Destination NBA: the movie of the Draft is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

Christian Eyenga (1m95 – G – 1989 – DKV Joventut Badalona)

Eyenga did not see that much minutes with DKV Joventut Badalona through out the season. So at a first look, his presence here may be a surprise. The move behind this is however that Eyenga wants to go either undrafted or for a 2nd round spot which would give him more opportunities when being able to move to the NBA one day. First of all, he needs to crack the rotation of Joventut though.

Current mocks: Draftexpress #56 – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Rodrigue Beaubois (1m86 – G – 1988 – Cholet Basket)

Beaubois showed his great combination of athleticism and basketball skills at the Reebok Eurocamp. His shooting remains however a bit suspect at the moment even he has made a great move forward in that area this season. He has definitely nice upside but I have some doubts about his abilities to turn into a PG in the future. The team that will draft him will get a scoring guard with great athletic abilities.

Draftexpress #30 – NBA Draft.net #50

Nando de Colo (1m94 – G – 1987 – Cholet Basket)

Still being listed at more than 2m by some outlets, the guard from Cholet has been officially measured at 1m94 without shoes in Treviso. This does not take away from him his great creativity and passing skills that make him on of the most interesting PG prospects in Europe. He has already signed a deal with Pamesa Valencia according to different reports so that there is the possibility to park for a year or two in Europe. Lacks the athletic potential of Beaubois but has a great shot out of the dribble with a quick release.

Draftexpress #54 – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Omri Casspi (2m04 – F – 1988 – Maccabi Tel Aviv)

The Israeli forward has impressed quite a lot of people during his workouts with his toughness. He got used to play physically by getting lots of minutes with a Euroleague powerhouse. His good speed helped him to beat his man of the dribble in Europe but is this enough for the NBA when his shot does not fall? He looks currently as one of the most promising wings of the draft and he may be the first Israeli player to get drafted and actually play in the NBA.

Draftexpress #26 – NBA Draft.net #23

Henk Norel (2m12 – F/C – 1987 – DKV Joventut Badalona)

Norel was hyped a lot more one year ago and several minor injuries have slowed down his development this year. You have here a hard working big guy who can run the floor extremely well and is a fighter in the paint. He has a very nice shot from outside which he does not use that much for the moment but that gives him interesting offensive potential. Despite showing good athletic abilities, he needs to gain some weight in order to have an impact in the NBA.

Draftexpress #55 – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Milenko Tepic (1m98 – G – 1987 – Partizan Belgrade/Panathinaikos Athens)

The Serbian guard is not what you call a typical NBA prospect. Still he remains eligible due to his age but I doubt that any team will go after him especially as he has signed a deal with Panathinaikos Athens a few weeks ago. Tepic is a tall guard who can play all the 1-2-3 positions. He is a correct athlete but his main asset is his versatility and he has become a correct shooter from behind the three point line.

Draftexpress undrafted – NBA Draft.net #57

Emir Preldzic (2m06 – F – 1987 – Fenerbahce Ülker Istanbul)

The SF from Fenerbahce had a nice run in the middle of the season for his team. He displays excellent ball handling skills and creativity for a player of his size, something that made his coach play him as a PG during stretches. Currently, he is not really considered as a NBA prospect as his game and physical abilities translate more into the Euroleague type of basketball.

Draftexpress undrafted – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Gasper Vidmar (2m10 – C – 1987 – Fenerbahce Ülker Istanbul)

Vidmar has not seen the same development than Preldzic with Fenerbahce. Vidmar plays the Center position and his statistical progression has stopped this year in the Euroleague. This has of course not helped him to improve his draft stock and most of the observers don’t see a future for him in the NBA right now.

Draftexpress undrafted – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Victor Claver (2m04 – F – 1988 – Pamesa Valencia)

The Spanish forward had his season shortened by a broken leg but he is however in the Draft this year. His newly signed deal with Pamesa Valencia indicates also why he has chosen this option, getting drafted below the first round in order to be able to sign an open deal with a NBA team when he ever joins the league. He has the tools to do so but the next season in Spain will show how strong he can come back after this year.

