Juhann Mathieu Bégarin | Scouting Report

I’m Kuzey, 19. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I have been working in Eurosport Turkey for the last 1,5 years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Sasa Obradovic, Orhun Ene, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams, Ekpe Udoh… I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas: All of the age groups from Africa and Europe. MY BIGGEST GOAL IS SCOUTING! Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!

Born on 7 August 2002, Juhann Mathieu Bégarin comes from Les Abymes. The talented Guadeloupean was raised in the French overseas region of Guadeloupe in the Southern Caribbean. The first sport Bégarin tried was football, he did something about athletics for a while, but when he could not find a clear coach and field in these sports branches, JB turned to basketball. He played for Baie-Mahault BC in the kids’ class and won many trophies. When Juhann was 16, he moved to Corbeil-Essonnes, a place close to Paris, with his always supportive parents. The reason for moving there was that INSEP’s interest. Shortly after Bégarin joined INSEP, he became one of the long-term star prospects. The freaking athlete started to create his draft stock with his performances at the 2018 FIBA ​​U16 European Championship and the 2018–2019 Nationele Masculine 1. With his excellent performance at ANGT Kaunas in February 2019 and his performance at Basketball Without Borders in Riga in the summer of the same year, Bégarin became a star prospect. On July 8, 2019, he signed a contract with Paris Basketball, one of the LNB Pro B teams. Bégarin’s older brother Jessie played professional basketball for 15 years. JB’s parents don’t have a professional basketball career clearly but they both coached in Guadeloupe. Bégarin is very disciplined in training, as I heard from my friend in INSEP. He is the first player who comes to the training in the morning and after the team, training Juhann works individually for a long time. At the same time, he makes an effort not to disrupt his school.

Physical

Standing 6-foot-6 with a 7-foot wingspan and strong upper body, Juhann Bégarin has tremendous size and frame for an 18.1 years old kid in my opinion. My reasons for finding the physical tools of Bégarin extraordinary are very simple. JB is only 18 years old, but his ratio between height and wingspan is like that of an ideal professional basketball player in my opinion. I think his arms are strong, his shoulders are wide and solid, he needs to work on his core, his lower body both fast and strong, can move very well laterally and linearly, has one-foot and two-foot floater package, his hips are mobile, he has a good jumping from the ground to the basket. Besides vertical pop, Bégarin also has knee explosiveness. He is very fast in the open court, fluent on off the ball offense, in full court he can dribble with the ball between two to four seconds sequences and finish the position with dominant dunks. The highlight of Bégarin’s athletics package is that Bégarin can dribble fast with the ball and take contact and go to the basket in a fluid or explosive way, plus Bégarin can’t be stopped when he captures momentum in transition. So he already has the ideal package from the NBA window, in my opinion.

Offense

Doing a bit of everything on the offensive end, the freakish athlete does his best contributions applying his physical tools in transition and on the offensive glass. Has all around self-creation package, Juhann has a perfect lob threat and can move very fast with the ball and do dominant dunks when playing on the ball offense in hill or transition. He goes better to the right of the offensive channel than to the left. His first step is strong and solid, giving him momentum. Bégarin can create a shield around the ball while changing direction both in the air and on the ground. He can play above the rim, finish in traffic, and he knows how to show some tricks like hooks, reverse spins, hip fakes alongside his footwork. But there is a question mark in my head. Bégarin has a dazzling athlectisim package, but when the game is played at a slow pace in the half-court, he has trouble getting past his opponent with the dribble. He’s not losing the ball, but forcing the game and staying behind in some contact positions is a huge question mark. I mean, Bégarin becomes an ineffective player when he can’t find momentum and plays at a slow pace. Also, he is not an off the ball slashes-cutter. The biggest thing I haven’t said anything clear about it is JB’s shooting. Bégarin was a good shooter in 2018. His volume was average but his hit rate was high, but he was a bad shooter in every sense in 2019. From the left corner, he showed good things as a catch-and-shooter, but the lack of smoothness, solidness, and weird set point hurt his consistency in my opinion. Bégarin is able to create his shot around mid-range, and he has shown he can do well with one dribble pull-up shot, but he has general inconsistency. He has room on that. As a passer, Juhann does a good job on drive-and-dish situations in my opinion. He can create a gravity effect and thanks to that effect, he can give reacts passing to his open teammates. Not a crafty or shifty ballhandler or creator in my opinion, just knows plays with the team. It’s too important of course. As a defensive ballhandler, JB does not a simple TOs but sometimes he forcing the game too much. End of the day, I think that Bégarin has add weapons on his offensive arsenal. He is a great transition scorer, showed some things as a cutter and shooter but needs general consistency in my opinion. For now, he is just a great fit for athlectisim level of the NBA in my opinion. But he is just an 18 y/o and has time.

Defense

Juhann Mathieu Bégarin’s BBIQ, pro basketball genes, high-level motor, and athlectisim package make up for his lack of elite man-on-man defensive plays in my opinion. Bégarin sees actions early to help, running through passing lanes well with good timing, showing great active and coordinated eye-hand sequences. With a decent defensive stance and potential switchability, Bégarin is fearless on the ball defender. He can stay in front of against guards thanks to his quick hands, can stay in front of against forwards, and stretch bigs thanks to his elite athlectisim and good size. However, at the end of the day, he has room to be consistent on the ball defender in my opinion. The explosive player showed some flashes put pressure on shooters both catch-and-shoot and self-creating shoot situations but can’t guarding those players on the dribble, floater, and Pick’n Roll games. Lack of balance and experience hurt his stock here. Yeah, Bégarin has a good experience thanks to his adventures on LNB pro leagues, but he is just an 18 years-old player, so, still improving process. A shot-blocking presence on the ball and/or as a help-side defender. Good off the ball defender thanks to his quickness and linear, lateral, vertical pop moves. Good transition defender with wide steps, court vision, and quick moves. Average team defender in my opinion. Bégarin is not a defensive playmaker or like that but knows how to rotate to protect the defensive shield of the team. Not a great defender on closeouts, sometimes give bad reacts, very bad reacts against pump fakes. Knows close his opponent’s rim angle but can’t do it consistently. A quick jumper and an engaged and competitive rebounder, Juhann pursues the ball with energy, especially on the offensive end.

Summary

I think Bégarin’s ceiling is high for the NBA because he has bullets yet to add to his offensive arsenal. And the athleticism and size & frame he currently has is mesmerizing. JB has a switching potential on defense. Not taking responsibility in critical moments and is a question mark in my mind, but the value of the almost extraordinary athletic & physical package and the things he can add to his ceiling makes him a fit NBA prospect. But he should definitely add these things to his arsenal: Shooting consistency, off the ball offense, balanced, on the ball BBIQ on the defensive end.