Jan Vesely (CZE) – 2m11 – Forward – Partizan Belgrade – 1990

The Czech forward is one of the hottest prospects in Europe in terms of athletic abilities, energy and potential. The 2m11 tall forward played his second full season on the Euroleague level and underlined his status as one of the biggest potentials in Europe. However, you could not really see a lot of progress this season in his shooting skills, he remains for example relatively poor from the FT line. But he is among the best athletes that exist right now in Europe and has terrific length and motor to play the game. He will probably never develop into a major scoring leader on NBA level.

Prediction: stays in (Lottery)

Andrew Albicy (FRA) – 1m78 – Point Guard – Paris-Levallois – 1990

The tiny PG from Paris was a big name at the U20 European Championship last summer. He had an up and down season this year but he helped his team to find the way back to victory in the end of the season when he played his best games. Mostly an energizer and ball stealer on defense, Albicy needs to improve his shooting regularity from outside on offense. On NBA level, he might struggle to attack rim as he has not an outstanding leaping ability.

Prediction: stays in (2nd round to undrafted)

Furkan Aldemir (TUR) – 2m05 – Forward – Karsiyaka – 1991

A player that flew a bit under the radar the last years as he was active in a smaller team in Turkey. Additionally, he had an  injury this season that kept him of the courts from mid-December to mid-February. Doing a lot of little things on the court, Aldemir will not surprise you with big stat lines but he is a regular contributor on the Senior level for the second year in a row. His main force are his outstanding rebound skills, Aldemir is averaging 7.9 rebounds per game in the Turkish league and rejected 0.9 shots per game as well.

Prediction: withdraws

Bismack Biyombo (CON) – 2m03 – Forward/Center – no team – 1992

The big riser on the Draft boards over the last weeks comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bismack Biyombo used the Nike Hoop summit at its best to impress the NBA Scouts but remains though a very raw player. He has certainly a great upside and seems to be a quick learner but he lacks also on-going high level experience. But with his amazing body structure, he will certainly be among the players that will be analyzed in full detail by all the teams in the lottery.

Prediction: stays in (Lottery to mid-1st round)

Abdoulaye Loum (FRA) – 2m08 – Forward – Le Havre (FRA) – 1991

Abdoulaye Loum is one of the names that comes a bit out of nowhere as the French forward has only played 3 professional games in his career. The long forward is not a major scorer on the Espoirs level as well but he has a lot of tools to work with and develop into a good potential. The fact that Le Havre is known for good development of young players but a relatively late integration of these kids into the professional team might be an indication why he has not played more in the ProA so far.

Prediction: withdraws

Negueba Samake (FRA/MLI) – 2m11 – Center – 1990

A very long and athletic player but without any major experience on the professional level. Samake has switched teams over the last two years since he finished his Espoirs status with Le Mans but he never really could find his niche with Rouen or Limoges where he played as a sparring partner after having left the ProB team of Rouen.

Prediction: withdraws

Donatas Motiejunas (LIT) – 2m13 – Forward – Benetton Treviso (ITA) – 1990

The Lithuanian forward is one of the prospects that has been covered since his youngest age and he has now reached the moment where he is ready to be drafted. He played a nice season in Italy and reached the EuroCup Final 4 with his team Benetton Treviso. In the Italian League, he is one of the best Power Forwards and he seems to have become a regular double-digit contributor. He had his best game of his career a few days ago against Vanoli Cremona with 31pts, 14rebs, 5stls and 2blks.

Prediction: stays in (Lottery)

Davis Bertans (LAT) – 2m08 – Forward – Olimpija Ljubljana (SLO) – 1992

The Latvian shooter, who grew a few centimeters over the last year, is one of the players in this draft with the best combination of size and shooting skills. He was the leader for the U18 team last summer that won the Bronze Medal at the European Championship. Bertans is a correct athlete but not a really physical player. He moved to a Euroleague team during the season and he should be able to play serious minutes for Union Olimpija Ljubljana next season.

Prediction: stays in (1st round)

Lucas Riva Nogueira “Bebe” (BRA) – 2m11 – Center – Estudiantes Madrid – 1992

The Brazilian player from Estudiantes Madrid is one of the biggest projects of this Draft. The 1992 born; the same age than Biyombo; is far from being on the same level than the Congolese at the moment but Bebe has more pure talent to build upon. But on the other hand, despite a great wingspan, Nogueira is not a very physical player at the moment and he is years away from being able to contribute on the NBA level. The team that drafts him will invest into a project than can be rewarded nicely, or not at all.

