#3 Enes Kanter – Utah Jazz

After a stellar career in European Youth Championships, Kanter decided to move to the United States in order to prepare for the NBA. After two years of doing not much except a big game at the Nike Hoop Summit, he gets drafted at #3 and you can assume that it was the right choice. I remember him from the first time I saw him at the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament back in 2008 where he dominated already as a 15 year old. Since then, he crashed anyone in Youth Competitions and had his glory days with the Turkish U18 National team in 2009 during the European Championships in France. Since then, nothing really worthy has been put on the table by the Turkish big guy. So the main question is how quickly he will find his way back into game rhythm and how to come up with the lost game experience after missing out nearly two years against top level competition. With the lock-out looming, it could even be that Kanter will not play for three consecutive seasons which would be a big hit for his future. But his overall talent level is so good that he will in any case develop into a future top-level player in the NBA.

#5 Jonas Valanciunas – Toronto Raptors – Lietuvos Rytas

Same age group but different career choices are the first things that come up to your mind when you hear the name of Jonas Valanciunas after Enes Kanter. The Lithuanian big guy put up huge numbers in nearly every youth competition that he played as well. Additionally, he started to have an impact on Euroleague level from 2010 on next to all the other senior competitions he has played in. The next stop of Valanciunas will be the U19 World Championships in Latvia in one week and we are already looking forward to follow him there. Before joining the NBA, Valanciunas will play at least another year in Europe with Lietuvos Rytas . His impact on NBA level will be great even if he might not develop into an All-Star one day. But his great sense for rebounding the ball is one of the best assets a player can have together with his athletic abilities and potential to score in the paint.

#6 Jan Vesely – Washington Wizards – Partizan Belgrade

The next European to be drafted was the Czech forward Jan Vesely. Shortly after the Draft, we had the possibility to speak with Jan’s father who told us the following:

I am very glad that Jan was drafted by the Washington Wizards. I think it’s a very good choice for my son. Washington Wizards is a very good team and the cooperation with John Wall will be very good and interesting for the team and for the fans.

The result in the Draft is a success not only for the Czech Republic, but also for the city of Příbor where Jan began with basketball and for the basketball team of Snakes Ostrava, where Jan worked before his departure to Slovenia. I believe, that Jan’s results will help the whole Czech basketball to get to the level on which our basketball should be. I am pleased with the success of Jan. He worked very hard for 5 years and what happened to him is like a big dream coming true.

There is not much to add to this except that you have a player who chose to leave home at the age of 17 to play in a foreign country (Slovenia) and slowly climbed up the ladder to become one of the most spectacular players in Europe when he played for Partizan Belgrade. He should be able to develop into a similar representative for basketball in his country than Dirk Nowitzki is for Germany even if they can not be compared as players. Be prepared to see him in lots of Top 10 plays right from his Rookie season.

#7 Bismack Biyombo – Charlotte Bobcats (from Kings) – Fuenlabrada

Bismack Biyombo came into the NBA Draft with only having played 232 minutes of division 1 basketball with his former team of Fuenlabrada in Spain. He arrived there after having spent several months abroad from his native Congo touring around the Middle East to land in Spain in 2009 and play for Illescas Urban in the 3rd division LEB Silver. From there, his development was exponential and was crowned by a first ever triple-double in the Nike Hoop Summit 2011. Since then, he has not played one game anymore and was only preparing for the NBA Draft. Pretty limited in terms of offensive moves, Biyombo excels with a fantastic athletic and physical package that seems enough to make him a lottery pick. We are really looking forward to see if he can have an impact right from the start on the NBA level and how much development is possible for the Congolese native. One thing is sure, he is willing to learn and wants become the best player possible.

#16 Nikola Vucevic – Philadelphia 76ers – Southern California

The Montenegrin forward is a true success story when you know where he is coming from. After having developed steadily over his years in the United States, Vucevic has become one of the most versatile and physically strong Europeans in this Draft. He knows the American game style very well and he should not have any problems in order to adapt to the NBA. If there will be a lock-out, I would not be surprised to see him play in Europe next season before going to Philadelphia, an option that might even happen for the full season if the lockout finishes before.

#20 Donatas Motiejunas – Houston Rockets (from Wolves) – Benetton Treviso

Donatas Motiejunas is a player that has probably the most amazing tools of all Europeans in this Draft. However, he trails a reputation that is not that great and when seeing him play in reality, you can only imagine where this is coming from. Ups and downs, questionable body language but what a bag full of talent. Now, how will this translate to the NBA? His post-up game will probably suffer in the United States but his capability to stretch the court through his shooting talent is certainly an asset that gives him a roster spot for several years. If he can ever live up fully to his potential is what he has to show to his distractors.

#23 Nikola Mirotic – Minnesota Timberwolves (from Rockets) – Real Madrid

Mirotic was in fact my personal favorite for the #31 Euro Pick but he ended up in the first round which makes him a really long reach. In fact, he probably earns already more in Madrid right now that he would earn with his NBA Rookie contract which makes him a tough target for the future. As Mirotic will stay in Europe for at least 2-3 more seasons, I do not really know how the Rockets want to sign him one day. But anyhow, they would get an excellent basketball player who showed this season that he can be a decision maker in clutch moments of the game.

#31 Bojan Bogdanovic – Minnesota Timberwolves (from Heat) – Cibona Zagreb

It has been quiet around Bojan Bogdanovic since his team Cibona Zagreb got eliminated in the Euroleague with a poor 0-10 record. However, the Croatian forward nearly finished in the first round of the Draft where he was targeted during certain moments of the season when he was leading the Euroleague in scoring. But before coming to the United States, Bogdanovic will first play with Fenerbahce Ülker and try to bring them to the Final Four organized in Istanbul in 2012.

#42 Davis Bertans – San Antonio Spurs (from Pacers) – Union Olimpija Ljubljana

Supposed to be drafted in the first round for a long time, the San Antonio Spurs have made a great move by getting one of the most talented players in Europe in the middle of the second round. Bertans, who is the youngest player drafted this year will grow slowly with Olimpija Ljubljana next season and he could be ready to come to the United States in 2-3 years, when he is still only 21. I think, this was the best pick of the whole Draft on a long-term perspective and we are really looking forward to see how far he can go with his U19 National Team at home during the World Championships.

#54 Milan Macvan – Cleveland Cavaliers – Maccabi Tel Aviv

Nobody spoke about Milan Macvan as a potential NBA Draft pick anymore. However, some Cavaliers scouts may have remembered what Macvan did in the Nike Hoop Summit back in 2009 where he dominated outrageously. Through the website of his agent, Macvan declared that he is very happy with the pick.

I really can’t hide the excitement… I am happy that a team like Cleveland decided to choose and include me in the list of potential members of their future team. This is a very big thing for me and my family, as well as for all the people who worked and took care of me all along these years.

We are looking forward to see if this is more than just marketing talk as we have always been a big fan of Macvan’s game.

#59 Adam Hanga – San Antonio Spurs – Albacomp

And the Spurs do it again, grabbing up a European prospect very late in the second round. This time, it is not your typical European talent but an athletic swingman that you are more used to see coming out of the US. Hanga played an excellent Adidas Eurocamp recently but has never really competed against top-level player as he did not leave Hungary so far. He will play in the ACB next season and that will show how far he rally can go in the future.

NBA Draft 2011: the Euro-Review is a post from: European Prospects
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NBA Draft 2011 – Early Entry Candidates

Davis Bertans – 2m08 – Small Forward – 1992 – Latvia – Olimpija Ljubljana

After his performances at the Nike Hoop Summit earlier this year, Davis Bertans really came into the NBA Focus. However, his star had already emerged during the U18 European Championship in 2010 where he was a member of the All-Tournament team. During his presence in Treviso, Bertans only played one All-Star game and held an individual workout. As we are not really fans of these kinds of exercises, we limit our analysis to the All-Star game that he played but taking into account what we have seen from him already in previous games or tournaments.

