Joan Beringer Scouting Report
With French prospects gaining popularity, we still see unhidden gems yet to be discovered: Joan Beringer is the next in line.
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Introduction
As a highly touted prospect out of Strasbourg’s youth ranks, he chose to transfer to Cedevita Olimpija, Slovenia. He built up his resumé with 9.4 points and 8.0 rebounds per game in the Espoirs U21 league, showing a mind-boggling 66.7% finishing rate. The impressive part is in the European context of playing without a defensive three-second rule and the opposing big man playing underneath the basket more often than not.
He continued his success in the FIBA U18 EuroBasket tournament, finishing 70.5% of his interior attempts, solidifying his status as an athletic five who thrives as a play-finisher. However, to continue to build on his offense and diversify his game, he transferred to the ABA League. It’s notable to mention that Beringer was born in November 2007, and is currently one of the youngest prospects eligible for the 2025 NBA Draft.
Physical Profile
At 6-foot-10, Beringer is an incredibly bounce big man with quick feet and great verticality. He gets off the ground in a quick matter, increasing his value as a rim protector and play-finisher. He has good instincts when he’s operating as a help-side defender and doesn’t back away to play physically around the rim, serving as a rim deterrent on top of his shot-blocking qualities. There is no official wingspan measurement available, my best guess on that end would be that Beringer has a wingspan close to 7-foot-5.
He has improving footwork which is a must to get better as a self-creating scorer. With fluid hips, he’ll likely get more runway as a creator in the post later on this season. With mobility being the main intangible NBA decision-makers look for, Beringer has the opportunity to complete his NBA profile by improving his footwork, and creativity around the rim while being more comfortable in executing his passing reads. The consistent motor Beringer has made his NBA future even more appealing.
Offense
Offensive rebounding resulted in putbacks.
Beringer plays with great energy. He has a combination of great positioning while immediately going into offensive box-out mode. Despite his current status as a below-average passer and non-shooter, Beringer finds a way to play valuable minutes with his ability to crash the offensive glass and benefit his team’s offensive rating by generating second-chance opportunities.
Like many prospects of his age group, Beringer has to get stronger to be more effective in immediately turning his offensive rebounds into points. He puts all his efforts into the physical battle underneath the basket, often putting him out of balance when he’s ready to cash in on the offensive rebound. In the first possession below, Beringer immediately dives to the rim after the screen, whereafter he makes a smart move at locking his defender in his back to position himself to collect the potential miss. However, after collecting the board, passing out of the play with three defenders around him was the best decision.
Another solid screen-and-dive in the second play below, with Beringer showing more aggressiveness with the defender winning the early sealing battle. Beringer does well to use his size advantage and verticality by immediately trying to tip the ball back in, rather than catching the ball to bring it down and power back up for the finish. He has created a good habit for himself that when he doesn’t have the space around him, he fully commits to tipping the ball back in. Despite his soft touch around the rim, the lack of strength often caught him out of balance, being the majority of the reason for both misses in the second and third play below.
When he has more space around him, in the fourth possession we see Beringer falling into a classic habit of bringing the ball down before powering up again. That’s a golden opportunity for defenders to hack the big man and make him earn the points from the line, where Beringer shot 44.7% in the Espoirs U21 league last season. To make improvements feasible on top of getting stronger in the next few years, Beringer needs to adapt to how the Gasol brothers used to operate on that end: not bringing the ball back down.
By keeping the ball high, he can use his size to his advantage with defenders not able to strip the ball or foul without giving away an and-one. On top of that, his verticality will make it much easier to finish putbacks consistently. In that way, coaches will trust him to crash the glass more, as an inherent risk of giving away transition offense easily hurts a team’s defensive rating.
Pick-and-roll
At 66.2% in 25 games, Beringer is a highly effective interior finisher. That’s the natural result of having a high level of fundamentals combined with a good touch around the rim. He’s much more of a threat to opposing defenders as a pick-and-roll option. With the ability to set good screens, Beringer shows his consistent ability to dive to the rim after each pick, even if he doesn’t get the ball for stretches. We often see with young big-man prospects, that in win-now leagues where they are less featured, the motivation to fully dive and try to collapse defenders goes away after they barely get fed with touches in the post.
That’s a good habit, resulting in his team wanting to use him as a post option to find easy points. Beringer seals well-off defenders while immediately positioning himself to make it a favorable matchup for himself. In the first play below, the size and athleticism lead to multiple defenders committing to defending underneath the basket. For spacing purposes, that’s what an NBA decision-maker looks for. The first possession below is a good example. The area of development for Beringer is to pass more out of the post, especially if he faces tougher defenders underneath the basket. With 17 assists in 34 games last season, that’s a vocal area that might make or break Beringer’s offensive potential for the NBA.
In the second play, Beringer does well with the hand-off, followed by the hard double-screen, opening up the driving lane through the middle. The athleticism is put on display after highly leaping before the tough finish in the air while finishing the play off in style. The long-term potential for NBA decision-makers to focus on is being shown in the third possession. After the screen, Beringer shows his ability to play as a face-up scorer, positioning himself to eliminate getting stripped, while using long strides to get two feet in the paint and pop vertically after he gets past his defenders. We see similar basic ball skills in the last play below, adding verticality to Beringer as a pick-and-roll scorer where he doesn’t only have to catch high passes or lobs, as he can make his offense happen off the floor as well.
