against screen actions will determine how many minutes Mogbo could play on an NBA floor. One of the things he has to clean up is his screen navigation. As he’s often too focused on what the ball handler does during his off-ball defensive plays, he does the same when covering the pick-and-roll.
However, with his ability to react quickly and with his good burst, Mogbo can make up for the lost seconds on most occasions, with the first play below being an example. In the second play, we see Mogbo preparing to take on the ball handler at the level of the free-throw line.
His ability to slide his feet and use his long wingspan to deter shots is going to be valuable from each of the two levels inside the arc. The same applies to when he’s guarding in the pick-and-roll outside of the perimeter, with the third play being an example.
Offense
What sets Mogbo apart from most other big men prospects is his ability to handle the ball. We see a trend of more teams valuing inverted pick-and-rolls and allowing big men to make plays with the ball in their hands. Everything to make an NBA team’s offense more unpredictable will be used to gain advantages. And that’s what Mogbo has to offer in the long run.
While playing as a guard in his younger years, his passing ability grew naturally as the years went by. At 3.5 assists per game, Coach Gerlufsen already trusts his big man to make plays for others. However, as the team’s leading scorer, Mogbo is mostly focusing on finishing plays by himself, as shown in the play below, with the last play standing out the most. The level of physicality and touch is what NBA decision-makers value in the draft process.
The same level of physicality is used by Mogbo to get himself into position for easy finishes down low. At 75.6% on 221 rim attempts this season, he’s one of the most efficient players in the country, and that is the effect of him using his strength to force his will to the defense.
Although he’s not a three-point shooter by any means, Mogbo can use his activity and strength to keep defenses in standby mode to offer help defense, especially when teams are trusting him enough by feeding him with entry passes.
Shooting is important, but when there’s a dominant factor inside that keeps the defense busy, the importance of the shot can become less, and that’s what Mogbo has to offer to stay on an NBA floor despite not being a threat from the three-point line, but makes up for it by being able to guard the same three-point shooters.
In a faster-paced NBA game, we see a trend of teams preferring to get back on defense to not allow transition looks to their opponents. However, having a plus-rebounder on the floor will make it easier for teams to chase those second-chance opportunities themselves.
Mogbo’s experience at the JUCO level helped him develop into a better rebounder. What stood out is that his positioning is at a high level, giving him an advantage due to his vertical pop and long wingspan. This results in an offensive rebounding rate of 15% and him being a top-20 offensive rebounder in the whole country.
In the NBA that means him impacting the glass in the role of a rim-runner and energy big man who focuses on getting his team extra possessions in a game. This leads to Mogbo being able to keep a team’s offensive rating neutral while not being able to provide his team with three-point shooting.
Another area that’ll keep Mogbo on an NBA floor without offering 3PT shooting is his ability to in a fast-paced style offense, which San Francisco decided to run this season. The first play stood out when he initiated the grab-and-go sequence after collecting the defensive rebound. What stood out is the passer in Mogbo who knows that you have to pass ahead in transition to create a high-quality look for yourself or others.
To Mogbo the difference isn’t much if the opportunity to pass ahead isn’t available. With long dribbles, Mogbo finishes off the play on the second try. While going east to west, his footwork before the finish stood out. This opens up the opportunity for an NBA team to work with his untapped potential as a scorer, outside of his looks at the rim.
An NBA decision-maker will value Mogbo being able to push the pace and play quickly with the ball in his hands. In the third play, we see Mogbo getting blocked at the rim. However, he shows his burst while attacking the rim in transition.
NBA Draft Projection
Mogbo will turn 23 years old around the opening night of the next NBA season. The NBA readiness of his game in terms of his rebounding, and ability to guard on all three levels will have NBA decision-makers intrigued. Combine that with his physical gifts in terms of his vertical pop, lateral quickness, and burst, and we see a multi-positional NBA defender who can stay on the floor.
On the defensive end, his tendency to be too focused on the ball handler and the decision he’ll take is something he has to work on. This is something an NBA decision-maker can hold against him, together with his size at 6’8”. Therefore it’s crucial how he measures during the summer.
In the long run, Mogbo offers a team untapped potential as a ball-handler, pick-and-roll creator, and scorer outside of play finishes. That’s the added value in his profile.
Looking at the role Mogbo has to offer and taking the above-mentioned areas into account, I project him to be a late first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, with the likeliness of him ending up on a win-now team that looks to add depth and defensive presence into their frontcourt.