With the signing of Kim Tillie this Tuesday, the French team of ASVEL Lyon Villeurbanne has brought the next high-quality prospect to their team after having confirmed the arrival of Leo Westermann a few days ago. With the already under contract Bangaly Fofana, Paul Lacombe, Thomas Heurtel and Edwin Jackson and some interesting young players growing with the youth sections, it was time to take a closer look at all these interesting prospects that are being guided by Vincent Collet in the next years.

Collet spoke about his recruitment in an interview for the club’s homepage and here are the most interesting parts concerning the young players.

What can you tell us about Kim Tillie?

Kim is an athlete. He is very tall and can move very well which makes him a real potential to become a modern basketball player of high level. He is PF with energy, particularly on the rebound, and a good shot even if he did not have the possibility to show it that much with Utah where he was playing in a very strict system with very little personal initiative allowed. That’s mainly the principal challenge for him: the discovery of the professional world and its expectations and therefore the satisfaction of what we want him to achieve. The expectations will be high because we believe in the potential of somebody who has been European Champion and Bronze Medalist at the World Championships with his generation.

With Kim Tillie joining Paul Lacombe, Bangaly Fofana, Edwin Jackson and Leo Westermann, ASVEL is building a really young team. Is this done by conviction or because of lack of other possibilities?

We have announced that we are going to build a younger team. This is my philosophy. It is not in contrary with the expectation of results. All the files on which we advanced this spring turned in a positive way for us. That’s good for the future. We have now a group of players with high potential and which are all under contract for at least two years. And I don’t want to forget Thomas Heurtel who is still under contract with us for three more years. But Thomas does not want to accept a back-up role. As we can not guarantee him a starting job immediately, he will be loaned for another season. I expect from all these players that they will bring enthusiasm and freshness, values that we missed sometimes this season. Additionally, we fulfill future recruitment needs with having already now the necessary number of Home Grown Players. We have now all our back-ups and can start to build our “real” Starting Five in a very open market of American players.

Don’t you think that these young players will offer you some negative surprises?

We know three of the five players very well as they have played with us this season. We are not moving into unknown territory with them. Kim has shown good potential with the National Team and at Utah and we followed him over the last two years. For Leo, the situation is different. He is from the next generation only and we give him more time even if we are convinced that he can contribute quickly. We know exactly what are the forces and weaknesses of the guys so that our goal is to find five experienced players with complementary qualities to the five youngsters. We have of course no possibilities to take the wrong pieces for this puzzle in order to avoid putting the youngsters into difficult situations or urgency of result.

So far what Collet is saying about his young guns. Here is short recap on the five players that will be on the ASVEL roster for next season.

• Leo Westermann: will probably only play with the Espoirs team next season as he is recovering from a severe knee injury. His goal will be to become the leader of the team in the next years as the 92 born player is a real presence on the court and was a major piece of the French Silver Medal at the U18 European Championships last summer.
• Edwin Jackson: after a season with Rouen where the son of Skeeter Jackson played major minutes and could work on his scoring talent, the guard needs now to become a booster coming from the bench. Collet had him already in his preliminary group for the Senior National Team last summer and it seems that he is awaiting a lot from the athletic back-court player.
• Paul Lacombe: cracked the rotation a bit by surprise last season and played more minutes as the season went on. The versatile guard can play the PG position and should be used as a back-up to bring the necessary size and surprising athletic abilities to the back court. The 1990 born player is somebody to watch in 2010/2011.
• Kim Tillie: athletic wing with a nice shot from around the key, especially from the baseline. He is used to play a back-up role as he did it with the French Youth National Teams for years. The son of former professional volleyball playing parents has the necessary athletic abilities for the French league but may need some time to find his marks after four years in the United States.
• Bangaly Fofana: long and athletic center that had some impact this season already when given playing time, especially as a shot blocker and finisher close to the basket. He has entered his name to the NBA Draft pool this year and will probably play at the Adidas Eurocamp in June.

The situation of Thomas Heurtel remains the same than a few weeks ago when we had already a longer article on him. Collet is not sure about him being a starter for his team right now and as Heurtel does not want to be a back-up, he will not play for ASVEL in 2010/2011.

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Today we check out the second part of the NBA Draft Early entrants from Europe. This list contains mainly those players where the presence for the NBA Draft 2010 has only been announced a few days before the early entry deadline.

Xavi Rabaseda – 1m99 – SG – FC Barcelona – 1989

A somehow surprising name here as Rabaseda has never been mentioned in any Draft related articles. It looked like he will play his career in Europe but with this presence, he shows to have NBA ambitions at least somewhere in his mind. The Barcelona player saw his minutes mainly for Cornella this season in LEB Gold and will most likely not be a name in the Draft in the end.

