The mystery of Bol Bol: The NBA’s favorite player
The NBA’s most loved role player.
There are certain professional athletes that maintain a level of serviceability throughout their careers that they become stalwarts and their presences are unquestionable. While most of these sorts of NBA players come in the form of veteran journeymen like Jeff Green or Ish Smith, rarely do we see someone who is slightly removed from their prospect status adopt this role. Bol Bol is that anomaly and has become an enigmatic force in the NBA because of it.
Every year when the NBA season inches towards the trade deadline or free agency approaches, names begin to slip out into the NBA marketplace of those who are available for acquisition. Bol has seemingly found himself enduring this cycle every single season and offseason without fail. It’s no question that Bol deserves to be in the league; before committing to the University of Oregon, the 7-footer was ranked 4th in the Class of 2018 by ESPN and first for his position. Son of Manute Bol, an inspiration for hopeful foreign basketball aspirants, Bol was sucked into the zeitgeist of the basketball world. Bol was a perfect fit for the growing online presence of basketball as social media’s favorite sport; he could often be found hanging out with celebrity rappers like Lil Uzi Vert and Lil Yachty and was in touch with the blossoming streetwear scene of the mid 2010s. Still though, basketball was a priority.
Bol was absolutely elite for the Ducks in college, but this talent was only exhibited in 9 games due to his season being cut short by injuries. Before the college season started, scouts had no doubt that the 2019 NBA Draft would feature a top 3 of Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and Bol. Unfortunately for Bol though, he may have opted into a professional career too early, as NBA front offices were extremely skeptical of his health concerns– his father dealt with numerous injuries as well, albeit standing 5 inches taller –and he slid to being picked 44th by the Miami Heat, where he was subsequently traded from to the Denver Nuggets.
Starting your career in the shadow of MVP Nikola Jokic at the center position is virtually an insurmountable task for most players, so Bol got his start in the G-League, and made his official NBA debut in the 2020 Bubble. Bol, as a former top prospect, was understandably aggravated by his limited opportunities on a championship contending roster and looked elsewhere for a fresh start. He was traded to the Detroit Pistons in January, 2022, but the trade was soon canceled due to remaining injury concerns. Finally though, Bol found his way out of Denver to the Boston Celtics, who swiftly rerouted him to the Orlando Magic. Undeterred by his health, the Magic signed Bol to a 2-year contract in mid-2022. Bol had mostly inconsistent minutes with the Magic, ranging from 30+ minutes per game as a starter to under 20 minutes off the bench on many occasions, but it was still the first full season where Bol’s talent was on display. It’s easy to see how fans could become enamored with Bol’s lanky stature and massive strides across the floor, but after years of inconsistent playing time, the wacky mechanics began to show themselves. Bol has a blatant hitch in his jump-shot that makes him an unreliable perimeter shooter due to his form having a lack of speed that enables defenders to get in position; his ball-handling is a mess, his TOV% was an abysmal 18.9%; and he relied on inefficient mid-range shots for the bulk of his offensive load besides simple rim finishes. Nonetheless, there is a silent majority of the NBA audience who insists that he is a true hooper who passes the eye-test and that only casuals would denounce his abilities. People have gone as far as to even diminish the potential of generational prospect and 2023 #1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama as just a carbon copy of Bol.
It’s bewildering to observe the extent of Bol’s fanfare, particularly with how little it correlates to his production. Bol may as well be a money laundering scheme for front offices who know how much publicity he attracts, but how inconsequential he is to a roster’s performances. Putting Bol in a graphic alongside Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker as if they are equally impactful is like pouring water on to ice: clearly there is an action occurring, but the foundation remains untouched for better or worse. Thus, I want to dive into Bol’s game in order to provide the facts needed in this age of NBA misinformation.
Bol’s shooting form, as mentioned before, is clunky. Someone his size who clearly is willing to shoot and has the ability to do so as well needs a fluid jump-shot, so that he can be a genuine spacing threat; this could be extra useful with how tall he is because perimeter talent enables him to not clog the paint. Bol has flashes of ball-handling brilliance and jaw-dropping highlights, but they seem more scripted than improvisational. This means that it feels as though in many cases when he drives to the basket or receives the ball around the perimeter, it’s like he has a predetermined plan of whether he wants to try to finish or pass out; this causes him to miss open kick-out opportunities or force unnecessary shots. His wingspan and inherent length allows him to close out on his opposition automatically, even when he is not in a great position to contest a shot, but he occasionally stands idle and undeterred by off-ball movement. Bol is an efficient shot-blocker (35.71% Block Rate on contests), but the moment he’s taken out from the interior, he begins to struggle. He’s practically inept at navigating ball-screens, which goes back to his lack of focus on off-ball movement, and he spends more time guarding “Stationary Shooters” (as classified by Bball Index) than any other offensive archetype, which is a far cry from the defensive dynamicity that similarly long players like Wembanyama and Antetokounmpo have displayed.
It’s quite ambitious to assert Bol will bolster Phoenix’s depleted depth chart, considering he was an offensive negative (decreased ORtg by 5.6 points when he was on the floor), but I imagine that the Suns ideally want him to increase their size with the losses of Jock Landale and Bismack Biyombo. Bol’s impact on decreasing opposing teams’ free-throw rate placed in the 88th percentile, and he also affected opponents’ TOV% to the degree that it ranked him in the 72nd percentile. Don’t expect Bol to add anything to the preexisting elite scoring trio of Beal, Booker and Durant, but basketball is a game of margins, which Bol can certainly provide in various other departments if his talent is honed properly and evaluated appropriately.
