There's been a lot of problems with the TV rights for Pro A this year so this was the first opportunity to watch a full game from Begarin.
Fun game between Paris Basketball at home and ASVEL (best team in France, 6-2 in Euroleague right now). Lots of hype (sold out stadium, first career start for Wembanyama, plenty of NBA personnel in attendance including RC Buford apparently) and you could see a couple of players struggle a little with the intensity. Not Kamagate though. Took Wembanyama out of the game by putting him in foul trouble early and when he rolled he got above the rim in a blink of an eye, nice timings on blocks and contests, somebody is going to draft him in June.
Begarin started on the bench and when he came in he had to pick up William Howard or Elie Okobo (both had a cup of coffee in the NBA, members of the french national team, they can play). He got called for a couple fouls for picking guys up pretty agressively but considering the physicality of the game I didn't care much for either calls. Drove right into Youssoupha Fall (7'3) and promptly got blocked. Don't know what the thought process was there. Throughout the game, he had a tendency to overhelp when somebody drove but he still managed to get back out to shooters and had solid contests. He was much better during his second stint of the half capping a run with an open three pointer to force an ASVEL timeout.
Then he came out with a loud dunk in transition to put Paris up 1 at the half.
He started the second half, played almost the entire third quarter and mostly defended David Lighty (last year's Finals MVP in Pro A). Begarin had a nice putback and was generally active on the boards. He had a really nice play where he went to the corner to cover a shooter on an ASVEL fastbreak and when the ball was thrown to Fall in the middle he came all the way over to break it up and even drew a foul on Fall as he barged into Begarin. Juhann also had a nice pass ahead to find a team for a dunk in transition. There was another play I liked where he missed a pull up three with the shot clock winding down, one of his teammates got the offensive board in the opposite corner shot it right away and Begarin instead of standing there or hanging his head after his miss went right after the ball and tied up the ASVEL center to force a jump ball.
He had a drive where he missed a teammate wide open for three but still liked the agressiveness to go right at Fall and Wembanyama and he got two free throws for his troubles. He also drove baseline right by a closeout and had a nice assist on the dumpoff to O'Quinn once he got the ASVEL big man to commit to stopping his drive. He was really good in transition getting a easy bucket on one instance and drawing a foul for two free throw after trying to go coast to coast of the defensive board on another.
Came back with 5 and a half minutes left in the game. He had a nice defensive possession where he brickwalled Fall in the post. And yeah Fall still shot a point blank range turnaround right over him but Begarin prevented a dunk and got the stop since Fall actually missed somehow. He drew two free throws on a drive, that was one of the only time he got the ball on the move, I wished they would have done that more as nobody on the floor was quick enough to stay in front of him in that scenario. He made a big shot to put his team up 9 with less than two minutes left with a nice crossover to shake his defender before swishing the midrange jumper.
He had bad possession with the team up 4 and 24 seconds remaining where he kinda dribbled aimlessly before almost turning the ball over with a bad pass that was deflected (he did manage to tip it to a teammate in the end). I wished he would have had the confidence to go to the line instead of trying to get ride of the ball but his free throw shooting is still a work in progress. Paris would hold on to secure the huge upset despite a late barrage of long range bombs from Okobo.
TL;DR: Overall, some questionable decision making but a lot more heads up plays. Very willing and able to do the little things that don't show up in the boxscore to win. The outside shot looks pretty fluid. Not very involved in the offense in the halfcourt but made the most out of his opportunities tonight and he was great in transition. They need to find a way to get him the ball on the move in the halfcourt, nobody at that level will be able stay in front of him. I could definitely see him feast off dribble handeoffs.
Kamagate is getting drafted this june. Wembanyama had a rough game overall but did hit a couple threes and is still trying to get his footing at that level. Not worried at all.
The boxscore :
https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23883
