Every year there are a couple of first round picks even the most devout basketball fans will struggle to recognize on draft night.
Shooting guard Isaia Cordinier, who just finished up his season with Denain in France’s Pro B, their second division, is one such guy in this year’s draft.
At Denain he averaged 10.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game, shooting an impressive 40.4% from three-point range.
Cordinier presents an intriguing combination of an improving outside shot, high-end speed and athleticism, dribble penetrations skills, and a willingness to defend that could make him a find for some team later on in the draft. He’s raw, and may struggle to get into a rotation right off the bat due to his inexperience, the jump in competition he’s going to have to make, and his frail 177-pound frame, but it’s hard to watch Cordinier fly up and down the court and not be intrigued by his potential.
“He’s a high energy kid, who plays with a lot of passion and a lot of emotion,” said Marc Eversley, the Philadelphia 76ers vice president of player personnel, who brought Cordinier in for a workout this past week.
“[He] can make shots, and he’s a high twitch guy,” Eversley continued, referring to Cordinier’s quick reflexes and reaction time. Eversley also referred to Cordinier as a strong leaper capable of making plays at the rim.
You package all of that in a 6-foot-5 frame and a 19-year-old kid who seems to be just scratching the surface of his potential, and you begin to wonder why he’s not getting more attention.
While playing in a lower level French league certainly didn’t help make him known, it did help him compete against older, more physically mature, professional basketball players. That gave him experience he believes is going to be invaluable during this pre-draft process.
“I played with grown men. They have experience, their bodies are finished developing,” Cordinier told USA Today Sports. “I learned a lot.”
While Cordinier is slightly short for a shooting guard by NBA standards (if you can call 6-foot-5 in shoes and with a 6-foot-8 wingspan short), he makes up for that on the defensive end with a combination of quickness and high energy level.
“I like energy players like Victor Oladipo,” Cordinier said, when asked who he patterns his game after. “Even Bismack Biyombo, even if he doesn’t play my position, the energy he puts on the court and the passion he plays with is really great.”
His father, Stephane, is a former Olympian, competing in the 1996 Olympic Games for France in handball.
“He was my first coach. Since I started sports, he wanted me to be the best. When he saw I really loved basketball he pushed me every day,” Cordinier said, noting that he fell in love with basketball around the age of six. “He prepared me to the professional world, and he helped me to act like a professional since I was very young. He helped me be where I am today.”
One of the benefits to drafting a player like Cordinier, especially for teams like Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, or Boston who have numerous picks in the draft, is the possibility to draft-and-stash him . By doing so teams get to control Cordinier’s rights and have him develop in a situation where he could get more minutes than he would if he came over to the NBA right away, but also get to not use up a precious roster spot during the interim.
Cordinier said that’s a situation he might be open to, depending on the specifics of the team drafting him. There’s also the off chance he could still withdraw from the draft, as the NBA’s deadline to withdraw, for players who aren’t looking to retain college eligibility, is June 13th.
“My goal is to reach the first round. That’s what I work for every day. That’s my only goal for this summer,” Cordinier said. “I will see what’s going on after the workouts [and decide]”.
It remains to be seen whether Cordinier will reach that goal of being a first round draft pick. That section of the draft tends to be extremely volatile, with players, especially high-end athletes like Cordinier who haven’t had the chance to compete on the biggest of stages, able to make a name for themselves with strong workouts leading up to the draft.
But for a player like Cordinier who has played wihout the fanfare of some of his peers, the next few weeks represent the chance of a lifetime for him to make a name for himself, and accomplish a lifelong dream in the process.
