Danilo Gallinari (10th)

The consensus is that Gallinari will fall at the 10th place to the New Jersey Nets. But the rumors of him being drafted by the Knicks are still there and he may move up when you check out the teams he was working out for. But he is definitely the European player that will get drafted first.

Nicolas Batum (21st)

Another little slide for Batum who did good workouts but got diagnosed with some minor heart problems these days. This may hurt his stock in the next days but the overall impression he gave for the team he worked out for were good to very good.

Alexis Ajinca (24th)

The runner of the last weeks is Alexis Ajinca who rocketed up the boards. His intriguing skills may have been one of the reasons and so he showed all his potential in the workouts. The teams have to considered still that he is not a huge contributor in the French league right now but he may have nice potential. Be prepared to not see him getting big minutes in the NBA next season.

Serge Ibaka (26th)

Ibaka also arrived now in a consensus 1st round area, which is probably the result of his showing at the Reebok Eurocamp. Even more raw than Ajinca, but also a year younger, Ibaka is another long-term potential who may end up as a good player or as a total bust.

Ante Tomic (41st)

Tomic is the only European early-entrant that stayed in the Draft and has no 1st round position among the Mock Drafts. He may be happy with a 2nd round spot as he is probably way more interested in a career in Europe than in the NBA. Being drafted in the 2nd round is better for him too as he may sign a big-money deal in Europe before moving to the NBA in a couple of years.

Omer Asik (42nd)

Asik had a nice workout in Treviso but is that enough to qualify for a 1st round pick. I don’t think so and him being around the 40th pick is probably the best for him and for the drafting team. Asik has more time to develop in the Euroleague and can decide if he moves to NBA in a couple of years. The 2nd round spot gives him also better salary conditions than being in the late 1st.

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

Pekovic, who is officially now a Panathinaikos Athens player remains exactly where I had him on my last Mock Review. Not a lot has changed for him in between as he is not doing any work outs either and does not display big interest in the NBA in general.

Goran Dragic (47th)

Dragic also took some advantage from his showing in Treviso and moved up in some of the Mocks. Some NBA scouts consider him as one of best prospects of the 1986 generation in the Draft internationally. So far, I did not hear anything about NBA workouts for him either. But we may see him end up somewhere in the 2nd round and developing a few more years within TAU Ceramica.

Semih Erden (50th)

For the moment, you don’t hear a lot about him. Still he moved up in some Mock Drafts as he was 54th in the last Review.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Not a lot of change for Ponkrashov either who could not boost his stock in Treviso with up-and-down play and a lot of individual choices. Still, he remains a good player who can do some good plays but his NBA chances seem very slim these days.

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Danilo Gallinari (8th)

The uncontested  European No1 remains Danilo Gallinari. After having finished his season with AJ Milano with a 0-3 loss in the playoffs against Montepaschi Siena, the Italian forward can now concentrate fully to the upcoming Draft process which consists of camps, workouts and interviews. Despite the rumors that Gallinari may stay another season in Italy, he is a clear-cut lottery pick that even could go to the Top5 according to some NBA scouts. And the link with the Knicks at the 6th spot may be more than just a journalist’s story. But remains the question, if “il Gallo” is still available when the Knicks have their choice.

Nicolas Batum (20th)

The stock of the French forward is still falling and he reached the 20th spot in the Review this time. The recent comments by Pacers Larry Bird, who draft at 11, may boost him back into the lottery for some Mockers, but it would be more interesting to watch his current performances during the French playoffs. A nearly triple double (11pts 7rebs 9asts) in the match-up with Cholet qualified his team Le Mans for the semi-finals where they will play against the French champion Roanne.

Serge Ibaka (40th)

The Congolese PF is still the total mystery man in the Draft. While two of the most up-to-date Mock Drafts (DX and NBAdraft.net) don’t have him in at all, the other Mockers see him in the first round. So his stock could rocket up when he decides to remain in the process. He will be one of the most followed guys in Treviso in 10 days for sure and this camp may decide a lot on his future this year. He finished his regular season with L’Hospitalet in the second Spanish division with 10.7ppg and 8.0rpg while blocking 3.1 shots in just 25 minutes per game.

