NBA Draft 2025: Kasparas Jakucionis versus Nolan Traore in FIBA U18

Lithuania's top prospect led the game in points in their August 4 game against the French national team and Nolan Traore, who also had a great game himself.

FIBA.com

One of the top international players this year is Illinois freshman Kasparas Jakucionis, a guard who can play on or off the ball and has elite scoring capability, doing so in a myriad of ways. He showed off these talents against the French national team in the FIBA U18 tournament this summer, a group that boasts another top prospect in Nolan Traore.

Jakucionis was the top scorer in a loss against the French national team, a game that included a 29-point, 11-assist outing from Traore. Jakucionis managed a game-high 37 points and seven dimes himself, hitting 51.7% of his shots from the field including a true shooting mark of 60.1%. Traore showed more efficiency, hitting 11 of his 17 attempts from the field for 72.7% true shooting.

Both players executed at a high level in the pick-and-roll, scoring by attacking the basket out of these sets as well as assisting a combined 18 times in the game. Jakucionis hit three triples in the matchup, though he did take 11 shots, so his percentage from beyond the arc was not elite in that sense. However, he showed real shot making ability on some of these attempts, as some were heavily contested.

Traore's shot selection was different, as nearly all of his takes were in the lane out of pick-and-roll sets. Of his 17 attempts, all but four were either in the lane or at the key. He loves to drive the rack off of screens, and continued to do so throughout, some of which resulted in dump off passes to Noa Essengue and company for some of his 11 total assists.

The game was close throughout, but France pulled away in the end to a 99-89 victory in which the two lead guards for each team were the stars. In many sets, the opposing team would often blitz the on-ball screen, forcing each player to make the right read, which each often did. Jakucionis had seven dimes to three turnovers while Traore had 11 assists to an (albeit troublesome) seven turnovers, but each is still young and learning how to facilitate.

Overall, this was a game that proved the next generation of Euro stars has a ton of potential.

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