Though his reign didn’t last long, Nolan Traoré was crowned as a top prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft one year earlier, at the EuroLeague Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) in May 2024.
Let Egor Dëmin explain it: “The game before the final game, he dropped like 45, if I’m not wrong. Against [Barcelona] too, which, we were happy to see that. But it was really scary for us to get to this game knowing who he is.”
Dëmin has his facts straight. His u18 Real Madrid team would win the whole thing, but
not before Traoré became the talk of the tornament. He led INSEP to a thrilling 101-96 victory over Barça’s u18 squad, posting a monstrous 45/6/9 line to get to the final against a Dëmin-led Real Madrid team. (Seems like the Nets had a scout or two at this tournament, eh?)
Traoré controlled every bit of INSEP’s offense in 2023-24, and the ANGT semifinal was no different; Barcelona hedged most of the million pick-and-rolls Traoré ran in the semifinals, without much success. They went zone for a bit and found no answers, only Traoré calmly getting to the rim, just like he did in transition. To top it off, the French sensation made four 3-pointers, a couple vs. soft pick-and-roll coverages but then a cold-blooded, pull-up dagger from deep…
Traoré didn’t perform as well in the final against Dëmin and company, scoring 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting with five assists and five turnovers, but it hardly mattered. He began spring 2024 by signing with Saint-Quentin — a team in LNB Élite, France’s top league — for the final seven games of their season. In one of them, he scored 25 points, a record for a player under 18 years old. Then, in the loss that eliminated them from the playoffs, Traoré scored 25 again.
At the end of spring, days away from turning 18, Traoré dominated ANGT, his 45-point performance in the semifinal the crown jewel. He seemed too good for his age group. If devoted scouts hadn’t already considered him a true star prospect, they sure did now.
One year later, the Brooklyn Nets selected him at #19 overall, and some draft analysts viewed it as a reach. Traoré spent the 2024-25 campaign with Saint-Quentin, which finished in 10th place in LNB Élite, France’s top league. Over 30 regular-season games, Traoré averaged 11.6/1.7/5.1 on 39/30/71 splits, as well as 2.5 turnovers per game. Evidently, it wasn’t the age-18 leap many expected from France’s best point-guard prospect since Tony Parker.
Traoré arrives in Brooklyn as the most straightforward prospect of the five first-round picks, bringing to the borough defined strengths, weaknesses, and play-style. The 19-year-old has always projected as a full-time ball-handling decision-maker, with questions about his ability to play off the ball, given an inconsistent outside shot, and defense. He’s 6’3” barefoot with a 6’8” wingspan, so he has the tools to succeed on D, but you never know, you know?
The Nets believe those questions will be answered positively. That he’ll shoot, that a clear understanding of the game from the point guard position will translate to other situations, that he’ll defend. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have drafted him (and Dëmin and Ben Saraf). But what about the skills had scouts salivating in the first place?
These two turnovers, from a contest against Le Mans early in the 2024-25 season, are instructive in understanding some of Traoré’s struggles…
First, he gets schooled on a potential pocket pass that he tries to throw over the top. Second, he recognizes a big man has switched onto him, backs it up, and tries to dust him going right. To his surprise, the big man slides his feet, and Nolan can only get to no man’s land.
That u18 Barcelona team was no match for Nolan Traoré. Look at the first batch of clips again. On most possessions, he’s just putting the ball in his right hand and hitting the accelerator, occasionally having to throw in a hesitation move. The big men take poor defensive angles in each clip except the last one, and Nolan, to his credit, treats them like cones.
It was never going to be such smooth sailing in his first full season facing LNB Élite competition. His change-of-pace and passing deliveries were put under the microscope in 2024-25, like you see in those turnovers above. A skip pass that floats to the corner instead of getting there on a line is the difference between a quick corner three and a late shot-clock possession in the pros…
Though Nolan Traoré is not a tiny guard, he’s not big enough to have a great margin of error. Not if he plans on living in the paint, putting pressure on the rim. Let’s just run through the other concerns while we’re here.
