Gabe Muoneke

Gabe Muoneke came off the bench to give Tau Vitoria some solid minutes in all three of their games here, only recently having joined them after being bought out of the D-League. He plays the power forward position primarily, and seems like a nice piece for them to have, even if they don’t give him much of a chance to show off his offensive ability. He made some big plays for them in the quarterfinals against Malaga especially, hitting an important 3-pointer on one end with 1:30 left, then taking a big rebound on the defensive end, and knocking down both free throws after getting fouled.

We’re talking about a solidly built combo forward--long, extremely physical, decently athletic, who does good work banging inside, is a terrific rebounder for his size, and can also step out and knock down a 3-pointer. He’s a smart player, unselfish in his passing—he seems to have adapted to European basketball fairly quickly, and to his credit, did not take any bad shots. He’s also a pretty good defender (mostly guarding PFs), even if he sometimes gets carried away on this end of the court.

Muoneke walks a fine line between hustling and provocation, and he got called for one momentum swinging intentional foul in the final that ended up as a 4 point play that really hurt his team when it was all said and done. His body language seems a bit questionable at times, questioning his teammates with his gestures, dismissing the referees, getting very down on himself after missing a shot, and generally looking pretty unpredictable. He’s a solid player for Europe, but probably not enough of a true small forward for the NBA, as his ball-handling skills are average, and his lateral quickness probably not good enough to defend the perimeter.