Prediction: stays in (end 1st-2nd round)

Jonas Valanciunas (LIT) – 2m10 – Center – Lietuvos Rytas (LIT) – 1992

The Lithuanian big guy is another potential Lottery candidate from Europe for this year’s Draft. Valanciunas plays on the highest European level and is an important factor. He has a great body and concentrates on what he is doing best, scoring close to the basket, rebounding and shot blocking. You will not see him develop into a face-forward one day, he will play in the low post and set screens for the Pick and Roll. He might be able to contribute right from the start on NBA level.

Prediction: stays in (Lottery)

Nikola Mirotic (MNG-ESP) – 2m08 – Forward – Real Madrid (ESP) – 1991

One of the few players who is still active this season in international competitions is Nikola Mirotic as the Spanish forward will play the Euroleague Final Four in one week. Mirotic has made a huge step forward this season and has become even one of the more clutch players of his team Real Madrid. He is a real face-forward who can shoot the ball and understands the game well. However, the NBA does not seem to be a priority for him as he extended his contract until 2016 which might hurt his stock and put him in the 2nd round in a Nikola Pekovic way.

Prediction: stays in (mid-1st round)

Femi Oladipo (GER) – 1m99 – Forward – Crailsheim Merlins (GER) – 1990

A more unknown player coming from Germany is the athletic forward Femi Oladipo. He played with the German U18 National Team in 2008 at the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament where he had his best international outing so far. He moved to the 2nd division team Crailsheim where he improved over the last two seasons to be an important player on that level. His main forces are on the defensive end as he can guard players over several positions. Offensively, he remains a pretty raw prospect concerning his shot but he has undeniable qualities as a passer and slasher.

Prediction: withdraws

Nihad Dedovic (BIH) – 1m96 – Guard – Lottomatica Roma (ITA) – 1990

The Bosnian guard looks to be there for years but he still is not in his automatically eligible draft year. He is a regular scorer on a Euroleague team and has improved physically over the last season. Dedovic needs to become more accurate from behind the arc though as his slashing qualities are only average at best on NBA level. However, he has no problems attacking the basket on European level because of a good first step.

Prediction: stays in (2nd round)

Emanouil Koukoulas (GRE) – 2m11 – Center – Ilysiakos (GRE) – 1991

Emanouil “Manolis” Koukoulas is an unknown player to me. He played 9.1 minutes in the Greek League.

Prediction: withdraws

Joffrey Lauvergne (FRA) – 2m09 – Forward – Elan Chalon (FRA) – 1991

The French Power Forward is constantly progressing since he has left INSEP during the 2008/2009 season. He is playing nearly twenty minutes per game on the highest French level for a Playoff-team. Lauvergne is not your typical French prospect with outstanding athletic abilities and he has not played for any Youth National Team since 2007 which put him a bit out of the international focus and hype. But right now, he is among the best prospects in the ProA and he is learning quickly on the professional level.

Prediction: stays in (2nd round)

Leon Radosevic (CRO) – 2m08 – Power Forward – Cibona Zagreb (CRO) – 1990

Radosevic is maybe not the most talented guy but he looks to be a very hard worker with a great motor to run the floor. The Croatian big guy has good size and correct athletic abilities and mainly scores on the 5m jump shot or close to the basket. He does not put the ball on the floor that much but he can do it if necessary. Radosevic should excel as a back-up on NBA level when playing together with a good Pick-and-Roll guard as he can either finish on the Roll or the Pop-out.

Prediction: stays in (2nd round)

Tornike Shengelia (GEO) – 2m05 – Forward – Verviers-Pepinster (BEL) – 1991

The Georgian forward is a prospect that is there for several years already and playing for different teams but still has two years of eligibility left. This season, he was active in the Belgian League in order to get regular playing time but he remained relatively low key with just 16 minutes on the floor. Shengelia has no real quality in which he excels particularly but he is an interesting forward that can both shoot the ball and put it on the floor to attack the basket combined with good size for the Small Forward position.

Prediction: withdraws

Abdel Kader Sylla (SEY) – 2m05 – Center – SLUC Nancy (FRA) – 1990

The Seychelles born player dominates the French Espoirs League with great numbers and showed his potential in the few times he got minutes with the professional team. However, he remains undersized for the Center and he needs to find a team where he can play big minutes on the Senior level next season.

Prediction: withdraws

Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann (GER) – 2m10 – Forward/Center – Rhöndorf/Telekom Baskets Bonn (GER) – 1990

The 2nd German player in this Early-Entry class comes as well from the 2nd League. However, Wohlfarth-Bottermann is a member of Telekom Baskets Bonn that loaned him to their co-operation partner Rhöndorf in order to get playing time. WoBo is an athletic player with great size and runs the floor very well while he has shooting range up to the three point line. He is an excellent shot blocker and has learned quite some back-to-the-basket moves over the last two years. He only started with Basketball at the age of 15.

Prediction: withdraws

Tomislav Zubcic (CRO) – 2m14 – Forward – Cibona Zagreb (CRO) – 1990

Zubcic was considered a major talent for several years but he needed some time before becoming a player who could contribute on the highest European level. This season was his first where he saw regular minutes with the Senior team of Cibona and his numbers have grown dramatically. Zubcic has excellent size, can handle the ball, is a good athlete and can play on the Small Forward position. He might be one of the players that will do really well in workouts because of his large skill set.

Prediction: stays in (2nd round)

NBA Draft 2011–Early Entrants Analysis is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

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
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

Lietuvos Rytas

The number 1 big man prospect in Europe is of course the Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas. The 1992 born dominated the U18 European Championship this summer and won the Gold Medal in Lithuania with a stellar performance. Valanciunas will see major minutes with Rytas this season and will give them a necessary athletic component. With his presence in the rebound and shot blocking, the 2m10 tall player will try to make his first steps in the toughest European competition. The first game against Fenerbahce Ülker tonight showed that he can already be a good factor on this level despite some deficits when he has to defend or score against more physical players. But with his built, it is only a question of time until Valanciunas should be able to dominate the paint of the Lithuanian team. He is probably already an option for the Senior National team looking forward to the 2011 Eurobasket in Lithuania.

Simas Buterlevicus is a 1989 born forward who probably will only see garbage minutes with Lietuvos Rytas this season.

Cibona Zagreb

Bojan Bogdanovic continues where he started last season, scoring the basketball for Cibona Zagreb. With the departure of Marko Tomas, he is the first scoring option for the Croatian team and he has responded with 23.7ppg in the first three Adriatic League games. The 1989 born forward has good control over his drives and shows some court-vision to kick the ball out to the open man when needed. He is not at his best when he needs to attack the basket against taller player and therefore mainly uses the outside and mid-range game to score. His jump shot looks really nice with a quick release but the release point is not very high as he does only jump as high as needed when taking the shot. Defensively, he needs to improve his lateral quickness in order to defend smaller players.

Going a few years back, Leon Radosevic looked like an athletic but offensively pretty raw inside player. Now, he is the second scorer of Cibona Zagreb at the age of 20 by concentrating on what he can do best: rebound on both ends of the floor, fight and score close to the basket. The progress that Radosevic has made stats-wise is impressive over the last 2 years and he is just one step away from being a full member of the Croatian Senior National Team. With his constant progress, he will be on the radar of the NBA teams in the next two years as well as the number of 2m08 tall pure inside players with good athletic and scoring abilities are not that common in Europe.

Mario Delas has been an author’s favorite a few year’s ago where he looked like a very versatile PF with excellent ball-handling skills, a good drive to the basket and great length and overall basketball understanding. After having moved to Zalgiris Kaunas last summer, he has now been loaned back home to Croatia and will play his minutes with Cibona Zagreb this season. However, he had some kind of a rusty start into the new season with his shot not falling and a lot of defensive fouls. He will share his minutes with Drago Pasalic on the PF position and this should not prevent him from getting a lot of quality minutes in the Euroleague this season. With his overall skill-set, Delas should be able to develop into a full-time Euroleague contributor already this season.