Prediction: withdraws

Stefan Bircevic – 2m09 – PF – Metalac – 1989

Unknown player to me that used this opportunity to get his name around and may be present at the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. He saw some minutes in the Balkan League and the Serbian League this season but nothing really to hit the eyes from a statistical point of view.

Prediction: withdraws

Uros Lukovic – 2m12 – C – Radnicki – 1989

What counts for Bircevic is also the case for Lukovic: not very known so far but having played some minutes in the Serbian League and signed with the same agent. We will see what he is able to do in Treviso in June if he gets an invitation.

Prediction: withdraws

Bangaly Fofana – 2m12 – C – ASVEL – 1989

The French Center is certainly one of the main prospects when it comes to athletic and physical gifts. However, Fofana could so far not really crack the tough rotation of ASVEL on a regular basis. He showed sometimes that he can be a factor but still remains really raw. As ASVEL is out of reach for the French playoffs, it is highly likely to see him Treviso where he may impress some NBA teams with his potential.

Prediction: withdraws

Pablo Aguilar – 2m03 – SF/PF – Granada – 1989

Pablo Aguilar had a really nice showing last year in Treviso and there were certainly some NBA teams that have put his name in the books. This year he is back as an early entry candidate and it depends on the ACB playoffs where Granada is not sure to qualify if the forward will be in Treviso again or not. His fundamentally sound play is certainly very interesting for the highest European level but for NBA teams, Aguilar must play fully on the SF spot to be a factor.

Prediction: withdraws

Ousmane Camara – 2m04 – PF – Le Havre – 1989

Camara is a surprising presence here as the French Center could only crack the rotation of the weak Le Havre team late this season. His potential seems to be limited as well as he has neither the size for playing C nor the ball handling skills to move outside the paint. Treviso will be a good opportunity for him to showcase what he is able to do.

Prediction: withdraws

Miralem Halilovic – 2m06 – SF – Fenerbahce – 1991

The Bosnian forward was already last year in Treviso as a late addition and maybe did not get the most looks at as not everybody was aware of him. Still, Halilovic has a good combination of size and skills and can be an interesting player down the road once he gets regular playing time on a good level.

Prediction: withdraws

Dusan Korac – Centar BP – 1991

Totally unknown and no information available on him for me.

Prediction: withdraws

Luc Louves – 2m07 – PF – Maurienne – 1989

Louves has not been seen on courts in France for quite a long time. After leaving Orléans this summer for Aix-Maurienne in the second French division, he did not play one game there so far. 

Prediction: withdraws

Fernando Raposo – 2m06 – PF – Pau-Lacq-Orthez – 1989

The French-Portuguese Fernando Raposo comes of a season in the 2nd French division where he had lots of troubles to get into his rhythm because of injuries. And later on, he went through lots of ups and downs which certainly did not help his draft stock. He will probably be in Treviso and needs to have a better showing there than last summer where he did not really impress anyone.

Prediction: withdraws

Semen Shashkov – 2m00 – SF – Ural Ekaterinburg – 1989

It’s time for Shahskov to show something as the former top prospect is currently playing in the 2nd Russian League only. His potential is of course interesting but so far, he could never really impress anyone with results. Maybe Treviso 2010 will be his coming out party as at least he saw some minutes this season on a correct level.

Prediction: withdraws

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The young French Center of ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne signed his debut in the Euroleague this week in the tough overtime home loss against Fenerbahce Ülker. The 1989 born and 2m12 tall player used the minutes he got because of the injury of Curtis Borchardt and it may remain his only major minutes of the Euroleague as ASVEL just signed a replacement for the former ACB player. However, I took a close look at what Fofana did during his 11 minutes on the court.

The first impression you get from Fofana is of course the very long body that he has. In fact, Bangaly Fofana is listed with 2m12 and has nice long arms. His body is still a bit underdeveloped physically which put him in difficulties against the bigger Fenerbahce players. But after a first half where Fofana had some trouble to adjust, he showed during the 2nd half that he can have some impact in the next games for his French team.

Fofana entered the court in the first half when ASVEL was playing man-to-man defense and he had to take care of Emir Preldzic. He did a nice job to defend against the tall wing as his correct lateral speed and long arms prevented the Slovenian player to attack him on the drive. While he was nicely present on the defensive end where he changed the shooting selection of his opponents, his offensive presence was not that good. He started with a bad passing decision as he saw the cutter but he could not adjust his pass well enough as it was intercepted. He missed a two handed dunk out of a Pick and Roll situation where he may have been touched slightly on his left arm.

In a second offensive tentative, he saw his attempt badly reject by Omer Asik, a move that made it to the Euroleague Top 10 this week. Fofana got subbed by Vincent Collet later on but the French coach was not afraid to bring him back in the last minutes of the 2nd quarter. The Center had a final opportunity to score his first bucket of the season but his right handed jump hook from the top was a bit short and looked somehow soft and not that powerful. In general, you could see a player that is still very raw in his offensive attempts, but can run the court extremely well for a player of his size.