Transition offense
In a halfcourt-heavy setting, Beringer is often the recipient of plays being run for him. In the NBA that focuses on generating as many favorable looks around the rim and open threes, Beringer might struggle to find his fair share of offense throughout the game. Therefore, it’s a make-or-break thing how he will perform in transition. With NBA teams wanting to play fast to secure the best possible offensive rating, Beringer’s functional athleticism to be effective in transition offense is one of the unique selling points of his profile.
Whether it’s him using drag screens to get to his spots in semi-transition, as shown in the first play below, or fully sprinting cross-court to catch high passes and lobs, Beringer makes it happen for himself to defend at the rim, and sprinting with long strides to make it in time to finish transition plays himself. He has a decent first step for his size, but impressive acceleration where his leaping ability makes it possible to catch difficult passes with ease. He also has good hands, which is a must to be successful in a play-finishing-heavy shot diet.
The analytics behind it is that bad hands are often correlated with higher turnover rates by big men, thus hurting a team’s offensive rating. When considering the combination of bad free-throw shooting, it’s an uphill battle to play consistently, especially in game-closing minutes. Therefore, having good hands is essential to play NBA minutes as a non-floor-stretching NBA five. The area of development for Beringer is that he’s leaving a lot of points at the rim with sloppy finishes.
In the third play below, he had the runway to either dunk it home or just dribble the play out to finish the possession with a lay-up. He did something in between as he started leaping far from the rim, leaving the finish unbalanced. Another clear area of development is the need to raise the free-throw percentage. In the last play below, the opposing team took the risk of fouling while potentially giving away an and-one at face value, knowing Beringer struggles at the rim and often is unbalanced before finishing plays at the rim. The way the defense played him is exactly how an NBA coaching staff looks at the situation.
Cuts
In a fluid NBA game where ball movement and relocating away from the ball are vital to succeed, Beringer has the base to play early on in his career. Similar to his consistency of aggressiveness when he’s diving to the rim after screens, Beringer is a purposeful cutter who will keep defenders busy, leveraging his high efficiency and verticality at the rim to make opponents respect him.
The first play is exactly what an NBA decision-maker must focus on. He did two things very well, being: relocating to the baseline to effectively backdoor-cut after his assignment rotates. The second one is the fantastic hip fluidity combined with footwork after catching the dropoff pass. The physical tools are off the charts, and the base is to be a plus-defender on an NBA level.
The NBA is changing toward four or even five-out basketball. In these schemes, the big man in the middle is a vital part of how much space can be created on the perimeter. Therefore, having great hands is vital to be able to catch tough interior passes, with the second play below being an example. Beringer does well to keep two defenders busy around the rim, where he immediately shows his aggressiveness to try and finish over the top. The area of development for him at Cedevita Olimpija is to opt to pass to open shooters instead. So the base for the NBA is there, but the willingness to make the extra pass is where Beringer needs help in his development.
It’s unlikely however that Beringer will play in the NBA after he gets drafted. In the third and fourth plays below, it’s clear how willing teams are to hack him underneath the basket after he does everything well to collect the dropoff pass. His below-average shooting from the charity stripe is the deciding factor that will determine how much respect he’ll get from the opposing defense and how effective the outcome of his cutting will be at the next level.
Defense
Pick-and-roll
Beringer’s mobility, quickness, and light feet make him an intriguing pick-and-roll defender in the future. There are areas of development, naturally at such a young age. Most of it will improve itself when he gets stronger. More often than not, Beringer struggled to keep his balance after contact with opposing screeners. Therefore, his minutes played for Cedevita Olimpija in the ABA League carry the most value to determine the sample size.
In the first play, Beringer does well to recover after the play was designed to open up the cutter that moved toward the basket. He’s aggressive in getting over screens while maintaining hip flexibility and quickness to rotate and drop deeper into the paint when needed. As the youngest player on the court, opponents often designed plays to target Beringer by using multiple screens. He has a decent screen navigator but simply lacks the strength to effectively deny picks while maintaining his balance when fighting around them. That leads to the defense having to rotate, thus opening up the cutter in the middle.
The third and fourth plays show examples of Beringer’s defense when he’s facing the pick-and-roll ball handler as the drop coverage defender. He has the footwork and foot speed to keep up with smaller scorers, effectively denying them at the rim by using his verticality and length. However, the fourth play below shows another sign of the lack of strength not helping him effectively anchor the interior. The scorer tags Beringer who is too late to move his hips and change sides toward the play-finishing big man who was the recipient of the drop-off pass.
On a better-spaced NBA floor, Beringer will thrive on using his mobility to guard up to the perimeter. In the last play below, we see him sell the opponent that he’ll drop on the play, whereafter he switches to the elbow and forces the ball handler to either attack his closeout, pass, or hit an open teammate. Beringer shows a promising feel for the game on this end, trusting his instincts and using his length to impact the entry pass to eventually come up with the steal.
