By Xavi Sentís
Last Friday Eurohopes visited Roanne to follow the quarterfinals of “Trophée du Futur” that organizes LNB. The eight teams clasificated were the top-8 positions in the regular season. And we added some names to the list of futureless French prospects that you can’t find in our rankings. Here are some of them (but sure not all of them).
-Vincent Poirier (C 6’11”, 1993. Paris–Levallois): The center of the “Parisiene” team showed the reason of what he signed his first professional deal with his club, last month. His block-post game has improved a few months ago and he showed that he is able to pass the ball inside-outside (even to the weak corner), looking for a teammate who runs an inside cut or someone in better option to score than him. He also scored on different ways: on catch-&-shot (from the top of the key, from the short corner), on jump-shot after reverse pivot, on mid-hook off the dribbling. It was a great repertory of offensive moves. He has a nice size and body control although he needs to improve his strength in his low-body in order to not struggle to post up, to seal in rebounding or to dunk after contact. He runs very well along the court and has a great foot-work although he lacks a great lateral quickness on defense.
-Hugo Dumortier (Combo-Guard 6’4”, 1993. Gravelines): The winner team of the tourney had the MVP Player, William Howard (93’), but Hugo helped him to carry the team to the final victory. Dumortier has not an outstanding athleticism, but is a really smart player who knows his physical limitations. He possesses great dribbling skills to attack the basket with heart, even in traffic. He is a great passer in all the options: in transition, in pick and roll situations (looking for an inside player after the roll or the wing in the weak corner) and he usually selects the better option (when and who). He doesn’t shot the ball very well in a large range (31% in the regular season), but he possesses a nice shot form and is able to shoot the ball in stress situations.
-Adoulaye N’Doye (C 6’9”, 1995. Roanne): The Senegalese is a player with a great strength (although he doesn’t look when you see him the first time), big hands and nice wingspan that allows him to rebounding and tip the ball very easily. He showed all his strength ability in the second half in his match up against the powerful Drisa Ballo (’95): Ballo had scored 8 points and got a lot of boards in the first half, but he only scored 2 points in the second half. He has a nice shot form (in the warm-up he made 9/11 3FG from the corner), soft hands close to the basket, great jump timing, he will become a great shot-blocker (2.6 blocks/40min right now) and a lot of energy to fight in the paint. He needs to improve in his footwork (but is not bad at all), add some pounds in his frame and his conditioning (he needs to rest on the bench very usually).
-Yannis Morin (PF 6’10”, 1993. Cholet). Yannis is an outstanding athlete, with a great wingspan, leaping ability and he has improved his shot form. He has good dribbling skills for his size that, joined with his athleticism, allows him to drive to the basket with great facility. He is able to shot the ball in the back-step jump shot, with an effective 4/5 meters shot, both catch-and-shot and after spin move in the block post. Also he is able to score after contact or to find the teammate on the weak side when he has two defenders guarding him. But he is a very emotional player and sometimes he has a reprehensible behavior. In spite of this, he is a very interesting player with a lot of tools to become a good player at pro-level.
-Romuald Morency (SG/SF 6’7”, 1995. Cholet). Morency is an intriguing prospect with a skinny frame that doesn’t call your attention. He seems a quiet man without any interest to be the superstar of his team. He is an all-around player with nice dribbling skills and a great ability to drive the ball in fast-breaks. He is very fluid on defense and he knows what his team needs on the defense end. Although he needs to improve his feet-quickness on defense, he slides so well to chase in screens, he is a good shot-blocker for his size and position because he also possesses a great leaping ability and he “reads” very well the opponent offense. In the offense end he is a great shooter because he has a great body-control and nice release, and he is able to square up very quick in all situations: catch-and-shot, off the dribbling or in spot shots. Maybe sometimes he lacks a lot confidence and his skills are a bit robotics, but he is a great team player who rarely takes any selfish decision. Morency is a very interesting college prospect.
