who will be the players selected by Vincent Collet?

This evening Vincent Collet will announce his (expanded) roster for the Olympic Games, at 5:15 p.m. TrashTalk will be there and everyone will be talking about “roster” for hours. We’re taking this opportunity to give you our in-house forecasts!

A few weeks ago, we had fun imagining what the blue-white-red squad could look like in Paris, position by position, taking into account a lot of criteria. The intrinsic level obviously, translation your friend Patrice is not in the group, continuity also, then the current form, or the needs of the team in terms of position and skills. Without forgetting the geopolitical and human considerations, in short a hell of a mess that we were then trying to untangle. We even asked you for help in a tweet, because team work makes the dream work.

🇫🇷 NOTICE TO BREEDERS 🇫🇷

Team USA has just announced its Avengers mode roster for this summer’s Olympic Games.

100 days before Paris 2024 (tomorrow), who are your 12 players for the French team? What would be the perfect squad? 🤔

We’re listening to you… pic.twitter.com/QGGecsDagA

— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) April 16, 2024

Our list, established according to the criteria cited above, and we explain just below, please stay calm and put down that bat:

Position 1: Nando De Colo, Andrew Albicy, Sylvain Francisco

Position 2: Evan Fournier, Frank Ntilikina

Position 3: Nicolas Batum, Isaïa Cordinier, Bilal Coulibaly

Position 4: Victor Wembanyama, Guerschon Yabusele

Position 5: Rudy Gobert, Mathias Lessort

Uncertainties about: Elie Okobo, Vincent Poirier, Thomas Heurtel, Matthew Strazel, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot

Outsiders: Killian Hayes, Nadir Hifi, Zaccharie Risacher, Tidjane Salaün, Moustapha Fall, Rayan Rupert, Ousmane Dieng, Rodrigue Beaubois, Alexandre Sarr

Our apologies to: everyone else

To begin with, know that in the kingdom of the blind we are only one-eyed people. Not entirely sure about the definition but, basically, assume that we neither had lunch with Vincent Collet and his staff nor passed our coach exam this year. Also assume that you don’t either so let’s go happily, hand in hand.

What we can say, straight away, is that before debating the names we must debate the shape of this roster. Two leaders? Three leaders? Two backs who can play point guard? A defensive specialist per position? And in the racket? Four or five? Are we counting Nico Batum in 3? Evan in 2? Victor in 6?

An ultra-competitive racket

In short, questions that inevitably arise when establishing a list and, here, to return to the example of interiors, we started on this postulate: take 4 “real” interiors and imagine Nico Batum as 4 on potential small sequences -ball. Vincent Collet has sometimes chosen to select five big players, but the difference this year will be that Victor Wembanyama will take at least 30 minutes on his own. We would therefore start with two essential players, Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, then two of the best EuroLeague players this season, complementary to each other and to the two starters: Mathias Lessort and Guerschon Yabusele. Which leaves us good old Vincent Poirier on the sidelines while he is in dazzling form, typically the kind of decision that risks making Vincent Collet tear out what little hair he has left.

Post 3

In the wings only one untouchable man: Nicolas Batum. Captain, experienced +++, capable of being clutch in attack and defense, isn’t that the Slovenes. On the verge of asking him to light the Olympic flame, and at his side we decided to add a duo of soldiers, defensive monsters and real potential jokers in attack: Isaïa Cordinier and Bilal Coulibaly. The first knows the French team, the second much less (we also hope that he will be put back on his feet), but in our opinion both have the skills to plug holes and more if there is an affinity. Nico Batum, Isaïa Cordinier and Bilal Coulibaly in Paris, which leaves us behind Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Zaccharie Risacher and Ousmane Dieng, a little young, a little fair or a little of both.

The back line, a real headache

We start with our choice, because it is at the level of the failed candidates that this list “could” get people talking the most. Nando De Colo and Evan Fournier each had a very complicated year, perhaps the hardest of their careers. Nando is feeling the weight of age more and more, Evan hasn’t had any hair for a while, but in our opinion both are indisputable, both in terms of services rendered to the nation and in terms of experience. or services that they can still potentially provide. The absence of Andrew Albicy during the last World Cup was widely commented on and the defensive solidity of the team suffered: hop, back to basics for the veteran. The last two places on this backcourt? They go for Frank Ntilikina and Sylvain Francisco, solid back-ups each in their specialty (more attack for Sylvain, more defense for Frank), even if one of these two places was in our opinion and in retrospect more or less “reserved” for Thomas Heurtel. But that was before the crisis and the arguments, before the competition and the injuries, perfect transition for our last section and not the least: the big absentees.

Absences that will cause cause?

Among the potential absences, that of Thomas Heurtel could – if necessary – be one of the hottest subjects of the spring in French basketball. In disagreement with the FFBB over a dark charter story concerning players playing for Russian or Belarusian clubs, Thomas Heurtel has therefore seen the geopolitical context blow his place away for two years. It remains to be seen whether one or the other of the parties will put water in their wine, but on D-100 of the Games the matter seems far from being resolved. Very unfortunate because after a thorough analysis of the pool available on the back lines, it appears that Thomas Heurtel would be the PERFECT solution to solve our problems… Among those absent from our list we will also mention Élie Okobo, who we had initially imagined in our 12, but that was before we heard Coach Vince declare that he would “probably have to take one of the guys who hasn’t played all season in the NBA”. Which immediately made us think of… Frank Ntilikina, a man from Collet although weaned himself from basketball for too long. Be careful though, if Collet were to call Ntilikina, it might well be Andrew Albiciy who would pay the price, due to the identical profile of a super defender. Killian Hayes is also weaned from basketball but he is not at all a Collet man, sorry, hard for Killian, hard – especially – for soldier Poirier too who suffers above all from quite crazy competition (and from our choice of take only four big ones), Poirier who, like Okobo elsewhere (or… Strazel) would undoubtedly make a good thirteenth man in the event of a loss.

Nando De Colo, Andrew Albicy, Sylvain Francisco, Evan Fournier, Frank Ntilikina, Nicolas Batum, Isaïa Cordinier, Bilal Coulibaly, Victor Wembanyama, Guerschon Yabusele, Rudy Gobert and Mathias Lessort are therefore our 12 for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. A little over two months before the competition, things can still evolve, depending on the Playoffs of some or the injuries of others. We’ll meet at 5:15 p.m. to see if you’ll nickname us “Grand Oracle”… or not.