Closeouts
Furthermore, when focusing on Beringer’s play against closeouts, it often looks as if the game is too quick for him to process. Especially in semi-transition or when opponents use ball movement to find open teammates. There are fundamental areas to work on for Beringer, as he’s solely focusing on the ball handler when moving back to his interior during the transition offense, while three of his four other opponents were located on the other side of the floor. Knowing where you are on the floor while moving backward was the way to go when Beringer got back to about 30 feet away from the basket. That led to him missing the assignment at the elbow.
When closing out, Beringer looks more comfortable when he’s not assigned to guard the primary ball handler. He’s seeing the floor much better and that led to a good rotation in the second possession. An important detail here is that Beringer is forcing the ball handler to either beat him off the dribble or take the deep three with the amount of space he has given the shooter. An NBA decision-maker should not have a problem with that, as his excellent leaping ability and length allow him to cover more space and thus more effectively close out to defend shooters at the next level.
As mentioned earlier, Beringer needs more reps at the professional level to improve reading the game when it goes further down the shot clock. In the third play below, he’s caught ball-watching while defending far away from the ball handler, leading to the opponent playing out the team’s defense by eventually finding the shooter in the corner. Another area of development for Beringer when operating as a closeout defender is to be less reactive to what an opponent wants. NBA schemes are sophisticated and players work an entire summer mastering schemes for in-game situations. Reactive defenders favor an opposing team’s set.
The must-have to grow into an above-average defender in the NBA is to force ball handlers to make early decisions. Closing out hard while maintaining a good last step is vital to making the best possible decision. In the last play below, Beringer shows good rotational abilities to recognize he had to guard the weak side, but when the ball got there, he allowed a wide-open driving lane to the scorer, instead of forcing his opponent to beat him off the dribble, as he has shown earlier.
Cuts
When defending against cutters, Beringer is much more comfortable in moving his hips and quickly switches to play-finishers underneath the basket. His long wingspan and quick feet allow him to impact space in the interior from a standstill while having the mobility to quickly react to ball movement. His positioning in the first play makes sense, as he’s guarding the area around the basket to be able to react to the drop-off pass while maintaining enough runway to block the runner or lay-up at the rim. With a second defender limiting his movement space, Beringer is eventually too late for the second jump after the scorer pump-faked himself to an open two underneath the basket.
Despite the strong second jump in the second play below, Beringer shows he’s vulnerable to pump-fakes. Looking at his fantastic leaping ability while showing a quick jump, Beringer can afford to gamble on scorers faking him on the first and second try. Even if they get the ball up, he’s quickly in the air to potentially block shots before coming into goaltending territory. We see an outcome of this in the third possession below, where the second jump was where he caught the scorer unbalanced for the miss and a good follow-up by Beringer with the box-out.
Post-ups
Beringer is in a unique situation when defending against post-ups. He plays with toughness and doesn’t look to back down for physical contact. However, at the same time, he’s fairly reactive, allowing opposing big men to bully him while maintaining ground in the paint. The biggest context here is that he’s still a seventeen-year-old trying to find his comfort zone against older professional players.
In the first possession below, Beringer starts well by placing his chest forward to absorb the contact without losing his balance. However, the strength disadvantage was clear after the opposing big men got two feet in the paint after repeating the post-up, eventually caught by surprise by Beringer broadening his shoulders and using his length to force the scorer to finish over the top. That’s the weapon that makes his defense unique among his peers, despite the lack of strength.
We see a similar outcome in the second play below. Beringer battles to not allow the opposing big man to get the entry pass with two feet inside the paint. Hereafter, he again gives up ground but does well to use his elbows to keep the big man away from drawing the foul by jumping up into his arms. Hereafter, the seal was correctly defended with Beringer hesitating for the jump before launching his verticality to again strongly deter the shot. Despite a lack of post-up play in the NBA, advantage-creators will think twice before challenging.
As mentioned earlier, the lack of experience is often visible in Beringer’s defense. In the third play below, he easily allows the opponent to seal by responding to hesitation moves after Beringer does well on the physical end by allowing limited space in the post-up. In the fourth play below, Beringer could have lured the opponent for the over-the-back call if he maintained his stance, but the lack of strength led to the opponent gaining the physical advantage. Regardless, Beringer compensated well with quick recovery, making his physical tools more appealing, barring him improving his strength in the next few years.
NBA Draft Projection
Based on the strengths and areas of development mentioned in this scouting report, I project, barring any direct improvements in the scouting report mentioned areas of development, Joan Beringer to test the waters in the 2025 NBA Draft.
I expect that he’ll ultimately return for one more season to fully focus on 2026, where he’ll be a first-round level talent while still being a 19-year-old even after declaring a year later.
The combination of his high-end athleticism, physical tools, and consistent motor, could make Beringer a low-risk, high-reward type of prospect in the second round this summer. However, it’s in Beringer’s best interest to not accept such an offer at 18 years old. Instead, uses his young age as an advantage to take the most out of his developmental time before turning 20.
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