Darling Alert : Roman Siulepa is the new Charles Barkley
Already on my watch-list, Roman Siulepa showed a great talent which made him one of my favorite players for 2026.
2025 NBA Draft cycle has barely ended and the next one is already beginning. First step in Switzerland in Under-19 FIBA World Cup in Lausanne. There are many interesting players like the favorite for 1st Pick of 2026 NBA Draft AJ Dybantsa. However, I don't talk about him here.
Roman Siulepa is a player I discovered a year ago in some really intriguing videos. A player with swing's height, stronger than anybody and has ball-handling skillset. An alloy that makes him a man to watch.
He comes from samoan family and was a young star in rugby. Roman Siulepa obtrude himself among the young australian generation with Rocco Zikarsky, Alex Toohey, the Daniels' brothers, Jacob & Johnny Furphy, Ben Henshall and Antonio Browne.
Here an analysis of his game against Team USA
Stats
Really good game from Siulepa who has been the leader for Boomers. In 29 minutes, Roman scores 19 points and grabs 12 rebounds with 1 steal. He scores at 7/16 from FG whose 1/2 from 3 points range. He scores 4/10 on free throw line. Negatively, there are 2 fouls and 2 turnovers.
1st Quarter
From the first action, we see interesting things. Against AJ Dybantsa, he shows a combo of speed, space management and lateral quickness to defend on AJ Dybantsa. He slides too much after Dybantsa's dribbling stop. He also throws himself too much on the ball. He tends to over-hustle sometimes and has to work on defensive clear-sightedness.
First offensive play of the game. Roman is isolated on 3-point line with Dybantsa on him. The difference of power is in favor of Siulepa so he decided to drive with post-up position on baseline. The play takes to a turnover but it shows how Siulepa's physical gravity can be used.
In offensive way, he shows ball-handling skills. On this play, Roman shows a good variety of handle. However, the real gap lies in difficulties that his body imposes on handle. He's not explosive and he has to take a bad hook shot.
He can play off-ball. Here, teammates mismanage the full-court play but the proposal is interesting. When Dybantsa shifts, Roman arrives in cutting-play towards the paint.
Here, we sees the ball-handling and power combo of Roman Siulepa. He has a match-up against Daniel Jacobsen (very tall but also skinny and has a high center of gravity). He decides to play physically and creates the necessary space to score. However, he lacks of finishing skills to score.
New off-ball play in full-court action. This time, Roman does a cut in left side and his teammates find him. He has a good catch. He finishes with a right-handed poster dunk on Morez Johnson who cannot use his physique to protect the rim.
Next sequence : Charles Barkley Basketball. Roman Siulepa is gifted to catch the rebound above the fray. After this, he leads the full-court play with ball-handling, he dodges the defense and draws foul. When we talked about a player who has ball-handling, quickness and strongness at 6'7" or less, it's litteraly Sir Charles Barkley.
He is a good player to draw fouls but he has not good free throws percentage. During this game, he shots à 40% (4/10), it's not good.
He has no power from the legs during his motion. There is a bad feeling with the second dribble and the timing isn't natural. The motion is quick but he lacks of fluidity on moving of kinetic energy. He has good percentage in other games but he has to improve.
The next one isn't a good sequence from Siulepa. If he has a good drop-back and ability to step back, he lacks of defensive willpower. Roman has to use strength and wingspan to protect the rim but he prefers to let JJ Mandaquit scores.
Roman Siulepa is on Nikolas Khamenia. He has a weak first step and cannot access to the rim. He has to play Khamenia on post-up. However, Niko has a good physique to defend on Siulepa's post-up because he's stronger than Dybantsa and smaller than Jacobsen.
2nd Quarter
There are a lot of things to remember on this play. We could criticize the decision to shot but he remained only 5 seconds so it's not so bad. The ball-handling is interesting but the lack of explosivity is a problem. If we see problems with Free Throw motion, the pull-up motion is good : he jumps high, the wrist moves well and he remains upright when he jumps. He tries to shot so he has enough confidence in himself to take it and coaches are also confident with him.
Offensively, he's aggresive. Here, he decided to play isolation on Koa Peat. He has not enough explosiveness to overtake him but he has strength and balance to play him and draw fouls on him.
