Here’s the best news from week 11 in the NBA, and other news from around the world of basketball.

🤝3 French players in the TOP 10 of the 2024 Draft! (02/01)

⭐️ At the start of 2024, ESPN has released its new rankings of the top prospects for the 2024 draft, a sign of the growing importance of young French players. First with Alexandre Sarr, announced in the top 3 some time ago, it is now in first position that the experts rank him.

🔥 Zaccharie Risacher is ranked second. Finally, a certain Tidjane Salaun playing for Cholet takes 6th place. It’s simply madness!

🤨 Los Angeles in crisis (04/01)

😬 American insinder Shams Charania has just revealed that Los Angeles Lakers players are not happy with their coach.

❌ Darvin Ham, Mr « hands in pockets », is reportedly « out of touch » with his players. Indeed, the Californian dressing room is not in agreement with the American coach’s rotations and choices.

👀 The 50-year-old coach, in his second season with the Lakers, is not getting the expected results. Since the Lakers won the In-Season Tournament, they have posted a record of 3 wins to 9 losses. Is this temporary fatigue or a real problem? Time will tell.

🥶 Kuminga on the outs with Steve Kerr (05/01)

🚨Shams Charania, always well-informed, has just announced that Warriors winger Johnathan Kuminga has « lost faith » in his coach Steve Kerr. Kuminga even thinks that Kerr will never let him « reach his full potential ».

😬 This revelation follows the Warriors’ match against the Nuggets last night, in which JK was left on the bench for the final 18 minutes of the game. Kuminga is averaging 12.8 points and 4.1 rebounds this season. Beyond the statistics, he brings valuable aggression in attack and defence.

Steve Kerr now has his back against the wall. If he wants to keep a tight-knit group, it’s best to make choices based on current performances and not the record…

🚨 Hand fracture for Chris Paul (06/01)

😬 While the Warriors franchise is not at its best, the Californians have just lost a major component of the rotation, in the person of Chris Paul. The experienced point guard fractured his left hand after coming into contact with Jaden Ivey midway through the 3rd quarter of the game against Detroit on Friday night. The news was confirmed late in the evening in the United States and CP3 will have to undergo surgery on his hand.

🙁 In fact, this is the 5th time Paul has been hit on his left hand, in addition to 6 times on his right. Even more impressive, he has already had 4 operations on his hands or wrists.

👀 While Chris Paul will surely miss a good number of games, Steve Kerr will have to redo all his rotations and players like Cory Joseph will take advantage of this to grab some playing time!

🚨 Draymond Green back on the court (07/01)

✅ The NBA has decided to « reinstate » the Warriors player after 12 games off the court.

🥊 As a reminder, Green had been suspended indefinitely since 14 December for successive physical altercations since the start of the season. In particular, he tried to strangle Rudy Gobert in mid-November, which led to a five-game suspension. But then he went berserk again, sending a hook to Jusuf Nurkic that earned him this long-term suspension.

👀 Green has been monitored by experts and « all parties have been delighted with the progress Green has made » according to Shams Charania. « Regular updates » will still take place to avoid incidents happening again.

👊 Green will need « approximately one week » to get back into the swing of things and back on the pitch for good!

😳 Jordan Poole lost in Washington (07/01)

❌ Jordan Poole, transferred to Washington this summer, is nowhere near the level he was at last season with the Golden State Warriors. It has to be said that the Wizards team is undoubtedly one of the most disorganised in the league at the moment.

😬 With 6 wins and 29 losses, Washington are second-bottom in the Eastern Conference. Currently, the franchise is on a 4-game losing streak coinciding with Poole’s poor performances.

👎 Indeed, over the last 5 games, JP3’s best total is just 13 points. With some rather worrying percentages, Poole is not at all comfortable. This season, he is averaging 16.3 points and 31% from 3-point range.

🚨In his 5th NBA season, Poole seems to be completely lacking in confidence and consistency. Here’s hoping this is just a bad year and that JP3 can bounce back very quickly!

Eliott Caillot