Film Room: Emmanuel Mudiay takes on the Shandong Flaming Bulls (first half)

Emmanuel Mudiay | McDonalds All-American

Emmanuel Mudiay’s Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) debut as a member of the Guangdong Southern Tigers had its ups and downs. On one hand, he put his athleticism and prowess in the pick-and-roll on display, especially in the final two quarters against the Beijing Ducks. On the other, he was out of control when attacking the basket and forced the issue on seemingly every drive.

For a comprehensive breakdown of the first half, click here. For a breakdown of the second half, click here.

For the most part, Mudiay looked like a fish out of water — understandable given the magnitude of the occasion. He was quick to silence any major concerns, however, by pouring in 29 points on an efficient 12-for-20 shooting in only his second game in the big leagues.

Two nights later, Mudiay turned in another strong performance. While his final numbers were somewhat pedestrian in comparison, the highly touted point guard was effective from start to finish against Eugene Jeter’s Shandong Flaming Bulls.

Let’s take a look at how he performed in the first half.

Game statistics

10 points, 4-10 FG, 1-2 FT, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 1 steal

Film room

On Mudiay’s first offensive possession of the game, he runs a high pick-and-roll with Yi Jianlian. But rather than using the screen and attacking the basket from the middle of the court — where there happens to be a gaping hole thanks to Miroslav Raduljica’s lazy hedge and Ke Wu not knowing where to be — Mudiay goes the opposite way.

With his teammate camping out in the corner, Mudiay doesn’t have the space he needs to get all the way to the basket. He dribbles his way into a double-team and commits a careless turnover.

Mudiay is quick to make up for his last blunder, doing so in transition.

Mudiay grabs the defensive rebound and immediately puts the jets on to attack the Flaming Bulls while they’re back-peddling. With JingYu Li sprinting by his hip, Mudiay keeps his dribble low and forces his defender to slow down by cutting right in front of him. It gives Mudiay the extra room he needs for a straight line drive, where he uses momentum so well to get off the floor and absorb contact.

Wu is the only person between him and the basket, and Mudiay jumps into his body to avoid getting blocked. He goes up strong, maintains his balance and kisses a layup off the glass.

On a missed shot by Yuanyu Li, Shandong looks to catch Guangdong off guard by advancing the ball up court in a hurry.

Once Lin Lin corrals the rebound, he launches an outlet pass to Raduljica, who is a shade inside the half court line. Mudiay, anticipating the play, cuts in front of him and gets his hand on the ball, just managing to poke it away. He’s unable to chase it down and retain possession, but he does just enough to bait Raduljica into going after the ball.

The power forward knocks it out of bounds and Guangdong, thanks to Mudiay’s peskiness, gets the ball back.

Mudiay tends to reject the screen on pick-and-rolls, fancying his chances of taking his man one-on-one instead. With teammates expecting him to use the pick, however, it usually means there’s no room for him to penetrate, as we saw earlier in the quarter.

This possession starts off much the same: Mudiay calls for a pick-and-roll with Li and immediately crosses the ball over in an attempt to catch his defender off guard. Instead of putting his head down and forcing the issue, though, he dribbles the ball back out and wisely uses the screen.

Raduljica slowly rotates (a common occurrence in this game) and Mudiay is able to find Li rolling to the basket in stride as soon as he turns the corner. The big man then dishes if off to JunFei Ren cutting baseline for a high percentage look.

Most of Mudiay’s shot attempts either come out of the pick-and-roll or in transition. But in sets like these, he’s able to make the most of his quickness and athleticism by attacking the defense when it’s scrambled.

Mudiay passes the ball off to the wing, cuts to the basket and curls off a pair of screens, only to pop back out to the perimeter. With his defender having to fight through a number of picks, Mudiay finds himself being guarded by Raduljica once the the ball works its way back in his hands. He quickly looks to take advantage of the situation.

All it takes for Mudiay to shake Raduljica is a simple crossover and a quick burst of speed. From there, he goes straight to the basket, where he’s met by two defenders. While he’s unable to capitalize on the opportunity, he absorbs a lot of contact and puts himself in position to draw a shooting foul.

Even if he disagreed with the no-call, Mudiay doesn’t lament on his missed layup for too long.

On the ensuing possession, Mudiay sprints back on defense and manages to use his 6-foot-8 wingspan to get in the passing lane and disrupt the play. Once he pokes the ball away, he chases it down and draws a foul en route to the basket. He doesn’t get a shot off but is rewarded with two freebies at the charity stripe.

Mudiay is too quick and crafty to crumble under simple man-to-man pressure.

With Shih-Nian Chen pressing up on him, Mudiay calls for a screen from Ren and uses some fancy footwork to create space. He then gets Chen out of his defensive stance at the three-point line with a stutter step and begins to drive towards the paint.

Once he gets to the free throw line, there’s no room for Mudiay to advance due to four defenders occupying the key. Mudiay doesn’t look for his jump shot or attempt to barrel his way into the paint; rather, he finds Li cutting backdoor with a slick bounce pass, leading to another easy opportunity at the rim.

Second quarter

Even at 18 years of age, Mudiay is well-versed in the pick-and-roll.

On this play, Mudiay uses Chris Daniels’ screen with all the room to operate on the left wing. He’s forced to dribble the ball out further than he’d like due to Raduljica hedging, but he keeps his head up the entire time. Mudiay then blows past Eugene Jeter with his token stutter step once the two defenders return to their assignments.

From there, Mudiay attacks the basket, looking to draw Wu away from the rim. Once Wu commits to helping, Mudiay makes a simple underhand pass to Daniels for a wide open dunk.

Mudiay’s jump shot still has a lot of work — his form lacks consistency and he doesn’t get much arc on the ball — but his confidence in that department is a promising sign.

Following a pick-and-roll with Daniels on the left wing, Mudiay weaves his way around Raduljica to work himself free for an open look. With plenty of room to get his shot off, the result of players going under screens to prevent him from getting to the basket, Mudiay rises up and calmly sinks a three-pointer over the outstretched hands of JingYu Li.

Note: In 10 regular season games, Mudiay knocked down nine of his 30 attempts from deep.

More often than not, Mudiay looks for his own shot in transition. In this case, he does a great job of finding an open teammate for an easy bucket.

Because Mudiay has worked his way to the rim on a number of occasions already in this game, the entire defense shifts their focus once he beats a double team and drives baseline. Mudiay doesn’t have an angle to attack the basket, but he keeps his dribble alive and spots Daniels cutting down the lane out the corner of his eye.

Mudiay makes a nifty no-look left handed pass to Daniels, who rises for an uncontested layup.

Mudiay doesn’t get the opportunity to push the ball himself on this occasion. Even so, he doesn’t give up on the play, sprinting the length of the court as ShiPeng Wang begins to attack. Once he steps foot on the three-point line, Wang hits him with a simple chest past in stride to the basket. He takes one power dribble and goes right at Wu, who is patrolling the restricted area.

Mudiay misses the layup (he claims he got hit on the head on his way up) but he gets good elevation off the bounce and puts himself in a favorable position to score.

Wrap-up

In comparison to the first half of his debut with the Southern Tigers, Mudiay was a different player against the Flying Bulls. Other than his first turnover of the game, he was under control and did a formidable job of mixing it up when it came to looking for his own shot and finding open teammates. He also converted on two jump shots, a promising sign for his development after he tentatively turned down open opportunities against the Beijing Ducks.

Mudiay wasn’t as effective in the second half against the Flying Bulls — luckily for Guangdong, it didn’t matter as they walked away with the victory— but we’ll take a look at why that was the case next week.