Nolan Traore Is Making Another Late-Season Surge

This season has not been great for Nolan Traore. It hasn’t been awful, but he has seen his draft stock fall from a potential top-five pick to late first-round. It’s a notable drop, which is indicative of his overall play this season. Traore has largely struggled with scoring efficiency and decision-making. But over his last four games, that has all changed.

Traore is averaging 19 points, 5.25 assists, and 2.5 turnovers per game on 55/50/60 shooting splits in his last four outings for Saint Quentin. It is easily his best stretch of basketball this season, and is reminding scouts and front offices around the league of a similar run he had at this time last year, which is what propelled him into top-five conversations before the season started.

The most significant difference in Traore’s last four games, compared to the rest of the season, is the amount of control he has been playing with. As a young point guard, efficiency and decision-making struggles were expected from Traore. He’s a good prospect, but not, ya know, Luka Doncic. On the season, he’s got 40/32/72 shooting splits, and those numbers have been somewhat concerning.

His recent uptick in efficiency can simply be tracked to better shot selection and overall offensive decision-making. Early in the season, Traore was mostly trying to fly by his initial defender and then fading away on the move for his layup and close shot attempts. It reeked of a player who was used to blowing by his initial defender and rarely encountering any sort of effective help defense, which is more common at the youth levels he had previously dominated.

He now, finally, seems to be making impressive adjustments. He has utilized his floater more, getting past his man on the perimeter and getting a shot off before he runs into help defense at the rim. He’s recognizing driving lanes better, and using them to get himself into position to draw defenders and then make a decision, compared to earlier this season where it often felt like he would take the lane and have already made a decision on what he was going to do from there instead of reading the game.

He’s mixing his body with his speed better as well. After beating his initial defender, he’s keeping them on his hip or back, weaving into open space, nullifying their ability to make an impact defensively, and thus keeping himself and his team at an overall advantage on offense. He’s been more comfortable finishing with his left hand as well, even making some left-handed floaters lately.

Traore’s passing has been better, too. His pick-and-roll reads still come off as a quality grasp of the basics - finding the roll man, kick pass to the corner, etc. - more than the advanced reads that increase the defense's need to rotate side-to-side, but at Traore’s age, that is still a very good place to be. His passes have more accuracy, and he has been throwing more skip passes lately, which was either a read he was missing entirely this season or a pass he didn’t feel confident in his ability to execute.

Traore was named the FIBA Basketball Champions League Best Young Player this season, and the primary reason he’s looked much better lately is that, for the first extended stretch this season, he has looked like a seasoned veteran, not a young player in his first significant professional season. If Traore continues to finish the season strong, he could likely play himself back into a late-lottery pick.

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