{"id":672698,"date":"2026-03-22T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672698\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:02:14","slug":"olivier-rioux-nba-draft-scouting-report-why-floridas-7-foot-9-no-32-has-a-long-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672698\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivier Rioux NBA Draft scouting report: Why Florida’s 7-foot-9 No. 32 has a long way to go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olivier Rioux NBA Draft scouting report: Why Florida’s 7-foot-9 No. 32 has a long way to go<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If someone told you that there was a 7-foot-9 guy who was on the roster of last season’s college basketball Division I national champion, you’d probably figure there was an NBA future there, right?<\/p>\n

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Well, for Florida’s Olivier Rioux, it is far from that simple. Yes, he’s super tall, the tallest player to ever score in a college basketball game. And yes, you can’t teach height.<\/p>\n

But to make it to the NBA requires more than height, even for the tallest individuals.<\/p>\n

Rioux is in his second year with the Gators. He redshirted for the champs, not playing a single second, and has now played very minimally in the 2025-26 season for Florida.<\/p>\n

He did get a dunk late in Florida’s NCAA Tournament-opening blowout win over 16-seed Prarie View A&M, and that got him plenty of extra attention.<\/p>\n

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For Rioux to ever dunk in the NBA, though, will be quite the feat.<\/p>\n

Olivier Rioux strengths<\/p>\n

Truly, Rioux’s biggest strength is his height.<\/p>\n

That old adage that you can’t teach height has never been more true than with Rioux.<\/p>\n

It gives him utility in a couple of different places.<\/p>\n

Offensively, he is a strong screener, taking up so much space and then also such a big target as a roller.<\/p>\n

Defensively, there’s never been someone to guard an inbounds pass quite like Rioux. Good luck throwing it full court over him.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Master P’s son is taking part in March Madness<\/a><\/p>\n

Olivier Rioux weaknesses<\/p>\n

The skill side of the game is where Rioux’s chances of making the NBA suffer.<\/p>\n

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He doesn’t have great footwork or touch, which can negate a lot of his potential advantage on the offensive end.<\/p>\n

He also doesn’t have the best court awareness, which will impact his ability to use his length effectively on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

If Rioux was in the NBA right now, teams would draw him out as a defender in the pick-and-roll and absolutely go right at him, over and over.<\/p>\n

He would still win occasional moments because of his historic size, but in the long run, he wouldn’t have enough going for him to succeed.<\/p>\n

Olivier Rioux NBA Mock Draft projection<\/p>\n

Mock Draft projection:\u00a0Years away from consideration<\/p>\n

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There was once a player drafted into the NBA, Bruno Caboclo, who was described as being “two years away from being two years away.”<\/p>\n

Rioux fits that mold. Maybe he could develop enough in the next few years to deserve a spot in the league. But right now, he won’t even consider declaring for the draft.<\/p>\n

Olivier Rioux NBA player comparison<\/p>\n

Plays like:\u00a0Keith Closs<\/p>\n

You have to pick someone quite skinny to even begin to sum this up, and the 7-foot-3 Closs measured at just 212 pounds, so he fits.<\/p>\n

Manute Bol was 7-foot-7, but his shooting touch makes him nothing like Rioux.<\/p>\n

Closs was a journeyman who went undrafted out of Central Connecticut State but played a lot of professional basketball in a lot of different leagues, including the NBA.<\/p>\n

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That seems like Rioux’s most likely path. Some pro team somewhere will want him. Will it be an NBA team? That’s much less certain.<\/p>\n

More March Madness news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olivier Rioux NBA Draft scouting report: Why Florida’s 7-foot-9 No. 32 has a long way to go originally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,26539,14519,217,420,421,6,13953],"class_list":["post-672698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-bruno-caboclo","tag-central-connecticut-state","tag-college-basketball","tag-florida","tag-gators","tag-nba","tag-olivier-rioux"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116273201325837293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}