Draftexpress #33 – NBA Draft.net #24

Sergio Llull (1m90 – G – 1987 – Real Madrid)

The Spanish guard showed a great season this year and he may end up in the Draft this week. Llull has tremendous speed and leaping abilities for a European player and his three point shot has made some interesting breaks for Real Madrid this season. His is very present in defense and offensively can create a lot of scoring in shots stretches. He may become a very interesting role player for a NBA team that creates the right situation for him.

Draftexpress #42 – NBA Draft.net #44

Ricky Rubio (1m92 – G – 1990 – DKV Joventut Badalona)

The top European talent in this Draft and even for the whole decade is Ricky Rubio. Everything has been said about the Spanish phenomenon already; great defensive instincts, fantastic drive and creativity and difficulties to shot out of the dribble. The question that remains is if Rubio will be able to lead a NBA team at his young age.

Draftexpress #4 – NBA Draft.net #2

Jonas Jerebko (2m06 – F – 1987 – Angelico Biella)

The Swedish forward has developed into a very interesting player over the last years. Being 2m06 tall and playing the SF, he has all the tools to be successful in the NBA. He has grown step by step by concentrating on his role, long distance shooting and aggressiveness attacking the basket. Jerebko may stay another year in Europe though to progress with a Euroleague team before joining the NBA.

Draftexpress #29 – NBA Draft.net #28

Rudy Mbemba (1m81 – G – 1987 – Vanoli Soresina)

The tiny PG is the second Swedish player that is available for the NBA Draft this year. He has been a player observed for years now and still the doubts remain if he can ever develop enough to be a player to be asked to run the PG. His outstanding athletic abilities are a major asset for him in Europe but don’t make him that special in the United States.  His decision making and shooting selection has improved this year but is it enough to see a team make a gamble on him?

Draftexpress undrafted – NBA Draft.net undrafted

Sergiy Gladyr (1m96 – G – 1988 – Mykolaiv)

The Ukrainian sharp shooter had one of the better showing during the Reebok Eurocamp which probably was the reason for him to stay in the Draft. Being represented by Comsport as agency is probably another reason as the team around Bouna N’Diaye is known for getting players in the right light to be drafted. Gladyr is a great scoring guard with interesting athletic capabilities but who has currently a certain lack of experience of high level basketball as he only played for a medium-level Ukrainian team.

Draftexpress #49 – NBA Draft.net #48

Vyacheslav “Slava” Kravtsov (2m12 – C – 1987 – BC Kyiv)

The Ukrainian Center may have a decent chance to hear his name called on Thursday as he offers a good physical built and jumping abilities to play as a role player in the NBA. He can make the difference with his rebound and shot blocking on the defense end while his offensive game is still improving.

Draftexpress #60 – NBA Draft.net #52

NBA Draft 2009: the European candidates is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

Mbemba still impresses with a great physical built which is clearly above average for European standards. In a recent interview with a our friends at Svensk Basket Television, he admitted that he even gained 12kg of muscles in order to be ready for the NBA challenge.

Next to his short size (1m83), the main question on Mbemba is of course his understanding of the game and the possibility to play the Point Guard position. His shooting percentages have developed into a very good territory right now from what they have been the previous seasons; he turns currently at a correct 55.9% from 2FG and a good 37.5% from behind the arc. However, his FT shooting is dramatic with only 46.2%.

A first thing that you see is that Mbemba has improved his shooting selection, at least in the games I saw. And the improved percentages show that he only takes shots that he feels comfortable in. His three point shot in catch and shoot fashion looks correct right now and you don’t see him too often to go for these out-of-dribble shots anymore. The association with Troy Bell, who is another typical scoring guard forces Mbemba to play a pass first guard and you see during the games that Mbemba tries to force himself into a role that is not his inborn type of playing basketball.

And sometimes, his out-of-control style of play comes back again. Mbemba has no problem to beat his man of the dribble, but what comes out of these situations is often not a positive thing for the team. He sees his cutters pretty well, the problem is though that he tries to go for difficult passes for himself or for the cutter to catch. Several times, he tried to find back door alley-oop passes in traffic for his wings. These attempts ended more often out of bounds than in a high light real.

Out of his penetrations, Mbemba barely tries to go for the score as he has no real move to score of the drive. You never see him go for a running floater or tear drops, nor for a controlled jump shot. This lack in his offensive play limits him badly as he can not really play as a scoring guard because of these difficulties. With the gained muscular mass, he looks also a bit slower than he was before but still this is not really a handicap right now.

