Modou Fall Thiam Scouting Notes
Evaluating the NBA Academy Africa swingman following the 2025 NBA Academy Games.
Birthday: May 25, 2005
Class of: 2025
Height: 6-foot-5
Team: NBA Academy Africa
From: Senegal 🇸🇳
Stats: 10.2 PTS, 3.6 REB, 3.2 AST to 3.2 TOV, 2.8 STL, 0.4 BLK, 1.8 PF on 39.2 FG% (20/51) / 25 3P% (6/24) / 45.5 FT% (5/11) in 5 GP (167 mins)
Role: Transition playmaker
Swing skill: Half-court development
Modou Fall Thiam is a fluid, rangy swingman who excels in transition, picks up steals in the passing lanes, and shows glimpses of complementary passing. However, the Senegalese prospect is already 20 years old, and he really struggles in the half-court. His ballhandling, passing, and self-creation are largely limited to the open court.
Thiam is already a high-major D-I recruit — he visited Southern California and LSU in Feb. 2024, as well as SMU that October — following in the footsteps of fellow NBA Academy Africa and Games alumni Thierry Darlan (offers from Kansas, Arizona, etc.), Khaman Maluach (Duke, UCLA...), Ulrich Chomche (Arizona, Washington), and Khadim Mboup (BYU). He would be my lowest-ranked prospect in that list, though, as he still needs years of polish.
If I could advise Thiam, I’d probably opt for a school with a lower profile but maybe more stability and a greater incentive to develop him (that is, probably not finding it “easy” to attract top HS talent/college transfers). Something like Santa Clara offering Darlan or Davidson recruiting Alex Toohey.
The NBA seems far-fetched right now, but the G League or a solid European league after a few years of NCAA development seems realistic.
Long-limbed. Frame is on the narrower, slender side.
How much can he fill out?
Can he play with and through contact at the next level?
Dynamic in transition.
Can grab-and-go.
Loves a high gather/floatover to his left.
Rangy. Covers ground with his strides.
Tosses lob passes in the open court with decent, albeit improvable, accuracy.
Limited in the half-court.
Nearly everything came in transition.
Dribble/pass/shoot skills are inconsistent against a set defense.
Can toggle between playing on/off-ball, but doesn’t do either at a sufficiently high level.
Willing pull-up shooter, but still inefficient.
Misses seem to be short fairly often — or at least to the point where I picked up on this.
Very fluid.
Shot is clean. Lefty. Can pull-up and spot-up. No hitch or odd mechanics.
Moves well around the floor. Coordinated.
Passing flashes.
Had a few enticing skip passes with perfect weight and placement.
Likely more passing upside to explore. Was just instructed to feed the post a lot of the time.
NBA Academy Africa team played a very egalitarian offense. Lots of ball movement. No one seemed to be high-usage.
What can he do on defense?
Usage was underwhelming, honestly. We didn’t truly get to see how he can leverage his athletic tools.
Was stashed off-ball a lot of the time, but I’m not too sure why.
Would’ve loved to see him operate at the point of attack more, pick up full court, etc.
Can explode into the passing lanes. Uses his length to be disruptive.
14 steals in 5 games played.
In a high-end outcome, seems switchable 1-through-3 in the future.
Needs to keep getting stronger. Usually on balance, but can get moved by bumps.
