Like Rudy Gobert who, on a stroke of blood, punched one of his teammates and simply jeopardized his presence for Tuesday’s decisive play-in in Los Angeles against the Lakers, the French season of NBA has been complicated, if not downright chaotic, from start to finish.
A lean year, an “annus horribilis” even, with leaders at half mast and inconstant “role players” more often present on the bench than on the boards. We will console ourselves by telling ourselves that it is to better prepare for the arrival of Victor Wembanyama in the next draft…
Evan Fournier plagued
The major information is in any case that our internationals are no longer so popular in the NBA, likeEvan Fournier who disappeared from the radar, relegated to the end of the Knicks bench by an inflexible Tom Thibodeau.
The veteran rear, offensive leader of the Blues in recent years, who has 14 career points, has only been able to play 27 games (his lowest career total!), And this only in very small doses (16 minutes in average, shortest playing time since his rookie season!), for 6 points and 2 rebounds per game…
To tell the truth, only three tricolor players have exceeded the bar of 70 games played: Nicholas Batum (78), Killian Hayes (76) and Rudy Gobert (70). They are also the only ones to exceed 20 minutes per game and only two reach, still with difficulty, the bar of 10 points scored (Rudy Gobert and Killian Hayes). This is historically low for France, which had set higher standards with the Tony Parker-Boris Diaw generation from the 2000s.
Behind, Frank Ntilikina (47) and Theo Maledon (44) have barely more than an entire two-season season, whileOusmane Dieng (39) is also approaching half-season… Moussa Diabate (22) and Olivier Sarr (9) were also kept to a bare minimum.
A historically weak cuvée
In the end, that makes nine French people who have played this season in the NBA, only one more than in the G-League, knowing that four of them (Théo Maledon, Ousmane Dieng, Moussa Diabaté, Olivier Sarr) have the lift between the two leagues. A scathing observation: it is Theo Maledon, on a “two-way contract” and therefore limited in terms of games played, who has the fourth highest total of games played and finishes third best French scorer in the NBA (at 6.7 points).
As a symbol of this joyous galley, Rudy Gobert, the leader of the tricolor clan, was deprived of the All-Star Game after three consecutive nominations. Moreover, the former Choletais went through a difficult year of transition between Utah and Minnesota. If he still produced correct figures (13 points and 12 rebounds on average), he did not have the same impact in Chris Finch’s game (+6 points on 100 possessions in defense but -5.7 in attack , according Clean The Glass)…
Tenth best scorer on his team, with an average of “only” 6 points, Nicolas Batum has also slowed down a bit, even if he is still just as valuable for his versatility (4 rebounds, 2 assists), his experience and his defense in a team that is aiming high, and playing big, in the upcoming playoffs. But “Batman” could have his role to play against Kevin Durant in the first round!
Succession is waiting
Another important fact is that the next generation is struggling to show the tip of its nose. The last generations of drafted players do not really manage to find their place. Killian Hayes (10 points, 6 assists but only 27% at 3-point career) may well have signed his best career season, he is not really guaranteed to be part of the Pistons’ plans, they who will change coaching this summer.
But more generally, neither players trained in American universities, such as Killian Tillie and Joël Ayayi in Gonzaga, Yves Pons in Tennessee or Olivier Sarr and Jaylen Hoard in Wake Forest, nor players who went through the tricolor training, such as Frank Ntilikina, Sekou Doumbouya, Théo Maledon or, before them, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Guerschon Yabusele and Petr Cornelie, failed to break into the Great League.
Is the step getting higher and higher? Maybe. Is talent in the NBA getting denser? Also possible. Does this tricolor generation lack that little “something” to stand out? Yes, it would seem, and this has been confirmed year after year, for three or four seasons now…
But, as always across the Atlantic, it is above all a question of being there at the right time. It is not only necessary to have the talent, but also to fall into the right situation and in the right conditions. The example of Boris Diaw in Phoenix in 2005 attests to this in a positive way and that of Evan Fournier this season in a negative way, unfortunately.
| Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Player | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 1 | Rudy Gobert | MIN | 70 | 30.7 | 65.9 | 0.0 | 64.4 | 3.3 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 1.2 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 13.4 |
| 2 | Killian Hayes | TED | 76 | 28.3 | 37.7 | 28.0 | 82.1 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 6.2 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.4 | 10.3 |
| 3 | Theo Maledon | CHA | 44 | 19.4 | 40.2 | 29.5 | 85.1 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 6.7 |
| 4 | Nicholas Batum | LAKE | 78 | 21.9 | 42.0 | 39.1 | 70.8 | 0.8 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 6.1 |
| 5 | Evan Fournier | NYK | 27 | 17.0 | 33.7 | 30.7 | 85.7 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 6.1 |
| 6 | Ousmane Dieng | OKAY | 39 | 14.6 | 42.0 | 26.5 | 65.2 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 4.9 |
| 7 | Olivier Sarr | OKAY | 9 | 12.6 | 50.0 | 12.5 | 71.4 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 4.0 |
| 8 | Frank Ntilikina | LAD | 47 | 12.9 | 36.4 | 25.4 | 66.7 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 2.9 |
| 9 | Moussa Diabate | LAKE | 22 | 8.9 | 51.1 | 50.0 | 62.5 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 2.7 |
