The Rise, Fall and Revival of Serge Ibaka’s NBA Career

The Rise, Fall and Revival of Serge Ibaka’s NBA Career - What Happened to Serge Ibaka's All Defensive NBA Career? Let's talk about the nba story of Serge Ibaka's rise as one of the elite defenders in the NBA on the OKC Thunder with Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant as well as his decline and revival with the Toronto Raptors

Outro music: HXNS

[moonshinei]

No one really ‘comes off the bench’ in the Raptors’ lineups. Nick Nurse simply tries to play his matchups.

[ArshdeepSingh-ylfr]

While Ibaka struggled last season, he has looked fantastic at the 5 so far this season, Ibaka hasn't played a single minute at PF so far this season and that has benefited him tremendously. Ibaka is also showing more bounce in his legs and attacking the post this season. Ibaka is just coming off another great game today against the Timberwolves, looks like he is in for a really good season.

[ramdamkonayungpresensya]

Serge definitely saw this video that he went feasting on the Lakers.. Good job waking the beast 👏

[brucelau]

I remember when Serge IBLOCKA was huge back in 2012, he was a defensive player of the year candidate

[MrCarterVince]

I remember what happened that caused his decline. there was an injury that he sustained back in the 2014 playoffs, game 6 of the second round vs clippers. he did finish that game but proceeded to get his fluid drained, which caused his decline. he missed the first two games of that series, came back but never looked the same. he looked a step slow. he wanted his fluids drained just to recover faster but that was the biggest mistake of his career. he should've rehabbed like natural and waited longer. spurs won in 6 as a result

[JDATSMUSIC]

And now the man is a World Champion!!!

[lucascoelho]

I think the fact the league started shooting more threes, automatically making him defend the perimeter more than the paint affected a lot his Shot blocking, he's still prett athletic, I think he'd be great playing center instead of PF

[SlashNoContacts]

“What happened to serge ibaka?” *proceeds to drop career high in points*

[nocheteipsum]

How about a vid about the most over-looked big man in the league? Jonas Valunchias. He's developed a decent 3, has a fade away baseline jumper, rebounds, top 5 FGP, improved his defense, nails his free throws consistently and NEVER takes crap from anybody! I think he has a good case to be an all-star if anyone ever talked about him. The analysts always do....call him the most under-rated big man in the NBA...and I agree. His plus/minus is also off the charts this season. Nurse recognized he's a true center, split him and Ibaka up, now they each have room to play at their own strengths, finally! That's the MAIN reason Ibaka is serging (pardon the pun)....Casey always played JV at center and Serge at the stretch four. Now they both play center, take turns coming off the bench and have legitimate 3 point threats around them. The result? 6-0 start.

[notsocooldude]

Ibaka just dropped a career high he’s doing great this season

[nishaalismail]

Lol. He is scoring 16 pts per game and over 1 block per game. This guy is having a crazy quiet year and is the starting center rn for toronto. He is arguably the 3rd best player on a championship team!

[fuzztv]

Serge iblocka will always be apart of okc 😭😭

[stanhelsing]

I always thought he could be our modern Shawn Kemp, athletically there, very skilled help defender, and developed a solid middy. Dude was definitely that glue piece for that OKC team. I’m happy for him in Toronto, but he’ll never shine like his OKC Prime

[richardx]

Ibaka should start his own food cooking channel, it seems he loves food more.

[MrShanester]

Thank you. Nobody ever talks about Ibaka anymore

[chrome]

Serge has been revived this season for real

[realreactions]

As a OKC fan I’ve been so impressed with the transformation of his game from barely being able to make jump hooks to knocking down catch and shoot 3’s. I miss my OG OKC team rip ‘11-‘16.

[emailful]

one time he was nicknamed as serge iblocka

[biidaankwad]

You were right! Bad timing lol since this he's caught absolute fire. Particularly the last two games vs the lakers and jazz; he's 23/25 from the field, setting a new career high against the lakers of 34 pts.

This is definitely due to him being a full time centre now. He and jonas split the minutes and havent shared the floor once. They take turns starting depending on the match-up; JV takes slow plodding centres and Ibaka takes the more mobile ones. Their shared production out the 5-spot in 45.5 mins/game: 31.6 ppg, 2.2 ast, 14.6 rebs, 1.4 stls, 2.4 blks.

I'm here for this re-serge-ance lol

[deathfight]

I’d have to disagree that the reason he’s doing better now is simply because he’s a full time small ball center. I think it’s just a change in how he’s used on offence. The Raptors ran a lot of small ball with Ibaka at the 5 already. The difference is when DeRozan was on the Raps Ibaka was primarily meant to pick and pop and spot up to open up driving lanes. Now that you have a Kawhi in the starting lineup you’ve got all 5 people who can shoot the 3. Therefore Ibaka has a lot more room to operate and can be utilized more as a diver to the rim which he clearly is more comfortable with. Regardless, great video amigo