Scouting the FIBA U17 Games
FIBA competition is underway, and here are my notes from three early games featuring France and the USA.
France and the USA are considered the two best teams at this year’s FIBA U17 World Cup, and the two played each other early in the event, along with the US playing Guinea, and France playing and shockingly dropping a game to China. Further down the line, I will likely have a film breakdown of playoff games or a breakdown of the tournament standouts, but for now here are my raw notes on the USA-France, the USA-Guinea, and the France-China games.
USA:
Cameron Boozer (2026)
Incredibly polished post scorer. He is great at leveraging his upper body strength to establish position, and then spin or drive off of that. Plays through contact.
Forceful rebounder. Good at tipping the ball to keep it alive and exploding back up.
On defense, he has good hands and slides well on the perimeter.
Cayden Boozer (2026)
Good passer. He is particularly good at finding players inside the lane.
Lacks some separation, but right now he makes up for it in frame and craft.
AJ Dybansta (2026)
Oh my god level athlete. The first step, body control, and pop is unreal. Had a putback I had to watch about 4 times. He struggles to finish through contact, but when there is contact he is often fouled. He is also pretty good at selling contact.
Knows he has size and length over people and uses it to survey the floor.
Gets into a good defensive stance. Doesn’t hunch over. He rotates well when USA doubles on the ball, and always looks alert. At Hoop Summit he was a talker as well.
Smart passer but inherently wired to score. He doesn’t make a lot of live dribble passes, but he picks it up and immediately makes the right pass.
Off the ball, he is a good mover and cutter. Showed some synergy with JJ Mandaquit who will be his teammate as a senior in HS.
Brandon McCoy (2027)
Great defensive player right now. Has good instincts and knows how to use his hands. Gets around screens well. He closes out a bit too aggressively and flies by or fouls the shooter.
Good at finding cutters when he drives to the lane. Doesn’t throw live dribble passes off of his left, he likes to bring his right over to throw it. He throws the cutter open well.
Tyran Stokes (2027)
Good driver for his size and age. Knows he has to play face-up at the higher levels. Likes the spin move off of the drive left.
Good at getting to the free-throw line. He has good balance off of bumps.
Gets vertical at the rim on the defensive end,
Jordan Smith (2027)
Not an instinctual ball mover. Off the catch, if he can’t immediately drive he takes a while to make a decision.
Has real length. Had some fun help possessions near the rim, and is great at contesting shots.
Koa Peat (2026)
Good cutter. He has good footwork once he catches and goes to score.
He kinda just does everything on offense. He knows how to play on and off the ball, along with being a good passer and interior scorer on the ball. He is good at finishing through contact and has a knack for putbacks because of his rebounding instincts and athleticism.
He has good touch on mid-range jump shots.
France:
Hugo Yimga (2027)
Gets out in transition well. Good athlete. Can get above the rim to finish.
Strong driver to the lane. He seems to have a good mentality out there for when he needs to go into the lane and score. Good touch.
Questionable shooter. He just doesn’t seem to take a lot of threes right now.
Doesn’t display a lot of vision. He didn’t need to show a lot in these games, but there were opportunities for kickouts and he didn’t always make them.
Yannis Allard (2026)
Has good touch around the rim. He’s a lower-level athlete and struggles to get there.
I don’t love his jump shot. He kinda flings the ball at the rim on an exaggerated flick. He also just takes too many threes for how poor a shooter
Maxence Lemoine (2026)
Lefty. A good shooter. He exaggerates his follow-through a bit and looks like he pronates, but the rotation on the ball looks good. The lower half of the shot looks good. He is still developing as a pull-up shooter and sometimes he is a victim of “it looks funny but it went in”
He has a knack for the turnaround middy off of a drive. He really catches defenders off balance with it.
Nathan Soliman (2028!!!)
To be honest this kid just didn’t look lost for someone of his age and that is an accomplishment. He is a good rebounder and defender and is good at using his length to compete on the perimeter and inside.
His jumper looks very poor. He has virtually no follow-through and it looks like his arms just kinda flair when he reaches the top of his jumper.