The Case for Alex Sarr

Why the French Big , could ascend to #1 pick status

The Perth Wildcats are heading to Las Vegas this NBA off-season, and will become the first Australian side to take on the NBA G-League Ignite as part of their pre-season camp in Nevada. The two games – which will be played on September 6 and September 8 – will provide the first professional glimpse of Ron Holland & Matas Buzelis (top 2 projected 2024 players). It marks the first major game in the draft cycle in a similar way Scoot Henderson & Victor Wembanyama’s first exhibition did a year ago. Importantly, the Wildcats feature a projected top-20 prospect in Alexandre Sarr. Sarr has played two pre-season games for Perth so far, showcasing his enchanting talents. He is averaging 10.5 points and 6 rebounds on 53% shooting from the field in limited minutes, to start his professional career.

He isn’t considered a mainstream contender to compete against Holland & Buzelis™️ for the #1 pick, but he has as good an argument to supplant them as any. The 7-footers convergence of movement skills, size, youth, and scalable traits make Sarr as good a bet as this class holds.

Movement Skills

Alexandre Sarr is the younger brother of current OKC Thunder center Olivier Sarr, standing around 7’1 from Bordeaux, France. The wing-like big is extremely fluid and can play either the four or five spot effectively. His physical maturity is a question but he's one of the youngest players in the class and by the time draft night comes around, Sarr will have just turned 19. Sarr is an efficient and graceful mover, whose patterns are more effortless than explosive. He has a low center of mass and combines impressive upper-body flexibility with an elastic lower base. These general kinematics allow him to use long, graceful strides that guide his impact on both ends. He’s able to generate verticality quickly with non-extension movements - strong pivoting mechanisms, and pelvic elevation. He has a remarkably efficient running economy especially for someone 6’11-ish. Sarr rarely over-strides, and his mid-foot striking empowers great ground-foot interaction.

Sarr is a very high-level functional athlete, with limited-to-no movement issues. Goes in the direction he intends with ease. Moves and jumps with ease. As he gets his adult body, each move will become even more explosive.

Defensive Versatility

The difficulty in evaluating defensive proficiency is determining what’s a product of the scheme versus a weakness in a player’s awareness. Point of attack defense is fairly simple. It’s a binate objective - contain the ball or don’t. Off-ball defense is an experience. It doubles as what is actually happening on court , and what is happening through the perspective of the defensive framework. Additionally, what is happening through the lens of the coach. Sarr’s developmental background has been through a very murky glass, with OTE (and even the U19 film) giving unclear schematic details defensively. What’s incredibly clear is that Sarr can cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

Typical OTE madness , where the Dreamerz send 2 to the ball , and Sarr is forced to help the helper all the way from the 3-point line. Sarr’s overzealous ball targeting leads to a foul here, but he’s evidently present in the contest despite having 24 feet to cover.

Here Serbia gets into a side PNR and the handler rejects against Risacher, beating him OTD. Sarr is positioned above the break , but quickly recognizes the advantage , eats up the vast space , and times his jump with the handler’s for the block.

Sarr showcases elite timing, verticality, and ball tracking for an 18-year-old big man when he’s deployed as a helper.

In the passing lanes, his elongated strides and wingspan (7’4.5 ) allow him to nab steals like above. He reads the eyes of the handler well, is able to get from the free throw line to nearly half-court in 2 strides, and takes this coast to coast for the pick-six.

Importantly his formidable length allows him to close driving lanes as quickly as they opened. Like here , where his teammate is out of position on the closeout so he has to dig at the nail, but he has the length to recover for a solid contest on his man even after gapping.

Here, Sarr does a good job of being early in helping as 5-star Jayden Quaintance slips, closing up the would-be rim attempt, and forcing a kick-out. Next, Sarr digs on a drive out of a closeout attack forcing an early pickup and bad floater attempt.

Here in transition, Sarr has to closeout on the perimeter with 10+ feet separating him and his man. Sarr is able to decelerate once his man begins his drive, is able to quickly flip his hips to stay with the handler, and his length engulfs the rim attempt.

Sarr is early tagging here to take away the roll man. On the closeout Sarr shows sublime deceleration , and does well to move his feet in space funneling his man into help. 

Here the Dreamerz attempt to Hedge with Sarr, and the handler rejects to get downhill. Sarr’s acceleration really showcases on a possession like the one above, matching the handler stride for stride, before quickly getting vertical, and murdering the rim attempt.

Here, Sarr is guarding the 5th overall pick from last year’s draft, Ausar Thompson. Sarr quickly opens his hips as Ausar begins his drive with help camped behind him, and absorbs this bump from Ausar before snatching his shot.

Sarr will struggle in terms of positioning, being prone to overreact to certain movements and lacking the explosion to recover. Here, Sarr overreacts to the threat of DHO completely shifting his body weight and not being able to contain the drive.

Here, Sarr overreacts to hang dribble and his recognition of the R to L crossover is seemingly late, allowing the handler to comfortably win off-the-dribble.

In drop coverage, Sarr often lacks the proper technique to take away rollers. Here, his body isn't angled toward the roller, and he doesn't show his hands low to take away the passing angle.

