European Prospects

One of the nice surprises in this beginning of the season in France is PG Thomas Heurtel. The player of Elan Béarnais Pau Lacq Orthez is compiling very regular statistical performances as a back-up and totally deserves his large playing time. In a team that struggles to make a first win this season, the 1989 born player is showing his interesting talent on the offensive end by being one of the best scorers.

Heurtel, who showed his nice feel for the game during the Reebok Eurocamp with the French U20 team, is a scoring point guard first. He can either drive on his right hand or go for the 3pt shot out of the dribble. He loves to go for cross-over dribbles in order to put his defender out of balance. With his aggressive drives, he attracts the help in defense which he uses nicely to go for easy dishes. He also excels in the pick and roll situations where he can either opt to go for the shot out of the dribble or dish it to the screener.

Defensively, Heurtel is of course a bit in trouble because of his very small physical presence. Being pretty agile on his feet helps him of course but he has to gain experience in this sector in order to be a player on both sides of the court. He is not the most athletic player either and lives a lot from his instincts on the court at the moment. It will be important to see how he develops on the mental part of the game as he looks very self-confident right now. The fact that he likes to talk on the court in order to set up the offense at such a young age is however a very good sign.

Coming of the bench behind the starter Fred Moncade, Heurtel is playing regularly more than 20 minutes per game but he could not make his team win once this season. However, his 12.3ppg, 4.0apg and a 57.6% shooting so far make him a guy to follow very closely over the season. He will certainly gain in maturity over the year and we will how much he can improve.