NBA Draft: Former NBA Scout Evaluates Bilal Coulibaly

An evaluation of French wing Bilal Coulibaly from the viewpoint of a former NBA scout.

After evaluating 2023 NBA Draft prospect Bilal Coulibaly of France, Jason Filippi shared his evaluation and scouting report with Draft Digest Pro.

Team: Levallois-Boulogne Metropolitans (France) | Position: Guard/Forward | Class: International

Height: 6-6 | Weight: 230

Potential NBA Roles: Defender, Slasher, 3-and-D

Comparisons: Keldon Johnson

Draft Projection: late first – early second round

FIBA.com

Strengths:

• Length and athleticism and long arms
• Defensive versatility – plays bigger than size
• Athletic finisher at the rim
• Open court skills

Concerns:

• Needs to get stronger physically
• May lack NBA three-point shooting range – slow release on shot
• Needs to tighten his handle – he can be careless with the ball

Questions:

• Can he create his own shot at the NBA level?
• Can he develop a better pull-up game?

Bottom Line:

Bilal Coulibaly is the one international prospect who has increased his draft stock the most this past season. He has not been the best player on any of his teams in the past. Still, everything started to come together last summer when he had a breakout performance at European U18 Championships. Coulibaly is a late bloomer, and I think he still has plenty of upside. He improved a lot throughout the season. He is much more confident and assertive after looking to defer to others so much in the past. Additionally, he seems to look to score much more now.

After tearing it up at the junior level early in the season, Coulibaly suddenly started to get regular minutes with the pro team in the second half of the season and made the most of the opportunity. And being a teammate of Victor Wembanyama obviously helped him gain extra exposure.

Coulibaly also appears to have grown another inch this season and has a long frame, possessing an impressive 7-foot-2 wingspan. Coulibaly's frame has begun to fill out as well. He is an excellent quick-twitch athlete and explosive leaper.

His offensive game is still a work in progress, but he has significantly improved this season. In general, he is more of a slasher than a shooter. At the pro level, Coulibaly has not shown much off the dribble. Still, he was an effective 1-on-1 player at the junior level, and there is no reason this should not translate to the pro level. He is a good slasher who likes to drive baseline. He elevates well and can make contested shots. He also showed the ability to post up smaller guards at the youth level but not as much at the pro level thus far.

Coulibaly moves well without the ball and is an athletic finisher at the rim off cuts to the basket. He has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and is a good system player. He is an opportunistic scorer and gets many points in the game's flow. He is an outstanding open-court player who is hard to stop in transition and can go the length of the court to score. Coulibaly is a team player. He's very unselfish and defers too much to others at times. He is willing to make an extra pass and feeds the post well. He can drive and dump the ball off to big men cutting to the basket.

He definitely needs to improve his perimeter shooting. At the junior level, he would often pass up on open three-point shots and try to drive to the basket instead. His three-point shooting is erratic, and he may need time to adapt to the deeper NBA three-point line. He is primarily a spot-up shooter from long-range and has a pretty slow release. He needs to develop a better pull-up game. Despite barely shooting 30% from three-point range at the junior level, he has shot the ball much better at the pro level, shooting 50% on limited volume from three. Coulibaly has shown that he has the potential to become a reliable long-range shooter and has displayed confidence shooting the corner three.

Routinely crashing the offensive glass, Coulibaly swoops in to snatch the ball away from opposing big men to score on putbacks. I have seen him throw down some impressive tip-in dunks too.

Coulibaly possesses good defensive abilities that should translate well to the pro level. He is a versatile defender who can help pressure the ball out on the perimeter, switch, and hold position against larger players. He deflects a lot of passes and can be pretty disruptive. He contests shots aggressively and is a good shot blocker for a wing player, and he seems to have a high motor in general.

Bilal Coulibaly is still raw, but he is a late bloomer with considerable margins for improvement. He needs to get stronger and work on his perimeter shot. Still, I like his potential, and I think he perfectly fits the mold of the prototypical 3&D wing player for the NBA level.