Per Andrew Greif of the LA Times, the Clippers will decline the 3rd year option of 2019 1st round pick Mfiondu Kabengele, making him an unrestricted free agent this summer. Kabengele has played just 81 minutes in his NBA career thus far, all in garbage time, and has not been close to being trusted as a rotation option by either Doc Rivers or Ty Lue.

All that said, even guys who barely play early in their careers or are really bad when they do play usually get their third-year options picked up. It’s extremely rare for these to be declined, as they are highly cost effective (except for all but the very highest draft picks), and the players are all still young enough to make strides. In other words, if teams decline a player’s third year option, it means they do not see them as part of their future.

The Clippers have discussed how much they like Kabengele, and between that and the sheer rarity, their choice to decline his option is a bit of a surprise. Mfiondu seems like a very likable guy and is noted by all as a hard worker. Apparently, that was not enough for the Clippers to keep him another year – again, a sign of how far away they think he is.

Now, teams declining options does not necessarily mean that player is gone. Those players are free agents, and sometimes re-sign with the same teams. The Clippers could do the same for Mfiondu, and bring him back on a cheaper deal next year, but it seems unlikely. Part of the reason they probably are looking to move on is to add more NBA-ready players to the end of their roster – they don’t have much room for prospect development right now. Drafting Daniel Oturu 33rd in the 2020 Draft was a sign that the Clippers might have soured on Fi, but it’s all just very quick.

By declining Fi’s option, the Clippers have also turned him into an expiring contract. That means he’s a very likely candidate to get traded mid-season for cash or a future protected 2nd round pick, opening up a roster spot and cap room to sign a veteran off the waiver wire. The Clippers have been thin at big man so far, and that’s a likely spot for them to shore up.

This might not actually be goodbye for Mfiondu, but it sure feels like it. Considering the Clippers traded a 2020 1st round pick to select him at 27th in 2019, a pick which ended up being 19th in this draft, it’s hard not to see him not just as a bust but as a major waste of resources. Hopefully he is able to stick in the NBA (again, he’s a great dude), but it’s looking like it won’t be with the Clippers.

Clippers Decline Third Year Option on Mfiondu Kabengele
Robert Flom

Clippers basketball returns tonight with a preseason contest against the Lakers, but our player preview series for the 2021 season continues with second-year big man Mfiondu Kabengele.

Basic Information

Height: 6’9

Weight: 250 pounds

Position: Center/Power Forward

Age: 23

Years in NBA: 1

Key Stats: Averaged 3.5 points and 0.9 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per game across 12 NBA games on 43.8/45/100 shooting splits.

G-League Stats: Averaged 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.9 blocks in 31.3 minutes per game across 31 games played on 48.4/32.7/81 shooting splits.

Contract Status: In second year of a standard four-year rookie deal with team options in 2022 and 2023, earning $2.075M this season.

Expectations

After a rookie season where Fi didn’t crack 65 minutes in the NBA and spent much of the year in the G-League or in a suit on the bench, expectations simply can’t be too high for Kabengele. He’s in his second NBA season sure, and has a full year of professional nutrition, conditioning, and practicing, but there’s not much on-court evidence that he’s ready for a rotational role with an NBA team, much less one that has championship aspirations.

There’s also not a ton of minutes available for Fi. Marcus Morris and Ivica Zubac are locked in as starters at power forward and center, with Serge Ibaka a lock to play 25 minutes at the big man positions. Solid veteran Patrick Patterson will likely mop up whatever minutes are left, with Nic Batum also a possibility to play at power forward at times. That leaves (maybe) a 5^th big man spot for Mfiondu, and even then he will have competition from 2020 2^nd round pick Daniel Oturu, who the Clippers just invested in and has a more NBA-ready game.

All that said, Ibaka, Morris, and Patterson are all in their 30s, and seem likely to miss time with rest or injury. If multiple of those players are out (which will probably happen at some point), Fi or Oturu would be in line with actual minutes. In that case, whichever of them wins out for the 5h big man role will need to be ready to go and give the Clippers some solid rotation time.

Strengths

While Fi shot just 32.7% from three in the G-League, his volume was extremely high for a player with his size and athleticism. He has a smooth, easy, and quick three-point shot, and should be an above-average floor spacer from the center spot right away. If Fi gets actual minutes, I’d guess that more than half of his shots will come from distance, as teams will probably leave him open from there (until he starts punishing them), and the rest of his offensive game is less well developed.

Fi is also a big, athletic body who is a capable rim protector, as shown by his G-League block numbers. Players have a difficult time finishing over him around the basket, and that can deter players from even attacking the basket in the first place. His rebounding numbers are also solid, if not spectacular, and he should be able to hold his own as a rebounder at the NBA level.