In fact, Bertans did nothing different to what we knew from him. Despite being 2m08 tall, Bertans played full-time on the Small Forward position attacking the basket from outside or taking three-point shots. Unluckily for him, he missed most of his tentative so that the overall impression was not really great. As Bertans revealed during the Nike Hoop Summit, he has grown a few centimeters recently; we had him at 2m05 last year; which might be a reason for the missing shooting touch. But already in Lithuania, he showed that he can have games where the ball is not falling.

Overall, Bertans has excellent tools to become an NBA Small Forward, but do not expect him to be a pure shooter. He can put the ball on the floor and has athletic qualities to attack the rim. With a first real Euroleague season ahead, he will also grow physically and become a lot stronger as you should not forget that he will only turn 19 in mid-November and was not only one of the youngest players in the camp but is also the youngest player in the current NBA Draft pool.

For a larger analysis of his game, we recommend our report from the U18 European Championship from last summer as well as our (non-highlight) Video Analysis below.

Donatas Motiejunas – 2m10 – Power Forward – 1990 – Lithuania – Benetton Treviso

Donatas Motiejunas, the second European Early Entry Candidate present in Treviso for more than interviews, did two workouts that we did not attend. Having scouted Motiejunas about a dozen time over the last three years, we can say that we know his game already pretty well. So the report on his Treviso camp will be limited to mentioning our latest Scouting report on him that we wrote when he played with his team Benetton Treviso against BG74 Göttingen in the Eurocup earlier this season in front of a multitude of NBA Scouts.

Automatically eligible players – born in 1989

Dogus Balbay – 1m85 – Point Guard – 1989 – Turkey – Texas

If there was one player who really boosted his stock not only in terms of the NBA Draft but overall, it was the Turkish guard Dogus Balbay. Freshly out of the University of Texas, Balbay was a bit overlooked so far as he was considered as a pure Pass-first PG who had most of his qualities on the defensive end. But in Treviso, Balbay showed excellent leadership skills and the potential of attacking the basket hard against European defenses. With his above average athletic skills (unfortunately no details in the Vitals list), he finished several plays above the rim or with excellent hang time.

He recognizes very well where are the open players and sees his own scoring possibilities only when the defense gives him the possibility or as a last resort. The fact that he is not a great jump shooter might be one of the reasons why this is the case and this will certainly be quickly exploited by European defenses on the professional level. The problem is that if he does not get the possibility to pass by his defender, his game remains limited. Balbay showed though at the Shooting drills that he can hit the ball from outside but he does not feel too comfortable doing so.

His future is most likely not in the NBA except in a similar role than he had in the NCAA which means as a defensive stopper and set play announcer. Additionally, he might struggle to do so because of his limited size and his most likely destination will be Europe. It will be interesting to see which will be his destination and how quickly he can have a major impact as his leadership, intangibles and athleticism will be great for Europe. But as we mentioned, his limits as a shooter from outside might hinder him from becoming a real top-level player in the future.

Robin Benzing – 2m07 – Small Forward – 1989 – Germany – ratiopharm Ulm

The German forward confirmed with his camp what can be expected from him in the future. Benzing, who played his second season at ratiopharm Ulm this year had some kind of a difficult seaon with several ups and downs that we have analyzed a few weeks ago. During the camp, Benzing showed that he has made some progress in toughness aspects of his game like rebounding or defense but he still is not a major player in both areas. This might be the biggest problem for him as we can not imagine him defend on NBA level either on the SF nor on the PF position. However, he would be a match-up problem on the offensive end as he is close to seven feet tall with shoes and can attack the basket from outside with either hand and good speed. His three-point shooting is one of the better ones in Europe and certainly superb for a player of his size.

Technically, Benzing showed some problems with his footwork on the dribbling attacks where he traveled quite often. These moves, that he does quite often in the game, get rarely called in the Bundesliga but the camp referees sanctioned him on these several times per contest. In the NBA, it would not be a travel call and he could beat his defender probably a lot of times with these starts into the opposite direction of receiving the ball. Out of his drives, he came up occasionally with nice passes but he mostly looks for his own scoring. During the camp, where he had to play PF all the time, he never really showed a back-to-the-basket attack and scored mainly from drives and three point shots. His limited athletic abilities will certainly be a problem on the next level as well but there might be an NBA team who takes a look at him in the second round, especially following the current Nowitzki hype.

Ousmane Camara – 2m04 – PF/C – 1989 – France – Le Havre

One of the European based players that improved his stock the most was the French inside player Ousmane “Sarra” Camara. Camara has never really cracked the rotation of his team Le Havre were he only played 11 minutes per game this season. But out of the limited stats (2.8ppg, 3.5rpg), you can already see what his main asset is: rebounding. Camara really has a great sense for rebounding the basketball on both ends of the court. He creates a lot of second possessions for his team as he has a superb timing on the offensive glass. His motor helps him to jump around and even get lots of long rebounds with several quick jumps to tip the basketball either to himself or one of his team mates.

But Camara is not only an excellent rebounder, he can also finish the basketball pretty well close to the basket out of Pick and Roll situations with the powerful layup but also with some kind of jump hook out of the back-to-the-basket move. With his 2m04, he is limited to play the Center position even in European conditions as his vertical is not really off the charts. His 2m16 wingspan speaks though in his favor but he misses the necessary ball handling skills to develop a power forward game in the future.

Antoine Diot – 1m90 – Point Guard – 1989 – France – STB Le Mans

The camp in Treviso was not really a great setting for Antoine Diot who excels more in “real” game situations. However, the season was not really a success for Diot either as he had to fight through different injuries and did not succeed in leading his team Le Mans to a title. The NBA currently seems out of reach for a player who has his future most likely in a regular Euroleague team. With his good physical skills, leadership and scoring skills, Diot is still waiting for his total break-out year on the highest European level.

Bangaly Fofana – 2m11 – Center – 1989 – France – ASVEL Villeurbanne

The French Center had a good showing in Treviso compared to what we were used to see from him during the French regular season. Fofana played a good role in the defensive rebound but had no major impact on the offensive end. He fought a lot and rejected some shots without doing something special though. As we mentioned already a few weeks ago, he should probably go to a team where he earns more minutes in order to develop into a more complete player in the future. The NBA is currently out of reach for him.

Adam Hanga – 1m97 – PG/SG/SF – 1989 – Hungary – Manresa

It can be said that the Hungarian swingman played an excellent camp and that some NBA teams might take a look at him at the end of the second round. Displaying a great speed and athletic abilities, Hanga does a lot of damage in the fast break where he can use his skills to either score by himself or create for his team mates. Being able to play all three positions from PG to SF, Hanga should be able to have quickly an impact in the ACB where he decided to play next season. All of his movements look extremely fluid and smooth and he is able to pass by his defender without any major problems.

The main problem about Hanga is still his shot. His overall mechanics are quite quick and fluid but he comes up with some kind of chest/shoulder shot that prevents him from taking it when defended hard. This is not a major problem as he can beat his defender on the dribble in these situations but overall, his percentages are not really great for a top-level European guard. However, he is improving his three-point shooting accuracy over the last years but he remains a below 40% shooter from behind the arc in the poor Hungarian League. This weakness is also translated to the free-throw line where he is not coming up with a more than mediocre 65%.

Defensively, Hanga can however develop into a very interesting player in the future. Quite agile and showing a good lateral quickness, Hanga reads the passing lanes very well and comes up with a nice amount of steals in those situations that create easy fast-break opportunities for his team. With his above average leaping abilities, he is a good shot blocker as well and nearly averaged 1 rejection per game in Hungary. With a developing shot, Hanga can become a highly interesting long term potential on the highest European level as his combination of size, speed and athleticism is not seen that often in European back-court.

Edwin Jackson – 1m88 – Shooting Guard – 1989 – France – ASVEL Villeurbanne

Edwin Jackson is a player that excels in this type of setting. The French guard can easily beat players on the dribble with his explosiveness and is not afraid to take and make lots of shots. As we have scouted him in a regular setting a short time before the camp, we suggest that you check out that article in order to get a better feeling for his game.

Adidas Eurocamp 2011: NBA Draft eligible players is a post from: European Prospects
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Edwin Jackson – 1m91 – SG – 1989

After starting the season without any serious playing time, Jackson averaged barely 9 minutes per game over the first 21 contests in the French League. A lot of talks came up that he is not capable of moving from a smaller team with a big role (he played for SPO Rouen last season averaging more than twenty minutes per game but being relegated) to a bigger team with a more limited role. However, over the three last games of the regular season  and the playoffs combined, Jackson has dramatically improved his role as he spent 22 minutes on the court and he scored 12.0ppg in this period (compared to 3.5ppg during the whole regular season).

Offensively, Jackson tries to score on nearly every possession. Next to his very high release point jump shot, he can also beat his defender of the dribble with a good first step. He can put it on the floor with either hand and he makes often an extra long step to start the drive which looks a bit like travelling but is rarely called. In the French League, he looks capable to beat anyone in One-on-One situations as he has excellent athletic abilities and good speed. When he drives to the basket, he looks mainly for his own score and even tries some very difficult moves to score as close as possible to the hoop.

In the game we followed on Saturday, he missed for example a tough lay-back in an important moment where might have better chosen to pass the ball out to the opposing corner. On the other hand, he scored a superbly difficult mid-range shot while falling down. Additionally, he can stop his drives out of full speed with a good position and come up with a good fake in order to get open or at least the foul call. In general, you can say that Jackson is able to score the ball from anywhere but has not yet found a way to have a great shot selection. His role in the team is most likely to score coming from the bench which implicates some bad decisions and forced shots by the young guard. In order to fulfill this role in a better way, he is trying a lot of shots but has to learn to select better when to shot and when to continue the offense and pass the ball to one of his team mates.

A question that we have raised in the past about Jackson’s development was his ability to move to the PG position in the future. With ASVEL, he plays only SG or even SF at some moments and barely ever has to bring up the ball. On Saturday, we remember this situation once and he struggled heavily against the opposing press but did not turn it over. Additionally, he does not really look concerned by this part of the game as we remember another situation where he was already across the middle line when his team tried to inbound the ball against the press and Jackson did not open up by running back to break the press. It seems that Jackson will not make a step in the direction of becoming a PG in the future.

Another part of Jackson’s game where we expected a better development was his defense. Despite having excellent physical abilities to become a real stopper on the defensive end, he was not really a factor like he could probably be. He shows excellent effort on the full court press but you have the feeling that one screen on Pick and Roll situations is enough to break his defense. This might also be the result of the extremely poor team defense presence of ASVEL on Saturday but you could expect more presence by Jackson in this part of the game. Even when playing for Rouen last season, where he earned a lot of minutes, Jackson was not a great ball stealer which is something that seems to confirm with ASVEL this season.

As a conclusion, you can say that Jackson can develop into a very dangerous scorer for the French ProA level. His limited size and passing skills will probably prevent him from finding a real position on NBA level. However, with his athletic profile and scoring potential, he should not have too much of a problem to impose himself as one of the top scorers in the French League in the next years, at least.

Leo Westermann – 1m98 – PG – 1992

The 18 year old French PG had a very interesting first season on the professional level. Being the first rotation on the PG spot for a French semi-finalist is quite an achievement for a 1992 born player. I would not be surprised if Westermann will take over the Starting job right from next season. After recovering from a severe knee injury last summer, Westermann looks to be in good shape and displayed nice speed. Being 1m98 tall, he has great size for playing PG on the highest European level but lacks NBA-like athletic abilities. He is doing a good job already on this level to control the game speed and set-up the plays in a situation with a dominant ball handler like Matt Walsh on the court.

Westermann is not really the super creative passer on the playmaker position but he has the talent to score the basketball and see his team mates in the right moment when they are open. He can put the ball on the floor with either hand and has a preference to stop in the mid-range area to take the jump shot. He has the size to attack the basket and finish close but he does not do it really often. However, he is present in rebounding situations and has a good feeling to steal a ball here and there on the offensive glass.

The jump shot of Westermann looks pretty well but he was not very lucky in his attempts on Saturday. With increasing playing time, I am pretty sure that he will have better percentages down the road. Defensively is probably the place where Westermann has still the longest way to go. He is not athletic enough to guard short and fast guards. Additionally, he seems to lack a bit of lateral speed in one-on-one situations in order to stay in front of his guy. His positioning on the defensive end is good in general but he needs to work on his explosiveness, quickness and athletic abilities overall in order to be able to defend point guards in the French League.

Bangaly Fofana – 2m12 – C – 1989

The French big guy is already present with ASVEL for several seasons but did not really have a break-out season so far. Limited to about 10 minutes per game, he would probably do best if he goes playing for a smaller team in order to earn more minutes. Despite being really long, the impact of Fofana is somehow limited on both sides of the court. Offensively, he scores only in the key and does not have a great shooting touch. He lacks great explosiveness and all of his moves (including the dunks) look rather slow. His free-throws look really terrible and underline his overall limited potential offensively. On the defensive end, he has some kind of impact with shot blocking where he can use his long arms. However, he does not have great timing for rejections and being not that physical either, he is not a real threat in this part of the game.

Paul Lacombe – 1m94 – PG/SG – 1990

A player that we really liked when he played this summer with the French U20 National team was Paul Lacombe. However, he did not have a great impact this season despite a better period at the beginning of the year 2011. Since then, he even fall out of the rotation and saw only limited minutes for ASVEL. The same happened on Saturday where Lacombe entered the court only during the last five minutes of the game. In this short period, he just had the opportunity to try a very difficult dunk which he missed but got two free-throws out of it. For the rest, we can not add much to what has already been said about him on this website.

Edwin Jackson and the ASVEL prospects is a post from: European Prospects
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However, Benzing has shown some improvement this season in several parts of his game that have been heavily criticized before. From a pure statistical point of view, Benzing has doubled his rebound numbers going from 2.5 boards per game in 2009/2010 to 4.5 per game this season. He also improved his scoring as he averages now 15.3ppg after being at 12.5ppg last season. On the other hand, his shooting percentages dropped a bit in every category which might be the result of him being the first offensive option of his team this season and the bigger responsibilities he has to shoulder.

His 2010/2011 season can be divided into three parts. In the first games after the World Championship, the 2m09 tall Small Forward looked tired after a long summer which included barely any rest. While Benzing could still score and had 12ppg over the first 9 games of the season, his percentages were really low as he hit only 39.5% of his 2s and 30% from behind the arc. His rebounding remained limited with 2.6 boards per game and the rest of the stat sheet was close to blank. But from the game at home against Phoenix Hagen on, Benzing improved and seemed to get out of his shooting slump. He scored in double figures over 15 games in a row and had really good numbers over this period.

He played lots of minutes and scored 19.0ppg coming up with several career games like a 30pts, 5rebs, 4asts effort against Bremerhaven or a 33pts game against Tübingen. His shot selection was better as he nailed 47.2% of his two point shots while 37.9% of his close to 7 three-point shot attempts per game found the way through the net. His rebounding was a lot better too as he grabbed 5.7 rebounds per game over this 15 games stretch. However, his career scoring record against Tübingen marked also the break to the third part of his season.

As he got a small injury on his right thumb; his shooting hand; Benzing had to sit out the game against ALBA Berlin (where several NBA Teams had apparently made the trip to scout him) and he has not found his rhythm back since then. The last 5 games were even worse in terms of numbers than the beginning of the season as he could only score 10.4ppg but especially struggled a lot on his shooting. Only 27.8% of his two pointers and 26.1% of his three pointers went in. The positive side is though that he continued to be present on the defensive glass as Benzing averaged 4.0rpg since his injury.

