#3 Enes Kanter – Utah Jazz

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

#5 Jonas Valanciunas – Toronto Raptors – Lietuvos Rytas

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

#6 Jan Vesely – Washington Wizards – Partizan Belgrade

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

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

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

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

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

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

#16 Nikola Vucevic – Philadelphia 76ers – Southern California

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#54 Milan Macvan – Cleveland Cavaliers – Maccabi Tel Aviv

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

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

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

#59 Adam Hanga – San Antonio Spurs – Albacomp

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

NBA Draft 2011: the Euro-Review is a post from: European Prospects
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Nikola Mirotic – 2m10 – Forward – 1991

The most impressive player in my eyes despite the new point record of Enes Kanter for the World Team was Spanish-Montenegrin Nikola Mirotic. The player from Real Madrid currently on loan Faymasa Palencia in the 2nd Spanish division showed an excellent game on the offensive end where he was the best combination of basketball skills and size. The 2m10 tall played a lot of minutes on the SF position where he still had a speed advantage when attacking the gaps on the drive.

Mirotic can attack the basket on the drive with both hands and an excellent first step. Out of the penetrations, you could see him go until the rim including direction or hand changes in the dribble. He also had one very difficult base line drive of his right hand that he finished with a tough floater from outside the paint. He showed here his great shooting touch for a player that has the size to play inside. But the fact of giving him all the minutes on the SF position underlines where his future will be.

Especially if you see how good Mirotic can hit the shot from outside. His mechanics on the catch-and-shoot from behind the arc look perfect and he is also not afraid to let it fly out of the dribble. He does a nice job too in Pick and Roll situations where he is able to play the ball handler role. Out of these situations, he recognizes pretty well what to so that you can see him give the nice bounce pass for the roller or the dish out for the open man on the weak side. When he drives to the basket, he knows how go around the defenders that try to get a charge and he does not lose his balance when he is getting hit on the layup attempts.

Stats: 14pts (6/13 FG 2/4 3FG) 7rebs 3asts

Enes Kanter – 2m10 – Center – 1992

The Turkish Center simply broke the points record held until this year by Dirk Nowitzki but we did not see anything new from Enes in this game that we did not know from him. Does this mean he has not progressed this year playing High School Basketball in the United States? I can not say that as this was in the end just an exhibition game without any real pressure.

The Kentucky recruit showed in the game the importance of positioning, footwork and basketball understanding. Once Kanter had found his place in the paint and got the ball, nobody could stop him. With a multitude of fakes and moves, he got a multitude of open looks in the paint which he finished with good touch from close. This touch could also be seen on the several jump shots he took from around the key that looked perfect in their execution.

The aspect of Kanter’s game where he has progressed the most over the last 2 years is his ball handling and drives. During the game in Portland, you could see him attack the basket on multiple occasions but mostly with his right hand. In general, he looks less secure about his left hand both on the drive and the finish. You could see him do difficult moves to avoid the left side but managed to finish those perfectly on his right hand.

Stats: 34pts (13/21 FG 8/9FT) 13rebs

Dejan Musli – 2m13 – Center – 1991

The Serbian Center did not really stand out in the Nike Hoop Summit this year. The first impression that I had though was that the 7-footer from FMP has lost a bit of weight, which may however be result of a contracted footage size. His offensive power is not really outstanding against this type of opposition that he rarely faces in Europe.

What could be seen though is that Musli is showing a bit more plays where he uses the dribbling. He tried some back to the basket moves like some kind of running jump shot which he missed however. Out of his drives, he can also go for the nice pass for his team mates when needed. His slow-looking moves are also showing his limits on this level and as Musli is not yet a high-percentage shooter from mid- or long-distance.

Stats: 11pts (4/9 FG) 6rebs

Mael Lebrun could not really put his mark on the game as the athletic French guard did not see a lot of offensive touches. He nailed one three pointer and showed a strong right handed drive to score his two only baskets. He created though some good opportunities for his team mates as he finished with 4 assists.

Nike Hoop Summit 2010 review is a post from: European Prospects
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Dejan Musli (2m14 – C – Serbia – 1991)

This tournament did not really gave new hope for all those people that are not that big on Dejan Musli as he can use less and less his physical strength that made him dominator the years before as he was matched here with two other very strong inside players in Kanter and Valanciunas. However, Musli showed some development in his game and is still one of the strongest post players in Europe in Youth categories.

His game is so much based on positioning in the paint where he has nearly nobody that does it as good as he does. Once positioned in the low post and not double-teamed, he can score the ball with too much of a problem by either a jump hook, or turn around jump shots. Sometimes, you can see him face his defender and go for a jump shot but nearly never he is attacking the defense facing. His jump shot around the key falls on high regularity and he starts to net in a three pointer here and there. It would not surprise me to see him in 2 years going for one or two long distance shots per game.

A major problem that Musli is facing right now is that he sees a double team on nearly every time he touches the ball in the post. He struggles also when he is front in the low post. When the lob pass is coming to go over the fronting defender, he grabs the ball very low and needs to go down a bit in order to take his shot or attempt the dunk. This gives the possibility to the help side to recover and play the steal or at least put him in trouble to go up. You could observe a multitude of times where Musli could not come up with a good shot out of these situations and starting to complain because no fouls were called.

His lack of explosiveness is a problem for him in those situations and he seems to be aware of so that he is developing his passing skills. A multitude of times, you can see him go for opposite passes out of the post that create big gaps for his wings to take the open three pointer. On the downside though is the fact that he tries them in no-look fashion a bit too often which explains his very high amount of turnovers. Defensively, he was unable to stop Enes Kanter in the semi-finals individually; he gave him some space to bang in the post or take the open jump shot. I don’t know if that was a tactic set up by the Serbian coach but at least it looked like Musli did not really want to play defense down low. This gave him the possibility to be very present in shot blocking as he had the necessary room to make a step to get up for rejecting either Kanter’s shots or be present on help side defense.

Stats: 14.8ppg (58.3% 2FG – 50% FT), 11.2rpg, 2.2apg, 2.4bpg, 4.6topg

Enes Kanter (2m08 – PF/C – Turkey – 1992)

Enes Kanter finished the tournament with a deserved MVP title as there was anybody that dominated the game on the same level than he did. Next to his low post game, Kanter starts to develop a face-up game which will make him even more difficult to guard in the next years.

But first of all, Kanter is a low post banger. He loves to use his body to play with the back to the basket, even starting way out and backing down low. The usage of his body goes sometimes a bit too far in my opinion as he will face tougher defenders in the future but on this level it worked to perfection. He can finish those low post plays with jump hooks or turn around jump shots. When he is open in the paint, he dunks the ball very hard with two hands. He protects the ball very well and he does not come in the situations that Musli struggled with on double team situations. His large body is of course helping him in that domain too, he looks a bit more shaped and ripped too than I had him in my memories.

But when we come to the part of the game that has impressed me the most, it is his face up game where he clearly improved over the year. Not only that he can hit the jump shot around the key with a nice high shooting curve, he can eventually also hit a three pointer as his shooting mechanics in catch-and-shoot situation look perfect. His base line jump shot is very regular too and he starts even to beat his opponents of the drive which is pretty new in his repertoire.

He seems also have gained in explosiveness as he is very quick when he has to go for the offensive rebound on his own misses especially. In defense, this gain in speed helps him to play a lot of interceptions on the drives as he does not go up for the block shot every time but prefers to wait until the last moment to deflect the ball as the opposing driver does not know what to do with the ball once in the air. His lateral speed in defense is correct too as he could guard the much quicker Valanciunas on his drives.

He has also become a real team leader now despite being a very calm person in general on the court. You can see him shout at his team mates giving them instructions in a pedagogical way, firm but always in a positive way. Giving a team mate a tap on his back even after a bad decision in offense underlines this newly gained leader qualities. The education may be one of the reason for this positive attitude, Kanter being the son of a recognized Turkish Biology and Veterinary professor. You can find more on Kanter in a recent article published by True Hoop.

Stats: 18.6ppg (54.3% 2FG – 70% FT), 16.4rpg, 1.8bpg

Jonas Valanciunas (2m09 – PF/C – Lithuania – 1992)

The most impressive player of these three big guys was maybe even Jonas Valanciunas. The long Lithuanian born player may have the biggest long term potential as he combines the skill set with a highly athletic body. Additionally, he showed some very nice progress since the last time I saw him, and that was back in May only.

Not only that Valanciunas is very present in the paint, he is developing a very effective face-up game where he can go for the jump shot or for the drive. He displays very good speed on his drives and with his athleticism, he can pass his defenders combined with a good first step. A play that is still in my memory is how he posterized the French defense on a baseline drive going for a one handed lay-back dunk. His great wingspan helps him in those plays but that’s not all.

Valanciunas faces his defender nearly every time he gets the ball in the low post as his back to the basket game is not that polished right now. He uses a lot of head or shot fakes in these situations to see what the defender does and use it. He loves to drive baseline and score on layups or dunks. However, you could see him to go the other direction and scored on some floating hook shot. His jump shot looks still like a work in progress but he scored with extraordinary percentages both from 2pts and from the free-throw line. Here may be his biggest potential as he should be able to improve his shooting mechanics and develop a face-up game until the three point line.

He can right now even knock down the jump shot out of the drive when coming from the high post or pass it out to the weak side for the three point shooters. Valanciunas goes very hard to the offensive glass where he uses his great touch to tip in a lot of opportunities. If he can grab the offensive board, he holds the ball very high and does not need to go down to get the necessary power to score the layup.

On the defensive end, his wingspan helps him to be a huge shot blocker. He seems to have understood too that he can be a tremendous defender in that area and he blocks the ball so that he can recuperate the possession afterwards which is at least as important as the rejection itself. He is not afraid of contact and he even goes for blocking dunk attempts. His defensive rebounding can still be improved as he struggles sometimes to box out which is probably a combination of some concentration gaps and a still growing physical force.

However, while Dejan Musli looks already like an experienced low post player that raises his level in the necessary moment (it was him in the end that had the Gold Medal), and Enes Kanter being at the beginning of developing a game next to his great physical abilities and scoring in the paint, Jonas Valanciunas may have the biggest potential as he combines the size, the shoot and the speed and right now only starting to beef up his athletic body.

Stats: 19.3ppg (72.1% 2FG – 79.4% FT), 10.6rpg, 2.6bpg

Branislav Dekic was present when it counted the most finishing a tournament where he showed once again what a nice talent he is but also that he is still not a leader of a team. He combines a very good length with good athletic abilities and a shot that has become reliable until the three point line, especially from the top. He plays under control, makes a lot of fakes and can dominate inside when he is guarded by a shorter player. He needs to improve his passing on high-low situations with Dejan Musli but he uses his verticality in order to be very present in defense and especially in shot blocking.

Nikola Rondovic started the games for Serbia on the PF position but he was mostly used as an outside catch and shoot player than as an inside force. His impact on the team was not that big as for Dekic but Rondovic was one of the only players capable of giving good high-low passes to Musli from the top of the key. He can post up against smaller players but he does not use this that much and prefers to play out on the wing to drive or shoot the ball. He has great height though to play.

Fabien Paschal can be considered as one of the major surprises of this tournament as the skinny French PF was nearly unknown before at the international level. He was the only regular inside scoring option for France and he impressed me with his already surprisingly polished back-to-the-basket game where he scored on several different options; mostly using some kind of underhand score though. His shooting mechanics are not very stable at the moment but his speed and driving skills can make him a very versatile player in the future. Defensively, he was not always very present but when it counted the most, he used his nice wingspan and good defensive positioning to give a tough reply to the opposing more physical centers. Additionally, he is an amazing offensive rebounder as you could see him emerge on a lot of possessions for tip ins. He looks smart in what he does but inexperienced.

Vincent Pourchot was of course one of the attractions of the whole Championship as the 1992 born player was born in the region of Metz but also was the tallest player with 2m20. He showed that he actually is also a basketball player as his height caused a lot of problems to all team attacking him. Even if he may not be the fastest guy around, he can be a good low post defender against big and slower guys,he did a great job on Musli during stretches for example. Offensively, he displays already a good shooting touch and can net short shots up to 3-4 meters from the top. Additionally, he uses his length well when it comes to positioning as he can score on a some kind of slow motion jump hook.

Ignacio Llovet was one of the reasons of the Spanish run to the fifth place as the physical PF/C dominated regularly in the paint. Despite not being very tall, his already well built body helped him to overpower some of his opponents and score through physical play and mid range jump shots. He is a surprising ball handler as you could see him go for drives or even coast-to-coast plays from time to time. Defensively, he was very present as an overplay defender in the low post where he had a multitude of steals during the tournament. His offensive game is more on the floor, fundamentals based than above the rim and this may hurt his future potential. Right now, he is a beast, but in 2 years already, this dominance may have gone when his opposition has reached his physical level.

Ivan Lazarev had the same destiny than fellow countryman Pavel Antipov as injuries kept him away from displaying his game over the whole tournament. Lazarev is a fairly athletic guy who displays a nice turn around jump shot in the post. With his long arms, he is present in defense but is quite foul-prone right now. He can drive with the ball but unfortunately, I could not see more of him because of the above mentioned injury stuff. But I wanted to mention him as he looked like a very interesting prospect to me.

Dragan Sekelja was the Croatian version of Ignacio Llovet but with some additional centimeters. A physical inside player that plays more foot on the floor than above the rim. He showed a multitude of ways to score in the low post like underhand scores, jump hooks or jump shots. Most of his face up plays go however over the right hand. He can attack the rim coming from the three point area but he has no long distance shot right now. Despite having a huge body, that is however not really in perfect shape, Sekelja looks like lacking a bit of power in the paint. Maybe this is a reason why he likes to step out at times to attack the rim of the dribble.

Philipp Neumann displayed a nice potential on the German team as the 2m10 tall Center was the top scorer and rebounder of a young team. He has different offensive possibilities with either the jump shot or the powerful play in the post. For the moment, he has to polish a lot his low post game though as it is based on physical and athletic abilities and Neumann uses way too much his body right now. Catching the ball means for him that he has to score and the pass out is not option for him. He even lowers his head on those plays so that he is not even capable of seeing open team mates (only 3 assists in 8 games). Being one year younger than the competition, it will be important to see his development over the next year because if he can take away these negative parts of his games, he has the potential of being one of the best inside players in Europe of the 1992 born.

Martins Meiers was an interesting player coming from Latvia who displayed a good combination of physical presence and will to fight. Meiers is great rebounder and has also some impact on the offensive end. He has some soft shooting touch and can hit the jumper around the key. His presence on offensive rebounds gives him a lot of second chances and because he goes immediately back up after the offensive rebound, he has the necessary space to finish these plays. His ball handling is good for a player of his size and he has also a good block shot timing where he can go up very quickly to reject the ball.

2009 U18 European Championship Division A: the Bigs is a post from: European Prospects
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Today’s picks is a post from: European Prospects
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On of the most surprising stories is the move of Enes Kanter to the United States. The 16 year old Center that played both U18 and U16 Championships will play on the high school level next season (Winchendon HS). The goal of the Turkish Basketball federation is to “transform” Kanter into a SF and have him operational on the Senior level for the World Championship 2010. I have some serious doubts about this move as Kanter did not show anything that would make him a possible wing in the future. Additionally, brining him to a High School in the United States is probably not the right decision to go into this direction. He would most likely dominate physically and use his force inside. The Turkish federation looks like not knowing exactly what they do as they give away one of their most talented players to the United States instead of forming him themselves in Istanbul.

Nikos Pappas, the guard that led the Greek U18 team to Gold in the European Championship signed a five-year deal with Bilbao in Spain. He will not play there however the first season and will be loaned to Real Madrid Reserve team in LEB Bronze. For me, this is another strange move as apparently no Greek team signed him. Bilbao on the other hand may have put one hand on one of the future top guards in Europe.

Another surprising move is the decision of Donatas Motiejunas to leave Zalgiris and sign most likely with Aisciai, one of the weakest teams in the LKL. Being linked to BC Kaunas, the second team of Zalgiris, at first, the latest rumors send him to the Atletas-Aisciai. The look for minutes is understandable but why he leaves the Zalgiris building instead and playing in BC Kaunas is quite a strange decision to me.

Fortitudo Bologna is trying out some youngsters these days by bringing over to Italy Filip Sepa from Serbia and Hristo Zahariev from Bulgaria. Nothing has been signed so far however. Another team that was active by bringing in new talent was Real Madrid who signed Dusan Bogdanovic, a 2m06 tall Forward born in 1993. Talking about 1993 born kids (UPDATE: Bogdanovic’s home team Vukovar denied the transfer of the player). Union Olimpija added Djordje Micic to their Senior team roster. The 2m00 tall forward played with the Bosnia-Herzegovina National team during the U16 European Championship. In France, the most interesting transfer may be the signings of Christophe Leonard by Cholet and Alexis Tanghe in Dijon. Finally, Robin Benzing will go back to his former team TV Langen after the NCAA did not accept him to play for Michigan.

Prospects on the move is a post from: European Prospects
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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

• While Spain struggled one half to beat Belgium, the Greek team continued their arrogant play. After a superb start into the game and leading by around 20 points, they stopped to play and let Israel come back in the game. The Israeli even went ahead in the third quarter, but this was the alarm signal for Kosta Sloukas and his mates. They started a late rush to win the game with 22 points. While Nikos Pappas is still going very slow, it’s Kosta Sloukas who takes over the leader role of the team with his 23pts and 6asts. Vladimir Jankovic showed also his versatility and Zisis Sarikopoulos continues to score on his left handed hook shots.
• Serbia had no problem to win against Estonia while Lithuania beat Italy in a thriller. For the Italians, Nicolo Melli seems to start his European Championship a bit slower but he came up with 13pts yesterday. For his team, it looks like Pasquale Paolisso is the man that takes the responsibility while David Cournooh is still the main option from outside. For the Lithuanians, the 1991 born guard Augustas Peciukevicius excels with his aggressive play that brings him to the line often and puts the opponents under pressure. Tautvydas Slezas is doing his job in the middle with 22pts and 14rebs.
• Germany struggled again with the turnovers against Russia and have to play a Final against Ukraine today in order to advance to the next round. A Ukrainian team that had no chance against France that finally opened their defense box and allowed only 50 points. Chrislain Cairo improves and comes up with 12 and 9 while Alexis Tanghe led all scorers with 15 and 8.
• Another final will be played in the last group between Latvia and Bulgaria, both team have no wins so far. It was Toni Prostran that managed to hold of the Bulgarians in the final minutes with 4 late points to seal the deal. Turkey also needed the final seconds to win against Latvia to remain undefeated. Enes Kanter was once again dominant in the middle where nobody could stop him.

Division B

• The favorites Czech Republic and Slovenia had no problems to win their openers against the Netherlands and Sweden. Also Poland continued their winning streak and are now 2-0 after they defeated Belarus easily.
• The division also has already some surprises with the two Alpine countries Austria and Switzerland still being undefeated. Austria held off Montenegro and increased its chances to move to the Qualifying round while the Swiss also beat a former Yugoslavian country with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Today’s picks (from the U18 European Championships) is a post from: European Prospects
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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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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
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