Alexis Ajinca (41st)

The long not that skinny anymore French Center is still moving up the boards as he is now considered as a Draft candidate for this season by nearly all of the Mocks. And those, that consider him see him at the end of the 1st round mostly. Ajinca, who is surprisingly not on the list of the Treviso invitees finished his season with Hyères-Toulon in a nice fashion and despite a limited playing time came up with some nice performances during the year. The next season should be his real break-through year if his learning curve remains as steep as it was this year. A little bit more regularity and we have a excellent prospect for the future.

Omer Asik (43rd)

Up and down may be story for Omer Asik from Turkey. Draftexpress had recently a long report on him after they had the possibility to analyse his game for the first time. And the least one could say is that they were delighted and immediately put him higher in their Mock. this has affected Asik’s position in the Review as well and so he is slowly moving up again in the second half of the 2nd round.

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

Still quite a deep position comparing to his current playing level, the Montenegrin Center from Partizan Belgrade remains some kind of doubtful in terms of NBA material. If the Draft would be for European teams only, he would be a Top 3 pick for sure. But we are talking about NBA here and so his “normal” athletic skills don’t give him the necessary credit among the Mock Draft writers.

Ante Tomic (50th)

Tomic is still hurt by some Mocks that don’t consider him at all. But Chad Ford for ESPN even sees him in the first round going to the Spurs. Well if that happens, in a few year’s time, everybody will say what a steal that was. Or not… Not a lot of news about him during the past few days though.

Semih Erden (54th)

The Turkish Center is still predicted somewhere in the late second round by most of the Mocks, so here we did not see a lot of change for him only moving from 58th to 54th spot.

Goran Dragic (55th)

Another candidate who has been in our reviews for the last months and always being picked around that 50th place. The athletic guard currently playing for Olimpija Ljubljana in the Slovenian playoffs could be an interesting pick in this region of the Draft as he has the necessary athletic skills to play in the NBA. but if that is enough?

Omri Casspi (56th)

A new entry in our review is the Israeli forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv. After an up-and-down performance during the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid, his name is now entering the boards throughout the net and he could end up somewhere in the second round if he stays in the Draft. Nothing is more unsure than that however.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Having led Khimky to the Russian Finals, Anton Ponkrashov’s season is now ever and he can concentrate on a possible NBA Draft career. He should be one of the top performers in Treviso of the 1986 class if he attends and is motivated as his talent level is without any doubt. What his future looks like is not so sure for the moment as he is just on loan with Khimky and it is probably not in his hands if he stays or will go back to CSKA Moscow for next season.

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Alexis Ajinca
Outlook: will stay in the Draft and will probably go in the 1st round

Nicolas Batum
Outlook: will stay in the Draft and can go for a lottery pick. According to the different mocks, his stock was dropping however the last weeks.

Rodrigue Beaubois
Outlook: is in the pool for the 2nd time after his surprising declaration last year which gave him a huge buzz. This season, Beaubois is doing pretty well and could stay in if he gets a promise

Mikheil Berishvili
Outlook:???

Omri Casspi
Outlook: boosted his stock during the season with some very interesting performances. But will take his name out probably and go for another season playing in Europe

Victor Claver
Outlook: testing the waters in my opinion and we will see his name dropping out before the deadline

Nando de Colo
Outlook: probably testing the waters to see how high he can go. Played an outstanding season so his stock may be at its highest point right now.

Danilo Gallinari
Outlook: lottery pick

Serge Ibaka
Outlook: has to go for a good camp in Treviso in order to keep the buzz on him alive.

Sergey Ilin
Outlook: unknown but 7″6 tall

Jonas Jerebko
Outlook: a little surprise to see his name here. Jerebko will only test the waters and show his skills at the Reebok Treviso Camp and drop out

Mladen Jeremic
Outlook: another surprising name in this list. The same that coutns for Jerebko will also count for Jeremic: name advertising, Treviso, drop out

Maxym Korniyenko
Outlook: ???