We had the opportunity to watch several games of Benzing on Video this season but unfortunately, I could never travel to watch him play live. So I will limit my Scouting Report voluntarily as I prefer to see somebody play in real than through video. At least, the games I could see were some of the better games he had and gave me the possibility to see if and how Benzing has progressed. The question if he remains an NBA prospect is therefore also easy to answer for me: it’s a yes. Benzing should be a second round pick this year, even if he might only move to the NBA in 2-3 years. This is at least how his agent is planning the future: find a team that drafts him with a real project over 2-3 seasons where he remains in Europe and climbs step-by-step to the next level. This means, find a team for next season playing internationally and eventually become a Euroleague contributor in 2 years. That’s the plan.

But what does Benzing look like at the moment? Benzing is doing a great job for a player of his size to put the ball on the floor. He can attack the basket with both hands and also finish with both hands when he is close. He shies away a bit to go hard against the big guys and prefers sometimes the mid-range jump shot or the floater instead of finishing close to the rim with a dunk. On the drive, he can change his speed in order to create an open look and reads the gaps very well in order to get closer to the basket. He seems to have a little preference for attacking over his left hand out of which he can though also finish on a right-handed finger roll for example.

His jump shot after he put the ball on the floor is not always totally straight up and he sometimes is a bit out of balance on these attempts.With his overall shooting touch, he is able to score on these attempts though. When he attacks the basket, he can also come up with the nice kick-out pass but he is mainly looking for his own score. You can not really say that he has improved in this type of situations to find his team mates. But he is the main offensive option of his team and has a lot of freedom in the system of Coach Mike Taylor.

The main offensive force of Benzing is his shot. He is close to a 40% three-pointer being nearly seven feet tall and taking more than 5 three-pointers per game. This underlines his good shooting touch even if his shooting mechanics are a bit perfectible because his shot is always a bit of a chest shot in the beginning of the move. He is the most effective from behind the arc when he receives the ball in kick-out situations. You barely see Benzing create his own three-point shot after putting the ball on the floor to go for example for a step-back shot. Additionally, he does not really jump high when taking the jump shot which makes him a bit vulnerable against more athletic wings.

Even if Benzing improved his rebounding numbers, he still looks little concerned by this domain of the game. Playing on the Small Forward position, he has other guys on the court that are responsible for rebounding but with his size, he should be able to be more present. He does not really go hard to the rim to grab the ball but takes more or less the rebounds that come to him or that he can get with a quick move. He does box out his man but he is not going there intentionally to get the ball in order to increase his numbers. Sometimes, he looks to shy away from these situations as well but in general, his overall rebounding presence is improving.

On the defensive end in general, he has still a lot of progress to make. His lateral speed remains average and he is physically enough to defend against stronger power forwards in the low post. When he can create mismatches on the offensive end, he  is also a defensive mismatch for his own team on the other side. With his constant work in the weight lifting room, he might get stronger in the future but he will probably never develop into a real stopper on the defensive end.

Coach Mike Taylor also gave us his opinion about Benzing’s season.

Robin Benzing has made quality progress throughout the season here with ratiopharm Ulm.  As a young player with much responsibility, Robin has matured as a player and demonstrated an excellent attitude to handle good performances or bounce back from a tough night. After a slow start to the season, Robin bounced back to play an extremely strong three months for us including a 30 point effort in a road win over Bremerhaven and a 33 point night against rival Tubingen.

He found a great rhythm as a ‘stretch four’ and provided a difficult matchup for opposing defenses.  Playing both the small forward and power forward position, Robin learned how to use his advantages from each position more efficiently.

Unfortunately, Robin suffered a minor thumb injury in the game against Tubingen and his excellent rhythm was disrupted.  Since his return, he has been working hard to find his consistency once again.  Without the injury, it is possible to imagine a tremendous strong finish to the season for Robin, but Robin has gained self-confidence in his ability to bounce back from adversity throughout the process.

Robin has worked hard to improve his shot selection on the perimeter, in the post and within the game according to time-score situations.  Robin has worked hard to improve his defensive play on the perimeter and on the block as well.  As with many young players, Robin’s defense is at its best when his offensive game is working well.  His continued hard work in the weight room has also helped him get stronger and play more physical which has helped his all around game.

Robin still has much work to do on his body but the positive steps forward physically have reinforced his efforts to this point.  As he physically gets stronger and more mature, I believe Robin will make big steps in his all around game on both ends of the floor.  Playing a major role for ratiopharm Ulm and taking major responsibility throughout the season, Robin has gained tremendous experience which will also help him in the future.

Throughout the positives and adversity, Robin has kept a very good attitude and maintained an excellent work ethic.   Currently, the top German scorer in the Bundesliga, Robin has played a very good season as a 22 year old.  Expectations are high for Robin, but the most important part of this season for Robin is developing the fundamental parts of his game and helping him learn to use his skills more efficiently.  The learning experience from this season for Robin will be something he can rely on for success in the future.

NBA Franchises keep a lot of interest in the German forward and the number of scouts having followed him this season has significantly increased. Being automatically eligible this year and the limited number of quality underclassmen from the United States will open some doors for European players that might not have been there in a normal situation. Here is an incomplete list of teams that have scouted Benzing over the last two seasons: Minnesota Timberwolves, Charlotte Bobcats, Portland Trailblazers, Toronto Raptors, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Indiana Pacers.

This summer will be very important for Robin Benzing. He has first of all to find his way back from his slight injury to be in his best shape for the NBA Draft process. He will certainly be present in the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. Besides that, there will be the Eurobasket 2011 in Lithuania and he will need to find a stronger team to play on European level next season. Lots of decisions ahead.

Is Robin Benzing still an NBA prospect? is a post from: European Prospects
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The trip started with the game in Crailsheim which featured the dominator of the German ProA Bayern Munich with their star-ensemble against the small-town team of the Merlins. The locals have with Femi Oladipo an interesting player in their roster that we talked already about a few weeks ago while Bayern has with the 1989 born Bastian Doreth a future Bundesliga PG. However, none of the two had a major impact on the game. While Oladipo only took one shot during the whole game, Doreth had a least three attempts from behind the arc to make one.

The 1990 born forward was totally cut of from the Merlins heavily US-based offense. The team’s 5 German players that get significant minutes only took 13 shots of the 63 attempts of the team which underlines the overall poor team play. And a team player like Oladipo looks a bit lost on offense where all of his actions where just about sharing the ball and creating opportunities for his team mates. Despite being listed as 1m99 tall power forward, it was him that came up with some nice passes and good court-vision while the normal playmakers looked more for their own shot. Oladipo did a good job on the defensive end where he guarded every position from 1-4 and this especially in stopping Steffen Hamann during stretches but he needs to remain focused on his presence once he gets passed by the offense. However, offensively, this game was not really a good one for Oladipo as he had no influence at all. After his nice start into the season, he seems to have lost his confidence on offense scoring only 5.0ppg over the last 9 games after having started the season with 9.4ppg.

Bastian Doreth did a good job by running the point during his minutes on the court. When coming from the bench, you did not really feel a difference compared to Senior NT player Hamann, even if both have a very different game. Being pretty short with only 1m82, Doreth can push the ball on the break and has a very nice three-point shot. He rarely attacks the rim and takes more than 75% of his shots from behind the arc and hits them with great precision (45.9%). Additionally, he is a fantastic free-throw shooter (95.5%) but has some trouble to defend on taller or more athletic guards. If Bayern München wants to play for the Championship next season, he might not be strong enough as Back-up for them but he can certainly do a good job for mid-level Bundesliga teams next season.

