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)

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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.

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Mario Delas is considered as the main offensive inside option for the Croatian team right now. After a first Euroleague season with the Lithuanian team of Zalgiris Kaunas, the former Split player was looked at particularly as he combines excellent basketball fundamentals with great size. In Treviso though, Delas was not really as dominating as you could expect. He looked a bit overmatched physically by the athletic French inside players so that Delas mainly went for playing as a wing  coming from the weak-side or attacking the defense by putting the ball on the floor.

It was a good opportunity to see the limits of Delas when facing athletes that can dominate him physically. He is more of a floor player working with fakes and fundamentals but this did not gave him the necessary advantage to score easy baskets. Together with Toni Prostran, he went for a lot of Pick and Roll or Pick and Pop situations where he did particularly well when popping out to the three point line and bringing his defenders out of their comfort zone close to the basket. Delas can hit the three pointer from European range and has good enough handles to attack the basket out of these situations. One of his main strengths is his mid-range game where Delas did well either in catch and shoot situations, coming of the weak-side screen or when scoring out of his drives.

He recognizes the double-team situations when putting the ball on the floor and looks to be a correct passer out of the low post as well. The Croatian forward is not afraid to go for the coast-to-coast dribbles after the defensive rebound. However, the camp also showed that Delas most certainly lacks the athletic abilities to compete with high-level NBA prospects. He looks to be the perfect type of player to become a high-level Euroleague Power Forward in the next years.

Toni Prostran was the Point Guard of the Croatian U18 National Team last summer in Metz and despite being a year younger than the rest of the team, he was the clear offensive leader on the court for Croatia. Prostran is doing an excellent job in the Pick and Roll situations that he used a lot through out the games. He can shot the ball with a very fast release in catch and shoot or out of the screen going with either hand but showing probably a slight preference for going left when taking the out of the dribble attempt. His shot accuracy looks improved since the tournament in Metz despite having still a somehow strange ball rotation when going for the long-distance shot.

Because he hit his shots, also from NBA 3pt range, the defense needed to come out on him so that Prostran could use his main strength which is the drive to basket. Out of these situations, he could create a lot of nice opportunities for himself with hesitation moves or strong attacks of the basket with both hands. Prostran is doing a great job as well to setup his team mates in the Pick and Roll situations by going for the nice dish or the bounce pass for the rolling cutter. Some doubts remain though on his control of the game tempo in real game situations.

Ivan Ramljak played only one game and he did not even appear in the official stats of the camp. The long forward did some damage against the French National Team with his constant attacking of the basket mainly with his right hand. Ramljak looks quite athletic but somehow mechanical in all his moves. But he is excelling when attacking the hoop and he can score it out of difficult situations after pass or head fakes. The Croatian forward can also hit the three point shot even if his shooting mechanics are certainly perfectible. Fighting on both ends of the court, Ramljak looks however a bit to have a problem with one leg as he hobbled during moments on the court.

Paul Lacombe is probably one of the most under-rated prospects in France. The guard from ASVEL Villeurbanne earned the MVP Trophy of the recent Trophée du Futur but Lacombe has never been in the hype machine that other French prospects are included. However, Lacombe looks to be one of the most serious Euroleague prospects of the coming generations in France. Lacombe does not excel in any part of the game but he has the overall package of the modern European PG. Being quite tall at 1m94, Lacombe is nicely athletic, can shoot the ball and is also an excellent passer, especially in the fast break where he can use his speed to create good situations for himself or his team mates.

Lacombe reads the game very well, is always in the right place to play the steal or make the additional extra pass to get somebody open. Sometimes, he is even trying to pass too much instead of seeing his own opportunity. Lacombe can hit the three-point shot from NBA range with defense in catch and shoot situations as well. The thing that makes Lacombe however extra in my eyes is the feel he has for the game that is inborn. The French guard will earn a lot of minutes with ASVEL as a back-up on the PG spot next season after he cracked the rotation of Vincent Collet’s team this spring.

