I don’t pretend to be a draft guy anymore. I retired that particular hat in 2017 following successive years of lauding the picks of Stanley Johnson, Henry Ellenson, and Luke Kennard. I realized that blind bias was my main form of player evaluation instead of actually poring over countless hours of C-tier NCAA basketball.
Anyway, I’d like to personally thank Trajan Langdon for drafting one of the few prospects I had any familiarity with this year, having spent the past season watching Bobi Klintman up close and personal in the NBL with the Cairns Taipans in Austrailia. So, what exactly is this intriguing wing prospect from Sweden made of?
First, let’s delve a little into Klintman’s situation last season playing for the Taipans. The NBL, like the NBA, is a salary-capped league, but not all the teams have full access to that salary cap. What I mean by that is that certain teams and ownership groups are run a little more stringently and have different abilities to pay for top-end talent, depending on the specific ownership group and market size.
Cairns, as one of the smallest markets, often struggles to pay for elite top-end talent. They, instead, rely on developing internally and scouting value for money with their imports (each NBL team is allowed three). The elite talent they attract eventually gets poached to a larger team. This is relevant because Klintman’s Cairns squad ended the season in eighth place (in a 10-team competition) with a 12-16 record.
Cairns really played without a true point guard for large swathes of the season, which impacted Klintman’s play off the ball as a big wing. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have good moments throughout the season.
Let’s start with his basic stat line per game.
Let me start first by expounding on Klintman’s exact role. Cairns’ best player last season was 6-foot-7 wing Bul Kuol (who, like all other good Cairns players, has now left for a bigger market in Sydney). Kuol is one of the best catch-and-shoot wings in the NBL, and Klintman effectively slotted in behind him as the backup small forward-power forward hybrid.
In terms of on the court, Klintman was asked to space the floor, rebound, run in transition and not be a net negative on defence. Seems simple enough, right? So how did he fare in that role? Let’s start with his strengths.
Immediately, what jumps off the page is his steady percentage from deep. Many young wings entering professional competition for the first time struggle from three, but Klintman shot a good ball on really good volume (3.7 attempts per game). As a floor, a 36% three-point shooter on 3-4 attempts a game presents a valuable proposition to a team in the Pistons that was utterly devoid of shooting last season.
Expanding his offensive game, though, will be the key to Klintman reaching his ceiling. As of right now, he’s a good stand still shooter and useful floor spacer. That stuff is plug-in from day one. He seems to have good instincts in a half-court setting, with his time playing off the ball in Cairns showing his ability to read the game with smart cuts and dives.
Most of Cairns offensive sets came with Klintman on the weak side, either in the corner or on the wing, with Cairns coach Adam Forde using Klintman’s gravity as the team’s second-best three-point shooter behind Bul Kuol to stretch opposing defences for his point guards, none of whom possessed anything close to a consistent outside shot (seriously, the best of the bunch was Tahjere McCall at 30.2%).
This speaks to a blueprint for how Klintman can envisage earning minutes to start his career, either with the Pistons or the Motor City Cruise. Not only does he maintain the respect of his immediate matchup, but he possesses the instinct to move off the ball when his defender’s head is turned.
Klintman’s other offensive strength based on his 2023-24 play is his game in transition. Granted, this comes with the caveat that while the NBL has garnered a reputation as a high-quality league with plenty of developing talent, it’s not the pinnacle of raw athleticism. That means someone who pops off the page here might be closer to middling in the NBA.
That isn’t to say Klintman is a stiff by any means. He moves with a fluidity in transition that allows him to avoid silly offensive fouls. He runs the lane well and can finish around the rim.
He exhibited a nice ability to run a one-man fastbreak in the NBL. He had a propensity to grab and go off a defensive rebound, finishing enough to make it a net positive.
That segues us nicely into his athletic profile.
Klintman was listed at 6-foot-10 during his season in Australia, and mercifully, they weren’t far off. He measured at the draft combine at 6-foot-8.75 without shoes, with a 6-foot-11 wingspan and 8-foot-10.5 standing reach. He plays up to that length, especially in transition.
While he has length, Klintman does fall down in his explosiveness if you’re into that sort of thing. His 32.5-inch max vertical leap was among the lower end of those tested at this year’s draft combine, while he also measured uninspiringly in his lane agility time (11.49 seconds), shuttle run (3.21 seconds) and three-quarter sprint (3.23 seconds).
I saw a comparison that Klintman has an athletic profile similar to that of new Pistons acquisition Tobias Harris, and I can get on board with that on at least a playstyle level. Tobias won’t blow you away with blazing top-end speed, and he won’t jump over your head (anymore), but he’s a very fluid mover and can use his length and stride to get places where others may use burst (although for what it’s worth, Harris did test better across the board, including having a five-inch advantage in his max vertical leap).
OK, now there’s a reason that Klintman lasted till the 37th pick, so what is it?
Well, predominantly, it’s defensive reasons. Is Klintman a bad defender? No, I wouldn’t say he’s awful on that end, but it’s definitely not where his money is made. Like a lot of young wing players, he can get lost navigating screens, defending away from the ball, and can be backcut and dived on.
On the ball, he has the size but not necessarily the lateral quickness to stay in front of NBA small forwards, so I envisage him defending power forwards more predominantly at the next level, while in Cairns he played a lot in two big lineups as the small forward where he could use his size advantage over most other NBL wings to make up for his quickness deficit.
He’s also a solid rebounder on the defensive end, but that part of his game will also need some refinement. As mentioned above, he functioned in the NBL as a player who could grab a defensive rebound and push in transition, but that was largely a function of guarding predominantly threes as opposed to fours and being able to float into rebounding contests without box out responsibilities, which is where I project him at the NBA level due to his lack of agility and lateral quickness.
His lack of agility also inhibits him as a playmaker for others, which is his main offensive weakness. Straight-line drives off poor closeouts are fine, but there’s a reason his assist numbers are so low (his career high in the NBL was 3, after only achieving a career-high of 2 in his one NCAA season at Wake Forest).
Klintman’s handle is functional enough, if not a bit high, but that lack of split ability to break through lines of defense will make it a struggle to develop anymore as a secondary playmaker and ball handler as a bigger wing, something that is becoming more in vogue as the NBA transitions into a wing’s league. He also only dished 17 assists all of last season against 36 turnovers, which is…less than ideal.
Let me grab this snippet from RotoWire’s profile on Klintman.
“If his connectivity and defensive instincts grow, an Aaron Gordon or Jalen Johnson-esqe trajectory is plausible, while Trendon Watford represents his floor.”
While I’m not going to spend any time wagging my tongue at drafting a Jalen Johnson or Aaron Gordon at pick 37, Trendon Watford intrigues me as a comparison. A useful contributor with the Nets this past season as a jackknife piece capable of rebounding, making some plays out of the high post, and hitting an open three.
As I’ve said several times throughout, Klintman’s lack of burst makes me see him as more of a floor-spacing modern-day power forward than a dynamic playmaking wing. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if his spot-up shooting ability, which was his most consistent trait in Cairns, sees him earn spot minutes throughout the season.
He’ll also have a great veteran and archetype to learn from Tobias Harris, so some real chess moves there from Trajan Langdon.
Now, please enjoy highlights of Klintman’s offensive game in Australia.