Luc Louves
Outlook: did not see any minutes in France but could go for a Beaubois-like buzz 2008 edition

Rudy Mbemba
Outlook: has been in the Draft process for ages and played a great season in Sweden. But is that enough to stay in the candidate list?

Henk Norel
Outlook: Steady progess over the last years for the Dutch big man. He can use Treviso to show his potential and maybe some team falls in love with him like Joel Freeland

Maxim Sheleketo
Outlook: I am very surprised to see him here but this maybe the Latvian VEF Riga attack to the NBA.

Giorgi Shermadini
Outlook: has a promise for the 1st round according to his agent so he will stay in the Draft

Ante Tomic
Outlook: is this year the year of Ante Tomic? Maybe a 2nd round spot is the ideal for him so that he can develop 2 more years in a top European team.

Maksym Vilkhovetskyi
Outlook: name dropping and testing the waters. He will hit some threes in Treviso and take his name out.

Ronalds Zakis
Outlook: cf. Sheleketo

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Danilo Gallinari (9th)

Gallinari is still at the top of the European ranking. After having announced officially that he will enter the Draft, the spot of the highest European pick seems now clearly decided. Still, the different mocks are not quite sure about his exact position. While he is seen as high as 6th by Draftexpress and NBAdraft.net, ESPN only sees him as the 15th best pick.

Nicolas Batum (18th)

Batum is continuing his slide in the different mocks. The French forward’s ups and downs are maybe one of the reasons for this drop in the rankings. Still, he showcases an amazing combination of physical tools and basketball skills which is probably not topped by any European prospects right now.

Serge Ibaka (37th)

Serge Ibaka is now considered as a first round pick by nearly any of the mocks. While his performance during the Nike Hoop Summit game was not the most remarkable, his physical tools amazed some of the scouts in attendance of the practice sessions. The question remains if Ibaka will enter this year’s draft or not.

Omer Asik (48th)

Another slider of the last weeks is Omer Asik. After a thunderous beginning of the season, the Turkish power forward/center is not seeing as many minutes as he plays with a much stronger team. So his numbers went down as well as the consideration for him by the mock draft writers.

Nikola Pekovic (49th)

Pekovic announced that he is not very interested by the NBA. Maybe this is the reason for his drop to the 49th position this time. As he is automatically eligible, there will probably one or another team that will however try to grab him somewhere in the second round. On the other hand, his agent told the Greek TV that Pekovic is not sure yet about what he does next season and that he is getting a lot of attention by the NBA teams at the moment.

Ante Tomic (51st)

His position has still a lot of upside potential as he is not considered by every mock so far. He has announced that he will be in this year, but was that not the case already some years before. Also, more and more top names in Europe want to sign the tall Croatian for next season. He can move up a lot in the Mocks but also totally fall out when he is not even in the early entrants at the end.

Alexis Ajinca (52nd)

Ajinça did everything right with a second appearance in the Nike Hoops Summit. His stock has moved up and his position in the different mocks ameliorated. However, the only Mock that had him in before the Summit has him now in its 2009 Mock. So there is still a lot of potential when it comes to his final position.

Goran Dragic (57th)

A big drop from the 47th to the 57th for the speedy Slovenian guard. He suffers probably a lot under the announcements of some college underclassmen to enter the Draft which were not in the lists before. Dragic’s future is also not clear for the moment as his “transfer” to TAU a few year’s ago is still in the courts now to be validated.

Semih Erden (58th)

The biggest slide came for Semih Erden, the athletic Turkish Center. For him may count the same story than for Dragic, suffering from the US early entrants. Erden is automatically eligible and should however find some interested team in the late second round.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Ponkrashov is still there but is he a legit NBA prospect? He played a good season so far for Khimky Moscow but it may be possible to see him back with CSKA next year and not in the NBA.

