Detroit Pistons could have 8 or even 9 current players in 2024 Olympics (Really)

Detroit Pistons’ Killian Hayes could be heading home in 2024

Killian Hayes came to the United States from France  to play basketball. He might now be going back to France to play the United States. It would certainly be something, to play for the French national team, when the Olympics are in Paris.

Hayes has the opposite problem of his Canadian teammates. France will make the Olympics, they won the Silver Medal this year, losing to the United States by five in the final after beating them in pool play, but will Hayes be able to make the team?

France’s Olympic team had some recognizable names like Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum but, against the USA, it  had in its rotation, fringe NBA players Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot and Frank Ntilikina.

If Hayes, in three years, can not beat out guys who sit on the bench for NBA teams, and others who play European club ball, things have really gone off the rails for a player picked No. 7 overall in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Hayes has played for France’s junior national teams, and done well. Hayes was the MVP of the  FIBA U16 European Championship in 2017 and the French won the gold medal. The next year, at  the  FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Argentina, Hayes made the all-tournament team.

The French basketball federation was so upset that Hayes did not play on the U19 team in 2019, they actually suspended him for six-games. That might have played a factor in him not being invited to Tokyo.

No offense to TLC and Ntilikina, but if they can get actual playing time in the gold medal game, Hayes could certainly have been on the team, even if just for experience purposes.

The French were a veteran squad in Tokyo. By the time 2024 rolls around, six of the players will be 32-years. They will be needing some young blood. Hayes will be just 23 when Paris rolls around.

Whether Hayes becomes a top level player in the NBA is open to question, at this point (He has played just 25 games). His offense needs a lot of work and he takes a lot of chances in his ballhandling. But he is already an outstanding defender, which France will need against an explosive USA squad.

Hayes is also creative with the ball which, considering all the shooters the French have, would also come in quite handy.

Now, the French federation could simply decide to run it back with the Tokyo team, albeit three years older, that did so well. But, all things being equal (which in the world of international basketball, does not always happen), Killian Hayes should be wearing tri-color in Paris.

The Wild Card

Hamidou Diallo: Diallo grew up in the Queens section of New York City. Of course, that is not a foreign country (Yes, I know some people would debate that), but the fact someone is born in the United States has not stopped many athletes, in various sports, from representing other countries.

Jahlil Okafor is from Chicago but played for Nigeria at the Olympics, as a nexample.

Diallo’s parents were born in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, which means he is eligible to play for their national team.

Diallo does have national team experience, but with USA Basketball. He played in the Under-19 Americas championship and then the Under-19 World Cup. But that does not exclude him from playing for Guinea, as it has been more than three years,

The big problem is that Guinea does not produce a lot of basketball players. In the latest world rankings, they are 145th. Since only 12 teams make the Olympics, it would be a long climb. But if, somehow Guinea, does make it, Diallo would be a star on the world stage. There will certainly be plenty of players in Paris not as good as him.

Now, the possibility of eight (or even nine if somehow Diallo was there) all making it to the Olympics might not be extremely high, but it is a definite possibility.

To have 9 of 15 players on a roster with a chance to be playing in the next Olympics, does bode well for the Pistons future.