Check the full game in Video (not available in every country)

We continued our trip to Bayreuth where the local BBC played against the surprising TBB Trier team. Both squads feature one player that has been mentioned in our 5 players to follow this season in the Bundesliga. Simon Schmitz decided to play his best game of the season for Bayreuth on Sunday so that it was a great opportunity to get an update on the 1990 born German PG. Additionally, Maik Zirbes did a good job as well for the guests so that this game gave us a nice possibility to scout both of them.

So far, Simon Schmitz never played longer than 17 minutes but this all changed on Sunday as the 1m85 tall and officially 65kg guard saw 20 minutes of action for scoring 14pts and having the best +/- of the whole team. The game was highly important for his team that tries to avoid relegation and improved their record with an important win. Schmitz entered the court at the end of the 1st quarter when the offense of his team was not turning very well. With him on the floor, the team shared the ball and the different players got excellent open shots. Schmitz himself was not afraid to take his opportunities and knocked down a long-distance shot from the corner followed by a three-pointer. He added a second triple and finished his first half with a very difficult drive that he could connect after a spin-move in traffic.

Next to his offensive aggressiveness and great shot selection and accuracy, it was under Schmitz’ control that the team made the game-winning break in the second quarter as he managed to change the game speed and put his team in a more setup-oriented offense than relying on pure 1-on-1 skills. When he went back to the bench and the starting PG Danny Gibson came back to the court, the team fell back into its initial problems and the lead was reduced. During the second half, Schmitz came back an assured the lead of his team and even help to increase the gap again during the third quarter. After another period on the bench, head coach Andreas Wagner brought the young guard back for the last minutes of the game in order to control the game speed and bring home this important victory and keep the hope alive to stay in the league.

Next to his great offensive game, Schmitz showed good improvement in his defensive attitude where he was doing an excellent job on Dru Joyce. He was not afraid to challenge the US guard physically and was always hard on him without getting passed over. Despite being physically one of the least impressive players of the whole Bundesliga, Schmitz showed that he can handle the pressure and be a factor on the defensive end as well. After having grown step-by-step over the last seasons, he has now marked his territory in the BBL and he will be measured on his performance from last Sunday. Bayreuth knows that they have an alternative on the bench to take over and coach Wagner might go to the German guard more often in the last games of the season.

Maik Zirbes has been a great story so far this season for TBB Trier and his head coach Henrik Rödl. We had already a longer report on him a few weeks back and the game in Bayreuth underlined again his forces and weaknesses. Physically impressive, Zirbes is having a lot of Pick and Roll situations where he gets fed by PG Dru Joyce. Out of these situations he comes up with great positions where he can finish with the dunk. Additionally, he has good timing for the offensive rebound but once again missed the necessary aggressiveness to finish strong on a second jump. You could see him several times come up with a good offensive rebound but instead of using his power to go back up for the dunk, he tried some soft shots from close that he missed.

Simon Schmitz keeps the hope alive for Bayreuth is a post from: European Prospects
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Here’s a recap of young players (born in 1989 or later) who have been making an impact in Finnish top league Korisliiga in 2010/11 season so far, plus a couple of interesting names from Division 1, the second-highest league in Finland. This unofficial ranking is based A) on their performance in 2010/11 and B) on their pro potential. For a comparison: Olimpija Ljubljana’s Sasu Salin averaged 9.2 points and 2.7 rebounds in Korisliiga and Frankfurt Skyliners’ Carl Lindbom 11.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in Division 1 in 2009/10.

1. ANTTI KANERVO – 1m92 – PG/SG – 1989

Joensuun Kataja (Korisliiga): 30.1mins 12.2ppg (49.7% 2FGs – 40.6% 3FGs -  86.7% FTs), 2.4rpg, 1.3apg

Finland Men’s National Team (Div A): 14.8mins, 3.9ppg, 1.4rpg

Kanervo played surprisingly big minutes with Finnish men’s national team last summer with Petteri Koponen sidelined. Last summer has certainly been a confidence boost for Kanervo, who has adopted a lot bigger role this season. Formerly known as only a long-range shooter, Kanervo has been surprisingly effective as point guard and defensive player in 2010/11, and he seems determined to jump into a better league soon.

2. ANTTO NIKKARINEN – 1m84 – PG – 1991

Kouvot (Korisliiga): 32.6mins, 12.5ppg (41.9% 2FGs – 35.4% §FGs – 80.3% FTs), 2.4rpg, 2.2apg

Finland U20 (Div B 2010): 23.3mins, 8.6ppg (64.7% 2FGs – 31.8% 3FGs – 76.5% FTs),  4.0rpg, 2.8apg, 1.6spg

Nikkarinen has been a cornerstone player for surprising Kouvot team this season. His confidence and ballhandling skills are better than last season and he can hit his long range shots even when facing tough defense. He’s also more pumped up physically and is now able to defend faster, more athletic point guards. His size could be an issue, but his will to become a pro player is strong.

3. MATTI NUUTINEN – 2m00 – SF/PF – 1990

Vilpas (Korisliiga): 25.5mins, 8.5ppg (51.9% “2FGs – 31.3% 3FGs – 73.0% FTs), 5.1rpg, 1.2spg

Finland U20 (Div B 2010): 17.1mins, 6.9ppg (58.3% 2FGs – 50.0% 3FGs – 75.0% FTs), 4.1rpg, 1.3apg

Finnish basketball fans have been waiting for talented, versatile and athletic big man Nuutinen to break through for three years. After several injury-bug bitten seasons, he finally has arrived. After mid-January, Nuutinen has been averaging 12.3 points and 6.3 rebounds a game, finishing both inside and outside and being able to defend four spots. Nuutinen is a lot like Finnish national team veteran forward Kimmo Muurinen (Frankfurt Skyliners) was ten years ago.

4. ROOPE AHONEN – 1m87 – SG – 1990

Vilpas (Korisliiga): 29.4mins, 11.6ppg (45.0% 2FGs – 32.7% 3FGs – 88.9% FTs), 2.2rpg, 2.3apg

Finland U20 (Div B 2010): 30.0mins, 16.0ppg (42.4% 2FGs – 51.9% 3FGs – 86.4% FTs), 2.1rpg, 2.0apg, 1.3spg

At 21 years old, Ahonen is already producing points with great self confidence and he’s one of the rare domestic young players in Korisliiga able to create his own shot and score in bunches. Alas, Ahonen also has the tendency to disappear in pressure and his point guard skills haven’t developed as expected these past two years.

5. SAMULI VANTTAJA – 2m10 – PF/C – 1991

Honka Playboys (Korisliiga): 14.1mins, 4.1ppg (49.2% 2FGs – 42.9% 3FGs), 2.8ppg

Tapiolan Honka (Div 1): 30.2mins, 13.5ppg (45.6% 2FGs – 40.5% 3FGs), 7.6rpg, 1.1spg

Finland U20 (Div B 2010): DNP – Injured

After a long wait, Vanttaja has been showing promise in Korisliiga level this year. He has both provided interior defense and outside shooting for VTB-League team Honka Playboys, while leading Honka’s development team Tapiolan Honka in scoring in Division 1. Vanttaja needs toughness and strength, but his ability to bring the ball upcourt, hit treys and defend opposing 5’s, is interesting.

6. MIKAEL SANDBERG – 2m09 – PF/C – 1991

ToPo (Korisliiga): 6.5mins, 1.8ppg (24.9% 2FGs – 55.6% 3FGs), 1.0rpg

TomPo (Division 1): 28.1mins, 15.0ppg (51,3% 2FGs), 8.2rpg

Finland U20 (Div B 2010): 10.0mins, 2.1ppg (70.0% 2FGs – 75.0% FTs), 1.0rpg

Big man Sandberg has only seen limited minutes of Korisliiga action because of his lack of strength and weight, but in Division 1, he has been TomPo’s best scorer and rebounder. Sandberg can hit an outside shot with good percentages and scores near the basket with pump fakes and fade-aways, and he should blossom into a very good Korisliiga player once he catches up on the physical side.