During the second half, Fofana showed a much more intense presence on the court than during the first 20 minutes. He started with a nice effort on the offensive glass where he worked very hard and used his good speed and nice timing. He showed good pivot moves to pass out the ball to the open shooters. On another shot attempt of one of his team mates, Fofana could capture the offensive rebound high above his defender and put the ball back with a nice two handed dunk and the foul. After missing the Bonus free-throw, he put nice pressure on the Fenerbahce rebounder and was close to gain the ball back. His second hoop of the game came from a two handed tip dunk where he recognized the moment very well to leave his defender to score the basket.

Defensively, he showed a very nice block shot on a dunk attempt by Semih Erden. The good thing of this block was that Fofana appeared from the side with a big step to explode up straight for the perfect block shot.

Now, Bangaly Fofana needs to continue with his performances in order to gain the necessary playing time to develop. You could really see how Fofana improved throughout the game and learned how to play on this level. If his learning curve on a long term is in relation with the one he showed during this game, he may have a very bright future. Pierre Grall, the executive director of ASVEL, says about Fofana that he is doing his best every on practice on the highest level and that he needs now to make the next step and confirm his qualities as defensive rebounder in the game.

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The website of the French Espoirs League has published recently an article about the 5 former Espoirs players to follow this season. I took the freedom to translate the article into English and tell you about the 5 players that want to confirm their potential this year.

Kevin Séraphin (2m05 – PF/C – 1989 – Cholet Basket)

Kevin Séraphin is without any doubt one of the most promising players of the French ProA League, he is the symbol of the 1989 generation that has won the Silver Medal this summer at the U20 European Championship in Greece. After having integrated Cholet Basket in 2006, Séraphin has improved every year and is now at the edge of having an impact on the professional level. He finished the Espoirs League with 15.8ppg and 8.3rpg last year and led them to the National Championship in his age category.

Séraphin has a tremendous physical presence for a player of his age. He knows how to use it and took profit out of in the different youth championships. However, when he will play against professional players, this advantage has gone. He needs to polish his inside game in order to have different scoring options. Right now, he mostly scores on jump hooks, coming of both hands. In the season opener for Cholet last weekend, Séraphin did not play though.

Steeve Ho You Fat (2mo1 – Forward – 1988 – Antibes)

Ho You Fat played together with Séraphin in Cholet last season but he decided to leave his team on loan to the ProB squad of Olympique Antibes. The athletic and versatile PF made this choice in order to get playing time, become stronger and to confirm his talent. He is an excellent shot blocker, has a good touch in the paint and can also score from mid range. He started his season nicely with an average of 21 minutes per game. During the time on the court, Ho You Fat managed to scored 8.0ppg and grab 3.7rpg so far.

Seidou N’Joya (1m89 – Guard – 1989 – SLUC Nancy)

The Espoirs League 1st team member Seidou N’Joya is now ready to make the next step and get minutes with SLUC Nancy. He has so far been blocked by his nationality as he occupied one of the foreigner spots being from Cameroon. But this season, the SLUC staff decided to bring him as 2nd PG of the team. He has dominated in the Espoirs League where he finished the season with 12.4ppg (65.2% FG), 5.9apg, 2.1spg and 6.6rpg which are huge statistics for a PG. His season opener with the professionals was however not crowned with success as N’Joya could not avoid the defeat at home and played only 7 minutes for 1 point.

Nobel Boungou-Colo (2m02 – Forward – 1988 – Hyères-Toulon)

Nobel Boungou-Colo was the reason why Orléans had a nice season in the Espoirs League and finished the Trophée du Futur at the second place. The highly athletic wing finished his season with 15.7ppg, 8.6rpg and a stunning 4.2spg. Boungou-Colo lives essentially from his physical abilities and his speed which gives him the possibility to beat his opponents on the drive and finish close to the basket. He absolutely needs to develop his outside shot to become a player on the professional level. But he has all the tools to become a high-level defender and the move to sign with HTV is certainly a good decision even if he had only 4 minutes in the opening game of the ProA League.

Bangaly Fofana  (2m12 – Center – 1989 – ASVEL)

Probably the biggest long-term potential of this group of players is the 2m12 tall Bangaly Fofana. Displaying extraordinary athletic abilities, Fofana will already earn minutes in the plethoric ASVEL roster this season and gain in experience for the future. His basketball technique is not yet developed because of his only recent integration of high level basketball but players with his combination of size and athleticism are rare and attract observers from all levels. He will play both Espoirs and professional team with ASVEL this season and after the excellent opening at the “Match des Champions” where he scored 10pts in 19 minutes, Fofana was calmer once the regular tipped off two weeks ago. However, he is the only one of all these five guys to play on the highest European level as he will be a member of the ASVEL Euroleague roster.

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