The Prospect with the Potential to be Our Next Bruno Caboclo

Disclaimer: This post isn’t saying the player will be a bust like Bruno. More so an enigmatic draft pick that may appear like a reach on draft night.

We all know what Masai likes. He likes LENGTH. He cherishes his long bois and he especially loves finding international talent.

Masai believes that you can’t teach length and athleticism but you can teach shooting (based off of last season he might be wrong about that one), and so at #13 there is one potential prospect that fits that description and knowing Masai he’s probably very intrigued by him.

His name is Bilal Coulibaly. Now this post isn’t made to hype him up. More to prepare ourselves for the potential disappointment when Masai picks Coulibaly with Kobe Bufkin and Keyonte George still on the board.

Who is Bilal and why is he the next Bruno? Well for one, their names are similar. Both with the B.C. Initials, Bilal and Bruno are also within the same timeless international flair of first names. Coincidentally enough B.C. Is also the initials for other famous things associated with the Raptors like Bryan Colangelo and British Columbia. Is this a coincidence? I think not!

Now what else does this Bilal have? Well he’s young at 18yo and long. He reportedly has a 7’3” wingspan as a SF and is listed at 6’6” and 230lbs but there are reports that he’s grown to 6’7”-6’8”. He’s also a bit of a freak athlete. He’s super fluid and explosive. He honestly looks like a baby Giannis on his tape and that all but solidifies that Masai is drafting him.

Apparently according to Slam Magazine Coulibaly experienced an insane growth spurt from 15 to 17 years old. The report says he grew 8.6 inches during that span of time going from 5’6” to 6’3”. If only some of you guys had this growth spurt too, you might actually get a girl to talk to you.

This sudden growth spurt is a basketball scouts favorite explanation for why an athlete is more fluid than most others his size. (Giannis, Paul George and Anthony Davis for example) The same explanation is made for Coulibaly, who’s combination of length, athleticism and fluidity makes him a nightmare on the fast break.

Okay, you get it he has the physical tools. But can he ball? Well the juries still out on that one. I don’t think Coulibaly was actually supposed to be a prospect in this years draft. He’s younger than most prospects (a little under 5 months older than GG Jackson) and started the year for his French club, Metropolitans, U21 junior team. Coulibaly was playing so well averaging an impressive 21.9pts on 62.7 TS%, all while playing great defense putting up 2.6 stls and 1.2blks that the senior club was all but forced to call him up to play with big boys.

Surprisingly he was able to hold his own and carve out a role for himself along side the #1 pick in this draft Victor Wembenyama. Per the Basketball Reference, on the senior club Coulibaly was a role player averaging about 18mpg, scoring 5pts on 53 FG% and 45 3FG% on low volume 1.1 3PA. He also grabbed 3.1 rebs, 0.8 asts, 0.8 stls and 0.2 blks.

He basically didn’t do all that much to warrant a lottery pick but don’t think that will stop Masai! Remember he did draft Caboclo at #20 and he might’ve been even less polished.

So what does Coulibaly actually do? Well he can drive the ball to the hoop, he has a decent finishing bag, can handle a little bit, can maybe shoot a little bit and has some pretty good defense.

Sounds exactly like our next draft pick doesn’t he? So moral of the story, don’t get your hopes up for drafting Kobe at #13 cause Toronto is about to Bilal’s world and we’re all just going to be living in it.

Here’s some pretty hype videos of him playing basketball: