Before Alex Sarr and the Perth Wildcats travelled to Las Vegas to play the G-League Ignite in a pair of exhibition games, the towering Frenchman was on the radar of NBA scouts.
But being on their radar was one thing. Entrenching yourself as a top prospect with the potential of going first overall was another thing entirely — and that’s exactly what Sarr did.
Of course, it helped that those two games came against another highly-rated player in Ron Holland, who at that point was a leading contender in the conversation for the No. 1 pick.
For Sarr, it was a blessing, only putting more eyes on him as he put up a combined 43 points, 17 rebounds and 12 blocks in the two games.
For other players though, it could have just as easily been a curse and it would be understandable for an 18-year-old to falter under that kind of pressure.
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But sometimes it is easy to forget Sarr was only 18 years old when he made his Wildcats debut.
Some of that obviously has to do with his 7-foot-1 frame. More of it though has to do with the maturity beyond his years; the self-awareness in the way he speaks and evaluates his game.
As impressive as Sarr the person is off the court, the potential of the player on it is obvious.
It is why Sarr went from being mocked at 19th overall to the Knicks by ESPN.com in June last year to fifth by the website in its first mock draft after the Frenchman’s standout showing in Vegas against Holland and G-League Ignite.
ESPN.com draft expert Jonathan Givony said on ‘NBA Today’ at the time that it was an “eye-opener” while one general manager told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears that “he’s got some s*** to his game”.
“You can look objectively at that game and say if those other two [Holland and Matas Buzelis] are supposed to be the top pick, Sarr was clearly dominant and right at, if not above their level, if we’re being honest,” another general manager said.
For Liam Santamaria, Sarr’s standout showing in Vegas was just further proof of why he was the top addition to the NBL’s Next Stars program in the first place.
“In that setting in an NBA style game with NBA spacing, Alex and his unique skillset was really able to shine so that was a fantastic launching pad and it stamped him as a genuine contender for the number one overall pick,” Santamaria, the general manager of Next Stars recruitment, told foxsports.com.au ahead of this week’s NBA Draft.
“Then over the course of the NBL season as he continued to develop his game he went on to showcase his ability to be productive even as a young, raw player with a whole lot of upside on a competitive team in a tough league.
“As a result, he’s been able to maintain that level of projection and now with just the draft a couple of days away he’s a chance to be, if not number one, selected pretty shortly thereafter.”
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At this stage, Sarr is projected to be selected at second overall by the Washington Wizards, although there is talk the Atlanta Hawks, who hold the No.1 pick, could also still take him.
If not, there have also been “rumblings” according to NBA insider Marc Stein that the San Antonio Spurs could trade up to partner Sarr with French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
Should Sarr be taken with the No.1 pick, he would become the first player from the Next Stars program to be recognised with that honour.
Even if he is selected second overall as is currently tipped, Sarr would still be the highest-drafted player to come out of the program.
Either way, he is expected to join LaMelo Ball, Josh Giddey, and Ousmane Dieng as players out of the program to be taken in the lottery, with eight in total drafted.
When the NBL first communicated to teams that Sarr had genuine interest in coming to the league as a Next Star there was “a high level of interest” according to Santamaria.
But it was the Perth Wildcats who got the first opportunity to pitch to Sarr and the highly-rated French prospect was so convinced by the presentation from coach John Rillie and general manager Danny Mills that he quickly decided he didn’t need to hear from another team.
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It also helped that the Wildcats had already built strong connections with Overtime Elite, where Sarr spent two years developing his game before heading to Perth, as well as his representation (WME).
The fact he had his parents living with him also helped make the transition much smoother, allowing Sarr to put all of his focus onto making the most of his opportunity in the NBL.
Which is a point that Mills stressed when speaking to foxsports.com.au from Brooklyn ahead of the draft.
As much as Sarr had already put both his name and the club’s name on the map with his performances in Vegas, nothing was guaranteed once he arrived back in Perth.
He had to earn his minutes like everyone else, and the 18-year-old did just that.
“They’ve got to come in here and earn it because it is a professional environment and I think that’s where Alex excelled,” Mills said.
“He bought into that. He didn’t come down being promised anything and earned everything he got with us, which ended up with him being a key part of our rotation in a really competitive team this year.”
As was the case with the exhibition games against G-League Ignite, it didn’t take long for Sarr to prove he belonged, draining two clutch 3-pointers late in a Round 2 win against Adelaide.
It wasn’t just the fact Sarr made those shots but the fact four-time MVP Bryce Cotton trusted him to make them.
“I think it gave his teammates a lot of confidence,” Mills said.
“Like, ‘Wow, this kid’s obviously only 18, but he’s actually making shots in clutch moments and he’s not afraid to take them’.