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Danilo Gallinari (8th)

The Italian forward is improving his Draft stock with the different mocks and moved several places higher in the Ranking. He is definitely the Number 1 pick from Europe right now according to the different sites in our review. NBAdraft.net is still having him behind Batum but “il Gallo” is the man right now.

Nicolas Batum (11th)

Not a lot of changing for Batum who remains with a predicted averaged 11th place but sled behind Danilo Gallinari. The last four games in the French league were impressive for the 1988 born forward as he averaged 14ppg 6.3rpg and 4.5apg to lead Le Mans to a 10-1 streak over the last weeks. Since the end of the Euroleague, his mediatic presence may have decreased but he is now preparing to lead Le Mans to the French title.

Omer Asik (37th)

A big gap between the two top prospects and the rest and we have a new third highest ranked player with Omer Asik. Pretty unknown before this season, Asik is constantly moving up the different Mocks and is now even a first round pick for some of them. His still improving performances in the Euroleague are certainly not passing the eyes of the NBA scouts and he might end up around a 30th place in June.

Nikola Pekovic (40th)

The weeks follow and the performances of Pekovic maintain as well. Also in our review, he improved just one spot from 41 to 40 and he is considered throughout the panel as a legit early second rounder. He has one of his most important games ahead this week in the Euroleague as he can help Partizan to qualify for the Top8 playoffs which would be a big surprise.

Serge Ibaka (41st)

Still not considered as a Draft pick this year for Draftexpress and Basketdraft, Ibaka remains a consensus second rounder for 2008 even if those that have him in their Mocks see him at the end of the first round. Far away from dominating in the 2nd Spanish league, the Congolese born forward is still all about potential right now. The next season may be determinant for his future if he moves up to a higher ranked team in European hierarchy eventually.

Semih Erden (45th)

Yet another member of the impressive Fenerbahce Ülker frontcourt and also a nice progression over the season for him. Moving up from 51 to 45 is nearly the top performance of this month in the different Draft boards. Erden, who is back from his little injuries is still contending for a Euroleague Top8 spot and his athletic play should help his team to move to the next round.

Goran Dragic (47th)

Despite still lots of ups and downs, Dragic has maintained an interesting scoring level over the last few weeks in the Adriatic league. Still not a major assist deliverer, his athletic capabilities are interesting on the European level but average for a NBA point guard. It is Draft year for him, so he will probably be present at some workouts but they will coincide with the preparation of the Slovenian NT for the Olympic qualifier in Athens.

Rodrigue Beaubois (48th)

Another upmover in the person of Rodrigue Beaubois who is coming seriously back from his injury at the beginning of the season. Heavily athletic,he averaged more than 20 minutes per game over the last weeks with Cholet and he is now a regular contributor for the surprising French team. Still not being considered by half of the Mocks, he will probably enter the race when the Draft is approaching.

Anton Ponkrashov (52nd)

Another nice move up for the Russian guard who is playing a great season away from his hometeam CSKA Moscow in Khimky. While Draftexpress and NBADraft.net are particularly high on him, some other Mocks do not have him at all in their Top 60 predictions. As he is automatically eligible this season, Ponkrashov comes up with his best basketball in the right moment.

Ante Tomic (53rd)

The talented big guy from Croatia is still not being considered as one of the top prospects in Europe despite a perfect set of basketball skills. He is playing in the somehow anonymity of KK Zagreb and so his individual performances are not at the top of the radar of the media coverage. However, he came up as DX’s European Prospect of the week but still he is not on the board for a lot of people as the consensus goes for a 2009 Draft for him.

Alexis Ajinca (58th)

Still only one Mock that has him in for 2008, and that even in the First Round. NBA Draft.net is particularly high on him and his limited performances since the Semaine de As did not hit his stock as one could expect. He has of course still high extremely intriguing athletic potential, now he has to become a regular contributor on the French national level.

