European Prospects

Personally, I must admit that I did not follow Rodrigue Beaubois that much this season. But the recent cover story on him in the French Basketnews magazine made me check his game a little closer.

Beaubois entered the scene in 2007 when he entered the NBA Draft as an early entrance candidate without having played on the professional level at all. This season, at the age of 21, he displays his full potential with a Cholet Basket team that regroups some of the most talented players in France with Nando de Colo, himself and the upcoming Kevin Seraphin who recently got selected for the Nike Hoop Summit.

Beaubois is a combo guard, very athletic and having a good outside shot. He can beat his opponent of the dribble at ease and finish close to the basket against bigger guys because of his great athletic skills. He is however not very big, something may hurt him on the next level. However, he is described by his coach Erman Kunter as a great defensive potential. Being able to move quickly on a lateral basis, Beaubois can intercept ball easily and his long arms help him perfectly in this area.

But it were his offensive performances that brought him up under the spotlights recently. With a tenacious schedule of 6 games in only 2 weeks, Beaubois stepped up big with great scoring efforts against Vichy (20pts, 6rebs, 90%FG) and Le Mans (17pts, 4rebs, 77.8%FG) in the French league and a huge 5 game streak in the FIBA EuroChallenge where he averaged 18.4ppg at 20/31 shooting from behind the arc and qualifying his team to the Final Four event of this competition.

The other side of the story on Beaubois is though that he has a injury track record that has always stopped his progression. So far, this season runs very well in that area but it was several minor injuries that prevented him from playing with the different French Youth National teams. Being born in 1988, he is from the same generation than the current NBAers Nicolas Batum and Alexis Ajinca. And the NBA is the obvious goal of the Guadeloupe native as he will very probably be in the upcoming Draft. But first of all, he needs to qualify Cholet for the French playoffs and eventually win a FIBA EuroChallenge trophy.

You can watch here the best plays from the recent French League game between Le Mans and Cholet where you see Beaubois, but also Nando de Colo, Kevin Seraphin and Antoine Diot in action.

UPDATE: Find below a recently published highlight video of the French prospect