French NT 2017

[sashikas]

Causeur out for France.

Axel Toupane has been called up for France squad

[Terrorizer]

France 18 men list

Point guards : Thomas Heurtel, Antoine Diot. Léo Westermann

Shooting guards : Nando De Colo, Rodrigue Beaubois, Fabien Causeur, Evan Fournier, Edwin Jackson.

Forwards : Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Yakuba Ouattara.

power forwards : Boris Diaw, Livio Jean-Charles, Louis Labeyrie, Joffrey Lauvergne, Kim Tillie.

Centers: Moustapha Fall, Vincent Poirier, Kévin Séraphin.

Experimental froncourt as many missing except Diaw. Some quality bigs though.

Very solid backcourt rotation, maybe the best in this EuroBasket edition. Indictaive is that Albicy is not even making preliminary roster and he is a very good PG. Ridiculously thin and weak SF position which becomes a sort of bad tradition for France NT. Luwawu-Cabarrot as a starting five option, for real? Many inexperienced bigs, especially among pure Cs. Bigs are good in fact but guys like Poirier, Fall, Labeyrie, Livio definitely need to play a couple of seasons in the best European leagues in order to gain enough experience to handle the pressure when playing against elite national teams and, hence, elite opposing bigs. I'm surprised not to see Nobel Boungou-Colo in this list. He is a quality all-around option for SF position which sould not be ignored. Also Moerman can be given a call if PF position is concerned. He's tough, heavy (htough also heavy-footed), experienced and he can shoot - and these are the qualities which are in deficit among the forward rotation of this team.

This team is far from prefect but nevertheless it has one of the most deep and quality-filled rosters out there. For me it is a real mystery how far will the Frenchmen go in this Eurobakset. Quality-wise it is a podium material for sure but I have my doubts about how well this potential will be realized, especially with Collet at the helm.

I'll post 'very preliminary' Russian roster later. No notable absences so far (is Voronov notable?), aside from those guys who finished their NT careers (Monya, Khryapa).

[Joško Poljak Fan]

I'd say more like all round quality anywhere you look at it.

[raph]

France 18 men list

Point guards : Thomas Heurtel, Antoine Diot. Léo Westermann

Shooting guards : Nando De Colo, Rodrigue Beaubois, Fabien Causeur, Evan Fournier, Edwin Jackson.

Forwards : Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Yakuba Ouattara.

power forwards : Boris Diaw, Livio Jean-Charles, Louis Labeyrie, Joffrey Lauvergne, Kim Tillie.

Centers: Moustapha Fall, Vincent Poirier, Kévin Séraphin.

Experimental froncourt as many missing except Diaw. Some quality bigs though.