Mantas Kalnietis (59th)

Kalnietis’ numbers are improving the last weeks and so does his Draft stock. Undrafted in our latest consensus, he has now entered the board. Also a 1986 born player, he has to come up big in the next weeks if he wants to remain in the race for the Draft spots.

Undrafted: Peja Samardziski, Rudy Mbemba

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I have selected 7 Mock Drafts websites and checked their respective latest versions of their Mock. The 7 selected sites are the following: Draftexpress, NBADraft.net, Real GM, Draft Review, BasketDraft, Hoopsvibe and NBA Draft Guru. And here are the results.

Nicolas Batum (projected Draft position: 11th)

It is not a big surprise to see him at the top of the list. Batum is clearly the most NBA type of player actually on the radar of NBA scouts. What is interesting that 4 out of 7 mocks see him as top European pick with Basketdraft going highest with the 7th overall. The lowest prediction for him is a 15th place according to the NBA Draft guru.

Danilo Gallinari (13th)

The question remains if Gallinari is the better prospect or Batum. For 3 of the 7 websites, he is. And the difference is particularly speaking for Draftexpress that sets him as high as 5th place. For the moment, the performances of Gallinari in the Euroleague are clearly above those of Batum. But still, a lot of people see more upside with the French guy. But of course, both have to enter the Draft first in order to get drafted as they are both born in 1988.

Serge Ibaka (39th)

He is probably still the biggest mystery in the Draft. While two mocks (DX, Basketdraft) don’t have him at all in their listings presuming that he won’t enter this year, the other see him drafted between 19th and 28th spot. As Basketdraft and DX have probably more reliable sources in Spain due to their writers, it is strongly possible that we won’t see the Congolese this year. At least, the two non-selections hurt his position in the EP.com Mock draft Review a lot.

Nikola Pekovic (41st)

Probably the most imposing force at the present, but also being born in 1986 and hurting in that way his potential upside which is still a huge factor in NBA Drafts. Pekovic is a fundamentally sound big man who could contribute immediately as his learning process is already well developed. Imposing force in the Euroleague, he may have some trouble in playing against NBA centers which are way more physical; if he is interested in moving over.

Omer Asik (43rd)

The late bloomer from Turkey that moved to Fenerbahce Ülker during the season and is getting serious Euroleague minutes in a prospect loaded team on the inside positions. He only entered the draft boards recently as the two elder mocks don’t even mention him. What is also interesting is that DX and DraftReview see him above Pekovic.

Semih Erden (51st)

Another Fenerbahce front line member is Semih Erden. He is sidelined with an injury at the moment but a good start in the Euroleague season earned him a spot in the second round for most of the Mocks. Again like for Asik, the elder mocks don’t have him at all in their rankings so he must get a little boost in our next edition when those have updated their predictions (hopefully).

Goran Dragic (53rd)

The Slovenian PG rocketed his stock during the Eurobasket 2007 but after some up and down games in the Euroleague, his is now somewhere in the middle of Round 2 for most of the mocks. However, while DX is quite high on Dragic having him at 37, NBA Draft.net only sees him at 53 which is quite a big difference.

Rodrigue Beaubois (55th)

The French PG just comes back from a minor injury and he should move up the different mocks in the coming weeks. Having created a huge buzz around him last year by announcing his name to enter the Draft, Beaubois has lived up the expectations by cracking the rotation at Cholet. Being from the 1988 generation, he still has a lot of upside and should improve with increasing playing time until the end of the season.

Ante Tomic (56th)

The Croatian Center is still a mystery if he ever can come over to the NBA. According to the different mocks, his actual place is between 31 and undrafted. Tomic is still putting up interesting numbers in the Adriatic League but his non-presence in the Euroleague seems to hurt his stock with some mock draft writers. His talent is undeniable, but he has to produce on the next European level in order to get the necessary recognition. He has still one year left before being automatically eligible.