Andrew Albicy was a surprising name in the Draft pool 2010 as the tiny French PG has not really been in NBA considerations beforehand. Albicy withdrew his name for consideration but he was still a candidate during the camp in Treviso. The main strength of the Paris-Levallois guard is his defensive pressure. He did an excellent job on Toni Prostran on defense limiting the Croatian guard in his game versus France. With his very low center of gravity and excellent defensive fundamentals, Albicy is a full-court threat for any PG. His excellent lateral speed and quick hands give him a nice amount of steals.

On the offensive end, Albicy is not as strong as he is on the other side of the court. He fakes well to create for himself, he is more of a scoring PG than a playmaker at the moment. His three point shot is there but not a particular dangerous overall threat. Albicy attacks the basket nicely and creates some open spots for his team mates but his size limits him in order to look for his own options close to the basket. He prefers to stop in mid-range for the short jump shot. He does a nice job as well on the defensive rebound where he is present to start the fast break immediately.

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Delas is mainly used as a post player right now, a position where he can create many opportunities for himself with his good footwork and soft touch around the basket. Posting up his opponents mostly on the left offensive side, Delas likes to use his quickness in order to beat bigger opponents. Because of his limited jumping abilities, he used a multitude of fakes to create the necessary space to finish with soft finger rolls, jump hooks or lay ups. He lacks the explosivity to finish his post moves with dunks of two feet which caused him some trouble in the semi-finals against the more athletic US players where he saw his shots rejected at times.

Out of the post, he likes to go over his left shoulder with right handed dribbling plays where he finishes in the star-step position form which he uses his set foot very well to create the necessary room to get an open look. He is clever enough to wait until he feels open enough in these moves and pass the ball out when he gets defended too hard. His game is really on the floor and all comes out of his footwork where he excels to get the right position for his moves. You see him only rarely trying more difficult shots like a running fade away jump of one foot which he nailed however. When the defense recognized that he mostly goes over his right hand, he used his left hand to go baseline for an up and under play where he used his body and the rim as protection very well.

On the defensive end, Delas is quite a surprising shot blocker which comes however all out of timing and mostly from the weak side as a help defender. In general, his lateral positioning is good on the help defense for drives. When defending post players, Delas struggles though as he gets sealed quite often because of his lack of weight and physical presence. He boxes out quite well in the rebound which gives him a fair amount of boards but he can not be considered as a rebounding machine.

Clearly, his potential is on the offensive end where Delas will probably develop his outside shot even more in the future. His mechanics look great and you can see him go for some face up jump shots if he is open. Right now, he does not create jump shot positions for himself out of penetrations from behind the arc, but with his speed, he forces the defense to help on him and he can dish out the perfect passes for the open three point shots of his team mates.

It looks pretty obvious at the moment that Delas will leave his team of KK Split as they did not qualify for next year’s edition of the Adriatic League. Rumors have been around that Bilbao is interested in signing him among other Spanish teams.  The question is if he is ready to have some impact in the physical ACB at right now. Another option would be to stay within the Adriatic region and we heard some talk about a possible move to the Adriatic League team of Siroki.

