Vincent Collet explains why some players weren't picked for national team / News - Basketnews.com

Unsuitable build, role on the team, and positional abundance were the main reasons why Moustapha Fall, Sylvain Francisco, and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot weren't picked.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Vincent Collet, the head coach of the French national team, presented the extended candidate list for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Some players who represented the team last year were not on the list.

Sylvain Francisco

Team:FC Bayern MunichPosition:PGAge:26Height:186 cmWeight:77 kgBirth place:Creteil, FranceProfileNewsStatistics

Namely, Moustapha Fall, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Sylvain Francisco, who all have represented France recently, did not make the cut.

The 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year, Victor Wembanyama, was the main reason why Fall wasn't selected.

"Mous is having a remarkable season, but we couldn't add a fourth center, knowing that Victor also often slips into this position," Collet told French media after the conference. "He would've played little or not at all. Regarding Victor, he will immediately take on the role of a leader. However, for a leader to emerge, he must not only be good but he must also be accepted as such by others. I have little fear. I think that regarding him, this is already the case."

Luwawu-Cabarrot hoped to play for France in the Olympic Games on home soil after having conflicts within the team during the preparation for EuroBasket 2022 and being excluded from the roster last year as well.

"He's a shooting winger, so it's a relatively stacked position today with Evan Fournier in particular, who has the same profile. You can add Nicolas Batum, who also plays in this position, and Bilal Coulibaly, who, given his size, has a real ability to play the 3. So I couldn't see myself taking him. This is why we made this decision," Collet explained.

"He's an excellent player but we don't make the selection by taking all the best. You define certain criteria, such as the style of play you want to play and the identity you want to develop, and from there, you identify the players who will allow you to achieve this, and form it around the leaders," Collet continued. "In the case of TLC, even if we had retained him, he would not have been one of these leaders. He would have been one of the players around [them]."

Regarding Sylvain Francisco, who plays for FC Bayern Munich this year but is expected to sign with Zalgiris Kaunas for the next season, the main issue was the player's build.

"Sylvain was considered. He was on the previous list that we had established with our assistants. I just talked about the [defensive] identity that we wanted to give to the team. It's for this reason that he was not selected. Concerning him, it's a question of size," Collet said.

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