The earlier French generation did not guarantee success for the succeeding generation. So why should the recent generation's failures automatically mean failure for future players? Truthfully, all of these players are independent of one another. Wemby is his own player, Bilal is his own player. The difference is in their talent and not the league they play in. This is true for all players. If you tell me a prospect came from the French League, you have pretty much told me nothing. I think it's fair to contextualize Bilal's production compared to previous prospects, but to simply pass/fail guys on the basis of coming from a certain league is really lazy. I'm not going to say a random college prospect is certain to fail because a player who plays a different position on a different team with different numbers failed. It would be akin to saying Keyonte is prone to failure because Josh Jackson failed. Josh Jackson has got nothing to do with Keyonte even though they both played Big 12 basketball. If you want to connect these French guys who failed to Bilal, you've got to do better than simply making the connection that they are French.
Specifically with Bilal, I don't think anyone was really looking at his production as the main reason why he's a lottery pick. He had no senior level production when I first thought he was a lottery pick. You simply do not get athletes who can move like him outside of the lottery. Throughout the draft prospect everyone against Bilal kept hammering in on his numbers, and lack thereof, but I kept telling everyone he's going to be drafted high. It's not the production that made him a lottery pick so if you're hyper focused on that you're missing the boat.
He's a polarizing prospect and that's fine. Like I said before, whether you liked him or hated him before the draft his SL performance hasn't done much to change opinions. The outstanding physical tools are out in full display as well as his rawness. Regardless of how you balanced those two competing things, there hasn't been much reason to shift opinion. I don't think people who love Anthony Black are freaking out over him shooting 1/4 from 3 and 4/9 from the line. We knew this about him already. He's showcasing the things we liked and didn't like about him predraft.