Tomislav Zubcic has long been considered as the main talent out of the three Croatian 1990 born big guys. However, his development has not gone forward with the same speed than for the two above mentioned but this season seems now to be the one where Zubcic will finally get regular minutes on the highest level. Zubcic features excellent speed and ball handling abilities for a nearly seven footer. However, a poor shot selection and missing toughness were the characteristics that we remember as well from him. Cibona gives him the chance to show that he has improved over the last year but the first results from Adriatic League do not look really consistent as he scores only at 38.1% from 2 and did not even convert a single three pointer in the opening games.

Karlo Vragovic is a 1989 born back-up on the guard positions with only some limited impact on the team so far this season.

Cholet Basket

Christophe Leonard is the player to watch with Cholet Basket this season. The 1990 born forward is seeing back-up minutes for the French team and we considered him already as one of the Top5 prospects of the season in France a few days ago.

Regal FC Barcelona

Of course, Ricky Rubio is the main prospect in Europe. Being drafted already and having major impact with the best team in Europe, he has nearly reached the status of superstar already. He needs to overcome a mediocre World championship and show that he can even improve his game to the next level and become an Euroleague MVP candidate in the next years.

Fenerbahce Ülker

Can Maxim Mutaf will most likely see some garbage minutes with the Turkish team this season. The sharp shooting guard would probably do best to go on loan to get more playing time in order to gain some high level experience.

Montepaschi Siena

No prospects to talk about.

Euroleague 2010/2011 Preview: Group C is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

The favorites

If you consider the different tournaments that have been played so far this season, the main teams to win this year’s edition of the competition are Greece and Serbia. After the astonishing dominance in Mannheim, the Greek team around Nikos Pappas showed a great talent level despite missing some inside forces.

On the other hand, the Serbian team, that is build around the FMP Junior Team core of Andrija Milutinovic, Bojan Subotic and Dejan Musli. The non-consideration of Branislav Djekic or Lazar Radosavljevic may be a surprise for some people but still Serbia looks like a clear cut favorite to reach the Gold medal game.

The outsiders

Some other teams can be considered as potential Medal candidates, and those are the traditional teams like Spain, France or Lithuania. The Spanish guys, that will of course play without Ricky Rubio may lack of some size because they don’t have any player taller than 2m06 in their roster. So the paint has to be kept clean by guys like Toni Vicens or Alberto Jodar who either miss the necessary size or are no inside players. The least that one could say is that the Spanish backcourt of David Garcia, Alejandro Hernandez and Dani Perez is ready to face some tough opposition.

I also spoke with Luis from Draftexpress.com and here is his opinion on the Spanish U18 team.

I think Spain has a chance to reach the medals, although I think Serbia is just on an entire different level and no other team should be able to challenge them (perhaps not even Greece, although they are the other top candidate for the final).

Regarding Spain, I like the fact we have a heady PG in Dani Pérez, a skilled guard in Alex Hernández, aggressive and skilled wings in Jorge Santana or Marcos León, both capable of slash and shoot, an all-around physical freak in Alberto Jodar, and finally, we’ve added some size. You probably remember Toni Vicens, the undersized and over weighted hustler quite effective under the rim.

For France, their performance in Mannheim was really bad, but the uncommon practice methods of their coach seem to have some results. Les Bleus won their tournament in Douai behind a great team effort and playing without their supposed best player in person of Christophe Leonard who signed a pro-contract with Cholet recently. Ludovic Puigcerbier, who is following French youth basketball for basketsession.com gave us his thoughts on the chances for the French in Greece:

After a difficult preparation, the French U18 team could hurt more than one team during this year’s U18 competition. Despite some bad results in Mannheim, Euro-Essone and Manzanares, the French team has however beaten teams like Spain, Croatia or Lithuania during their preparation and has also won the tournament in Douai. The team has the necessary talent with players like Christophe Léonard, Andrew Albicy or Alexis Tanghe but we have to see how the team will play and behave during the tournament. But they have the possibilities to beat every team on any given night. On the other hand, the inside sector looks pretty weak though to be a contender for a medal. I think, they will finish between 5th and 7th place.

