Welcome to Virtual Boston, Juhann Begarin!

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Tough game for Paris Basketball against JL Bourg where they got predictably blown out. Due to multiple injuries, they only had 7 pro players available. It was so bad that they had to give minutes to 16-year old Diadet. Due to the circumstances I don't think there's much to takeaway from the game.
Anyway here are Begarin's highlights:

Watch on YouTube

And the boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23907

[Hal14]

Tough game for Paris Basketball against JL Bourg where they got predictably blown out. Due to multiple injuries, they only had 7 pro players available. It was so bad that they had to give minutes to 16-year old Diadet. Due to the circumstances I don't think there's much to takeaway from the game.
Anyway here are Begarin's highlights:

Watch on YouTube

And the boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23907

Lots of really good plays from Begarin in that game. Looks like a baller for real. Really liked that behind the back move to get by the defender in the open court after hustling for the loose ball. Some nice steals too.

Unfortunately, he went 0/3 from 3 point range and is now down to 30% from 3 on the season after shooting 36.4% last season. He was playing in a weaker league last season, but he was also only 18 yrs old and now he's 19..

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Another big loss for Paris against Le Portel who were just insanely hot from three (10/21). The boxscore doesn't look great for Begarin and he couldn't make a jumper all night but there were two big positives. First it's that he actually got to handle the ball and create a little bit in the halfcourt. Considering Paris had their full complement of ballhandlers that might continue in future games. He did a pretty good jobs of finding teammates even if his delivery still lags behind his vision (but that's easier to fix than the other way around). Unfortunately nobody was hitting anything against Le Portel's zone so his assist numbers won't jump out. He was a bit loose with his handles at times and he couldn't get to the rim with O'Quinn and Kamagate just clogging the pain. But overall there's progress in the halfcourt.

Second and most impressive was his defense. Just an amazing performance. I don't know how he was only credited with only one steal that's some creative accounting right there. On top of that he had at least half a dozen deflections. Unfortunately, most of those were recovered by Le Portel and resulted in three pointers (at least three or four, really bad luck). He had a couple nice emergency rotations at the rim to prevent layups too. He also had his matchup shook, there was one time where he forced an airball on an iso and another where he forced a travel with an amazing closeout (pretty funny play actually, the Portel player rose up, was about to pull the trigger, saw Begarin about to send his shot into the second row and was like nah I'm good, I'll just take the turnover).

His best play of the game came after Kamagate made a free throw, he stole the inbounds pass, fed Kamagate underneath who immediately got two extra free throws out of it.

The boxscore (which really doesn't tell the whole story this time): https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23919

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Just a bad game for Begarin last week-end. It got so bad that he was benched to start the second half. Burn the tape and move on. I mean you can't fault the effort when he's still diving for loose balls down 23 with 20 seconds left in the game but the execution was really off (though to be fair that was true for the entire team). The only play that stood out was a nice pull up three in the second half and if he can start making those regularly that can seriously raise his ceiling. He needs to start hitting his free throws though.

The box score : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23930

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Couldn't watch Begarin's last game but the boxscore looked nice. 5/6 from the floor (2/2 from three), another couple steals, three assists, only one turonver. I like that he played 37 out 40 possible minutes. For a teenager playing in a professional league that's pretty impressive.

His team started the game on a 39-8 run

The boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23938

[playa-hater]

Couldn't watch Begarin's last game but the boxscore looked nice. 5/6 from the floor (2/2 from three), another couple steals, three assists, only one turonver. I like that he played 37 out 40 possible minutes. For a teenager playing in a professional league that's pretty impressive.

His team started the game on a 39-8 run

The boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23938

even if no one else acknowledges you posts, I appreciate your work. keep them coming please.

[Elrod is Back]

I agree! Thank you.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

even if no one else acknowledges you posts, I appreciate your work. keep them coming please.

Well unfortunately there won't be any updates for a couple weeks as Begarin has tested positive for Covid.The most important thing is obviously that he makes a full recovery and there is no good time to catch that disease but it's still an unfortunate timing as he missed the game against his brother's team and he was supposed to play in the all star game today.

[Parliament10]

even if no one else acknowledges you posts, I appreciate your work. keep them coming please.

