The French basketball championship resumes this Friday with a match between Monaco, the defending champion, and Saint-Quentin, the team of the promising Nolan Traoré.
AS Monaco, the giants of French basketball, begin the Betclic Elite season on Friday – broadcast by DAZN like Ligue 1 – with the aim of finally winning all the trophies at stake, including a third consecutive French championship title that the competition will have a hard time contesting.
Alone on her Rock?
Crowned for the first time in 2023 before retaining her crown in June, the “Roca Team» intends to stay at the top of the Rock and thus imitate Asvel (1955-1957, 2019-2022) and Limoges (1983-1985 then 1988-1990), the only other clubs to have achieved the treble after the war. It has all the cards in hand to dominate the season again as it has in the last two seasons, with an extraordinary squad that has however evolved a little more than in the summer of 2023. It has thus lost its captain Yakuba Ouattara (left for Paris) and three other basic men, the Americans Jordan Loyd, John Brown III and Donta Hall, nevertheless replaced by some fine linen, the Turkish guard Furkan Korkmaz who came from the NBA (361 matches with Philadelphia) and the Greek duo composed of Nick Calathes and Georgios Pagagiannis, recruited from Fenerbahçe.
Calathès will also be reunited with star Mike James, who he played alongside at Panathinaikos, a duo that will have as a substitute one of the heroes of the Olympic Games on the French side, Matthew Strazel. The young leader is still hungry: “We missed out on things last year in Europe and on the French scene, we are keen to get what we failed to get last season.” That is, in addition to the Euroleague Final Four, the Leaders Cup and the Coupe de France, abandoned last year.
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Weakened competition?
Two competitions whose format does not allow for mistakes, unlike the championship, where ASM seems to have no rival. The reigning French vice-champion after an exceptional season, where it won its first two trophies (Leaders Cup and Eurocup) and set the record for consecutive victories in all competitions (25) for a French club, Paris lost big with the departure of its coach Tuomas Iisalo. The Finn left for Memphis and was replaced by former Brazilian international Thiago Splitter, who also came from the NBA but without any experience as a head coach (assistant in Houston). “We’re not starting from scratch. The coach came with the desire to keep the same identity, the same desire to play as last year,” says Nadir Hifi. In addition to knowing how the Splitter mayonnaise will take, the challenge for Paris will be to manage the championship and a first Euroleague season (34 regular season matches) at the same time.
Having been at the bottom of the C1 standings for the last two seasons, Asvel is approaching the new season with a budget announced as being lower by its president Tony Parker, and once again some questions, around the return of Théo Maledon after four seasons in the NBA and the arrival of Americans discovering Europe (Shaquille Harrisson, Admiral Schofield) or having played little last season (Tarik Black).
The last member of the leading quartet last season, Bourg-en-Bresse finally intends to add to its list of achievements after having managed to keep its coach, Frédéric Fauthoux, courted by Asvel. A big favourite to become the new coach of the Blues, he will have to manage to successfully wear both hats if necessary.
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Traoré and a tight championship
Other interesting things about the season that is opening are the performances of Nanterre, orphaned for the first time by Pascal Donnadieu (who has become its sporting director) and those of the great French hope Nolan Traoré: after having shone on the screen for his professional debut at the end of last season, the 18-year-old point guard stayed in Saint-Quentin in order to best prepare for the next NBA draft, where he is announced among the first choices. In the footsteps of Victor Wembanyama and Zaccharie Risacher, N.1 of the last two editions?
Other promising young French players (Melvin Ajinça at Asvel, Noah Penda at Le Mans, Zacharie Perrin at Nancy) will be worth following during this championship, which is probably non-existent, with the move to 16 clubs (18 last season) and the establishment of a “play-in” for clubs ranked 7th to 10th.
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