Showing up in Madrid without his inside African buddy Michel Diouff, Papa Abdoulaye enjoyed more chances to showcase his abilities, but ended up exposing his extremely raw game.
Nobody will argue about his superb physical tools. Enjoying nice size, he possesses a terrific wingspan and a nicely built and already pretty strong frame, a lot better than your typical skinny African. On the other hand, his well-developed body only fuels the uncertainty about his real age.
Anyway, when it comes time to play basketball, Abdoulaye has little to offer. The most intriguing part about his game is probably his jumper, which he seems to be working hard on, having delivered pretty orthodox mechanics with a high release point while showing decent accuracy (actually solid if we talk about the charity stripe). He also tried to produce from the low post, but struggled here noticeably to get anything going, as he doesnt enjoy the footwork and the basketball IQ to take advantage of his body. At least, when he managed to release the ball, he did show a very raw jump hook that he could actually deliver with his left hand also.
On defense, he stands out with his intimidation skills, especially his ability to elevate really high for blocks on defensive rotations, showing nice timing in his leaping efforts. However, hes not a solid player here, easily being baited with pump-fakes, his positioning is not the best around, and hes neither particularly physical in the paint.
Well see what the future is for Abdoulaye. History unfortunately tells us that African players in this mold struggle to develop and overcome their lack of knowledge of the game, especially those taking up basketball as late as Abdoulaye (he has reportedly been playing basketball for not much more than a year).
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