With the space and pace revolution in the modern NBA, more teams are empowering their big men to handle the ball, initiate offense, and shoot from deep. This 2025 draft class is absolutely loading with bigs who have a great variety of those skills, and today’s breakdown brings you one of the most accomplished, seasoned and modern bigs around.
As an international player from Paris, France, Maxime Raynaud (mak-ZEEM ray-NOH) didn’t arrive on a Division I campus in typical fashion. He played in the academy of French sports outfit _Nanterre 92_ (also called _Espoirs Nanterre_) at one point sharing the locker room with Victor Wembanyama.
Seeking a basketball career in the states, he earned a scholarship to Stanford beginning a four-year collegiate career from 2021-2025 after graduating from _Lycee Henri IV_, one of the most prestigious schools in the Paris metro area.
After slowly being integrated into the rotation across his first three seasons, his senior year was one of immense productivity, logging 20.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game in 33.5 minutes of play per game. These contributions helped earn him a spot on the 2024-25 All-ACC First Team.
At 7-foot-1 and weighing in at 245 pounds, Raynaud presents as a large and imposing figure on the basketball court. But this is also clearly a smart cookie — someone that will undoubtedly be a student of the game and absorb both coaching and the minutiae of the game through film review.
### Offense
Raynaud was deployed at both the 4 and the 5 at Stanford, but at times when injuries hit the point guard position for the Cardinal, Raynaud filled in as a quasi-point guard — at least in the sense he carried the ball up the floor and initiated sets. He would often direct screens and movements and often utilized dribble-handoffs (DHOs) to get the ball to his wings and forward. The immediate effect of this was to pull the opposing team’s big man out of the paint to open the floor for cuts and drives elsewhere.
He’ll certainly have the ball in his hands less at the next level, but this ball handling proficiency in college will serve him well to see the floor in modern NBA offenses. When defenders close out on him, he can reliably put the ball on the deck and attack 5-on-4:
Raynaud’s immediately apparent main skill is his shooting from deep. He took 193 three-point attempts in his senior year, more than his combined total from his freshman to junior years. He canned 35% of those attempts, with an easy, over-the-top delivery that will be extremely hard for anyone to even contest:
His pick-and-pop game is practical and effective, and it will be something that easily translates to the next level:
And his handle combined with his fluid shot even gives him a workable pull up three-pointer in his arsenal:
His sub-1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio greatly understates his ability to read the floor and find the right pass. Often, you’d see him fling crosscourt passes to open Cardinals as soon as a double team arrive, only for his teammate to turn down a wide open shot or something to ‘ruin’ the potential assist.
Here is one backdoor pass to a cutter that leads to free throws:
And another one where he hits a baseline cutter:
Make no mistake — his passing is a real weapon despite his low assist numbers. He did commit a high rate of turnovers, but he was also shouldering such a high offensive load for his Stanford men’s basketball team. I believe in time and in a smaller role, that figure will come down to something workable or better.
Unsurprisingly, Raynaud has deft touch around the rim, although he wasn’t used as a screen-and-roller or rim runner much at all. You can regularly witness him pushing in floaters with either hand from anywhere within 15 feet of the basket.
Raynaud is largely a complete package on offense, including being a menace on the offensive boards in logging just under three offensive rebounds per 36 minutes in both his junior and senior seasons. Additionally, he’s generally a strong screen setter, although he can have issues being physical and firmly sealing big-bodied defenders. In a similar vein, I also noticed him falling to the ground a ton, as his weak contact balance lets him down at times.
Still, there are very few drawbacks with his offensive game. He’s a guy that will, from day one, boost your teams spacing, ball movement, awareness and IQ on that side of the ball. While nothing quite earthshattering, I think his offensive gifts compare favorably to 2024 lottery pick Donovan Clingan, [who I profiled last year](https://www.peachtreehoops.com/2024/6/24/24179630/atlanta-hawks-2024-nba-draft-scouting-report-donovan-clingan-video) in this space.
### Defense
While it’s always an asset to be 7’1” (in shoes, recorded at 7’0 ¼” barefoot at the 2025 NBA Combine), his combine measurements of 7’1 ¼” wingspan and 9’2” standing reach are something of a pink flag on their own. Add to that worries about his speed and agility on the court, and you have a center-sized player who may struggle to defend at the NBA level both horizontally and vertically on defense.
There are some positives, however, so let’s start there. He uses his 245-pound frame well when posted up or to seal box outs for defensive rebounds. He has a strong base and is hard to get pushed off his spot, and there’s hope he can at least hold his own against the many burly centers in the league in tight spaces.
Here’s Raynaud stifling a post up attempt in ACC conference play:
He doesn’t have the quickest feet in the world, but he works hard when switched out on the perimeter and truly takes pride in staying in front of smaller attackers. You can see him often showing his hands to make himself appear bigger in order to dissuade ball handlers from sizing him up and turning the corner.
This is a great show after a transition moment, and he eventually provides a razzle dazzle pass going the other way before cleaning up a miss near the rim:
The negatives, however, quickly mount when watching tape. First of all, is Raynaud a 4 or a 5? He’s a unreliable rim protector, as opponents would often attack him in mismatches and finish over him near the rim. It would be a mistake to make him defend in drop possession after possession.
Stanford frequently went possessions of 1-3-1 zone defense with Raynaud at the nail as a wrinkle to take the defensive burden off him at times. Even in man-to-man coverages, you could see Raynaud being instructed to defend at the level of screens or even higher to use his mobility to cut off the point of attack. But there’s little reason to believe his drop defense will even be anything other than passable in the NBA.
In these two clips below, Raynaud has no real chance against a smaller guy in the lane:
And Raynaud will often be seen trying awkward defensive stances such as trying to take a charge instead of defending with length:
You just don’t see a lot of forwards his size these days as every team tries to play smaller and quicker. To me, he’ll be a 5 full time unless he can show the quickness to stay with smaller 4s in certain matchups.
At 22 years of age, he has less of a runway to address some of his defensive drawbacks even as an extremely coachable, smart, and hardworking player. With NBA-level strength and conditioning, improvements can follow, but it’s just not something you can bank on with a strong degree of certainty.
### Possible fit on the Hawks and final thoughts
His age and late bloomer status pushes him out of the lottery (and out of the picture at 13th overall), but I think he’s a take for the Hawks at 22. Atlanta needs both a backup center and to continue to empower their bigs to playmake and space the floor for the rest of the team, similar to Onyeka Okongwu’s breakout second half of the 2024-25 season.
It’s a cliche, but Raynaud just knows how to play. I think he’s as plug and play as you’ll find among the big men in the late first round range, and despite his athletic limitations, he’ll slot in and contribute with the right lineup pieces around him. He logged a sky-high 32% usage rate his final year at Stanford, so if and when he accepts more of a complementary role in the NBA, in short order he can be a someone who elevates the entire offense on and off the ball.
Certainly, his defense comes with worries. You’ll want a rangy rim protector like Jalen Johnson or Mouhamed Gueye in the frontcourt with him among other lineup considerations. But the floor stretching effects off his many offensive skills can be absolutely massive for a team like Atlanta looking to give their guards more space to get downhill.