Lithuania is always present when it comes to Youth Championships. And this year, with super talent Donatas Motiejunas in the middle, Lithuania could eventually be considered as one of the main teams for a medal. But one player does not make them a Gold Medal team as they significantly miss some offensive quality in the back court. For the Lithuanian federation, the official goal is between 3 and 8 but the current results made some people think that this goal will be hard to reach especially if you take into consideration that Motiejunas was injured during two weeks and he is badly wanted by the U20 team to play with them. So eventually, he may leave after a few games if the U18 team can not reach a medal. Because of the lack of potential in the 1990 generation except Motiejunas and Tautvydas Slezas, the coaching staff added some interesting 1991 born guys where especially Gilvydas Biruta showed good talent so far.

Who else do we have?

Another team that has to be mentioned is of course Croatia and their impressive front court composed of Tomislav Zubcic, Mario Delas and Leon Radosevic. With the addition of Toni Prostran in the backcourt since the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament, the team is improving on the talent side but now remains the question if they can translate this into decisive games. The Croats, who should win their group will have their real opponents in the 2nd phase where they will play against France, Russia, Germany or Ukraine.All in all, this side of the table looks a lot easier to reach the semis than the other side where Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain and Italy fight for the two spots most likely.

The Turkish team played also a interesting tournament in Mannheim and showed some stints of talent in Douai too. However, I have some doubts if they can go for it all in Greece as they seem to depend too much on their PF beat Deniz Kiligli who is not the most regular player in the world. They have some good scoring in the backcourt and feature 16yr old Enes Kanter who can dominate in the paint but it really looks like the left-handed hook machine from Fenerbahce is the guy that decides about the performance of the Turkish team. And one bad game may be enough to fall from 1-4th to 5-8th place.

Germany played an interesting tournament in Douai where they won the games they have to win. In their home event in Mannheim, they lost the game they had to win to qualify for the Top8. So Kay Blümel and his team know how good or how bad they can play, especially after the poor performances in Spain a few days ago. But the absence of some of the main players may be a reason for this as explains the German head coach:

After the very bad performance during the tournament in Spain, where we played without six of our first 10 players (Maurice Stuckey, Simon Schmitz, Robert Hülsewede, Femi Oladipo, Niels Giffey and Alexander Schrempf) and lost heavily against Spain, France and Croatia, the motivation of the team was really down low. We tried to improve this during our training camp these days. Unfortunately, we have to play without Oladipo (torn ankle) and Hülsewede (broken foot) during the Championships which lets a big hole on our SF position. Our goal is to reach the third place in our group first of all and avoid the relegation round.

The game against France in the beginning will be extremely important for us, because they have a team that we can beat.  Russia has improved and showed good games in the Moscow tournament and seems hard to beat. Ukraine is the unknown team in our group and it’s hard for me to predict how good they are right now. But as it will be our third game in the tournament, we have enough time to scout them during the Championship. If we reach our goal and qualify for the next phase, we will see how we continue. But we don’t want to become to high on ourselves and remain with both feet on earth. A place somewhere around 9th like last year would be very satisfying for us.

The Russian U18 team was very disappointing in Mannheim but has found a way back to be a serious outsider in Greece after their performances at the Petrenko Cup in Khimki. The squad has beaten Italy, and the Czech Republic while only failing shortly against the top favorites from Greece. Currently, no world class talent has emerged of the 1990 generation in Russia but the mixture of aggressive guards and long tall forwards that characterizes the Russian game is still present. So they are definitely a team to watch in Amaliada and Pyrgos.

Italy that played a correct tournament in Mannheim will see their top talent of the 1991 generation Nicolo Melli joining them. And with this addition on the wing, everything is possible for the Squadra. The young forward may be one of the best talents in Europe and if he can elevate his game to what he showed during the LegaDue semi-finals, he may be the leader that could help the Italians reach an unpredictable success in the tournament.

Fighting for relegation

Belgium went up to Division A in 2007 behind a great team effort and the nice games of Jorn Steinbach and Jean-Marc Mwema. But these two guys are born in 1989 and will not be available anymore. But some talent of the last year’s win is still on the roster and the addition of Yannick Moray should give the team of Fred Wilmot the necessary power in the back court. On the other hand, no real inside presence on this level will be tough to handle.

Israel, who plays Belgium in the group stage may be the team that can avoid relegation the easiest way in beating the before mentioned in their opener. The departure of Daniel Rom back to Russia lets a big whole in the middle of course but the typical fighting spirit and the athleticism of Carmel Bouchman may help them to stay in the league. This opener will be extremely important for both teams.