Finally, Mbemba probably needs to develop into a defensive stopper if he wants to become a better player than he is right now. He has all the tools to do so but he looks not all that focused on that side of the court. Being caught in pick-and-roll situations on LegaDue level shows that he really needs to improve in this area but it may be the specialty that he needs to develop to raise his level. The positive thing is that you see him progress, step by step. The control of the game is however still the part that he needs to develop the most if he wants to become a PG on a higher level.

With the LegaDue Finals going on to at least a fourth game to be played on Sunday 7th June, Mbemba’s presence at this year’s Reebok Eurocamp is excluded so that he can not use his year-long showcase to impress the NBA scouts. However, the NBA teams interested in him and present in Europe because of the camp will certainly take the opportunity to make the trip inside Italy to go scout Mbemba in a competitive setting.

Rudy Mbemba is finally in the Draft is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

To start with, the bad news of the weekend is of course the hip injury of Ricky Rubio. This will of course hurt him and we will have to see how this impacts his Draft stock over the coming days.

After the publication of the Early Entrants list and the first possible Reebok Eurocamp candidates, we will take a close look about the chances of these players being in the Draft when it comes to New York and who is only there to make some publicity for himself. A full list of all European early entrants can be found here.

Several names on that list may sound like a joke in terms of current playing level (I won’t name the guys here), I take a first group of players that is clearly here just to test waters or to promote their own name. Players like Aboubakar Zaki, Adam Hanga, Tanel Kurbas, Carl Ona Embo, Anton Ponomarev or Fernando Raposo use this platform in order to show first of all that they have interest to play in the NBA one day. Zaki for example made several statements in the French press recently that he sees himself pretty soon on that level despite playing barely any minutes at all in the French league. Adam Hanga will have to show in Treviso if he has the necessary potential for the next level as he is currently playing in his home-country of Hungary. Guys like Tanel Kurbas, Carl Ona Embo or Anton Ponomarev have decent talent, but it won’t probably be enough to play in the NBA. However, they probably know about that and use the early-entrants platform in order to boost their stock for the European market. The same probably counts for Fernando Raposo who has the necessary physical tools but has the necessary talent level?

When limiting the list of European players to only those that may be drafted this or the next years, it will come down to these players in my eyes: Rodrigue Beaubois, Omri Casspi, Victor Claver, Vladimir Dasic, Milan Macvan, Boban Marjanovic, Miroslav Raduljica and Ricky Rubio. These are the guys that will probably have a future as serious NBA Draft candidates. Nearly all of them should be in Treviso as well. But when looking over the list of players that have been selected so far from that Early Entrants list, the names of some players surprise however. While a guy like Tim Ohlbrecht apparently did not make it, some A2 players from Greece will be in Treviso to showcase their talent.

The players born in 1987 on the other hand show only limited talent in my eyes as most of them won’t get a shot in the NBA anytime soon. Maybe players like Jonas Jerebko, Henk Norel or Slava Kravtsov have a chance to hear their name in the 2nd round. They absolutely need the Treviso camp in order to boost their stock and being picked. Milenko Tepic is another name that may come up but he is probably more bound to a European future while his country mate Nemanja Aleksandrov is also automatically eligible. The Serbian forward was considered years back as a top talent but multiple injuries have slowed him down.

To stay with the list of Treviso camp participants, the next generation pool of talent is always pretty interesting. This year, the team around Pete Philo selected once again a highly talented group of players where guys like Tornike Shengelia, Tomas Satoransky, Jan Vesely or Tibor Pleiss may get a lot of attention. Personally, I really want to see what these guys can bring on that type of event. Some others like Alexey Shved, Oleksandr Kolchenko or Semen Shashkov have already participated and can use this year’s edition to show their progress.

A new feature that I will try to keep as updated as possible is the little widget you can find on the right hand of the website where I post the dates of Europeans participating at specific NBA Workouts.

NBA Draft 2009: early entrants, workouts and Reebok Eurocamp is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook

I will start my roundup with the players that will or may enter the 2009 NBA Draft as early entrants. They can declare until April 26th if they want to put their name on the Early-Entrants list in order to test their value for the upcoming Draft. Then, the can withdraw their name until the 15th of June if they are not happy. As an international player, you can withdraw twice from the Early Entrants list, when entering your name for a third year, you are automatically in the NBA Draft.