Importantly, Fi is a guy who plays with a ton of heart and energy. He’s always moving on the court, bounding from one spot to another, and is more than willing to dive on the floor for loose balls. That kind of activity possesses value on its own, and you always know Fi is going to give 100%. Finally, he’s just a very good dude who people like to be around and play with – something that can’t be underestimated.

Weaknesses

Simply put, Fi doesn’t quite have a lot of the fundamentals of the game down. He’s gotten this far through sheer talent and athleticism, but was a latecomer to basketball, and it shows. Despite his impressive block numbers, he’s frequently in the wrong place defensively, and is not good when taken outside of the radius of the hoop. Pick and roll coverage is not a strong point either, nor is making more than one rotation in a scramble defense setting. While he would probably function ok in drop coverage, he would be a bad NBA defender if given minutes, and it could get ugly at times with teams particularly adept at moving the ball or running the PnR.

Offensively, Fi suffers from much the same issue. He can shoot, and he can dunk, but the decision-making just isn’t there (as seen by his vastly negative assist to turnover ratios at the college and G-League levels). He’s improved there, but still, if you’re giving him the ball on offense, most of the time you should only be asking him to shoot it or make an extremely simple pass on the perimeter. Anything more and you’re begging for a turnover. The modern NBA is a very fast-paced, quick-reaction type of league, and Fi right now does not fit that mold on either end of the court.

Summary

Mfiondu is ahead of where he was last year, but the overall expectations for him should be fairly low. He will likely play more than the 64 minutes he logged in his rookie season, yet remain out of Ty Lue’s regular rotation. While last year wasn’t a completely lost year, Fi’s future remains just as uncertain as it was on draft day a year and a half ago. A long-term project, another year without much NBA playing time probably wouldn’t be a death knell on Fi’s NBA prospects, but he’s also already 23, and if more progress isn’t made, he could be out of the NBA sooner than later.

Clippers 2020-2021 Season Preview: Mfiondu Kabengele
Robert Flom

Now that the Clippers’ 2020 season has reached its disappointing end, 213Hoops will work through the roster player-by-player for our “Exit Interview” series. Today’s exit interview features rookie Mfiondu Kabengele.

Basic Information

Height: 6’9

Weight: 250 pounds

Position: Center/Power Forward

Age: 23

Years in NBA: Rookie

Key Stats: Averaged 3.5 points and 0.9 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per game across 12 NBA games on 43.8/45/100 shooting splits.

G-League Stats: Averaged 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.9 blocks in 31.3 minutes per game across 31 games played on 48.4/32.7/81 shooting splits.

Contract Status: On a standard four-year rookie deal with team options in 2022 and 2023, with a guaranteed salary of $2,075,880 next season.

Expectations

Despite being a 1^st round pick, Fi’s expectations this season were extremely low. Fans (and the team) understood that he was a project coming into a team with championship expectations, and that it would be extremely unlikely for him to earn a role on the team. The expectations were instead for Fi to spend much of the year in the G-League developing his game, and to provide some tantalizing flashes of potential in garbage time situations at the NBA level.

Reality

Nothing much has changed since my check-in on Kab a few months ago, as he didn’t play at all in the bubble. In fact, he wasn’t even brought to Orlando at all, getting passed up by two-way rookie Amir Coffey. He squarely met his expectations, and not a bit more, as he spent almost the entire season in Agua Caliente, playing just a handful of minutes at the NBA level. When he was up in the NBA, he checked in exclusively in garbage time, where he had the ultimate green light to chuck shots. Extrapolating his performances over 36 minutes and you get an average of 11.3 three-point shots attempted, a pretty incredible number for a big man.

That’s where Fi tantalizes. He’s an athletic, mobile big man who has the potential of outside shooting. Now, in an actual sample size in the G-League, he shot a mere 32%, but the confidence, form, and touch is there for him to be better than that. While not tall, Fi’s size and wingspan enables him to be a deterrent at the rim, as his block numbers in the G-League attest.

Unfortunately, everything else is where Fi struggles. He doesn’t really know how to play defense at a professional level, showing confusion in rotations and schemes – his mobility and athleticism don’t help if he’s in the wrong place. On offense, while he can shoot and can finish above the rim, he’s a black hole who looks for his own shot first, second, and third. The tools are there, but the connection is not. Now, that can be developed, but Fi did not demonstrate that he’s close to being an NBA rotation player.

