Every Olympic or World Cup tournament has, and will for the foreseeable future have, one major favorite — the US. Everyone else’s goal is to dethrone Goliath. Serbia has come close on multiple occasions recently, and with their talent and passion for basketball, they will remain a strong contender. Australia has a great current generation and plenty of talented young players coming up, Spain won the 2019 FIBA World Cup, but there’s one nation whose basketballing future I’m especially excited about: France. The amount of talent the next generation of French players possesses is simply unbelievable, which is why I decided to write about this topic. Let me (try my best to) describe just how many talented young players there are.
The Point Guards
At the 2019 World Cup, Frank Ntilikina (‘98) of the New York Knicks represented France at the Point Guard position. While he hasn’t been a consistent contributor at the NBA level — he had a good stretch before the league shut down to be fair — he did well on a competent France team, which gives hope that he will be able to contribute to a good/competent/stable NBA team in the future, whether that’ll be the Knicks or some other team. At World Cup level, he was already more than serviceable, and there’s a decent chance that he won’t even be France’s best option, because two other French PG’s are projected to be picked in the first round of the 2020 Draft: Killian Hayes (‘01) and Theo Maledon (‘01).
Hayes just finished an impressive season at Ratiopharm Ulm in the German BBL and has played himself into the lottery or even the Top-5, depending on whose big board you look at. Theo Maledon played for ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, Tony Parker’s team, which fits well because it’s safe to assume that some of these youngsters were heavily influenced by Parker’s success in the NBA. Ntilikina, Hayes and Maledon are very different players, Frank a really good defender, Hayes a capable creator and Maledon is projected to be a good shooter, which gives France a lot of flexibility at Point Guard. It also helps that all three could develop into solid off-ball players.
It doesn’t end there either. Maledon’s 17-year old teammate Matthew Strazel (’02) is also already a regular on the EuroLeague team. The undersized (6'0") PG is a good shooter and decent playmaker (I have written about his off-ball potential before, if you’re interested) and could also feature on France’s national teams of the future. The same applies to Elie Okobo (‘97) of the Phoenix Suns. For a non-US team, this is a crazy amount of options for one spot, and it’s not any different for the other positions.
The Shooting Guards
The headliner of the SG’s has to be Evan Fournier (‘92) of the Orlando Magic. At 27, he still has plenty of time to share the court with the next generation, and he’s already enjoyed success in the French uniform, making the All-Tournament team at last year’s World Cup (19.8 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 3 APG, 51.6% TS). One of the guys who could challenge Fournier for that spot is Adam Mokoka (‘98) of the Chicago Bulls, who had worked himself into the rotation before the season was interrupted. Another option is Malcolm Cazalon (‘01), who was once considered a possible 2020 first-round-pick. His stock has dropped a bit, but as an 18-year old athletic wing with a 6'10" wingspan, he’s still full of potential.
Juhann Begarin (’02) didn’t have the easiest year in 2019, but recently had a nice showing at the Basketball Without Borders camp and still ranks 7th on Ignacio Rissotto’s 2021-draft international-prospect-ranking, one spot behind Strazel, and 19th on ESPN’s 2021 Mock Draft from April 27th. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony recently described him as “a freakish athlete with a 7-foot wingspan (at 6'5”) and an excellent frame and has all the tools you look for physically, even if he’s still figuring out how to apply them on a consistent basis” in his review of the BWB Global Camp 2020. Furthermore, there’s Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi (‘00), who just enjoyed a nice sophomore season and then declared for the draft without hiring an agent. Even if he doesn’t get drafted this year or in the next two years, he’ll likely get some kind of chance to prove he belongs in the NBA.
Lastly, 2016 Atlanta Hawks second-round-pick Isaia Cordinier (’96), whose rights now belong to the Brooklyn Nets, had a nice 2019–20 season, averaging 14.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.5 APG and 1.2 SPG on 63.4% TS in the French LNB Pro A, so he’s worth keeping an eye on as well.
The Small Forwards
The SF-spot in the French national team has belonged to Nicolas Batum of the Charlotte Hornets for the longest time. Batum is now 31, and slowly but surely, some potential successors are emerging. One great prospect is Ousmane Dieng (‘03), who helped France win the silver medal at the 2019 U-16 European Championship. He currently ranks 7th on Ignacio Rissotto’s ranking of 2003-born international prospects, and Ignacio mentions at the end of the article that “any of the top seven players in this 2022-eligible class project as rotation players to starters on NBA teams”, which gives you an indication of Dieng’s potential. At 6'7”, Dieng shows flashes as a playmaker and shooter, even off movement. Daryl Doualla (’04) is even younger than Dieng, but had a great performance at the ANGT Valencia last December, averaging 20 PPG (61.8% TS) for ASVEL Lyon against competition 1–2 years older than him. Doualla is a strong and confident driver, who also made 11 of his 29 threes (37.9%) in the eight games recorded on RealGM this season. With his performance at the ANGT, he earned himself the 4th spot on Eurohopes’ ranking of 2004-born international prospects and will presumably represent France at FIBA youth competitions in the near future.