Anton Ponkrashov (57th)

The Russian guard is playing an outstanding season with Khimki where he has recently won the Russian cup, is second in the Russian Superleague and also able to go far in the ULEB Cup. However, his interesting numbers don’t seem to give him enough credit to be worth more than the end of the second round. He showed however with CSKA last year in the NBA Europe Live Tour what his potential level is.

Alexis Ajinca (59th)

Probably the most interesting case in this edition. Being of the board for all the mocks, Ajinca has reentered the NBA Draft.net mock again and is actually listed as a potential first round pick at the 28th spot. His very improved performances during the last weeks and especially his shot blocking effort in the Semaine des As seem to have motivated the NBA Draft team to bring him back to the first round. The presence of a scout of them in Toulon is certainly also one of the reasons for this change.

undrafted: Peja Samardziski, Mantas Kalnietis

Present in some mock drafts, but the overall ranking does not give them actually a spot in the Top60 of the EuropeanProspects.com Mock Draft Review.

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Tadija Dragicevic is actually the best player considering the Efficiency ranking of the Adriatic League. The 1986 born forward from Crvena Zvedza Belgrade has also won the three-point contest of the Adriatic All-Star game but what is more important, he also won a crucial away game for the Serbs in Ostende with a last second shot on the buzzer.

Ante Tomic, the 2m17 Center from Croatia is still only born in 1987. And besides his fantastic shooting in December (25/35 2FG), he also started to rebound a bit better and averaged 6.5rpg over the last month. Still his potential remains huge compared to his actual performances but he has entered the Top10 list in efficiency of the Adriatic League now.

Danilo Gallinari is still the best performing prospect of the 1988 generation, even if his gap to Nicolas Batum is shrinking a bit. 37pts in 3 games for the Italian and 33ptf for the Frenchman made this choice pretty close. The other categories made the difference in favor of Gallinari who is developing nice passing skills and is playing also for a team with a better winning percentage.

Antoine Diot may be a surprising choice but I made it on purpose because of his increasing minutes with Le Mans. The French PG, who struggled a bit in the beginning is now taking back the PG spot for the French Euroleague team. His last game versus Aris was also his best scoring with 7pts in 25minutes while he dished out 5 assists against Maccabi the week before.

For the 1990s, still nothing changed at the top even with a little struggling Ricky Rubio, he remains the top player of the 1990 age category and also one of the few players of that generation already getting serious minutes in a top league. Even if Jan Vesely started the month very well for Geoplin Slovan with a nice game against Hemoform, the Czech Forward has not reached the stability to become a serious threat for Ricky in the Europeanprospects.com monthly voting.

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In the Adriatic League match-up between East and West in Ljubljana, two of the most interesting 1986 born prospects led their East team to an easy win 136-113. Of course, such games don’t mean a lot in terms of talent scouting, I just wanted to mention some performances that show somehow the importance of these players in regards to the Adriatic league. I speak of Nikola Pekovic and Tadija Dragicevic. While the first one showed once again his dominating position in the paint with his typical numbers (26pts at 81% and 8rebs), Dragicevic came up with a nice scoring effort too (22pts at 9/14) and also won the Three-point shootout. Other notable presences were Milenko Tepic with 17pts for the East and Jaka Klobucar, Damjan Rudez as well as Ante Tomic for the West All-Stars.

You can also mention the presence of some other 1986 born or younger players during the game with Jure Lalic, Andrija Stipanović and Nemanja Gordić. The big absent was of course Goran Dragic who got injured on Saturday.

For the French All-Star game on Saturday, you will see a Starting line-up for the French selection composed of three of the most promising players of the Hexagon. While Nicolas Batum and Marc-Antoine Pellin already get a lot of attention because of their Euroleague presence, the player to discover for some observers will be Nando de Colo from Cholet. The 1987 born guard is playing a very interesting season so far and is excelling also in the FIBA Euro Cup. In the French Pro A, de Colo is actually averaging 13.2ppg, 2.2rpg, 4.1apg and 1.8spg in 27 minutes of action while his EuroCup numbers look good too with 17.0ppg, 3.8rpg and 2.5apg.

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