Sarr has an incredibly unique athletic profile , but oddity doesn’t directly correlate with value. Instead it’s the super-natural mechanics of Sarr’s athleticism (7’1 / 7’5 WS / ++ movement skills) defensively, doing a fusion dance with ultra-valuable defensive roles. His ability to cover ground with long strides , flip his hips cleanly , and utilize his length as a recovery tool makes him prime to be the standard switchy-roaming hybrid that fuel many great defenses. Sarr does not have DPOY indicators like JJJ or Evan Mobley did pre-NBA, but he has that have made Onyeka Okongwu, WCJ, and Nic Claxton incredibly valuable.

He can guard multiple positions. He can protect the rim as a helper (tendencies to over-help aside). Sarr’s PNR defense isn’t perfect, but technical improvements could make him serviceable to pretty good. The value in being a “ versatile & great, but not all-defense “ center is undervalued, and there are indicators that you can produce T50 value on that front alone. Guys like Christian Koloko, Nerlens Noel, and Robert Williams can produce nearly 2-points per 100 possessions on defense alone (per EPM).

Impact metrics aren’t perfect, heck I’d argue that they don’t tell us much about an individual player at all, but these metrics do communicate something about a larger archetype. Are these types of defensive bigs truly less valuable than the 1-way tertiary scoring slanted 2-guards that have come into favor recently? I can’t for sure say, but I can say is it’s closer than what the public ethos believes, and the former has more scarcity. What really rounds out Sarr’s future impact is his offensive utility.

Offensive Usage

Whatever one believes about Sarr’s offense, they have to ask an important question: In a lineup, what Is Alex Sarr? Is he a slim big? An overstretched wing? Many see this type of positional ambiguity as a weak point in his profile, but it should be considered a strength. Sarr has a bunch of offensive skills that could lead to him being placed in a bunch of different lineup types. Sarr is a quick leaper, a fairly quick processor, and has elite coordination.

These skills most often materialize in transition, where his graceful strides cover ground and his skill does the rest of the work. Here, Sarr attracts the attention of the defense by gathering for a euro, before dropping a dime behind the negligent defenders.

He can call his own number as a scorer in semi-transition. Like here, where Sarr pushes the pace, and sells his momentum middle above the break, before using a mini R to L crossover to draw a foul at the rim.

He's a dangerous threat as a vertical scorer while lacking an elite vertical, possessing great length, and getting off the grand quickly. Here the help gets there late and it leads to him getting put on a poster.

On the surface, it’s easy to envision Sarr’s 7'5 wingspan and 7’0 frame coupled with his lightning-quick leaping presenting the framework for an elite lob catcher.

Sarr has potential short roll utilization, as a scorer or advantage playmaker. Here in an advantage situation, he’s able to dust the secondary rim help with a euro and scoop layup. Notice him selling his momentum to his right foot, before effortlessly flipping his hips, striding towards the basket , and scooping it at the cup.

He’s not a very manipulative passer, but there are signs of expansion in terms of willingness. Above in a 4 on 3 situation, he showcases accuracy and touch on the jump pass to fit it into a tight window.

He’s a willing and active mover, incessantly flashing and cutting into space. He’s the first screener in a staggered screening action and is ignored as a spacer after the ball handler gets downhill. Sarr does a great job here cutting into space, making himself available, and shaking the rim.

That possession is largely indicative of a bigger question: Is Alex Sarr a spacer? It’s a question worth asking, his shooting indicators paint a confusing picture. In OTE he had a 30.3 3Pr , and shot a respectable number for a big his age at 30%. On the contrary his touch isn’t great, and he shot sub-60% from the free throw line. He’s got a high release point, clean energy transfer from knees to hips, and a relatively fluid 2-motion shot.

During Perth’s pre-season games He flashed more off-the-dribble 3-point shotmaking. Here, He pushes in transition looking for his first read in a back cut, as that’s cut off he retreats into space for the step back 3.

He’s seemingly improved in the last few months in terms of energy transfer. On this 3-point attempt from just 7 months ago, his hips were seemingly a lot tighter. On both attempts you’ll notice his off-hand sliding above the ball, consequently blocking it’s path towards the rim.

Sarr will shoot, which is more than you can say about most 7’0 18-year-olds, and there’s a baseline ability that could expand with S&C training. The issue lies in how those percentages aid his hopes of spacing the floor next to another big to amplify his other traits. If Sarr is a league average shooter, he’s the big modern forward you want next to your center, with D/P/S capabilities and secondary-rim protection plus scheme versatility. If Sarr improves to a lesser degree, he’ll likely have to play the 5 which in many ways accentuates his strengths on offense, but magnifies his weaknesses defensively. Sarr’s weight development to this point has been stark so a gain in mass to play the 5 seems reasonable. Coupled with natural technical improvements with age , playing time as a 5 is entirely possible.

That’s the beauty of Alex Sarr, there’s plenty of ways he can succeed. Being Alex Sarr is being a big/wing hybrid who can link perimeter and exterior coverages while taking very little air out the room offensively. He can fit next to your young handler as a strong roller, or potentially complement other bigs with his strong perimeter skill set. He can cover ground as a roamer to close advantages, or ( with technical improvements) be in the center of action as an anchor. Drafting a creation bet in a class like this, means you’re running the chance of taking away reps from other young handlers with little in return. Drafting a “ two-way “ wing with limited offensive impact runs the risk of them derailing into mediocrity. There’s a strong chance Sarr presents the best option for a middle ground, and in that middle may lie a #1 pick.