the new era of the Blues begins • Basket USA

From fifteen years of continuity to only four training sessions, the French Team will switch head first into its new configuration. Vincent Collet left the place, after what was the longest and most successful era of a coach at the head of the national team. Place in the Freddy Fauthoux era, the coach of JL Bourg and new mastermind of the Blues game. The Landes technician begins his new mandate this Thursday (6 p.m., free on DAZN) with an “exotic” trip to Cyprus, for the Eurobasket 2025 qualifiers.

The line-up, which will be the same on Sunday, but in Poitiers this time, should pose no problem for the silver medalists at the Olympics last July. It should allow Frédéric Fauthoux to sign a rather quiet first and lay the first tactical foundations.

If Vincent Collet was not a dogmatic coach in his game plans and was above all pragmatic, his mantra remained iron defense as the basis for success. The method has paid off with eight medals in a decade and a half, and two Olympic finals in a row. Can the French team do even better to win the titles? This can only be done with a reshuffle both on the field and on the bench.

Nolan Traoré called up at just 18 years old

For this first gathering, Freddy Fauthoux must therefore do without his NBA players, nor his Euroleague players (while ASVEL and Monaco will face each other… an hour later this Thursday, at 7 p.m.), as very often during international windows. This group will therefore bear little resemblance to that of the next major events. But these calendar constraints have at least allowed the new coach of the Blues to offer their place to five newcomers, including a rookie who will be particularly scrutinized: Nolan Traore.

The Saint-Quentin leader is, in the eyes of many observers, the new nugget of French basketball. A (very) precocious talent, the little brother of the Lakers player, Armel Traoré, impresses with his ability to perform well, well ahead of the usual transition times for players of his age. They are therefore few to be able to achieve 13.3 points and 4.3 assists in the Champions League at just 18 years old, while a year before, he was still only playing in Nationale 1, with the young shoots of the Federal Center.

Nolan Traoré is now going at high speed again with his first among the “big guys” while he played in the U18 Euro last summer. He will notably team up at the front with Andrew Albicy, who at the time was playing in the Olympic final against Team USA. “ That's also why we took Andrew, our captain, the one who found me shy, to accompany Nolan in his first steps » laughed Freddy Fauthoux during a press briefing for the French team on Tuesday, held in a warm atmosphere.

Andrew Albicy will play the role of captain and “chaperone”, he who has more selections alone than all of his partners combined in the coming days (104 against 83)!

The Gran Canaria player will be able to give some advice to Nolan Traoré, even if the latter has everything to flourish in the style of play advocated by Frédéric Fauthoux, who spoke of a “ basket total » at the time of his presentation at the head of the Blues.

If it were to resemble what Bourg-en-Bresse offers in Betclic Elite as in the European Cup, the French team should offer a faster game, where transition will be a favored weapon, as much as spacing. . Which shouldn't be so easy to implement after only four joint workouts.

“See players we could take in the future”

« It's intense because we have to put everything in place very quickly, the functioning with the staff, even if we worked a lot in video beforehand, what we want to do defensively and offensively » mentioned Freddy Fauthoux. “ You also have to be clear-headed, everything will not be perfect from Thursday. With four training sessions, the staff, us, me, we are not magicians and neither are the players. To play team basketball, you have to create game automatisms and you will not have acquired them in four sessions. »

This first French Team version of Freddy Fauthoux will thus be a hybrid between newcomers like Nolan Traoré or even the ephemeral Bulls player Adam Mokoka (today in Cluj, in Romania) and executives experienced in French and European basketball such as Paul Lacombe (Nanterre), Nicolas Lang (Limoges) or Amine Noua (Grenada). “ We tried to create the best possible team to win both matches, that is the primary objective of this gathering, but also to see players that we could take in the future » envisages the French coach. “ Beyond the players, you need to know the people to create something strong. »

And Nolan Traoré will not even be the youngest player in the squad, since Noa Essengue, his colleague of the year 2006, is also experiencing his first call-up. The winger from Ulm, Germany, is like Nolan Traoré in the sights of recruiters for the next NBA Draft.

« If they realize their dream of playing there, we won't be able to have them in the window, it's now or never to see them“, argued Frédéric Fauthoux. “ They are not going to play their career Thursday and Sunday, but we will see what they can produce in training and in matches. » Before the possible big leap across the Atlantic, time for the first international thrill.