Beşiktaş have spent the summer building a EuroLeague roster around Dušan Alimpijević’s pressing, up-tempo preferences. Wenyen Gabriel, the 2.06-metre South Sudanese big man born in 1997, is close to signing in Istanbul according to reports out of Turkey. Gabriel hands Alimpijević a second centre who plays nothing like the first one.
Kentucky, the NBA and a European education
Gabriel’s career mixes American athleticism with a European schooling. He came out of Kentucky and logged roughly 150 NBA appearances for Sacramento, Portland, New Orleans, the Clippers and Memphis. The clearest read on him came in 2022-23, when he played 68 games for the Lakers: bench energy, an offensive-rebounding motor that ran the whole shift, and a visible appetite for rolling to the rim.
He has been better with South Sudan. At the 2023 World Cup and then at Paris 2024 he finished fifth in the tournament in rebounding at nine per game and led the field in blocks at two per game. Short-format tournaments reward that kind of event creation at both ends, and he produced it against Olympic-level competition.
His European record holds up. Maccabi first, then a Panathinaikos spell that included a decisive defensive contribution in the 2025 Greek Cup final while he carried an injury. Last season brought 36 EuroLeague games for Bayern Munich and a 57.5 percent conversion rate inside the arc. The sample at this level is real, and so is the efficiency, as long as you accept the shot spectrum it comes from.
The offense runs through the roll, not the arc
Opponents will test the jumper first. Gabriel shot 18.2 percent from three and sits in the 40-45 percent band from the free-throw line, which makes him a non-threat on the perimeter and an inviting tactical-foul target in the last two minutes. A coach who claims otherwise is selling something.
His value lies in vertical gravity off the roll. Gabriel sets a screen, then dives with enough force that the weak-side helper has to shade half a step toward the paint or hesitate for a beat. That half step is the whole business. With Scottie Wilbekin, Furkan Korkmaz and Anthony Brown spacing the floor, Gabriel can generate open looks without touching the ball. His roll bends the defense, and the swing pass finds the gap he left behind.
The finishing package is efficient and unpolished. The 57.5 percent two-point mark at Bayern came from dunks, rolls and put-backs, not post footwork, and it suits a team that wants quick decisions and early advantages. He also works as a second-chance engine. His offensive rebounding rate and second-jump quickness turn missed Beşiktaş threes into extra possessions instead of transition chances the other way.
Defense: a big who can stay in front of guards
Gabriel can guard in space. He holds his ground against guards in isolation, slides with perimeter players on switches, recovers with a second jump to contest at the rim and covers ground in help. A full-court pressure system needs a back-line eraser who lets the pressure stay aggressive, and Gabriel fills that role.
Pair him with a mobile frontcourt partner and Beşiktaş can field fours and fives who both switch, both cover ground and both absorb contact. Opposing guards will have to work to bring the ball past halfcourt before anyone worries about the paint.
The Žižić contrast is the point
Slow first, then fast
Ante Žižić gives Alimpijević a ground-bound, back-to-the-basket heavyweight who slows the game, grinds in the low post and forces opposing centres into fifteen minutes of wrestling. Gabriel replaces him and the same defenders are chasing a rim-runner in pick-and-roll, sprinting in transition and boxing out a player who attacks the offensive glass.
New coverages at the first substitution
Opposing staffs will have to rewrite matchups and coverage rules mid-game, and the adjustment reaches the guards. Drop coverage that worked against Žižić becomes a liability against Gabriel’s roll. A switching scheme that survived Žižić’s post-ups gets tested by Gabriel’s screening angles and second jumps. Alimpijević’s system is built to weaponise that kind of shape-shifting.
Three concerns, all of them real
- The jumper. At 18.2 percent from three, Gabriel turns Beşiktaş into a four-out team, and defenses will help off him hard in the half court.
- The free-throw line. A 40-45 percent clip makes him an intentional-foul target in the final two minutes and gives Alimpijević a real dilemma: keep the elite defense on the floor, or protect the possession?
- The frame. At roughly 93-96 kilograms he is light for a five. Second jump and mobility compensate, but thirty minutes against 115-120 kilogram low-post scorers of the Panathinaikos or Real Madrid type will wear him down. He will start using his hands, pushing for position, and foul numbers that already swing between 2.8 and 4.3 per game will climb. Staying on the floor is his internal battle.
Verdict
Gabriel is a rotation piece rather than a pillar, and Beşiktaş should deploy him that way. As a sixth man he lifts the athleticism and the defensive flexibility of the team in one substitution. Alimpijević has to hide the shooting and the free throws while pulling the rim-running, rebounding and perimeter switching out of a defined bench role. Handle it well and Beşiktaş can change shape mid-game. Handle it badly and Gabriel sits out the last two minutes of a close one. The gap between those outcomes is the reason this signing is worth tracking all season.