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• But let’s start with the surprise of the day. Greek Media outlets announce the possibility of a transfer of Nikos Pappas to Spain. According to these rumors, his agents paid his buyout at Panellinios to make him a free-agent on the market. And these same sources report that the Spanish ACB team of Bilbao wants to sign him. We will keep you updated about this story. (found on TheHoop)
• Before coming to the important stuff, just check out this video clip of the Georgian and Israeli U20 players after the game on Sunday where Israel managed to beat Georgia and advance to the next round.
• Greece is the 2008 U18 European Champion after they beat Lithuania in a tight final 57-50. Another big game by Kostas Sloukas helped them to win over Lithuania. Despite having lost their versatile forward Vladimir Jankovic with a broken foot, the team stepped up and improved during the whole tournament. Belgium and Estonia will move to division B.
• The All-Tournament team of the U18 Division A is the following:
  PG-Kostas Sloukas
  SG-Nikos Pappas
  SF-Mario Delas
  PF-Donatas Motiejunas (MVP)
  C-Enes Kanter
• Slovenia hammered everybody in Division B of the U18 European Championships and will promote together with the Czech Republic to Division. The final has been won by Slovenia 68-60 against the Czechs.
• The All-Tournament team of the U18 Division B is the following:
  PG-Mirza Sarajlija
  SG-Tomas Satoransky
  SF-Marko Vranjkovic
  PF-Jakub Wojciechowsky
  C-Jan Vesely
• In the U20 European Championship of Division A, 4 teams go with 2 wins and zero losses to the Qualifying round which starts tomorrow. Lithuania, Italy, France and a surprising Montenegro team have now good possibilities to advance to the semis. The story about Montenegro is of course that the team has only lost 1 official game in its history so far, a surprising loss against Austria in last year’s B Division campaign. Greece, Georgia, Bulgaria and Slovenia will fight for the two spots to remain in Division A though.

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Division A

• Croatia did not have too much problems to beat a Latvian team that won’t probably repeat their Bronze medal act from last year. Mario Delas was everywhere for the Croats with 24pts, 9rebs and 3asts.
• Germany beat France in a very important game already as this group looked pretty equal. The M&Ms were on fire with Maurice Stuckey scoring 20pts in 23 minutes and Maik Zirbes going for a double-double with 22pts and 11trebs.
• In the game of the night, Greece overcame Spain in a closer game than everyone thought in the beginning. The Greeks started quickly despite a calm game of Nikos Pappas. They increased their lead and used their inside players Leonidas Kaselakis and Zisis Sarikopoulos very well against a small Spanish team. In the 2nd half, when Spain was switching to a zone, the could come back behind some good defensive efforts and a few nice plays by Alejandro Hernandez. However, it was Vladimir Jankovic and Konstantinos Papanikolaou who sealed the game in the game and a last second three pointer from mid-court by the Spanish guard could not change the result.
• Serbia, who misses all their players of Crvena Zvezda because of injury, struggled badly in their opener of the tournament and lost 83-68 against a Lithuanian team that was lead by Tautvydas Slezas and his 16pts, 13rbs, 3asts and 2blks. For Serbia, it was especially Bojan Subotic who was far away from his normal level with 2/10 shooting and 0/3 FTs.
• Bulgaria had nearly the comeback of the day after trailing by 17 in the fourth quarter. But it was not enough against the 24pts and 9rebs of Enes Kanter for the Turkish team.
• ERT World Sat broadcasts the game of the Greek U18 team. You can follow the Live Stream here from tomorrow’s game Greece-Israel starting at 18h00 CET.

Division B

• Poland had a lot of trouble to win against a English team without Ryan Richards who is not with the team because of slight injuries. Behind the 30pts of 1991 born guard Sebastian Szymanski, the Polish team won despite having their top prospect Jakub Wojciechowski fouled out in just 16 minutes. England coach Andre Alleyne told me after the game that he wasn’t happy in the way we played defense in the first half. We picked it up in the second and if we transfer that to the Portugal game tomorrow, we will be in a better position. The goal of the team is to finish better than last year (18th) and everything below 10th place would be a failure in coach Alleyne’s mind.
• Austria had a nice win to start into the tournament and put some pressure on the Netherlands. Behind the great effort of Rasid Mahalbasic who scored 28pts and had 10rebs, the team of coach Robert Langer has now chances to go to the next round. It was a very intensive game. Our team has fought very well and we stuck together. We have overpowered the Dutch but we can improve, told the coach after the game to the press.
• Sweden managed to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina behind 21pts in 24 minutes of Omar Zaghden. The Swedish PF got some nice support from his outside scorers Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz who both were in double figures. The Bosnian team relied a bit too much on Dino Hodzic who had to do it all.
• Finland outscored Hungary in the second quarter 30-14 to go for their first win. A surprising performance by the Kouvot SF Matti Nuutinen with 22pts and 10rebs and the awaited scoring efforts of Sasu Salin and Roopi Ahonen were enough to give the Hungarians their first loss.
• One of the tournament favorites Slovenia will start their run for Division A tomorrow when they will play against the other strong team of their group Sweden.