His handle in tight spaces is a tad underwhelming, for a premier guard prospect. His best plays feature explosive moves at the point-of-attack, then long strides and mid-air adjustments as he gets closer to the rim. To this point in his career, he’s not poking and prodding, finding cracks to slither through; he’s trying to split the defense open. Don’t be mistaken, he still did that on plenty of possessions against LNB Élite competition…
Will he have the tools, the counters to succeed when teams play drop coverage, when beelining to the rim isn’t the best course of action? By and large, the best drivers in the NBA — especially the smaller ones like Darius Garland and Jalen Brunson — get as far downhill as possible before picking up their dribble, and even when they do, all can deploy some pivot-foot magic.
Per Synergy Sports, Nolan Traoré had zero dunks in the half-court last season. He’s quick as hell, but not quite explosive enough to go soaring above everybody to get his passes and shots off. That’ll be okay, as long as he can extend his handle more on plays like these…
You’ll notice that first clip comes from that ANGT semi against Barcelona. Even though Traoré misses the skip pass, he still finds a 3-point shooter; that kind of play would become a turnover for Saint-Quentin.
How well Traoré can navigate tight spaces with his handle is his swing skill, more than even the outside shooting. (Teams still go under ball-screens on Ja Morant, a career 31.6% 3-point shooter, but at his best, he dominates defenses from the inside out.)
Yes, the Nets drafted three high-usage ball-handlers. Yes, they spoke at their introductory press conference next to General Manager Sean Marks and Head Coach Jordi Fernández as everybody professed versatility, interchangeability. Why of course Saraf, Dëmin, and Traoré can co-exist as smart basketball players who can thrive off the ball; why of course they’re all eager to do it.
But Nolan Traoré has spent the first 19 years of his life as a ball-dominant point guard. Clearly, Nets scouts liked what they saw while he was pounding the rock. Understandably so!
I’m nitpicked his game here, and we should all be be honed in on how he progresses in these areas (ball-handling in tight spaces, when he picks up his dribble, passing deliveries) during his rookie season, but Nolan Traoré is a very talented 19-year-old. This is an awesome and-1 finish against the eventual LNB Élite champion from later in the season where comes off a re-screen, and uses a sharp crossover to drop in an and-1 finish…
Despite some early turnover problems, he finished the 2024-25 season with an assist:turnover ratio above two. Jordi Fernández’s Nets finished with the highest pick-and-roll frequency in the league last season, and Traoré has shown an exceptional ability to map the floor out of these situations. He reads backline defenders before he breaks the paint, but doesn’t just make the easiest play each time, instead searching for high-level opportunities. Still, he’s not a robot that solely make reads out of pick-and-roll play, but is always a threat to find a loose cutter or spacer…
As the above tweet mentions, Traoré accounted for nearly 43% of Saint-Quentin’s assists when he was on the floor. It’s no surprise he ran into some struggles with that type of burden, but he improved throughout the season. Traoré even shot over 40% from three after January, an admittedly cherry-picked 15-game sample but one that shows promise nonetheless.
Though his stock took a hit during his pre-draft year, that shouldn’t scare the believers off. Traoré still displayed a rare combination of speed and passing ability with which he burst onto the scene in the first place. Perhaps his flaws were just masked by some of that natural talent prior to the 2024-25 season.
If Traoré succeeds in the NBA, he will succeed with the ball in his hands, making dynamic plays off the dribble, gliding by onlookers in transition. If he doesn’t, well, that may be why the Brooklyn Nets selected two other point guards in the same draft.
After falling to #19 in the 2025 NBA Draft, Nolan Traoré has much to prove. Not just as a shooter and defender, but as the ball-handler he’s been his whole life. With preseason basketball less than a month away, he’ll soon get his chance.