7. VILLEMATTI KOPIO – 1m82  PG/SG – 1992

Honka Playboys (Korisliiga): 10.3mins, 3.3ppg (42.1% 2FGs – 38.0% 3FGs), 0.7rpg, 0.8apg

Tapiolan Honka (Div 1): 25.1mins, 10.9ppg (30.9% 3FGs), 3.1rpg, 2.1apg

Finland U18 (Div B 2010): 29.1mins, 13.0ppg (57.9% 2FGs – 69.2% FTs), 3.6rpg, 2.5apg

Despite some so-called experts (including me) calling him a tweener, young sharpshooter Kopio has been playing quality minutes in both Korisliiga and Division 1, even nailing a buzzer-beating, game-winning three point shot in January against Namika Lahti (with 18 points). Kopio doesn’t seem intimidated by anyone, and that’s something you can rarely say about a 19-year old playing his first season in top league.

8. MARKUS MOLENIUS – 2m04- SF/PF – 1992

FoKoPo (Division 1): 22.3mins, 13.4ppg (72.6% 2FGs – 68.7% FTs), 3.2rpg, 1.1spg

Finland U18 (Div B 2010): 19.1mins, 10.1ppg (63.2% 2FGs – 36.8% 3FGs), 3.9rpg

Molenius was Division 1’s leading domestic scorer for the first three months of the season, excelling in creating mismatches in low post and finishing fast breaks with powerful dunks. If FoKoPo gets promoted back to Korisliiga for 2011/12, next season will be crucial for Molenius’ development: how does he play against tougher defenses?

9. ILARI SEPPÄLÄ – 1m88 – PG/SG – 1993

Kouvot (Korisliiga): 11.4mins, 3.5ppg (50.0% 2FGs – 32.5% 3FGs), 0.8rpg, 0.6apg

Finland U18 (Div B 2010): DNP – Injured

Kouvot is by far the youngest team in the league, but they have still played excellent basketball this season, surfing from #2 to #6 spots throughout the season. 17-year old Seppälä has seen only limited minutes, but his raw talent is obvious. His basketball IQ is high, he drains his open shots, is able to keep up with his man in defense and does right decisions in the fast break. We’re expecting this kid to have a bright future.

10. JUHO LEHTORANTA – 1m94 – SG – 1989

KTP (Korisliiga): 17.1mins, 7.5ppg (56.2% 2FGs – 33.8% 3FGs – 87.9% FTs), 2.7rpg

To put it simple and plain, Lehtoranta is nothing but a scorer, but he has been really effective in limited minutes in Finland’s current #2 team, KTP. Lehtoranta scores on drives and jump shots and has scored double-figures 13 times in 38 games – impressive for someone who averages only 17 minutes a game. He’ll have a long career in Finland.

Young guns from Finland (2010/2011) is a post from: European Prospects
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In his third season in the NCAA, the Swedish Jeffery Taylor has once again increased his numbers and is currently looked at like a serious NBA first round draft prospect if he enters this year. After being known for his excellent athletic abilities, Taylor has added a correct three point shot this season as he comes up with 25/73 shots from behind the arc so far. Compared to his 9/41 and 1/11 over the last two seasons, this can be seen as a major progress especially if you foresee him as a future SF on NBA level. The Commodores are currently ranked as a Top25 team and they have some big games coming up this week with Alabama (and fellow Swede Carl Engström) and Kentucky next weekend. After a shooting slump in the loss versus Florida, Taylor was very regular and in double figures over the last 15 games. Additionally to his improved three-point shooting, the Junior has also increased his assist ratio coming up with 2.5 dimes per game. Everything looks set that Taylor will join Jonas Jerebko as second Swede in the NBA, the Pistons player is already looking forward to play with him in the next years.

Another European who is leading his team this season is the Montenegrin Nikola Vucevic at USC. The 2m08 tall Power Forward from Bar is averaging 16.7ppg and 9.8rpg this season and has yet made another step forward in his progression so that he is now regularly put on the different NBA Mock Drafts. The most impressive part of his improvement is his scoring where Vucevic came from a 2.6ppg season two years ago and is now showing great versatility on the offensive end where he has become a serious threat from behind the three-point arc as well. Draftexpress had a long update on his development recently that I can only recommend to get a better idea on his current skill-set. The 1990 born player is the son of Boris Vucevic who played professionally in Europe and the nephew of the current head coach of Antibes (France) Savo Vucevic. The genes are there to become a high-level player, the question is will he head to the NBA or become a Euroleague star in the future.

It is not so usual to see a European player among the top scorers of Division 1 Basketball but the Romanian Vlad Moldoveanu is currently averaging 20.0ppg for the small American University. The 22 year old Senior has transferred to American in 2009 after he started his College career with George Mason but never really had a large impact there. The 2m10 tall wing had already some spectacular games last season but he has even improved his scoring this year. However, the poor level of his Conference and his limited upside potential are the main reasons why he does not get a lot of looks in terms of a NBA future. Back in 2008, he told us that he wants to win the Euroleague 5-6 times, so we think as well that he will most likely play in Europe next season. Check out the nice portrait of the AU Eagle below to get a better feeling for the potential Patriot League Player of the year.

News on Recruiting

As we announced already on our Twitter Account during the weekend, the University of Maryland has offered a scholarship to the German Martin Breunig who is currently playing at SJNMA in Wisconsin. Breunig came to St. Johns Northwestern during the last summer in order to prepare physically and educationally to play Division 1 College Basketball. When talking about Germans and the NCAA, another name that we hear quite often is Patrick Heckmann. The 1992 born guard/forward is still undecided about his future and has to chose if he will come to the United States through the Class of 2011 or 2012. Heckmann currently averages 12.3ppg, 3.4rpg and 3.1apg in the third German league for TV Langen and he is getting some interest from schools like Michigan, San Diego or Maryland again.

The Polish 1993 generation features some highly interesting players and some of them seem to go the College Basketball path next season. While we heard a few weeks ago already that Tomasz Gielo has decided to play for the small school of Liberty, this information did not get confirmed yet though. On the other hand, we got the confirmation that Przemyslaw Karnowski has on offer from the University of Cincinnati on the table. However, the Polish big guy is far from having made his final choice about what he will do next season.

Other Europeans from the Class of 2011 that draw some interest from Division 1 Colleges at the moment are the two Brits Simeon Esprit and Keelan Cairns from the Barking Abbey Academy. Cairns is a 2m10 tall forward who has Chattanooga, Illinois State and since recently Pennsylvania who are chasing him while the tall guard Esprit sees Maine, Valparaiso and Davidson College following him.

To follow the recruiting of European players, you can find updated information and Video Highlights on our different Recruiting pages.

An update on Europeans in the NCAA is a post from: European Prospects
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Jonas Valanciunas started all the games of Lietuvos Rytas in the beginning of the season and came up with some good stats and lots of minutes. But for the last two weeks of the Euroleague regular season, the new coaching staff of Rytas has put the Lithuanian Center back on the bench and gave him only limited minutes (4.5 per game over the last 2) preferring the fighting style of Turkish Cemal Nalga. In the first halftime of the game against Panathinaikos, Valanciunas only played 5 minutes to score 2 points from the free-throw line. What was however interesting to see is how his team mates “ignored” him on offense in several occasions where he was completely open under the basked and waving his arms to receive the pass.

In the beginning of the second half, Panathinaikos had a good run to get a double-digit lead but Aleksandar Trifunovic still did not bring in the 1992 born Center. With 5 minutes to go in the last quarter at –19, Valanciunas came back into the game for Rytas. He was immediately present on the offensive glass for his first bucket. He continued to set good screens for Pick and Roll situations but his team mates were not able to find him on the roll. He walked on another offensive rebound where he forced the score and turned over a back-door pass as his team mate did not see what he wanted from him. On the defensive end, he helped well on the drives of Panathinaikos but he was not fast enough back in position and got dunked on by Mike Batiste. In the last two minutes, Valanciunas saw his first low post possession and tried the turn-around hook shot but gets fouled on it to score 2pts from the free-throw line.