Another option for the SF-spot is Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (‘95) of the Brooklyn Nets, who has already competed in 210 NBA games. He has yet to represent France at the senior level, but said in 2017 that “you have to play for [your country]. You want to play for it just to make your family proud, yourself, and to represent the country”, so maybe we’ll see him in a French jersey at some point. Lastly, Killian Malwaya (’05) ranks 4th on Eurohopes’ ranking of the 2005-generation. He’s way too young to make any projections about, but he did play some decent minutes at the ANGT Valencia 2019 for ASVEL Lyon, against opponents 2–3 years older than him, and he’s certainly someone to keep an eye on in/for the future.
The Power Forwards
At PF, the future should belong to Sekou Doumbouya (‘00). The rookie from the Detroit Pistons had a rough NBA season, but with 19-year olds, you’re really only looking for flashes, and Doumbouya certainly showed some glimpses of his potential in the NBA and had a nice season in the G-League too (17.5 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 62.6% TS, 35.6% 3FG). It seems likely that the teenager at least develops into a solid NBA player in the future. Moussa Diabate (’02) belongs to the same class of tall and athletic forwards. Currently playing at IMG Academy in Florida, he ranks 8th on ESPN’s Top-60 of the 2021 recruiting class and has offers from dozens of universities, including Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan and Texas Tech.
With Killian Tillie (‘98), France could also roll out a different player type at that position. At 6’10", he can shoot, pass and move his feet defensively. If it weren’t for his long list of injuries, he would easily be a 2020-first-round-pick. The Gonzaga senior stems from a family of athletes; his dad Laurent coaches the French volleyball national team, his mom Caroline is a former volleyball professional, and his brothers Kim (basketball) and Kevin (volleyball) have both represented the French senior national team in their respective sports. And if these three highly talented individuals aren’t enough, there’s also rookie Jaylen Hoard (‘99) of the Portland Trail Blazers, who averaged 16.2 PPG, 6.9 RPG and 58.6% TS in the G-League this year. He also received some rotation minutes for the Blazers throughout the season. Additionally, there’s a chance that Guerschon Yabusele (‘95), who played well for France in February, retains his spot in the national team.
The Centers
At center, France might actually have some issues, because they have too many talented players, who won’t be able to play other positions. Two-time NBA DPOY Rudy Gobert (’92) had a good 2019 World Cup, tortured a (depleted) US team in the quarterfinal and should be the first option for that spot for the foreseeable future, but Victor Wembanyama (‘04), regarded as Europe’s best prospect and a potential #1 pick in 2023, may also want some minutes at center at some point. Wembanyama has a scary (in a good and a bad way) frame; at 16, he’s 7'2" with a 7'7" wingspan and extremely skinny, but if his body holds up, he could be a fantastic player, because he has great instincts and length as a rim protector, a fantastic handle for his size and shows flashes of OTD shot making.
If Wembanyama reaches his potential, France’s other centers can only fight for the third center spot, for which there’s tons of candidates. There’s Vincent Poirier (’93) from the Boston Celtics, Oliver Sarr (’99) who averaged 13.7 PPG and 9 RPG for Wake Forest this season and will play his senior year at Kentucky in 20–21, Daniel Batcho (‘02), who is 28th on the aforementioned 2021-draft-eligible-ranking, and has committed to play at Arizona next season and even Tennessee’s Yves Pons (‘99), who has played a forward role in the NCAA, but might be more suited to play the five at the next level, despite only being 6’6", because of his outstanding athleticism and shot blocking ability.
There you have it. This is the “list”. To give you an idea of just how crazy this is: At the start of the 2019–20 season, only one non-US country had more than 10 NBA players (Canada with 16), France had 8. On this (way too) elaborate list, you possibly have 20 or more players that could be in the NBA for quite a while, and France won’t even be able to select some of them for the big tournaments. There are still other highly talented players that could play themselves into the mix, like possible 2020-second-round-pick Abdoulaye N’Doye (‘98), Kenny Baptiste (‘00), Ismael Kamagate (‘01), 2021-four-star recruit Alex Tchikou (‘02), Rudy Demahis Ballou (‘02), Armel Traore (’03) or Kymany Houinsou (‘04). The next decade or two of French basketball should be really fun.
Some highlights of the aforementioned players. Take them with a grain of salt of course, they’re only highlights:
