So Zach Randolph's daughter and Gilbert Arenas' daughter play with Juju on Sierra Canyon, which just won the California Open Division (top schools) title. Their games on are on the NFHS Network, which costs $11 for a month.
Watkins is phenomenal (just a junior). I was watching the title game and thinking "She could play in the W right now." She's 6-2, can make NBA threes, attacks the basket, blocks shot, blows by people and plays hard.
It will be interesting to see if she has any desire to skip the college scene and start making money, because she's ready right now (or at least will be when she graduates). She's not like Clark or Bueckers, who clearly will have strength issues when they first get to the WNBA. (She might just start for Atlanta ...)
(Bonus points for the origin of the paraphrased subject line ...)
Juju will go wherever she wants to go, and doesn't need UConn or Stanford. On the other hand, she left Windward, which was a good team, to play at Sierra Canyon with higher-level players. Which would suggest UConn or Stanford ...
So Zach Randolph's daughter and Gilbert Arenas' daughter play with Juju on Sierra Canyon, which just won the California Open Division (top schools) title. Their games on are on the NFHS Network, which costs $11 for a month.
Watkins is phenomenal (just a junior). I was watching the title game and thinking "She could play in the W right now." She's 6-2, can make NBA threes, attacks the basket, blocks shot, blows by people and plays hard.
It will be interesting to see if she has any desire to skip the college scene and start making money, because she's ready right now (or at least will be when she graduates). She's not like Clark or Bueckers, who clearly will have strength issues when they first get to the WNBA. (She might just start for Atlanta ...)
(Bonus points for the origin of the paraphrased subject line ...)
Since no one gave the answer I looked it up.
"I have seen the future and it works." American "muckraker" Lincoln Steffens comment from visiting Russia after visiting Russia after the revolution. He might have been rather disappointed around 1980 if not long before that......
Watkins is now ESPNW's 2023 #1 overall recruit. She has kept her recruitment very private, it seems. Anyone know who her finalists are? (Otherwise, I'm sure we can guess the usual suspects.)
I too have seen the future and its name is Dominique Malonga (international version of this topic’s subject)
The young 6-6 center out of France turns 17 next month (is she even done growing?), so she’ll be eligible for the 2025 Draft… a little sooner than Juju Watkins. 😉 (Not that Malonga would for sure show up. 🙃)
Belibi at 6-1 tries to dunk. Malonga several inches taller clearly already just does. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Belibi also has no future in the W, so there’s that. (Again, not that Malonga does for sure either, but it wouldn’t be skill-related with her.)
Last Edit: Oct 21, 2022 10:04:31 GMT -5 by Deleted
Actually, Belibi has dunked in games, and one of them was pretty impressive -- but as you point out, she is not a WNBA prospect.
Malonga may be a future WNBA player, but that brief clip of her dunking doesn't mean much to me. She looked athletic, granted, but there are some athletic, tall players who could jump who never made much of an impact. In other words, that was a nice appetizer, but I think we all need to see her as a featured item.
"She is the female version of Victor Wembanyama", said Tony Parker in 2021 when he signed the prospect for his club ASVEL. ...
At the FIBA U17 Women's World Cup 2022 this summer, Malonga led France to a bronze medal and made her presence felt every time she stepped on the court. She had the best efficiency rating of the competition (22.4), was the second scorer (18.0 points per game), 4th in rebounds (10.0 per game), and shined the brightest when it mattered the most with 21 points and 14 rebounds in the Semi-Final and 28 points and 17 rebounds for bronze. ...
Still not sure what to think about Malonga? Here's what FIBA Youth specialist David Hein had to say about her in June after the 2022 Basketball Without Borders European camp:
"Malonga is one of the future stars of the game in Europe. She has great size at 6-foot-6 and can dunk with some ease. The center helped France win their FIBA U16 Women's European Challenger last summer, averaging 19.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 2.8 blocks to get France to the FIBA U17 Women's Basketball World Cup 2022. Malonga is expected to be a major leader on the team given that she actually was in the rotation for Lyon ASVEL and played in seven EuroCup Women games, picking up 6.0 points and 5.0 rebounds.
Malonga has great length and athleticism but can also handle the ball and runs very smoothly - also getting out on the break. She has some excellent footwork which makes her very tough to defend around the basket. Malonga is a decent free throw shooter but has not yet looked at all to taking her game outside. She is dangerous enough around the basket and in transition. But fans should mark the name down because she will be a superstar in the very near future."
Seems like if nothing else, she has that rare potential to be elite. Absolutely someone worth keeping an eye on between now & the spring of 2025 – and beyond.
Malonga appears to have a solid foundation to build on. She's got nice footwork for a 16 year-old. Belibi really has nothing to her game outside of the ability to dunk. Just have to look at her stats throughout her time at Stanford to know she won't have a career after this year (maybe overseas in garbage leagues for a few years).
McCall is 6-2 and a true PF who actually shot 3PTers every now & then in college. Perhaps that helped her get drafted to begin with.
Belibi meanwhile is at least an inch shorter than McCall yet is more of a 5 than a 4 (if you had to pick a position for her), without any scoring ability away from the rim, let alone out to the arc. So, medical school it is.
Last Edit: Oct 22, 2022 14:39:25 GMT -5 by Deleted
Watkins is now ESPNW's 2023 #1 overall recruit. She has kept her recruitment very private, it seems. Anyone know who her finalists are? (Otherwise, I'm sure we can guess the usual suspects.)
Only ESPN knows these things sometimes I guess, and choose to wait until it’s convenient for them to make the announcements. 🙃
Watkins' top 4 is Southern Cal, Arizona, Stanford, and South Carolina. Aside from maybe snubbing UConn & UCLA, pretty much what you’d expect from a top Californian prospect.
Last Edit: Oct 24, 2022 11:22:12 GMT -5 by Deleted
She does go to the same high school as Bronny. I could see her choosing Southern Cal if she wants to try and be “LA”-famous as opposed to just “NCAA WBB”-famous. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