Joan Beringer: From Risk to NBA Prospect

It’s a crazy story. Who could end up being worthy of a Hollywood scenario. Imagine a little. Four years ago, Joan Beringer had not yet had the slightest license in basketball. And this Wednesday, it was retained in 17th place in the NBA Draft by Minnesota. The trajectory is crazy. Even seems completely improbable. Especially since the 2.10m pivot only turned 4.9 points and 4.1 rebounds last season with the Olimpija Ljubljana in the Adriatic League. So how can we explain such a trajectory and such a bet on the part of the Wolves?

The question does not really relate to his statistics. Because there were others before him who were drafted with such low averages. French people notably like Frank Ntilikina, Alexis Ajinça ​​or Bilal Coulibaly, who turned in the same waters before being retained during the great annual mass of the NBA. No, the most surprising with the child of Sélestat, who will be 19 years old in November, remains this meteoric trajectory when basketball started there a little over three years, in September 2021.

After stopping football at 14 because he no longer found “crampons at his size” as he told Bebasket, Joan Beringer has never stopped climbing in the world of basketball. Passed by Strasbourg, he joined Cedevita Olimpija in 2024 to work under the orders of the famous coach Zvezdan Mitrovic and hit the eye of observers in the Adriatic League and Eurocup. And if its stats are not snoring, the choice of Wolves is a bet on the future. But a clearly assumed bet.

Minnesota’s franchise knows where she sets foot by selecting the Alsatian. Because she scrutinized it all season. And the board of the Rudy Gobert team, who moved to Slovenia, was even able to observe it in a privileged way for a work out in a room of a “high school”, dixit Matt Lloyd – General Manager of Wolves who confided in the local newspaper The Minnesota Star Tribune after the first round of this Draft 2025.

After being able to take all the necessary information on their new talent thanks to this scouting work, the Timberwolves obviously do not expect Monts et Merveilles from the first months of the season. Because Joan Beringer is a “modeling clay bread” as sums up Matt Lloyd. But the Wolves, who intend to give him a chance next year, already want to rely his primary qualities: his athletic skills and his ability to protect the circle with his crazy scale. “”It has such a physical presence with its size and length. He will be able to swallow guys in ‘Switches’. It’s a really exciting thing“, Matt Lloyd still warns.

So much of his rare years of basketball behind him and his offensive limits, his intrinsic qualities and his potential are already enough to justify such a choice of the Wolves. “”It was the easiest choice in the worldeven slipped into his Podcast Game Theory Wednesday evening Sam Vecenie, specialist in Scouting and the NBA Draft who works for The Atheltic. Beringer is a real development player. It is an incredible athlete. He has very long arms, very good hands and he catches everything in his area. He moves like a winger. He moves to a level that no other player in this category really reaches“.

The presence of Rudy Gobert to support him in his development promises to be also enticing. “”He is the best defender in the world and I am a defender like him. It’s an incredible chance to be able to appeal with him“, Salivated Beringer. What to say that the Wolves clearly did not make this choice at random. They know where they want to go with their new Frenchie. Finally, it must be remembered that a certain Hakeem Olajuwon had also dropped his dream of becoming a goalkeeper in football before discovering basketball at 15 … and the career of” The Dream “is there that it is never too late We have certain qualities to illustrate it.