2022 NBA Draft Breakdown - Aminu Mohammed
A surprise one-and-done that has an intriguing portfolio but plenty of weaknesses.
Aminu Mohammed played for a bad Georgetown team this season but is definitely a diamond in the rough to keep an eye on. Mohammed is a 6-foot-5, 209-pound guard that plays more like a power forward, with an interesting set of skills that could be morphed into a strong defender.
Starting with Mohammed’s strengths, the Georgetown product showed some interesting offensive potential. He’s a huge fan of the turnaround jumper in the paint, doing a good job of getting the shot around in a short amount of time and using both feet to get to his spots. Mohammed usually drives using his right hand and goes up with his left.
Beyond that, Mohammed is a fan of the corner three and showcased an ability to slip past the defense for an open look. He only converted on 31% of his three-point attempts, but the potential to develop a shot, particularly the corner three, is there. Because of that ability to get past the defense quickly and unnoticed, Mohammed is a great cutter, getting up to the rim with ease and is especially solid in the dunker spot.
Outside of that, Mohammed is just an aggressive player that coaches will love. He does everything he can to try and get the win for his team both on offense and defense, fighting for loose balls, rebounds and everything else you could need. With that aggression comes a real strength on defense where he’s able to guard a multitude of positions (one through three), hustling hard for steals and getting those at a high rate (1.6 steals per game, 2.9% steal percentage). He really knows where to be on defense and will be an enjoyable product on that end.
That being said, the aforementioned aggressiveness can be way too much at times, particularly on offense. Mohammed has tendencies for errant possessions where he dribbles far too long or turns the ball over in an ugly way or just outright commits an offensive foul. That aggressiveness also translated into poor shot selection. In his role at Georgetown, Mohammed was entirely miscast in a lead guy role, where he averaged 13.7 points but shot just 37.9% from the floor.
But it isn’t just aggressiveness that needs to be fixed, Mohammed is a rough product to sell offensively. Firstly, even though he flashed an ability to hit threes, his form and mechanics are completely broken. The release and step are just one awkward motion that results in some vast overshooting and ugly misses.
As I said, the shot selection was poor around the rim. 65% of Mohammed’s shots came at the rim but he only made 46% of such shots, which is an unacceptable mark from that spot. Most players hit in the 60-70% range at the rim. Mohammed exclusively plays on two feet, meaning that he isn’t capable of getting any tough shots around the rim to fall.
If he wants to embark on a fruitful NBA career, Mohammed has to develop some kind of shot. He took just 1.9 three-point attempts per game despite flashing an ability to hit those kinds of shots and he did not hit a single pull-up jumper in his lone collegiate season.
Ultimately, Mohammed is one of those tweener-type players that have no defined role at the moment. I personally think Mohammed is a solid selection in the mid-to-early second round due to his age and moldable physical tools and strong defense, particularly on the ball and in his ability to intercept passes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop a tad lower.
I also want to take a second to break down my release schedule over the next few days. When starting this, I had the ambitious idea that I would somehow manage to get all of my top 100 player breakdowns out before the draft, but that was unrealistic. Here’s my plan for now:
Friday, June 17: A.J. Griffin, Aminu Mohammed, Jaden Hardy, MarJon Beauchamp, Michael Foster Jr., Jamaree Bouyea, Ousmane Dieng, Walker Kessler, E.J. Liddell, Dalen Terry player breakdowns.
Saturday, June 18: Nikola Jovic, Ismael Kamagate, Gabriele Procida, Jake LaRavia, Justin Lewis, Jabari Walker, Dom Barlow player breakdowns.
Sunday, June 19: Max Christie, Payton Watson, Bryce McGowens, Kendall Brown, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Trevor Keels, Josh Minott player breakdowns.
Monday, June 20: TyTy Washington Jr., Ryan Rollins, Andrew Nembhard, Jaylin Williams, and ones (Buddy Boeheim, Kyle Foster, Brady Manek, etc.) player breakdowns.
Tuesday, June 21: Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, Jabari Smith, Jaden Ivey, Keegan Murray, Dyson Daniels, Bennedict Mathurin, Johnny Davis, Ochai Agbaji, Jalen Duren player breakdowns.
Wednesday, June 22: BIG BOARD RELEASE (OVER 300 PLAYERS RANKED). Perhaps some miscellaneous player breakdowns.
Thursday, June 23 (DRAFT DAY): Winners and losers from the NBA Draft following coverage of the event. During the day before the draft, I will hit some leftover player breakdowns.
*I will try and squeeze as many extra breakdowns as I can on each day, but no promises!
Rest of June/July: I’ll release the database I work with on a paid basis which includes my working list of 2023 prospects with more than 200 names currently listed. I’ll also show you guys the NBA/WNBA/NCAAB/G League/Summer League roster spreadsheets I continually update. Other than that, I’ll be doing some free-agency thoughts, Summer League coverage and way-too-early power rankings.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading!