Leo Westermann (1m98 – PG – France – 1992)

Westermann started the tournament very well, however his production went down when it came to the big games. However, I named him to my personal All-Tournament for his overall performance and amplitude he had to the French game. Being very tall for the PG spot with 1m98 and having quite a good shot from behind the arc, the comparisons to a former French PG names Antoine Rigaudeau would be easy to bring. But as I am not a fan of such comparisons, I won’t bring it here and additionally, the game of both players is not that close as you might think.

First of all, the main weapon offensively of Leo Westermann is his shot. He was the only player that gave the impression to be sure about his long distance attempts even he was not lucky with his percentages through out the tournament. His shot release looks very quick when it comes out of the dribble but he arms a bit slower when he is in catch and shoot fashion. He nailed some big shots in the preliminary round against Serbia but he could not connect them when they counted the most in the medal round. But you need to have in mind that he has turned 17 only in July so that he has still a year to go in this category.

His drive to the basket is very interesting as he mix the hard attack to the rim with mid range jump shots. His in-between game looks however a bit predictable right now, his decisions appear to be more like pre-thought-off than a decision made of a defensive reaction to his drive. His ball handling helps him to beat his defender of the dribble with either his first step or on cross over plays. He recognizes well when the hedge is coming out on the pick and roll situations and he can split the defense at these moments without too much of a problem.

His court vision helps him to excel when it comes to fast break plays where he finds easily the open team mates in the cuts or waiting outside for the shot. As a vocal leader on the court, he imposes himself with his natural leadership and has all the tools to become a good PG. With additional experience , he should learn to better understand the tempo of the game and improve his decision making when it comes to defend advantages in the crucial moments, something he has barely ever faced with the Centre Federal team in France.

Stats: 8.1ppg (41.9% 2FG – 28.9% 3FG – 87.5%FT), 3.3rpg, 3.9apg

Safak Edge (1m88 – PG – Turkey – 1992)

A player that was unknown to me but who is now among my favorites is the Turkish guard Safak Edge. And I was not alone to be a new fan of this player as coaching legend Svetislav Pesic was amazed by the talent level too. It has been a long time that I did not see a player like that! quotes the French press the current Red Star Belgrade head coach. So what makes this ordinary looking player that special.

First of all, Edge amazes with his great speed and handles. Several times, you could see him speeding the court up and down with the ball so that nobody could follow him. What is more surprising that he looks even more dangerous right now in the set play than in the fast break which could be the main force of a player like him. But Edge excelled when he needed to create out of a set offense where his creativity opened him several good positions for his shots.

One of his main forces is that he can knock the shot down from nearly everywhere on the court. He has a great shot out of the dribble, from the penetration or just behind the three point line. His balance in the air is sometimes looking like a work in progress but he netted those difficult jump shots from mid-range with impressive percentages, especially in the area around the free-throw line. Because of his height, he does not go that often until the rim and settles mostly for his jump shots not going for floaters either.

But where he is doing really great is when it comes to creating space for his three point shots. Several times, he went for very difficult moves to open the necessary room to arm his shot. Penetration followed by a hard step back or a nasty cross-over move or the simple three point shot out of the dribble are in his repertoire. Additionally, you could see a nice maturity for a player of his age setting up perfectly a last offense per quarter play that he concluded with a perfect assist for an open jump shot basket.

On the downside is of course his physical presence which does not allow him to finish close to the basket at the moment. So you could see several drives of him ending up with a turnover as he needed to jump to make a pass out of his drives in the paint. However, his passing skills in the pick and roll situations are good even if he needs to improve that part of his game as well as getting strong on his right handed dribble.

Stats: 12.7ppg (41.0% 2FG – 43.4% 3FG – 72.2% FT), 2.3apg, 1.9topg

Toni Prostran (1m83 – PG – Croatia – 1991)

Probably the most impressive guard when it comes to a pure statistical point of view. The short guard from Croatia had some very impressive games despite an injury during the match with Slovenia. He finished the tournament as top scorer, first in assist and first in minutes per game.

Despite being not that big, Prostran excels when he takes the ball to the basket. His three point shot is pretty streaky right now, even if he can go for some long-distance bombing but mostly he recognizes when his shot is not falling and then concentrating on his drives and creation for team mates. On the other hand, that goes sometimes that far that he forces the drive a bit too much. But his penetration is always that dangerous that he attracts the help defense that gives him the possibility to play the pass to the center or the opposing wing.

During those drives, he likes also to create open positions for himself, mostly through spin moves in the direction of the paint. He recognizes the help pretty well in those situations and reacts accordingly. The problem is though that he has no real mid-range jump shot to speak of out of these drives and prefers to finish of difficult floaters or tear-drops. Those tear drops look very good though and he can score them with good percentages.

Despite being a great offensive player and real factor in the team, I have some doubts about his long-term potential to become a really great player. Defensively, he struggles of course because of his size which makes him an easy target for opposing guards posting him up. For the moment, he struggles in that area and with modern PGs in Europe being often taller tham1m90, this can hurt him down the road. Additionally, I don’t know how much his impact is on the team as he could not avoid four losses in a row after coming back from slight injury.

Stats: 20.9ppg (52.2% 2FG – 23.3% 3FG – 74.6% FT), 4.6rpg, 7.9apg, 4.0topg

Who else do we have?

Next to these three outstanding players, a multitude of other guards could have been described here in longer reports. I limit myself though on short scouting on them.

Maxim Mutaf was in the spotlight for Turkey as you could imagine as he got stolen a bit of his show by the emergence of Safak Edge. However, Mutaf is still an interesting prospect when it comes to shooting. He develops more and more into a SG and could see him play even on the SF during stretches. Very aggressive offensively, his jump shot has a high release point and he is not afraid to attack the basket hard. He tried a two-handed dunk over Jonas Valanciunas but got rejected on it.

Augustas Peciukevicius is one of the multitude of Lithuanian back court players that stands out more and more as the most talented one of the crop. Highly aggressive on defense, he looks to be the most gifted on offense as he can both created open positions for him self and give the necessary spaces from his drives to his team mates. He can score the layups against the big guys through his long extension of the arm and reads the defense pretty well to play the Pick and Roll or Drive and dish.

Vytenis Cizauskas is one year younger than the rest of the Lithuanian back court but he plays the most under control of all of them. Not that aggressive on defense but more a real PG on the offensive end, Cizauskas excels with great fundamentals and foot work that give him a multitude of options in the offense where you see him always in perfect triple-threat position before attacking or when stopping his drives. Good court vision, correct athletic abilities and a leadership mentality are other characteristics of his game.

Dimitry Kulagin is another player of that very talented 1992 generation. The Russian guard showed nice versatility in his game and looked like a very good rebounder for his position. Displaying perfect height for the PG spot, a tough and physical game as well as good speed and certain cleverness, he looks like a promising player for the next years as his shooting abilities make him a good scorer already right now. His drives are working well as he protects the ball and he can take the jumper out of the dribble but he needs to work his decision making on passes in order to become a strong PG.

Andrea de Nicolao had a very good tournament with Italy in a role as scoring PG where he excelled with his speed and shooting abilities. He change his rhytm on the drive which gives him several open looks for close baskets but most of drives, he needs to finish of difficult floaters or layups. His three point shot is falling pretty well, coming of the dribble or in catch and shoot situations where he continues his stroke without any hesitation even if the defender flies out on him.

Ole Wendt played a nice tournament for Germany after a slow start. But when he has found his role, he did some nice things for a young German team. His creativity of the dribble and good handles helped him to play a lot on his drive where he could score some nice baskets in the paint. His shot is however not that great right now so that the defense gives him the spaces around the three point area. Defensively, he was sometime lost on this level too but he should come back stronger next year.

Jan Span got a lot of playing time with Slovenia after Mirza Sarajlija ruled out of the team before the tournament and the 1992 born player used it very well. His penetration skills are very good and he can score with very nice under control fade away layup against the taller inside players. He reads the defense very well and reacts accordingly, you can see him go for some great plays in pick and roll situations where also can knock down the three point shout out of the dribble. He is also a very aggressive defender and he can chase the opposing guard full court with out any problem.

2009 U18 European Championship Division A: the Guards is a post from: European Prospects
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Andrew Albicy from France was the MVP of the Finals and got also elected to the All-Tournament team, a deserved recognition for the 1m70 tall PG from Paris-Levallois. Albicy is a scoring PG that lives a lot from his great shooting from behind the arc. Not incredibly fast for his size, he is driving but this is not his main offensive skill. He improved his three point percentage over the tournament after starting with a bad 0/6 in the first game.

After the poor showing of France in Mannheim and the request of the coaching stuff to find a PG leader, Albicy has really emerged and improved since Spring. He was the clear-cut go-to-guy in a less talented than the years before French team in general. With him on the court, the French team looked in confidence and went for an incredible 28-2 run during the semis.

He will probably suffer from his size in the future, but seeing the good games his countryman Marco Pellin had in the Euroleague, you can imagine a similar destiny in the future. However, Albicy has not developed the defensive mindset of Pellin so far, something that can still happen. At least, with Paris-Levallois down in ProB next season, Albicy should see lots of minutes with the professionals from this fall on.