-Timothé Luwawu (SF 6’6”, 1995. Antibes). Timothé mixes perfectly athleticism, leaping ability, agility and body-control. He is able to use all this tools in order to drive the ball to the basket with confidence, although sometimes without any control and he needs to improve his ball handling with the left hand. He possesses a nice first step (great explosiveness) that allows him to beat his defender and he uses his dribbling skills to attack the rim, also with traffic in the paint. Luwawu has a great shot form and high release point, even in the jump shot, but he doesn’t get a great average in the 3-points range. Luwawu is a player that always wants the ball in his hands, and doesn’t refuse the responsibility even in stress situations. On the defense side he is able to guard the best player in the offense and is a great rebounder for his size and position (6.5 boards per game in regular season).
-Lenny Charles-Catherine (SG/SF 6’4”, 1995. Nancy). Lenny was, without any doubt, the most powerful wing of the tournament. Charles-Catherine possesses a great body (although he is not very tall), with a developed upper-body and a nice agility. He uses his strength to attack the rim with great determination and he is able to dunk the ball with strong facility, even with a defender close to him (the referees didn’t call many contacts and Lenny couldn’t take advantage to all his physical tools). He needs to improve his skills and his shot mechanics in order to increase his average (1/10 3FG in the match, although he had a not bad 38% in the regular season) and maybe he should be smarter and looking for another options when he is not able to score from the shot. He sometimes plays too fast and without pause (4.4 turnovers per game), but he uses his athleticism to score easily in transition (he dunked the ball in the second overtime without any difficulty). He has all the physical tools to become a great athlete; the question is if he will be able to translate that at the court.
-Mehdy Ngouama (PG 6’0”, 1995. Nancy). Mehdy possesses a great quickness and determination to drive the ball coast-to-coast and attack the rim with no effort. He has not fear of any kind of defender, and he mixes explosiveness and agility to change of pace dribble very easily. He attacks the rim very hard, and takes advantage to his leaping ability to score even through the contact. He needs to improve his play selection (sometimes he take shots with his guard so close to him), but he has a great ball handling. Sometimes it seems that he is a scorer in a Point Guard body. Ngouama was very hard defending the ball over the court, with quick hands to steal the ball (2.5 steals per game in regular season). He is not a great shooter, although he has not a disastrous shot release, but he lacks of confidence and his shot selection is not very good.
Other names in a quick standpoint:
Lionel Ebreuil (PF 6’7”, 1995. Cholet). Lionel is an undersized inside player, but with a great size, that showed some flashes of his strength and athleticism to play hard in the paint. He has a nice touch under the rim and a great footwork in the block post. He is a prototype (and interesting) undersized PF player of the NCAA (Dejuan Blair, Georges Niang, etc.).
Thomas Ville (CG 6’3”, 1995. Roanne). Ville is a combo guard with an outstanding leaping ability (in the warm-up he showed us his dunk-contest repertory) and a nice quickness. He needs to improve his shooting release to become a scorer SG (maybe a bit undersized) or on the other hand, his basketball comprehension to become a real Point Guard (he also must control the quantity of turnovers). We will see.
Geoffrey Delarboulas (SG 6’6”, 1996. Nancy). Geoffrey has a nice size (but not an outstanding) for his age and position. He is a great shooter and an unselfish player that helps in a lot of statistics. Although he has not a great leaping ability, he is able to dunk the ball with energy when it’s necessary.
Isaia Cordinier (SG 6’5”, 1996. Antibes) Isaia is a skinny player with a great agility and quickness. He is a great defender who is able to defend the ball over the court with energy, to deflect a pass, even to go over the screens thanks to his quick defense footwork. He also is a great rebounder comparing with Soothing Guards. In the offense end he is able to use his athleticism to attack the rim easily. He needs to select much better his shot attempts.
Photo: X.S.
Twitter of the author: @garden7613