Estonia will feature one of the most interesting players to follow of the tournament with Siim-Sander Vene who played already a good tournament last season. Next to him, not too much talent is to be seen but maybe it is worth to take a closer look at the 1991 born Kristjan Rinaldo (yes, that’s his name) who put up some correct stats with the U16 last summer and plays for the Honka Academy in Finland.

Not much to say about the Ukrainian team as I barely know any player there and could not find any results or comments on them on the net. The main goal for the team is to stay in the Division as they have a pretty interesting 1991 generation that could compete next season on the highest level.

Lauris Blaus tries to lead his Latvian team to the necessary wins in their group to stay away from the Relegation round. He will hopefully get some support from the talented 1991 generation around Janis Antrops and Harijs Rubenis.

Bulgaria will be built around their back-court combo of Hristo Zahariev and Bozhidar Avramov. I have put them in this part of the preview one loss against Latvia could mean that the team has to play on relegation round. On the other hand, the team has the talent to pass against Croatia or Turkey but I don’t know how they could handle the inside presence of these two nations.

U18 European Championship Division A – Preview is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

Donatas Motiejunas was of course the most talented of all the players in Douai. But he did not manage to lift his team higher than the 7th place. Is it the lack of quality guards in his Lithuanian U18 National or is Motiejunas not a go-to-guy type and leader? This is one of the questions that I asked myself after the tournament. His up and down performances and his trend to be quickly frustrated may make me tend to the second choice.

However, the great talent skill set that Motiejunas displays has no equivalent in Douai. Being 2m14 tall and showing barely and kind of major weaknesses in his game is quite an amazing asset. Posting up and scoring on nearly every ball he receives down low is not a problem as scoring from outside or on the drive. Motiejunas has also no problem to put the ball on the floor and we saw him several times bringing up the ball in fast break situations, and even going for a perfectly timed behind the back pass.

On the downside, Motiejunas seems really to be mentally not always focused or getting frustrated really quick after one or two missed plays. In the last game of the tournament, where he looked really motivated, he came up with way too many three-point shots in the end which he all missed. There was no reason for doing that and it raised once again the mental questions. Still, Motiejunas is probably behind Ricky Rubio the best prospect of the European 1990 generation.

Leon Radosevic is the real inside force for the Croatians. Great athlete and highly aggressive, Radosevic uses his large frame and great physical strength to be a dominator in the paint. As he can run well the floor, he is also a big asset in the fast break where he can conclude as a trailer with powerful dunks.

When he is working on the post, he draws a lot of fouls despite having any real go-to-move he likes to ue. He is more a banger who tries to go with his force to the rim, mostly after facing the basket. When he gets doubled, he can go for the pass to the cutter as well. His jump shot goes until around the key, even it looks not particularly precise from this area.

He prefers to go for the drive as he is mostly guarded by big guys that are slower than him. However, if you close his right hand he has a lot more problems to put the ball on the floor with the left and tries to go for spin moves to come back to his stronger right hand. In defense, he is present in rebounding and can become a big shot blocker.

Maik Zirbes did a nice job in the paint for the German team. He has a massive body and good size and athleticism. However, he was really afraid when playing against Team USA in the semis but did a good job offensively against Croatia for the third place.

His offensive arsenal is based on post-up play and pick-and-roll. From the post up position, Zirbes can score with a sort of jump hook which he protects with his massive body. He is doing pretty well on pick-and-roll situations where he rolls perfectly to the open spots in the lane to score on lay-ups. Additionally, he is a decent passer for a player of his size.

Despite great athletic abilities, he comes up with some soft moves when he has to attack the rim. This is not really understandable as he can go for huge powerful dunks even over people when he tries to. Zirbes also has three point range, but barely shots from the with the national team. Defensively, he was very weak. Laterally, he showed no real speed in defense but I think it is more a question will than anything else.

Enes Kanter was not the impressive presence that he was in Mannheim this time. Still, when he receives the ball down low, he is hard to stop. But this, most of the teams doubled him immediately and he sometimes does not know exactly what to do. When he forced to go to the rim, he even sometimes managed to score then. However, being 2 years younger than the competition, he must be considered as a tremendous prospect for the future.