However, he has another quality : he's good at grabbing the rebound. He boxouts against Morez Johnson on this play. Morez is a 6'10" player with a good wingspan and 253.5 lbs. With Illinois last year, he was so good for this with 6.7 rebounds in 17.6 minutes. However, Roman has good tools to boxouts : he is strong, has good wingspan, he loves to play in small spacies cause of rugby experience and has a good positionning. Here, he takes the spot over Johnson without difficulties.
In this play, Roman shows his lack of improvisation. He tries to drive on Khamenia with a crafty finishing but Morez blocks him. He should have see open teammates and give them the ball.
With all athletic qualities, it's surprising to see that Roman is not a defensive playmaker with a good steal and block production. Sometimes, he shows the defensive potential he has. He can see the ball, uses his hands and plays hard to defend well to create full-court play.
Despite not having assist in his boxscore, we cannot say that Roman isn't a good passer. His strong arms permit him to send hard passes like in this clip to Dash Daniels. He has a good vision and can create quick transition after the rebound.
To finish the 1st halftime, Roman drives on Daniel Jacobsen but use craftiness to finish to the rim. He decided to score with a good finger roll to avoid the block from 7-footer.
3rd Quarter
We start the 2nd halftime with defense. Team USA has good screening plays to disturb australian defense. However, Siulepa is good, has a good switch on Morez Johnson and take position for rebound. He has a good defensive understanding.
This time, we are going to see off-ball Roman. He gives a ball and go to search a low-post missmatch. His powerful body gives him a constant advantage against opposite forwards. Here, he has good positionning on Dybantsa's defense and shows good screen navigation. He has bad positionning on 3-point line in the end.
Here, Roman takes rebound but he's not going to run, he decides to jog. Dybantsa makes a good pressing and Siulepa loses ball control. When Roman goes on left side, Dybantsa places his feet too nearby and the australian forward loses control and falls.
Another good offensive sequence for Roman. He catches the ball and drive on Koa Peat. He uses power and balance to draw fouls on him.
In this play, he has to catch a bad pass in full-court play. He drives, decides to spin on Dybantsa to avoid the charge and dummy Morez to have open shot. He misses. However, his good hustle permit him to save the ball
This is the only 3-point of Roman Siulepa from this game. He plays in DHO system and shots in front of basket. His motion is good.
Dybantsa tries to drive on Siulepa but the forward has enough lateral quickness and powerness to stop him.
Roman catches the ball and decides to drive when he sees that Niko Khamenia press too much on left side. He spins on opposite side and finish to the rim. He has enough power to take contact with Morez and scores the and-one bucket.
Good defense spliting here. He clears Khamenia, he avoids steal attempts and finish on Koa Peat with a good lay-up on the right.
4th Quarter
Here, Jacob Furphy sends a lob pass and Roman jumps in the good timing. However, the strength of Morez Johnson prevent him to finish the alley-oop.
Roman uses his on-ball gravity to create a switch to open Furphy. The sniper misses his shot but Roman grabs the offensive rebound and uses second jump to finish.
Roman grabs the rebound and decides to start a coast-to-coast offense. The USA defense is organized and he lose control. Siulepa uses hustle to save the ball and sends a rugby pass for his shooter. He drives on Morez Johnson after a catch with post-up position but miss his shot.
Here, Roman catches the ball and have to score on Mikel Brown in 2v1 situation. He decides to score with a good finger roll and draw fouls another time.
Roman doesn't take always the good decision but he has an incredible motor and hustle on court.
Conclusion
We don't know where Roman Siulepa will play. He was supposed to play with Tasmania JackJumpers but the contract was breached. Right now, we talk about a signing with Pitt University in ACC, current university of Bub Carrington.
No matter where he will go, I'm going to see him play. He has an incredible mix of ball-handling skills, strength, motor, quickness and a good scoring upside, I love uniqueness of this profile.
Qualities :
Physical power
Ease when ball is in his hands
Full-court play
Foul drawing
Motor/Hustle
Rebounds
Mobility
Points to work :
Free throw percentage
Lack of ball touche sometimes
Defensive playmaking
Outside shooting
Passing/Plays like a black hole sometimes