Toni Prostran was also elected into the All-Tournament team, and this was even more deserved than Albicy’s selection as Prostran was one year younger than most of the competitors and he was probably among the top scorers of the tournament. The 91 born guard from KK Zadar showed a scoring talent that is rarely seen for a 1m83 small guard.

Prostran lives mostly from his super quick shot release from behind the arc where he can fire up threes at will, even with bigger defenders in his face. His shooting mechanics look super fluid but incomplete as he stops the move after releasing the ball immediately. Additionally, the ball turns sideways on his shot. This does not impeach him to score incredible shots from long distances.

When he gets defended hard on pick and roll, he has no problem to split between the defenders and go for great assists too. When he drives, he often scores tear drop shots or running floaters as he is not super athletic to go up against the big guys in the paint. He can be out of the game for stretches when he is defended by bigger players, but he can also on the other hand go for incredible scoring runs over short periods.

Maurice Stuckey did play a correct tournament in his role as scoring guard coming of the bench for Germany. With his speed and acceleration, he could drive till the basket lots of times as no defender was able to stop his right handed penetration. Stuckey is the ideal complement to the starting German PG Simon Schmitz who is more like an organizer on the court while Stuckey is the energizer.

Stuckey was not hot from the outside during the games I saw in Douai so he used his speed to drive in the lane and score with some running floaters or hanging lay-ups where he could use his nice athleticism. With his drives, he could also create some good opportunities for his team mates in the paint but he tried mostly to go for his own score.

He tried also some mid-distance shots out of the dribble, but he could not connect them in a regular fashion. He also managed to score sometimes of his left hand but his drives were nearly every time on his strong right hand. This was of course also the result of poor defense as they opened him his strong side lots of times. On defense, he put a lot of pressure on the opposing guards, especially when Germany played some kind of full court man-to-man defense.

Maxim Mutaf played some good games in Douai during the weekend. The scoring guard from Fenerbahce, who had a little injury on his hand, was the go-to-guy during moments for a Turkish team that was far away from its level it displayed in Mannheim.

Mutaf has a picture perfect shot from all distances which he can put up with ease against defenders too. He is always attacking his defender as soon as he gets the ball and tries to go for the scoring. When driving, he finished either with floaters of the glass or even when till the rim to score on nice finger rolls. He had also a very athletic back door lay up where he scored against two defenders with beauty.

For his long distance shot, he has no problem to create his own shot. He showed a variety of different shooting positions, coming off the screen or going for a step back three in his defenders face. Additionally, he showed surprising presence in offensive rebounding where he tried to go for every ball. Even his injured did not prevent him to jump into the chairs to get an lose ball. On the other hand, he put himself out of the game with 2 super stupid fouls in the last minutes. But he will learn how to avoid such errors in the future.

Melih Mahmutoglu was the other Turkish SG during this tournament and he came up with his beautiful game that we could already see in Mannheim this spring. With his perfect shooting mechanics, Mahmutoglu nearly netted every open position from behind the arc. Not much of a drive player, he often stops to go for the mid-distance jump shot out of the dribble.

Liran Moran was the top scorer for the Israeli team. He nearly scored only on three point shots, where he was pretty accurate. Moran is listed as 1m91 and I think that he can play the SG spot in the future in a very specific role as shooter. He showed sometimes a nice drive where he can go to the rim but mostly he is the guy receiving the ball from inside and netting the three-ball.

Gilvydas Biruta played only 1 quarter of basketball during the two days I was in Douai, but you could see that this guy has basketball talent. First of all, he is an outstanding athlete going for not less than 4 dunks in one quarter, two of these coming from highly spectacular alley-oop passes after a screen in the back (a play, that you could for example often see for Roanne’s Marc Salyers this season). He did not play in the last game of the tournament as his coach has probably seen enough of his scoring talent of the bench in the games before. One note on him is also that he is playing in the Gran Canaria basketball academy in Spain which is quite uncommon for a Lithuanian youngster.

Nic Wise was the clear leader of Team USA on the PG position and did hurt the opposing defenses a lot with his huge drives where he was not afraid to go against the big guys and even scored several times against them with the foul. With his great handles and speed changes, he was a tough match-up for any player that tried to guard him.

Mohamed Koita was the only guard on Team Africa, so he had to play 40 minutes per game. And he was mostly a scoring threat with a lot of turnovers in the setup of the game. Koita can hit a lot of threes despite a quite mechanical shooting way. His outstanding athleticism helps him on the drives but he lacks a bit of basketball understanding due to his limited playing on the highest level so far. He is currently at the Stoneridge Academy in the United States.

Douai Tournament 2008: the guards 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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