The Blues’ preparation for the Olympic Games begins in earnest this Wednesday (9 p.m.) with the players playing in the NBA – who have only been able to train collectively for a few days – and therefore more intensity and level in training at the Kindarena.
On the road to the Pierre-Mauroy Stadium, where the first week of the men’s and women’s Olympic basketball tournaments will take place, the French will first find Turkey, a strong nation in European basketball even if it has not qualified for the Games.
The level will rise further afterwards, with a double confrontation against Germany, world champion, in Cologne (Saturday 6) then in Montpellier (Monday 8), before matches against Serbia in Lyon (Friday 12), and finally against Canada (Friday 19) and Australia (Sunday 21) in Orléans.
This program represents a strong first choice by the management of the Blues: to offer tough opposition to its players from the start, very different from the level of the teams – Tunisia, Montenegro, Venezuela, Lithuania, Japan and Australia – encountered before the 2023 World Cup, which ended in bitter failure.
It’s a first match so I’m not expecting anything special, however, qualifies the coach of the French team Vincent Collet. Let’s say that it’s an improved training session.
A duo that arouses curiosity
But this meeting will give us a first glimpse of the tandem of the two interiors Rudy Gobert (32 years old) and Victor Wembanyama (20 years old), immense in size (2.16 m for the first, 2.24 m for the second) and in potential, both offensive and defensive.
The excitement is as high as this duo. This is something I have never seen before
Wembanyama slips, when Gobert considers that There are no real limits to the things they will try to accomplish together.
The team should revolve around the two interiors since the Blues’ management has decided to base its identity on defense. Gobert, voted best defender in the NBA for the fourth time this season, and Wembanyama, with extraordinary mobility for his size and wingspan, are among the best in the world in this area.
« The goal is really that we are able to defend against all teams.says Gobert. Maybe I can defend even more on the outside knowing that there is another defender behind me, and vice versa.. »
The success of the Blues will also depend on the ability of the two players to be aligned at the same time on the court in attack.
I think we will have more responsibilities in defense, but the bulk of the work will be in attack.
Wembanyama believes.
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From this point of view, there are two reasons for hope: Wembanyama demonstrated this season to the Spurs that he could play far from the basket, notably thanks to his outside shot, and Gobert can rely on his very successful season in Minnesota alongside Karl-Anthony Towns, who stands at 2.13 m.
The French team has only one month to manage to get these two greats to play, who have never played together, and whose association goes against the grain of basketball of the last ten years.