The next game of the evening featured two big guys mainly used on forward position with Nikola Mirotic and Jan Vesely. Additionally, it was a possibility to follow the progress of Branislav Djekic (he did not play though) and get a better idea on the game of Dragan Milosavljevic. The Czech forward was the only player of these five that started the game in Madrid. But it did not last long until Mirotic came to the court as well as Felipe Reyes had 2 quick fouls after 4 minutes. At that moment, Vesely only had a missed back-to-the-basket jump hook and both teams a multitude of turnovers. Mirotic started very well with a good defense on James Gist coming up nearly with a steal. Dragan Milosavljevic saw his first minutes as well and immediately nailed the long jump shot while Mirotic missed the open three pointer.

Partizan tried to use the size of Vesely on the SF position and found him on a high-low which the Czech finished with a dunk. This play gave him some confidence but he air-balled a catch-and-shoot three afterwards. The shooting mechanics of Vesely look a bit smoother than we were used to but this did not translate in better percentages from outside so far. Real looked for Mirotic in the low post out of a time-out which was a good choice as the quick spin move of the Montenegrin with Spanish passport could only be stopped by a Partizan foul. The 2m08 tall forward showed his good defensive reads by stealing a ball in the passing lane while Milosavljevic scored a tough one on the break. The 1989 born Serb tried his best on defense to stop Clay Tucker and he showed a great right-handed drive to finish the first quarter where he found Nathan Jawai for the power slam.

The start of the 2nd quarter saw even the 89 born Vladimir Lucic shine on an excellent right handed drive to score close to the basket. It was now Jan Vesely that should take care of Tucker but the American shooter immediately hit a three-pointer on the Czech for a 6-0 run. Without doing a lot that can be seen on the stat-sheet, Nikola Mirotic was very effective on both ends of the court and it was a real beauty to see a nearly seven-footer move with such an elegance and fluidity on the court with the ball. Vesely scored another one on a high-low, a move that he seems to really appreciate when playing SF as he has a big height advantage and can come up with the quick execution out of the catch because of his explosive second jump. The Partizan forward showed his jumping abilities on an impressive offensive rebounding sequence where he missed a tip and a tip-dunk but sprinted the court back to stop the break with a deflection. Real used the bonus to score several points from the free-throw line and grab a double-digit lead at the halftime.

The third quarter started with the direct match-up between Vesely and Mirotic. Both guys battled hard on defense for the position and it was Vesely that had the first positive play after a steal finished with the alley-oop dunk on the difficult catch. Mirotic joined the bench while Vesely continued to show his great athletic abilities on a fast-break rejection against Reyes and an immediate second jump to steal the possible rebound from the Spanish forward’s hands. This third quarter looked to be the Vesely one as the forward scored on a difficult drive where he came up with a nice spin move finished by a floating score to bring the score back to –15. But this run was only a short one as Real Madrid dominated again the second part of the 3rd quarter where Milosavljevic showed his limits as guard with some bad passes.

The last quarter did not feature a lot more interesting stuff. Vesely came up with a nice drive and dish but that was about it.

The general observations on the main prospects

The general impression on Jonas Valanciunas was that he has not yet adapted his game to the reduced playing time. He forced some choices as he wanted to rush the score instead of letting the game come to him as he did so well in the beginning of the season. The Rytas player remains highly effective on the rebound on both sides of the court; he had 7 rebounds in 10 minutes on the court. He showed that he likes to go for the back-door pass from the top and he got an assist on a cut of Khalid El-Amin. The main problem on his game is his limited back-to-the-basket game at the moment and his defensive presence where he needs to improve his decision making.

Jan Vesely had a rocky start into this season. But since the middle of December, he seems to be back with his usual play that we knew from last season. There is an improvement in his shooting mechanics but the production is not yet regular. He struggled badly from the free-throw line today where he had some very short attempts and others being too long. Despite these problems, the Czech is an amazing presence on the offensive glass (he was only credited for 1 offensive rebound but he certainly had an impact on more than that) where his relentless effort gives him some scoring opportunities. His high-intensity game remains though very foul-intensive and he looks to be a bit out of control at times. Next to that, there is not much of a progress seen at the moment for him, at least when it comes to this game.

Nikola Mirotic, who we predicted to have his break-out year in 2011, had a pretty good first half. He is incredibly fluid, especially in opposition to Vesely, and plays in a very elegant way. All his moves look under control and technically perfect. He had some very good scoring games in the ACB recently and seemed to have doubled Jorge Garbajosa in the rotation. However today, he did not see many minutes in the second half as the Real roster has the luxury to be built with 12 nearly interchangeable and equally talented players. There has not been that much talk about him entering the 2011 Draft but he is definitely on the radar of most NBA Teams as his combination of size and skills is excellent.

A “big” Euroleague night is a post from: European Prospects
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Jaime Fernandez – 1m88 – SG/PG – 1993 – Estudiantes Madrid

Joan Sastre – 2m01 – SF – 1991 – Cajasol Sevilla

Tomas Satoransky – 1m99 – SG/PG – 1991 – Cajasol Sevilla

Josep Franch – 1m94 – PG – 1991 – DKV Joventut Badalona

Pere Tomas – 2m02 – SF – 1989 – DKV Joventut Badalona

David Jelinek – 1m94 – SG – 1990 – DKV Joventut Badalona

Nikola Mirotic – 2m08 – PF/SF – 1991 – Real Madrid

The main ACB prospects in Video is a post from: European Prospects
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Bojan Bogdanovic has become the first scoring option for the Croatian team since the departure of Marko Tomas. After having signed a long term deal with Real Madrid in 2005, the Mostar native played several years in the Spanish minor leagues before coming back to Croatia last season. After having displayed great scoring potential back in 2006 during the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim and the Douai Tournament, 4 years later he has reached the level to become one of the best individual scorers of the Euroleague. After his big opening night against Barcelona, Fenerbahce Ülker gave him a special treatment on defense by putting the athletic Tarence Kinsey on him nearly the whole game and closing his right side.

Bogdanovic struggled a bit in the beginning as he forced some plays going over his left hand. He took some out of balance mid-range shots which he did not make. But his confidence level is huge at the moment so that he continued to push Kinsey in defense. Bogdanovic tried to beat the US forward going right anyhow but air-balled a difficult fade away from top. It looked like the Croat will have trouble that night to score the basketball. Additionally, he showed some problems in his decision making and court-vision by going for some sloppy passes or not really reading what the defense gave him which ended up in turnovers. However, the Croatian coaching staff let him on the court because they know about his scoring potential.

With the game going on, he started to find his rhythm against the athletic defense and nailed a difficult mid-range jumper after having attacked Kinsey again on the left hand. He was in the game then and scored another long 2 out of a pivot move and a picture-perfect jump shot out of the dribble from the free-throw line. His shot looks very good especially when coming of the screen and getting the pass from the side for the catch and shoot. He has a quick release in those situation and his good athletic abilities give him the possibility to fire over taller defenders. After Fenerbahce Ülker took him nearly out of the game in the beginning with closing his right hand, they did not go for the same defense for the rest of the game and Bogdanovic could attack more and more over his stronger right hand.

With his excellent size for playing the SG position, Bogdanovic can also go down in the low-post to play with his back to the basket. He did not do it against Kinsey but when defended for example by Omer Onan, he immediately recognized this situation and moved down low. With his team being in the game, he also fought hard and dived to save some lose balls and showing immediately good basketball IQ by making a good high throw to pass the ball to a team mate instead of sliding out of bounds.

