Catching a France-Lithuania replay.
To speak Francly, Nkilitina's offense is offensive.
They have him bring the ball upcourt, stop beyond the 3-point line and make the first safe easy pass. The one time there was a large seam and he drove, he stopped short of the help defender, looked around, and made a decrepit bounce pass back out that was easily stolen. It was a very deliberate pass and looked like Franc put a little backspin on it that caused it to be extra-slow. Weird.
Midway through 1Q, Franc tried an elbow 3 that was offline wide right. A couple minutes later, Franc shot from the FT line and somehow missed the rim, got his own awkward rebound and passed back out.
Really looked remedial on O. He got an assist hitting a cutting Gobert on a fast break.
Franc's D looked quite good. As soon as France doesn't have the ball, Franc becomes engaged, seeks out his man, takes angles, looks like he's played hoops before. Had one nice early rotation to get in front of a driving Lithuanian Big. Guy scored, but Franc was in perfect position. Got called for a foul shadowing a guy over a screen, but had been attached to that guy for 6+ secs.
Franc was a total zero on O and looked real active involved on D.
That was an 8 min stretch. Clearly Franc is out there on Team France for his D. Their backup PG is very shrimpy.
Edit: Franc's 3Q stint.
Played stout D. Twice posted up by F's. Kuzminskas got called for an O-foul for hooking Ffranc (fairly minor, but Franc stayed in position). And Franc did another good post D but got called for a foul for getting his arm in too much. Solid D.
On O, Franc continually picked up his dribble well beyond his range. Made grade-school basic telegraphed passes. And once drove in, ripped off a spin move and couldn't make the shot. He just looks so mechanical of offense -- slow, deliberate, thinking. Even on simple passes, he seems to have a slight hitch as though making sure the pass is safe. Weird. It looks more mental than physical. His body language and rhythm changes once he's on D. On O he's tentative and slow-motion.
Poll