Tanguy Ramassany is not the type of player that you see in this type of report. But he is a player I personally liked a lot. A massive inside player with no real offensive game but the hard will to do his dirty job in the rebound. Ramassany fights in the paint and is giving the opponents a hard job to attack against him. Far from being a high-level prospect, Ramassany can end up as a great defensive role player in a few years.

Kenny Frease was the best center of the tournament and I can approve that. Really wide body with some interesting moves back to the basket are the main characteristics of his play. He is not the biggest athlete in the world but he is making some damage due to his physical presence. He should be a nice addition for the Xavier Basketball program.

Douai Tournament 2008: the Centers is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

• The first game in the morning saw the nice victory of Lithuania against a tired Adidas Nations team Africa. The Baltic guys won it in the end 90-73 but their dominance was bigger than the result. For Lithuania, Donatas Motiejunas showed his huge skillset to finished with 30pts, 7rebs and 2 steals. Nobody could really stop him and he just hurt his three point percentage (1/6) in the end by overshooting from outside. He look in general a lot more motivated than yesterday. He got some nice support from the surprising Edvardas Pikalavicius with 13pts and 8rebs. For the Africans, we saw big scoring from Mohamed Koita who netted 35pts but lost 5 balls. Another good game in the tournament came from Bandja Sy who had 19pts.
• The game for the 5th place between Turkey and Israel was extremely close. When the time was running up, nobody could take the decisive lead and we went into overtime. Here, the Turkish depth helped to bring this one home and end at the 5th place after the 99-89 win after 45 minutes of game action. For the winners, Maxim Mutaf started great in the first half but his scoring lead was taken over by Melih Mahmutoglu in the second half. In the paint, Enes Kanter did not start the game and only played in the second half. In those 27 minutes, he was once again dominating every body with his force and scored 21 in just 27 minutes. For Israel, Liran Moran shot well from everywhere and finished the game with a team high 22. Ron Sabag did a good job on the point where he scored the big FTs in the money time of Q4 and dished out 11 assists additionally.
• The Bronze medal game of the 2008 edition of the Douai World Tournament saw Croatia beating Germany by 3 points. The Germans had the chance to go into overtime but the last attempt of Simon Schmitz from behind the arc went not in. It was a match-up of the big guys in the paint with Maik Zirbes (22/5) facing of against Mario Delas (15/12/4) and Leon Radosevic (25/5/3). Toni Prostran was defended well by the German guards but scored however 22pts at 8/18 attempts. For Germany, it was a huge difference with what they did yesterday against Team USA while Croatia that played without their most talented player in Tomislav Zubcic did a very nice job by reaching this third place, a huge improvement to their performances in Mannheim this spring.
• The Final game of the tournament saw Team USA playing against the home crowd favorites France. And it was the French team that finished with the Tournament victory in the end. After a very disappointing showing in Mannheim, the team from the Hexagon managed to win Douai despite having a world-class talent in his roster, something that was the case mostly in the last years. It was the Finals MVP Andrew Albicy that led France in the decisive minutes with his long distance shooting and drives. He finished the game with 19pts and 5asts. But it was the defense that made the French win who lack a great scorer.
• The All-Tournament team that has been elected is the following:
• PG Andrew Albicy (France)
• SG Toni Prostran (Croatia)
• SF Carmel Bouchman (Israel)
• PF Mamadou Samb (Adidas Nations Africa)
• C Kenny Frease (Adidas Nationas USA)
• If you are interested if Video material from the tournament, contact me via email and I can send you an offer for DVDs of the games (christophe.ney@europeanprospects.com)
• During the next days, I will post detailed reports on the different players that were present

Douai Tournament 2008: Sunday’s picks is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

When we talk about Cibona Zagreb, we have of course to mention Tomislav Zubcic. During the AST this spring, I had already made a first report about the Croatian forward, so here I will just come up with an update of this report. I don’t have to mention that fantastic combination of size and skills that the Croatian forward displays. He played a lot of SF during the tournament where he could use his speed and size. Despite showing decent individual statistics, Zubcic is still not the leader that can make his team winning. This has already been the case with the Croatian U18 team in Mannheim and is still the case with Cibona in Madrid. Also what I wanted to add is that his shot position is not always perfect. He loves to go for some fade-away shots when it is not necessary which results in perfectible shooting percentages. As I said, I don’t go for the outstanding individual skills; the only thing I want to add in this area is that Zubcic displayed great rebounding will throughout the tournament.

Leon Radosevic has also already been featured during the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament so here is also only a short update on what he displayed in Madrid. Playing mostly really inside where he wants to use his above average athleticism for European standards to overpower his opponents. Unfortunately, this ends up sometimes in forced moves which he has to limit. On the other hand, this style of plays gives him a lot of FTs to shot where he has some room for improvement left as he scored only 63% of his attempts.

Nikola Mirotic (2m06 – PF – 1991 – Real Madrid)

Here we have another example of the already typical European power forward. Large shooting range until the three point line, good size, correct athleticism and so on. Mirotic had his worst game when I was there, so it is difficult to judge his level. But he is player that has nice potential because of his excellent fundamentals, good size and nice shot until the three point area. He showed several times some kind of nice back to the basket move with a turn-around, fake and then a sort of up and under to avoid the block shot. He also had interesting shooting skills out of the dribble with notably a 3pt fake,1 driblle and then a step back to swish it from long range two. Definitely a player to watch in the future.

Ryan Richards (2m06 – C – 1991 – Real Madrid)

First of all, the British Center was only one that could stop Dejan Musli in any kind of way, by playing him extremely physical. But is that enough to make him a great prospect, I don’t know. Richards displayed everything you need to become a good one one day. On the other side, I did not like at all his behavior on the court. But coming to his game, he showed some very fine moves with his back to basket and was extremely present in offensive rebounding. He has range until the three point line from where he can hit shots without any problem. Being a nice athlete, that helps him a lot but he should be even more present in blocking shots. What bothered me also was the fact that Richards took nearly every time a shot on his own when he got the ball and never went for the pass. This may be considered as a pretty selfish attitude especially when your team is trailing by 30 points like it was the case against FMP Zeleznik.

Nike International Junior Tournament (Part 2) is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

Tomislav Zubcic (2m08 – Forward – Croatia)

Zubcic was probably the biggest pure basketball talent of the whole tournament. Nearly seven foot tall, incredibly quick for his size and able to play both the forward positions as well as PG if necessary. In the only game of him where I was present, he showed all he can do in just one quarter. Post-ups against smaller guys, jump hooks, finger roll finishes after powerful drives, but also a very nice eye for his team mates and three point shots without any problem.

The Croatian was clearly also the go-to-guy of his team and he tried to play the big points. However he failed sometimes but also came up with nice plays. He still needs to improve his passing timing to become also a perfect passer even if he was the third best passer of the tournament. But his huge number of turnovers shows how often he has the ball in his hands. He is definitely one of the players to follow in the future. I did not agree on his selection in the All-Tournament team not because of a missing talent but of the poor results of the team.

Femi Oladipo (1m99 – Forward – Germany)

The German SF was probably one of the surprises of the tournament. With his athletic playing style, the Bremerhaven forward was the top scorer of the German team. He is a good offensive rebounder and scores a lot around the rim. He has 3pt range, but only took 2 shots from behind the arc, and he netted both of them. His shooting mechanics have to be improved, he has no fluid jump shot move to score. He can finish with both hands close to the basket and has good control of his body. 

Leon Radosevic (2m08 – Forward – Croatia)

Another interesting player from the very strong Croatian front-court. Radosevic showed a very good mid-distance shot and he rebounds strongly. He is not driving that much, relying more on his jump shot which he can also nail in the big moments of a game. Radosevic is highly athletic and is present on the shot blocking section as well. He was the top scorer of the Croatian team during the tournament with also very good shooting percentages.

Honorable Mentions

Other player that I noted were: the Russian forward Vladimir Ivlev, a 2m04 inside player who a nice defensive presence in the paint and also showed some interesting offensive moves. Pasquale Paolisso, an Italian forward who excelled in the rebounding and inside working section to score multiple free-throws. Maik Zirbes, the large German center who was the top rebounder of the team and showed some powerful moves around the basket. Simon Schmitz did a nice job as PG of the German team. He drives a lot to the basket and can control the game very well.

Albert Schweitzer Tournament 2008: the best of the rest is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook