Naming more than 2-3 under 18 players who had a significant impact in a Eurocup competition in the last 5 years would be tough. But you can’t cut off from this short list Theo Maledon.

ASVEL basketball club is well known to be one of the best team in the top-tier level French league to develop home-grown young talents. In 2014, Tony Parker became the president of the club and Nicola Batum is taking care of the basketball operations since 2017.

Maledon is playing alongside Alpha Kaba, the last pick in the 2017 NBA draft and another NBA caliber prospect as Amine Noua. He played 17.5 minutes per game, averaging 7.1 points on 18 Eurocup games.


ASVEL had a great run in the top 16 phase this year, but they’ve been eliminated by Andorra at the quarterfinals also due to Kaba’s injury and less effective rim protection.

WHO’S THEO?

What makes him special – despite he’s still 17 – is how he fits the new type of combo guard who can really play off the ball and defend on 2-3 positions. For his body frame and his instincts on the pick and roll, he’s filling two more boxes to make Shai Gilgeous-Alexander a legit comparison.

When he shares the court with Kalnietis, he’s the secondary creator, with Slaughter in the backcourt, he’s the primary ball handler for most of the time.

Reviewing his expected improvements at the NBA global camp of last summer to make in the upcoming season, we’ll see why he’s been able to fulfill some of his personal goals over these 8 months.

ATHLETIC TOOLS

Becoming “more explosive” was his first target. Looking at how he’s beating his man from 30-35 feet within the rim on high ball screens, seems he reached it.

Terrific first step, he loves to make dribble-hesi at the nail or drives to the opposite side of the screen. Total control of his handles at full speed in transition.

He’s getting better also on full-court defense, another part of his game he wanted to improve.

He can check his man on larger space, put pressure, fights through multiple screens

PICK AND ROLL

He can already differentiate his production on pick and rolls as a distributor and scorer in the traffic.

He splits the defense to get in the paint very often, drawing fouls.

Nice floater, good touch even if contested.

He took last shots too. That cross-screen horns has been used a lot by coach Mitrovic to finish the quarter. Not so common to see this level of accountability from your 17 years old point guard.

When they’re hedging on him, he can manage double teams, finding good passing angles. Even if sometimes he’s too confusional and risky as a passer.

QUESTION MARKS

Maledon is still a hesitant spot up shooter, despite he became more consistent from the three-point line and on pull up attempts.

He frequently looks for pump fakes and defender’s fly by first to get closer to the rim, instead of taking open shots.

As a defender, he’s overactive on closeouts. Containing is better than put pressure on the ball sometimes.

His decision making need to be sharpened when he can’t create off ball screens. They blitzed on him in the first possession, weak and low pass in the corner that turns into a loose ball in the second one.

Next year, Asvel will compete in the Euroleague, they have gained Associated Club licenses as a wild card for 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. It’s going to be interesting to see how Theo will respond on the biggest European stage.