When attacking the basket, Bogdanovic often struggles to finish against taller guys. He tries to finish by jumping of 2 feet a lot and sliding to the basket for the nice layup instead of finishing hard. You can also see him attack the basket with extra long steps and score with the underhand layup. He has though good leaping abilities to finish the drive with dunks but does it only rarely against defense. So far with Cibona, his main role is offensively which makes that he has only a limited impact on defense. He needs to improve that part of his game together with becoming a bit more regular from behind the arc.

Bogdanovic is automatically eligible for the NBA Draft 2011. With his current season and the probable large presence of NBA Scouts in Zagreb, he may get a look at in the 2nd round. The problem in terms of NBA potential may however be his limits to defend smaller and quicker guards. His size advantage on the SG is interesting but when he has to play SF because of his lateral speed, he will probably struggle to attack against taller defenders. He is currently listed as 49th pick by Draftexpress while NBADraft.net has him going undrafted. When his scoring continues on a regular basis throughout the season, he may move up in the boards until spring 2011.

Stats: (Adriatic Leaghe after 5 games) 25.4ppg (63.4% 2FG – 42.9% 3FGs), 3.4rpg, 2.2apg, 2.4topg; (Euroleague after 2 games) 21.5ppg (50.0% 2FGs – 36.4% 3FGs), 3.0rpg, 1.5apg, 4.5topg

Leon Radosevic – 2m08 – PF – 1990 – Cibona Zagreb

Leon Radosevic is certainly the player that has made the biggest progress over the last years of those featured in this report. When playing for the different Croatian Youth National teams, he was not a major factor and always was a bit in the shadow of the more talented big guys Mario Delas and Tomislav Zubcic. But it was Radosevic that had some impact on Euroleague level as first of these three. This season however, he started extremely well and has become the second scoring option of Cibona Zagreb on the highest European level.

Radosevic has developed first of all a very effective jump shot around the key. He has made a lot of progress to become very regular from 4-5 meters and is particularly effective on catch and shoot situations. He is not going for the out of the dribble jumper but mainly takes the normal jump shot when open. As his shooting release is a bit slow though, he struggles to connect it when he has hard defense on him and his mechanics are still unstable in these situations. Additionally, he still feels not 100% comfortable with his shot as you can see him look for passes and only shot after hesitating on what he should do. In the game versus Fenerbahce Ülker, you could also see that his shots become shorter with the time going on which may be the result of the large minutes he has played so far this season (38.0 minutes per game over the last 5 matches).

Next to his jump shot, Radosevic does an excellent job facing the basket. As he mainly plays the PF/C position, he likes to put the ball on the floor to beat his defender on the dribble with an excellent first step and great speed in his execution. The 2m08 tall player does this really well as long as he can use his right hand. His left hand needs a lot of development as you can see him use the right hand even when attacking to the left side. Out of his drives, he can finish with some kind of running hook shot or go for the finish close the basket but rarely stops the drive for the pass or the jump shot.

Radosevic is also doing a good job on Pick and Roll situations where he always rolls hard to the basket and can finish with two handed dunks without any problem. Cibona even played two times in a row a set-play to give him the alley-oop out of the Pick and Roll. His athletic abilities give him a great presence on the offensive rebound as well where he uses his quick jumps in order to get some second chance points. On the defensive end, he is already acting experienced for such a young inside player by mainly trying to defend by using his size  and less his jumping abilities. This keeps him out of foul trouble despite playing long minutes. Additionally, he has an excellent feel to play the steal in the passing lanes and he often gambles to do so on the swings when the big man he defends is stepping out to the three point line.

Because of his nice jump shot and athletic play, he remembers me a bit of the Spanish Fran Vazquez who has a similar profile. However, Radosevic looks to be faster when attacking the basket and little less vertical than than the FC Barcelona player. Being automatically eligible in 2012, I would not be surprised if the Croatian big guy will put his name this year in the NBA Draft pool in order to test the waters. So far, no Mock Draft is featuring him in 2011 or 2012 but this will probably change in the next weeks if Radosevic continues as he currently plays.

Stats: (Adriatic League after 5 games) 13.4ppg (50.0% 2FGs – 78.9% FTs), 7.0rpg, 2.4spg, 1.0bpg; (Euroleague after 2 games) 15.5ppg (56.5% 2FGs – 71.4% FTs), 6.5rpg, 3.0spg

Tomislav Zubcic – 2m08 – SF/PF – 1990 – Cibona Zagreb

After having amazed the different scouts with his big potential over the last years, this season seems to be the one where the talent of Tomislav Zubcic will finally shine on the highest European level for the first time. Zubcic showed already his incredible versatility for a player of his size during the AST 2008 but also when he played the Nike Hoop Summit last year. However, his impact on the Euroleague level remained limited until this fall. Even if his playing time is still going for a lot of ups and downs, his impact on the team has grown a lot so that Zubcic gets a lot of minutes as SF behind the offensively limited Euro-Rookie Marcus Johnson.

Zubcic still impresses with his great versatility on the court. He can shoot the ball, is incredibly fast for a nearly seven-footer with the ball, runs the floor and can handle it nearly like a guard. He helped Cibona to win a recent Adriatic League game by hitting some crucial three-pointers versus KK Zagreb after having gone for 1 out of 9 in the season. Zubcic likes to take the big shots and has the ability to knock them down from everywhere around the three-point arc. But next to his shot, he can put the ball on the floor and attack the basket with excellent speed and finish the tough ones close the rim.

The problem at the moment though is that Zubcic is not really regular and can put himself out of the game easily. He is a very emotional player and gets easily upset by referee decisions. What can go in his favor as he is able to score some hard attempts on his pure talent and will, he can also come up with several bad decisions or quick foul calls on the other end. In a particular moment of the game versus Fenerbahce Ülker, you could see that Zubcic was totally lost on defense as Cibona always played a zone-defense on inbounds. He was still guarding his man and a loud intervention of one of his team mates was needed in order to remember him the game situation.

In general, he has a very interesting defensive potential though, similar to the Czech SF prospect Jan Vesely. With his excellent lateral speed and athletic abilities, Zubcic can become an interesting stopper on the small forward position as he has great size to play on the wing. However, he needs to work on his concentration in order to become operational over the full time of the game. After these first games with major minutes, we will see how he develops in this part of his game in the future. It is probably the main point that will decide if Zubcic can live up to his full potential.

Stats: (Adriatic League after 5 games) 9.8ppg (53.1% 2FGs – 28.6% 3FGs – 42.9% FTs), 5.4rpg; (Euroleague after 2 games) 5.5ppg (60.0% “FGs – 50.0% FTs), 4.0rpg

Mario Delas – 2m07 – PF/C – 1990 – Cibona Zagreb

Mario Delas impressed a lot of observers during his youth category games with his fluidity and his scoring potential. After a short stint with Zalgiris Kaunas, the Croatian forward is now back home and plays for Cibona Zagreb on loan, but being used mainly as a Center.  However, he has not really found his game so far this season and on the offensive end, his shot especially from long distance is nowhere to be found (he is currently at 1/13 in EL and Adriatic League combined from behind the arc).

As his offense is not really working well, Delas is concentrating his game on the defensive end where he is present with a lot of little things and the dirty work. Despite being not overly physical, he is defending hard in the low post and gets however beaten by stronger post players. He is though using his body and not afraid to take the charge in the lane. Delas is not a very athletic player and uses his positioning and boxing out as main options for getting the defensive rebounds. On the other side, with his offensive fundamentals and talent, it is probably a question of time until he will be more present again in scoring. He looks to have a lot of trouble to adjust to the new three-point line as most of his long-distance attempts were short.

Stats: (Adriatic League after 5 games) 4.0ppg (38.5% 2FGs – 12.5% 3FGs – 100% FTs), 2.8rpg; (Euroleague after 2 games) 2.0ppg (20.0% 2FGs – 0% 3FGs)

Cibona’s youth starting strong into the season is a post from: European Prospects
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