Adriatic region

Milenko Tepic, the guard for Partizan Belgrade who was rumored to move to Real this summer must take over a bigger role this season in the Euroleague. The transfers of Milt Palacio and Nikola Pekovic will free a lot of shots which the polyvalent guard can take. With his multi-skill play, Tepic could be one of the candidates for the Euroleague Youngster of the season award.

Milos Teodosic is another Serbian guard that could win the title this season. He comes from surprising season with Olympiacos in Greece where he played lots of minutes on the highest level. His minutes he gets with the Serbian NT at the moment are also positive to him and he can learn a lot from Papaloukas next season with Olympiacos. On the other hand, in terms of NBA potential, he may be a little limited when it comes to his athleticism but we should see as a possible top European PG for the next decade.

Vladimir Stimac comes from a great season in Latvia and tries now to continue with Crvena Zvezda in Serbia. The very large Center with unlimited will should develop in a team that plays on a better level and especially with a well-known coach in Svetislav Pesic. For him, the NBA is of course not a goal as he lacks the necessary explosiveness and athleticism to defend against the US big guys. However, he is one of the players that I personally really like because he does the best out of his skills.

Jaka Klobucar is another player that is a personal favorite and I am pretty excited to see how the left-handed guard can play in the Euroleague. His versatile skills allow him to play everything from 1-3 and his nice shooting touch is a great addition on the Euroleague level. However, it will still be his first season on this level and we should not await too much from him.

Emir Preldzic is one of the Slovenians currently under contract with Fenerbahce in Turkey. The long forward who can also help on the guard positions is one of the most interesting combinations of size and skill in the Euroleague. His extended minutes this season should be a good basis but he needs to become more precise in his shooting this year.

Gasper Vidmar is the second Slovenian 1987 born player with Boscia Tanjevic’s team. The injury of Omer Asik could give the 2m10 tall PF/C lots of minutes in the beginning of the season. Despite his limited minutes in the Euroleague last season, Vidmar averaged 5.2ppg and 3.0rpg and these numbers should be his benchmark for the next weeks.

Baltic-Russia region

Ernests Kalve needs finally a come-out season after his multiple knee injuries. And this one could be the good one. He is currently with the Latvian Senior NT to grab some garbage minutes and this should give him the necessary speed to start into the new season with ASK Riga.

Maxim Sheleketo has moved back to Russia after an interesting season in the Baltic League with however a poor team (VEF Riga). The athletic wing will now try to gain some minutes in a stronger team (Rostov) but he should have the possibility to see extended minutes especially because of the specific Russian rules.

Slava Kravtsov is a very interesting player to follow as he sees already some interesting minutes in one of the strongest rosters of the continent at BC Kyiv. He is currently seeing some backup minutes with the Ukrainian NT. The team in the Ukraine has however not changed that much on the Center spot where he will remain the backup of Ryan Stack.

Povilas Butkevicius is most likely to play with BC Kaunas next season and should see lots of minutes with the LKL team. After a season where put up some big numbers in the Challenge round of the Baltic League, he has to develop his game now to become a serious starter for a good Lithuanian team in the next years.

Andrei Vorontsevich is on the jump to become a interesting rotation player for CSKA Moscow this season. After he participated with the Senior team at the Olympics, he is now in full preparation with CSKA and should see some minutes during the season. But still, the heavily loaded Russian roster will not open big gaps on his position though.

Season Preview: 1987 generation (Part 1) is a post from: European Prospects
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Serge Ibaka (2m09 – Power Forward – 1989 – L’Hospitalet)

Serge Ibaka was the prospect that was observed the most by the NBA scouts because of his extraordinary physical set. Standing 2m09 tall and displaying a wing span of 2m22 with a vertical jump of 85cm, Ibaka is a rare specimen for European standards. Additionally, Ibaka played only in the second Spanish League which made him even more mysterious for people coming from the United States. So what is he about?

First of all, you see that Ibaka lacks a lot of basketball experience. He jumps on nearly every fake and took some bad decision in game situations. Also in the offense, you saw him having serious trouble when starting for drives or putting the ball on the floor which caused him a lot of turnovers due to travel violations. A lot of work is ahead in this department. But on the other hand, Ibaka has already a nice offensive set to score despite being only 18 years old. He has correct shooting touch and can even hit the three point shot. He works very hard on the offensive rebound where he can go for spectacular put back dunks. In defense, he is a good shot blocker but may have to go for better choices when he needs to block and when to avoid the foul call. As Ibaka is reported to stay in Draft, he is a good catch for a long term prospect but he would probably have close to zero impact if he joins a NBA right now.

Vladimir Stimac (2m06 – Center – 1987 – Valmiera/Zalgiris Kaunas)

Vladimir Stimac is probably the worst physical specimen if you go just by his numbers. But he has basketball talent. And knows also how to use his impressive body. Looking exhausted when only entering the floor, Stimac transforms into an absolute beast and fighter under the basket. He gives always 110% and does all the dirty work you need to win a game.

Stimac has excellent positioning in the paint and he is very hard to move. He has no real moves but with his force he puts his defenders so much in trouble that he comes up often with high percentage shots or layups. His shooting touch is not too bad, he can even hit an occasional three but his game is really in the post. Additionally, Stimac displayed some very correct passing skills in a few high-low plays and he loves to play the pick and roll with his guards.