Sarr finished the season averaging 9.4 points and 4.3 rebounds while establishing himself as one of the league’s most elite rim protectors with 1.5 blocks per game.
The 18-year-old quickly emerged as a meaningful part of the rotation on a championship-calibre Perth roster and continued to generate interest from NBA scouts, with representatives from all 30 teams across the league making the trip to RAC Arena to watch him play.
“He went from being a top-20 projected player at the start of the season to being the potentially number one pick as well as incorporating him into a winning NBL program, which is hard to do,” Mills said.
But beyond the numbers he put up, more valuable than anything else was the lessons Sarr learned playing in a league that tested his physicality.
“I think one of the questions for Alex in terms of his development in advance of going towards the NBA was his ability to play with and through a greater amount of physicality,” Santamaria said.
“So coming into a big strong league like ours was always going to be attractive to him and his camp. You combine that with the ability to play in a, yes it’s a physical league, but it’s also up-tempo.
“So all of that was very attractive for Alex.”
Sarr said as much himself, declaring the NBL is “no-brainer the best decision” for any young players who feel they are “ready for a professional game”.
“It’s a really physical league and you have to be ready for that,” he said at an exclusive pre-draft event with NBA legend Kenny Smith at The Edge in New York.
For both Santamaria and Mills though, one of the most impressive parts of Sarr’s season with the Wildcats was the way he used his length in open space to keep up with guards and wings, especially when you consider how much that lifts his defensive upside in the NBA.
“Where he has the potential to have an elite level of impact in the NBA is at the defensive end and his ability to rotate across and protect the rim,” Santamaria said.
“For me, most impressively, at that size he has a remarkable ability to be able to switch onto guards on the perimeter, slide his feet and stay in front.
“He had a couple of possessions where he showcased that against G-League Ignite against Ron Holland that captured a lot of people’s attention and I think that’s one of the skills that really separates him because at the NBA level they really like bigs to be able to switch and he can do that at a very high level.”
While Sarr’s success is obviously an achievement worth celebrating on an individual level, for someone like Santamaria and the entire NBL it is also yet another reminder of the league’s growth on the international stage.
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The late Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams was one of the league’s greatest ambassadors, coining the now well-known phrase ‘this ain’t a cupcake league’ — although not everyone was convinced of that right away.
“People laughed at first when I said it,” he told foxsports.com.au back in 2022.
“But you are seeing it now, you are seeing the whole world take notice. You are seeing NBA teams down here more and more. You are seeing the Next Stars initiative take off and it has gone global. It has reached heights unknown and unseen before. This league is for real.”
Williams said the arrival of Ball was the “catalyst in all of it”.
Giddey, Dieng and now Sarr have followed suit, climbing up draft boards and helping lift the league’s international visibility in the process.
“It’s viewed right around the globe now as a proven pathway to the NBA,” Santamaria said.
“So if you’re a young elite NBA Draft prospect, the opportunity to come and play a season or so in the NBL on your way there is very attractive.
“We’ve seen a number of guys now, LaMelo Ball, Josh Giddey, Ousmane Dieng, this year with Alex Sarr and others use the platform to launch their NBA careers and the opportunity to come and play in a really high quality league that plays a style of basketball that’s somewhat similar to the NBA in terms of the tempo that it’s played at.”
It is as much who you are playing against as how you are playing too, with the opportunity to come up against established NBA veterans like Matthew Dellavedova and Denzel Valentine.
“These are guys that are planning on and hoping to become NBA pros in the not too distant future, so coming into the NBA as part of the Next Stars program gives them the opportunity to practice that in advance,” Santamaria said.
“They’re going to be training against pros on a daily basis, learning pro habits off experienced players, developing their game in that type of environment and then getting out there in the bright lights of game night and developing their game in the competition against genuine pros.”
The likeliest outcome from Thursday’s draft is that Sarr will be a Washington Wizard. But Mills said the Frenchman will always be a Wildcat, having embraced the organisation, fans and city as a whole. The feeling is mutual too.
“I think people were starting to see what a special and, I guess, unique opportunity this was for them to watch him,” Mills said of the way Perth embraced the potential No.1 prospect.
“Obviously it’s an interesting situation bringing him down knowing he’s leaving after a year. It was never going to be second year, he was always going to be drafted and he was always going to the NBA.
“So for us, I think people started to realise, especially when the projections started putting him in a top two or three peak range that ‘Alright, this is something unique that may never happen again, hasn’t happened before and may never happen again. So we’ve got to take advantage of it’.
“I hope people, and I believe our fans do, appreciate the opportunity that they had to watch a young man like Alex develop under our Wildcats organisation and hopefully they’ll follow his NBA career and be lifelong Alex Sarr fans as I believe Alex Sarr will be a lifelong Wildcat.”