Well unfortunately there won't be any updates for a couple weeks as Begarin has tested positive for Covid.The most important thing is obviously that he makes a full recovery and there is no good time to catch that disease but it's still an unfortunate timing as he missed the game against his brother's team and he was supposed to play in the all star game today.

That's too bad, that he had to give up the All-Star Game. Hope that he Recovers from COVID soon.
He's still listed as an All-Star though, right?

[Smart2Nesmith43]

I believe so. It should be noted though that it's not nearly as relevant as becoming an all star in the NBA in the sense that it's not a career achievement that guys are aiming for. To be blunt, the real career achievement for players in the french league is to become good enough to leave it for a better league. So nobody really keeps track of the number of appearances in the all star game for historical purposes and stuff like that. The real reward is actually playing the game against the top competition in the league and in front of the biggest crowd they'll see all year (and they obviously put on a show but they legit play with a real basketball score at the end, it's not the dunkfest of the NBA). For those that want to look for a silver lining, he did inadvertenly save his knees from the pounding of a dunk contest so there's that.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Paris Basketball signed Axel Toupane for the rest of the season. Solid defensive wing that never quite made enough shots to stick in the NBA (for reference he was the 15th man on the Bucks last year when they won the title). So it's going to be interesting to see how that will impact Begarin's playing time going forward (right now he's sidelined with covid so he'll make his debut later).

But for now, it's mainly good news as Begarin's back from covid and back in the starting lineup. I missed the first quarter but Begarin had 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the period so he must have been pretty good. In the second quarter, Limoges kept trying to put a full court press on Paris and Begarin kept blowing by his man to turn those possessions into transition opportunities. He nailed a pull up three too.

Paris completely fell apart in the third (9points scored and 11 turnovers in a 10 minute quarter isn't ideal). They couldn't get a stop during Begarin's rest and O'Quinn had a terrible all around performance (zero intenisty defensively, half a dozen turnovers trying to thread the needle like he's Jokic which he obviously isn't, dumb shots). So yeah Begarin wasn't the main culprit but he certainly didn't help, getting beat backdoor twice, airballing a layup in transition (I guess the ball just slipped out of his hands, we didn't get a replay) and missing the half court heave at the end of the quarter though that's obviously more understandable.

He was much better in the fourth by forcing four turnovers on defense. The highlight of the lot came when he was under the basket and a player from Limoges was cutting after an offensive rebound and Begarin managed to somehow both deter the layup and intercept the kick out. Offensively, he made a catch and shoot three and had an and one on a putback. He also had a nice possession where he got the rebound, pushed the ball down the court, collapsed the defense and then hit his teammate in the corner for a wide open three. He finished the game by dunking on the last possession instead of letting the clock run out. Some will probably consider it bad etiquette but it's pretty consistent with the fact that he's played hard to the final whistle in every game and I can't get mad about that.

The boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23955
19 points on 8/12 shooting including 3/5 from beyond the arc (3/4 really since there's an end of quarter heave in there), 3 offensive boards, 3 assists, 3 steals but 2 turnovers and only 2/5 from the line (gotta make those freebies)

[Hal14]

Paris Basketball signed Axel Toupane for the rest of the season. Solid defensive wing that never quite made enough shots to stick in the NBA (for reference he was the 15th man on the Bucks last year when they won the title). So it's going to be interesting to see how that will impact Begarin's playing time going forward (right now he's sidelined with covid so he'll make his debut later).

But for now, it's mainly good news as Begarin's back from covid and back in the starting lineup. I missed the first quarter but Begarin had 7 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the period so he must have been pretty good. In the second quarter, Limoges kept trying to put a full court press on Paris and Begarin kept blowing by his man to turn those possessions into transition opportunities. He nailed a pull up three too.

Paris completely fell apart in the third (9points scored and 11 turnovers in a 10 minute quarter isn't ideal). They couldn't get a stop during Begarin's rest and O'Quinn had a terrible all around performance (zero intenisty defensively, half a dozen turnovers trying to thread the needle like he's Jokic which he obviously isn't, dumb shots). So yeah Begarin wasn't the main culprit but he certainly didn't help, getting beat backdoor twice, airballing a layup in transition (I guess the ball just slipped out of his hands, we didn't get a replay) and missing the half court heave at the end of the quarter though that's obviously more understandable.

He was much better in the fourth by forcing four turnovers on defense. The highlight of the lot came when he was under the basket and a player from Limoges was cutting after an offensive rebound and Begarin managed to somehow both deter the layup and intercept the kick out. Offensively, he made a catch and shoot three and had an and one on a putback. He also had a nice possession where he got the rebound, pushed the ball down the court, collapsed the defense and then hit his teammate in the corner for a wide open three. He finished the game by dunking on the last possession instead of letting the clock run out. Some will probably consider it bad etiquette but it's pretty consistent with the fact that he's played hard to the final whistle in every game and I can't get mad about that.

The boxscore : https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23955
19 points on 8/12 shooting including 3/5 from beyond the arc (3/4 really since there's an end of quarter heave in there), 3 offensive boards, 3 assists, 3 steals but 2 turnovers and only 2/5 from the line (gotta make those freebies)

Nice. Overall sounds like a solid game. 19 points is one of his high point totals of the season. Really good efficiency with 8/12 FG and 3/4 from 3 (not counting the half court heave). Sounds like he played hard and played solid D.

Thanks for the updates!

[Dogen]

I miss the videos...

[Smart2Nesmith43]

I miss the videos...

I hear you but I don't have the skills to make highlight videos so I'm dependent on what gets posted on youtube before reporting back here. I couldn't find anything on his games against Le Portel and Strasbourg.

His last game before Covid:

Watch on YouTube

His first game back:

Watch on YouTube

(so I saw he was bringing the ball up for the last possession and since I expected Paris to just let the shotclock expire, I started typing the report and I was a bit surprised to hear the commentators go crazy about a Begarin dunk. What happened is Allman started freelancing and Begarin actually had a putback dunk. If I somewhat misrepresented the posession in my last post as Begarin just waltzing down the lane while nobody else was playing. My bad I'll wait until the final whistle next time).

[Hal14]

I miss the videos...

I hear you but I don't have the skills to make highlight videos so I'm dependent on what gets posted on youtube before reporting back here. I couldn't find anything on his games against Le Portel and Strasbourg.

His last game before Covid:

Watch on YouTube

His first game back:

Watch on YouTube

(so I saw he was bringing the ball up for the last possession and since I expected Paris to just let the shotclock expire, I started typing the report and I was a bit surprised to hear the commentators go crazy about a Begarin dunk. What happened is Allman started freelancing and Begarin actually had a putback dunk. If I somewhat misrepresented the posession in my last post as Begarin just waltzing down the lane while nobody else was playing. My bad I'll wait until the final whistle next time).

Damn, looks like our guy Begarin was balling out this game (1st game back after COVID). Love the cutting. And love the shooting from 3, he hits a corner catch and shoot 3 and a nice step back 3 where he used the step back move to create some good separation.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Big game and win aginst Boulogne-Levallois (14 wins-2 defeats prior to the game, first place in the league, number 1 ranked offense, coached by Vincent Collet who's also the french national team coach, also a regional rivalry as Boulogne and Levallois are two parisian suburbs). Not the best start for Begarin as he clanked a pull up from mid range on the first possession of the game. He also turned the ball over after being double teamed and trying a needlessly complicated pass to get out of it. He had the play of the first quarter when he rotated over and blocked the Boulogne center dunk attempt. He kept the ball inbounds and tried to hit Sleva in transition for the layup but the ball was just in front and it resulted in a turnover.

In his second stint, Begarin ran a nice pick and pop with O'Quinn and found him wide open for three. Unfortunately O'Quinn missed. After a missed contested pull up three, Begarin had his fist basket in transition with the and one. Made his next shot too by driving a closeout and getting all the way to the rim.

The second half started with a funny play. Begarin tried to fight through a screen by an interior from Boulogne and ended up putting him on the ground. For some reason the referees didn't signal for a foul so the guy from Boulogne got mad and fouled Begarin the second Paris Basketball got the ball back. Begarin missed a corner three pointer then did the Pritchard special by stepping out of bounds for absolutely no reason. Finally had a catch and shoot three drop then recovered a loose ball and immediately dished the ball to an open teammate for the assist on the transition three. Played an iso where he got from the three point line to the rim after a series of crossover but he missed the layup.

In the beginning of the fourth, Begarin pulled down a nice rebound in traffic and had a quick pass ahead which turned into a hockey assist on a Kamagate dunk. He also had a nice assist in transition. He drew a foul and two free throw after a nice cut from the corner. Unfortunately he didn't play in the money time but considering how shaky Paris was closing out the game the coach might not want to repeat that experience. To be fair, with Toupane's first game and Kamagate's foul trouble I don't think he played the rotations he wanted to.

The boxscore: https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23964
Could easily have been better, he was a bit unlucky as he had four or five deflections that could have turned into steals if his team had recovered the ball. So instead it's the first time all season he'll finish the game with no recorded steal.

A video of his and one :

Read on Twitter

[Smart2Nesmith43]

The french national team roster for the next round of the 2023 World Cup qualifiers (a couple games against Portugal in late february) just dropped. Begarin didn't make the main roster but he was invited as a sparing partner. So he'll get to train with the senior team for the first time. That should be a good experience. Worth noting that there are just three sparing partners and he's the only wing so he's next in line to get called up as a "real" member of the team should someone be unavailable at that position (high likely with the covid situation being what it is in France currently).

The roster for those interested: https://www.teamfrancebasket.com/voir-actualite/80146

[return2glory]

Looks like his handles and passing has improved. Begarin also looks slimmer now. He looked a little out of shape to me in Summer League.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Looks like his handles and passing has improved. Begarin also looks slimmer now. He looked a little out of shape to me in Summer League.

Watching the game it's not immediately obvious that his handles and passing have gotten better. What is happening for sure is that he's getting a lot more reps on ball so he must be showing progress in practice at least. Both Boatright and Allman, the main ballhandlers are healthy and playing right now so it's not a case of just absorbing someone else's responsabilities while they are out injured (Barbitch, the 4th guard has been out with an ankle sprain for a month but I think that he's getting squeezed out of the rotation by Toupane's arrival anyway). But he's still super young so he has plenty of time to improve (he's younger than Holmgren as a point of reference).


Tight loss against mid-table Nanterre today.

Begarin didn't get many opportunities offensively during his first stint but he did drew a couple of reach in fouls. He also had a pretty impressive block on a transition opportunity by Adam Mokoka (who played a few games for the Bulls the last two years). He had a nice box out on the Nanterre center where he held his ground for 4-5 seconds before securing the board.

In his second stint of the first half he had a turnover trying to dribble through a crowd, to be fair there was nothing going on during that possession so he had to force the issue. Finally had his first shot attempt and basket on a nice cut that lead to an easy layup. He had another turnover trying to dribble around too many guys but that one was more his fault trying to force something that wasn't there against a set defense.

He started the second half with a nice cut and dish to Kamagate for the dunk. Then on the other end he completely stopped the Nanterre center in the post and forced a travel. He missed a late shot clock corner three. He had his third turnover with a dumb pass to Kamagate who was not looking at the ball and wasn't ready to receive the pass. He missed a top of the key three. After that rough sequence he had a really good stretch. First with a steal that he took coast to coast for the layup. Then with a nasty crossover that left Mokoka in the dust and he then finished at the rim despite absorbing some contact from the help rotating over. Should have had an assist on a dump off to Kamagate who quite literally dropped the ball (odd since he usually has pretty good hands). All that helped erase a ten point deficit. What also helped was the pressure that Toupane and Begarin put on the Nanterre ballhandlers that completely took them out of their sets.

To start the fourth, he drew a couple of (non shooting) blocking fouls when Nanterre stopped him in semi-transition. He had a very nice block at the rim when he rotated from the corner to the roll man. He missed an off the dribble three. Defensively he tied up Mokoka on a drive to force a travel and then he had a very nice pass through traffic to find Sleva cutting to the basket for the layup and one.

Horrendous call with 48 seconds left in the game and Paris up one. Toupane had a clean strip but got called for the foul and since Paris was in the penalty that was two free throws. The Nanterre player went 1 for 2 to tie the game. Toupane missed a three on the other side and Nanterre went super fast and caught everybody off guard (Begarin probably deserve most of the blame here as it was the player he should have picked up) instead of holding for the last shot. Allman got knocked down on his drive to tie the game but no foul was called. Let's say the replay is not kind to the referees' decision. Paris' coach after the game when asked what his team was lacking to get the win basically said I don't want to get fined. Hard to blame him.

Begarin played the entire second half by the way. Udoka probably wondering if he can do the same with Tatum.

The boxscore: https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23975

Edit:
His block against Mokoka in the first quarter:

Read on Twitter

The cross and finish:

Read on Twitter

The pass on the Sleva and one (wished we had a better angle):

Read on Twitter

[Half-Full]

Looks like his handles and passing has improved. Begarin also looks slimmer now. He looked a little out of shape to me in Summer League.

Watching the game it's not immediately obvious that his handles and passing have gotten better. What is happening for sure is that he's getting a lot more reps on ball so he must be showing progress in practice at least. Both Boatright and Allman, the main ballhandlers are healthy and playing right now so it's not a case of just absorbing someone else's responsabilities while they are out injured (Barbitch, the 4th guard has been out with an ankle sprain for a month but I think that he's getting squeezed out of the rotation by Toupane's arrival anyway). But he's still super young so he has plenty of time to improve (he's younger than Holmgren as a point of reference).


Tight loss against mid-table Nanterre today.

Begarin didn't get many opportunities offensively during his first stint but he did drew a couple of reach in fouls. He also had a pretty impressive block on a transition opportunity by Adam Mokoka (who played a few games for the Bulls the last two years). He had a nice box out on the Nanterre center where he held his ground for 4-5 seconds before securing the board.

In his second stint of the first half he had a turnover trying to dribble through a crowd, to be fair there was nothing going on during that possession so he had to force the issue. Finally had his first shot attempt and basket on a nice cut that lead to an easy layup. He had another turnover trying to dribble around too many guys but that one was more his fault trying to force something that wasn't there against a set defense.

He started the second half with a nice cut and dish to Kamagate for the dunk. Then on the other end he completely stopped the Nanterre center in the post and forced a travel. He missed a late shot clock corner three. He had his third turnover with a dumb pass to Kamagate who was not looking at the ball and wasn't ready to receive the pass. He missed a top of the key three. After that rough sequence he had a really good stretch. First with a steal that he took coast to coast for the layup. Then with a nasty crossover that left Mokoka in the dust and he then finished at the rim despite absorbing some contact from the help rotating over. Should have had an assist on a dump off to Kamagate who quite literally dropped the ball (odd since he usually has pretty good hands). All that helped erase a ten point deficit. What also helped was the pressure that Toupane and Begarin put on the Nanterre ballhandlers that completely took them out of their sets.

To start the fourth, he drew a couple of (non shooting) blocking fouls when Nanterre stopped him in semi-transition. He had a very nice block at the rim when he rotated from the corner to the roll man. He missed an off the dribble three. Defensively he tied up Mokoka on a drive to force a travel and then he had a very nice pass through traffic to find Sleva cutting to the basket for the layup and one.

Horrendous call with 48 seconds left in the game and Paris up one. Toupane had a clean strip but got called for the foul and since Paris was in the penalty that was two free throws. The Nanterre player went 1 for 2 to tie the game. Toupane missed a three on the other side and Nanterre went super fast and caught everybody off guard (Begarin probably deserve most of the blame here as it was the player he should have picked up) instead of holding for the last shot. Allman got knocked down on his drive to tie the game but no foul was called. Let's say the replay is not kind to the referees' decision. Paris' coach after the game when asked what his team was lacking to get the win basically said I don't want to get fined. Hard to blame him.

Begarin played the entire second half by the way. Udoka probably wondering if he can do the same with Tatum.

The boxscore: https://www.lnb.fr/elite/game-center-resume/?id=23975

Edit:
His block against Mokoka in the first quarter:

Read on Twitter

The cross and finish:

Read on Twitter

The pass on the Sleva and one (wished we had a better angle):

Read on Twitter

Thanks for the great write up. I'm looking forward to Juhaan's Celtics debut. Sure, there are aspects of his game that still need development, but his athleticism, energy, and hustling play are there right now. I don't think he would be over his head if he were to come over next year. Let him finish his development here. I see a lot of upside.