Game Analysis: Nour Gassim Toure vs. China | FIBA U-17 World Cup
The Guinea guard is very raw but worth monitoring long term.
Guinean guard Nour Gassim Toure 🇬🇳 displayed his D-I mid-major potential vs. China as an electric combo guard with real athletic upside, shotmaking flashes, and steady upward trajectory.
Toure — born October 28, 2008 — is in the high school class of 2027. He is listed at 6-foot-4 by FIBA.
The Guinea prospect plays for Principia (Missouri), as well as the Gateway Knights AAU program. He holds D-I offers from Ohio, Lindenwood, and UCF.
Although Toure is used more so in transition and getting downhill against tilted defenses in high school, his role at the U-17 World Cup for Guinea has really been as a volume scorer.
As a jump shooter, Toure kept his work simple vs. China. He attacked closeouts or off the catch with a couple of dribbles before rising into his pull-up around the elbows…
The Guinea guard also showed off some shotmaking flashes off the dribble. I liked that Toure was quick and decisive once he got into his move, rather than pounding the air out of the ball.
His shots were tough looks — questionable even — but Guinea was looking at Toure to power its offense, especially once Arafan Diane started tiring. In this game, I didn’t mind Toure’s shot selection given the context.
This possession below sums it up well.
Toure also stood out in transition, where I thought he looked dynamic and rapid both athletically and in terms of advantage creation.
The production is not there right now at a high level, although Toure plays well in the open court in high school, but the means exist long term.
The Guinean prospect has open court speed to pair with a creative handle, plus glimpses of throwing one-handed live dribble passes. He plays with contact, although he can't finish through contact yet. The hope is that changes once Toure keeps growing into his body.
Projecting the big picture, Toure can turn the corner on defenders, he pushes the tempo and gets up the floor quickly, and he's shown flashes of the fearlessness and creativity I like in ballhandlers. It’s a matter of putting everything together, but the ingredients seem to be there.
Looking ahead, I’m looking to see what exactly Toure can add on defense.
Tournaments such as this one are typically not very valuable — at least with my approach to evaluating prospects — to gauge where players are truly at defensively, except for some outliers.
Usually, I’ll be looking at tools before anything else in this type of setting. Toure has speed and he seems lengthy for a guard, but his frame needs work and he was prone at the U-17 World Cup to lapses off the ball. Nothing surprising for a guard in the 2027 high school class, but also no takeaways to really feel optimistic about.
Toure is worth monitoring for low-to-mid-major schools given his speed, athletic tools, and creative decision making process as a scorer.
He’ll get eyes on him playing stateside in Missouri and on the AAU circuit, already seeing college offers start to trickle in.