Today’s picks (from the U18 European Championships) is a post from: European Prospects
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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
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Carmel Bouchman was the surprising SF of the All-Tournament team. Surprising for two reasons. He barely played the SF position but mostly was working in the paint. And secondly, a SF Tournament team spot could have also been awarded to Mario Delas for example if they consider Bouchman as a SF. Whatever…

The 2m05 tall Forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv tried a lot of three pointers in the beginning of the first game I saw him in Douai. As he missed them all, he went a bit more under the basket to play some post game. During all his plays, he looks rather upright in his body but showing good control and knowing how to use his long frame to score.

Bouchman scored a lot of his baskets while cutting perfectly into open areas where he received the ball. Thanks to his correct athleticism, he can score in the paint but also with good shooting touch from outside the key. Additionally, he sees the cutters himself and is not afraid to give the nice dish to them if they are open.

Mario Delas is one of my favorite forwards of the 1990 generation. The Croat plays fundamentally based basketball and has all-around skills. His 2m08 give him the ideal size for the European Euroleague forward which may be his future in a couple of years. With his already nicely developed body, he makes a lot of damage in the paint but can also play from outside if he has a bigger defender.

In his post up game, where he can score in different ways by fade-away shots or back to the basket moves, he also can go for the nice pass for the cutter from the weak side. Hard fouls don’t bother him as he can score even when he gets hacked in the break or on the layup. As he is fairly athletic, Delas is also not afraid at all to throw down a big dunk in traffic if needed.

He has also a nice timing to block shots, even if his defensive game is not based on pure athletic skills. He is more a finesse and technique player, also on the defensive end of the court. In the game for the third place, he totally outplayed Maik Zirbes who guarded him during stretches as he used his nice speed to beat the German big guy off the dribble every time.

Furkan Aldemir is a 1991 born forward from Turkey who may not be the biggest statistical contributor but he is doing all the dirty work that you don’t see on the sheet afterwards. He is a nice athletic shot blocker who has also a good offensive rebounding presence. Offensively, he looks pretty limited so far, but in a Turkish team with a lot of scoring options, he is not the first option either. His contribution comes from setting hard screens and battling in the paint.

Chrislain Cairo, the 1991 born forward from INSEP, did a nice job coming of the bench to bring his athletic abilities and aggressiveness to the court. Playing a bit a similar role than Aldemir for Turkey, Cairo was more present on the offensive end where he also showed correct shooting touch from mid-distance.

Niels Giffey was the all-around forward for the German team that finished on a surprising 4th place. He is another 1991 born player that excels on the defensive end of the court where he even guarded the Croatian 2m10 beast Leon Radosevic in post-up moves. Giffey can play nearly all the positions from 1-4 on this level, which he showed also with the NBBL team of ALBA Berlin in the Top4. His well developed basketball fundamentals help him on the offensive end to get his scores. With one year more, he should be a pretty decent forward next season.

Mamadou Samb did not play anymore the Sunday’s game as he headed back to Barcelona. During Saturday’s action, he showed his nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Baseline jump shot is present as well as jump hook moves coming from the post. He was clearly the most developed player of the whole Adidas Nations Africa team.

Bandja Sy did play a nice tournament in Douai. The forward, that is currently at the Gran Canaria Basketball Academy is a terrific athlete who possesses also interesting basketball skills. He netted some nice three pointers even if he sometimes tends to jump a bit forward when taking his hsots. His ballhandling still remains a bit weak but this can be further developed in the future. A nice prospect for the future.

Douai Tournament 2008: the forwards is a post from: European Prospects
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• 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
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