Despite its defeat in the final of the European championships, the French team should have a bright future ahead of it. On the United States side, we are in any case seriously concerned about this… The future line-up of the Blues even terrifies a famous US journalist.
The least we can say is that we had the right to drink and eat from the Blues during this Eurobasket. On the one hand, the Olympic vice-champion managed to reach the tournament final, which remains a great achievement. On the other, however, they were swept away by Spain and more generally, they came within a hair’s breadth of elimination on several occasions. Clearly, we knew Evan Fournier & co. much more dominant than that.
That being said, American observers cannot help but view the evolution of the EDF with concern, in particular with regard to the 2023 World Cup. Indeed, the workforce of Vincent Collet could well be stronger there than ever, as Kirk Goldsberry notes. The journalist ofESPN even sees the tricolor selection as the main opponent of Team US, as during the Tokyo Games in 2021. This is mainly due to the racket which should then be aligned:
The future racket of the Blues, a nightmare for Team USA?
Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama on Team France? ????????????@kirkgoldsberry writes why the EuroBasket runners-up could pose a threat to Team USA ????@ESPNPlus ???? https://t.co/HAZzracQFZ pic.twitter.com/UhmYlkwMtG
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 19, 2022
Here’s the scary part: The French team that just won the silver medal at the Euros will probably have a lot more talent in the next two major international tournaments. Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA leading scorer and one of the best big men in the game, can now play for the Blues. The same goes for Victor Wembanyama, the likely first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and the most coveted prospect in years.
The trio of Gobert, Embiid and Wembanyama could form the most dominant frontcourt in the world, which smells pretty bad for an American team relatively poor in talent in this sector. Team USA easily has the best potential talent among guards and wingers, but the world’s best interiors are almost all international players, and France have at least two of them.
It’s a fact, the American backcourt is full of superstars as usual, and without disrespecting Evan Fournier, Thomas Heurtel & co., that of the Blues is still a notch below. But in terms of the battle under the circle, the advantage would indeed be on the side of Vincent Collet’s group now. Embiid is in the Top 3 NBA players, Gobert is a triple DPOY and Wembz embodies the future of the orange ball in France. There is something to be scared of.
With a racket that will soon be made up of Rudy Gobert, Joel Embiid and Victor Wembanyama, France could well sow terror in the years to come. Enough to make future clashes against Team USA much more balanced, provided that the mayonnaise takes of course.