Future with Clippers

It’s hard to predict Fi’s future with the Clippers when the crucial pieces on the team have such uncertain futures. If Kawhi Leonard and Paul George leave next year after another disappointing season, the Clippers could be in for a long rebuild, in which case every young asset will become precious. On the other hand, in order to keep Kawhi and PG, the Clippers might go all in on next season, which could very well mean trading Fi for a veteran who brings more to the 2021 Clippers. Fi has not demonstrated that he should be a long-term piece for the Clippers, but he’s also one of the few players on the roster with upside, and is cost-controlled over the next few years. That could either lead to him developing into a key element of future Clippers teams, or as trade bait, and right now it’s impossible to say which path is more likely.

Clippers 2020 Exit Interview: Mfiondu Kabengele
Robert Flom

Andrew Greif broke several minor stories tonight with his article in the LA Times, and perhaps the most interesting is that the Clippers brought two-way player Amir Coffey to the NBA Orlando restart over 1st round rookie Mfiondu Kabengele.

On the face of it, this is a somewhat surprising choice in terms of the investment that the Clippers made into each player. However, the Orlando restart is not about long-term development. It’s about winning a championship, and the Clippers decided that Coffey might help them more than Kabengele in that regard.

This makes sense. Mfiondu is a high-ceiling prospect, but his defense and decision-making are not ready for the NBA yet, and that essentially makes him unplayable. Furthermore, the Clippers just signed veteran big man Joakim Noah, giving them three centers firmly ahead of Fi. That’s not even counting small-ball big men like Marcus Morris, JaMychal Green, and even Patrick Patterson. There’s just no way that Fi will play outside of garbage time.

Coffey, on the other hand, is both closer to rotation minutes due to positional scarcity, and has fewer harmful qualities as an NBA player. His defense has been promising in limited minutes, and while he’s certainly not going to do too much offensively, he can at least handle the ball a little and make spot-up threes. The Clippers probably won’t need to call on him (and hopefully they don’t have to), but if they do, he’s far more likely than Fi to provide a handful of playable NBA minutes in a pinch.

Ultimately, the Clippers bringing Amir Coffey to Orlando over Fi probably won’t have much an impact either way. While the Clippers are somewhat shorter at wing than they now are at center, there are still many players ahead of Coffey for wing minutes, and it’s unlikely he sees real time. Still, his getting taken to Orlando is a positive sign for how the Clippers view him, and will be a nice boost for his development as an NBA player.

Clippers Bring Amir Coffey to Orlando over Mfiondu Kabengele
Robert Flom

Basic Information

Height: 6’9

Weight: 250 pounds

Position: Center/Power Forward

Age: 22 (turns 23 in August)

Years in NBA: Rookie

Key Stats: Averaged 3.5 points and 0.9 rebounds in 5.3 minutes per game across 12 NBA games on 43.8/45/100 shooting splits.

G-League Stats: Averaged 18.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.9 blocks in 31.3 minutes per game across 31 games played on 48.4/32.7/81 shooting splits.

Contract Status: Signed to a standard four-year rookie deal with team options in 2022 and 2023, earning $1.98M this season.

Expectations

Despite being a 1^st round pick, Fi’s expectations were nearly non-existent this season. He was always projected to be a long-term prospect, and coming into a team that was nearly immediately thrust into conversation for the NBA championship, he was not in a position to play much. Overall expectations were for Fi to get some garbage time minutes in the NBA, maybe snag a couple games as a rotation player if there were heavy injuries, and spend most of the year down in the G-League.

Reality

Perhaps no player on the Clippers has had a 2020 season that more closely fit expectations than Kab. He only played in a handful of NBA games, all in utter garbage time, and was in Agua Caliente for the vast majority of the season. In his brief NBA appearances, he chucked the ball without regard, getting shots up nearly every time he touched the rock. Now, for a rookie in garbage time, that’s not unexpected, so there’s not really much to take away from it, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

In the G-League, Kab mostly played quite well, though he showed the same areas for improvement that were evident before the draft. These ultimately boil down to one thing: lack of awareness on both ends. On offense, Kab has very little court vision and is not adept at passing, mostly honing in on the basket and getting his shots up. He’s a willing defender on the other side of the court, but is prone to jumping too early and being out of position for help defense. Essentially, while he has the athleticism, frame, and shooting of an NBA player, the instincts and actual tangible abilities aren’t there yet.

Future with Clippers

Nothing has really changed from the draft a year ago. Mfiondu is still a long-term prospect with good upside, but not one close to reaching it. The Clippers, presumably, are in for the long haul with Fi, though it’s possible he gets shopped in a win-now move if a good one coms along. With the Clippers having four big men free agents this summer (Montrezl Harrell, Marcus Morris, Patrick Patterson, and potentially JaMychal Green), there could be more space for Kab next season. It’s likely he will be around for the ride, so hopefully he takes a step forward from “intriguing prospect” to “bonafide NBA Player” in 2021.

LA Clippers Check-In: Mfiondu Kabengele
Robert Flom