Artem Zabelin (2m17 – Center – 1988 – CSKA Moscow)

Zabelin looks like an incredible talent with fantastic size, excellent fundamentals and a great shot. However, he still has not played anywhere close to his potential on the professional level over the past years. So the camp was once again a demonstration for his skillset which includes nearly everything the modern basketball player needs.

Zabelin has an excellent shooting touch until the three point line from where he can hit several shots in a game, from all around the arc. He also showed some very impressive ball handling skills and drives in traffic which is a very rare gift for a player of his size. In defense, Zabelin is present with some great block shots which are however more the result of his great size than of a particular shot blocking timing. But the main problem that remains with Zabelin is that is nowhere close for the moment to have an impact on the professional level, which may be the result of his soft play. Having turned 20 this winter, Zabelin definitely needs some accrued playing time in order to develop his skills and become a player up to his potential.

Henk Norel (2m13 – Center – 1987 – Alicante/DKV Joventut)

Henk Norel had a very interesting camp where he showed all his potential and the result of several years of hard work in Spain. In those years, he has build a nice body which is far away from the thin kid we saw a few years ago. What has remained however is his very aggressive and quick way to run the floor.

Coming to the basketball part, Norel showed a nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Mostly acting in the post, he displayed several moves with his back to the basket. He showed nice fakes that looked well coordinated and properly used in order to score on easy layups. He can also use his speed in order to turn around his defender and go up for nice powerful dunks. Three point range is there too, but not one of the main scoring options.

Jakub Wojciechowski (2m13 – Power Forward – 1990 – Benetton Treviso)

The Polish power forward who is since quite a time active for Benetton Treviso was one of the youngest players in the camp and since he never got featured here, I come up with a short report on him. Standing 2m15 tall, Wojciechowski has an amazing shooting touch and can hit three pointers in series. His jump shot looks very sweet and is currently his main offensive weapon. As he only turned 18 this year, Wojciechowski has still a lot of upside and when he adds a bit more kilos and a more developed penetration game, he can become a very interesting face-up player on the PF position.

Reebok Eurocamp Treviso 2008: the Bigs is a post from: European Prospects
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NBA Draft Early Entry Players
1) Danilo Gallinari
2) Nicolas Batum
3) Rudy Mbemba
4) Serge Ibaka
5) Joe Ingles
6) Henk Norel
7) Giorgi Shermadini
Jonas Jerebko
9) Luc Louves
10) Nando De Colo
11) Ronalds Zakis
12) Maxym Korniyenko
13) Maxsym Vilkhovetskyi
14) Sergey Ilin
15) Mladen Jeremic

All the main guys of the early entrance list are present on the list. Of course some of the guys will not be present because of League playoffs going on in France or Serbia. Danilo Gallinari and Giorgi Shermandini are reported to eventually only go for shooting and not participating in the game situations. It will be very interesting to see a guy like Luc Louves against this competition as he comes out of a year where he barely saw minutes with his team and only had some appearances at the end of the season.

NBA Draft Eligible (players born in 1986)
1) Anton Ponkrashov
2) Tadija Dragicevic
3) Uros Tripkovic
4) Mantas Kalnietis
5) Vladimir Golubovic
6) Rafael Hettsheimeir
7) Damjan Rudez
Manuchar Markoishvili
9) Nikita Kourbanov
10) Roland Hendlein
11) Andrija Stipanovic
12) Michelle Antonutti
13) George Tsintsadze
14) Ryan Read
15) Sam Van Rossom

Not that much intrigue about this group as the most talented players will probably not join Treviso because of their activity with their club team in the Serbian playoffs. This explains also the non-presence of Nikola Pekovic on this list. Anton Ponkrashov will probably be the most followed guy here but he is still active in the Russian playoffs right now with Khimky. The camp also gives a possibility to scout some less-known prospects like Roland Hendlein from Hungary or Ryan Read.

“Next Generation”
1) Nemanja Aleksandrov
2) Boban Marjanovic
3) Vladimir Dasic
4) Vitor Faverani
5) Semen Shashkov
6) Nicolo Melli
7) Alexey Shved
Adrien Moerman
9) Slava Kravtsov
10) Ivan Paunic
11) Donatas Motiejunas
12) Luigi Datome
13) Jakub Wojciechowski
14) Jaka Klobucar
15) Chavdor Kostov
16) Oleksandr Kolchenko
17) Marko Keselj
18) Elemden Kikanovic
19) Stefan Markovic
20) Artem Zabelin
21) Andrey Vorontsevich
22) Aboubakar Zaki
23) Vladimir Stimac
24) Maxim Krivosheev

The part of the list with the most upside but also the most question marks is like always the “Next generation”. If all of these players will really show up in Treviso, you can have an extremely good overview of the upcoming prospects in Europe. Some of them are already present on a very high quality level like Vladimir Stimac who won the MVP trophy of the Baltic League or Adrien Moerman who is the freshly named MVP of the French ProB.

We will see who will come to Treviso in the end. But the thing that is sure is that europeanprospects.com will be present this year for the first time in Treviso and give you updates and reports on most of the present prospects.

Reebok Eurocamp Treviso: the participants is a post from: European Prospects
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Today’s picks is a post from: European Prospects
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