Player having declared officially for the 2009 NBA Draft

The only International player that has officially declared so far is the French-German-Portuguese forward Fernando Raposo as reports jump-shot.net from France. The 2m06 tall and 1989 born PF, who plays his first full professional season with Elan Béarnais in France this year had some interesting games in a tough sportive situation. Having signed with agent Kenny Grant this season, Raposo is probably just testing the waters to see his value and put his name on the list of the different scouts that did not know him so far. Without going for some huge workouts or a mind-blowing Reebok EuroCamp, Raposo will most likely withdraw before the dead-line.

Brandon Jennings is a specific case as he is the first US born player to join a European professional team right out of High School. This makes him automatically a NBA Draft candidate according to a rule of the NBA Players collective bargaining agreement. His year in Italy has put him under different spotlights than the typical NCAA Freshman and gave the NBA scouts a possibility to evaluate him under professional circumstances.

Omri Casspi has declared to be officially eligible for the 2009 NBA Draft in different reports in the Israeli press. I consider the chances for him to stay in the Draft are pretty high, but he may not want to get drafted in the first round except if he becomes a Lottery pick which is highly unlikely. Casspi certainly can sign a more lucrative contract in Europe so a low first round pick is not that interesting for him. We will see how his situation evolves.

Players declaring highly likely during the next days

Rodrigue Beaubois will declare officially that he is in the Draft during the next days. His agent announced it already to Draftexpress, so it is pretty obvious that he will enter the early-entrants list for the third and will be in for good. Beaubois got quite some buzz over the last days and weeks due to his great play during March. If he can continue on that level, he will have good chances to see a very interesting Draft spot coming up.

More and more rumors say that Ricky Rubio will declare for this year’s Draft. The Spanish PG comes however from a season where his progress was a bit handicapped by a hand injury in the beginning of the 2008/2009 exercise. Still, he is considered as a top lottery pick and could even go as high as the Top3 according to the different Mocks.

Several sources indicate that Vladimir Dasic will enter his name to the NBA Draft 2009 during the next days. The SF from Montenegro has played a great U20 European Championship last summer but struggled a bit to put up regular performances throughout the season in the Adriatic League. He finished the season strong though with several big scoring performances but still not being accurate from behind the arc.

Testing the waters

Draftexpress also reports that Roger Zaki may enter his name this year in order to test the waters. Zaki comes of a season where he saw some minutes on the Euroleague level, but he showed that he is currently far away from being a factor on that level, especially defensively where he gets pushed around at will. He needs to find a team first where he can earn some minutes, and being born in 1988, he needs to do that quickly if his goal is to being drafted. Still, the potential is there, but is that enough?

Giorgi Shermadini is probably exactly the opposite case. The Georgian big man destroyed everything in his home league and moved to Panathinaikos in November 2008 and played only 4 league games since then.

Possible entrants

A player that may enter the NBA Draft after his recent performances at the Nike Hoop Summit (I will talk about that in a later post) is the Lithuanian Forward/Center Donatas Motiejunas. The seven footer with the great touch played a correct for a small team in Lithuania and managed to qualify the to the Challenge Final Four of the Baltic League.

Players that could have been ready this year for an early entrance but got kicked back by injuries or poor play are Victor Claver (broken leg) or Tim Ohlbrecht (limited playing time and multiple injuries). They may try to put their name back on the board of the NBA scouts by entering early and withdrawing before the deadline.

Ludo Vaty from Pau-Orthez is also a possible entrant according to several sources. The French PF played a good season and improved every season since he is with the former French powerhouse. He may have a future as a hard working rebounder and hustle guy in the big league.

Automatically eligible

On the list of players that are automatically eligible, being born in 1987, you will find also some interesting names.  Inside players like Henk Norel or Slava Kravtsov may get a shot somewhere in the second round. These type of players can boost their stock with a good performance during the Reebok Eurocamp in June.

A multi-task player like Emir Preldzic may be interesting for some franchises, something that counts also for Milenko Tepic. For both of these guys, the future will however be probably in Europe as they lack some NBA typical characteristics. Jonas Jerebko is another player that may have some NBA potential due to his interesting combination of size and shooting skills.

Finally, you have two guards that may get a pick this year as they played both some interesting seasons in the past. Sergio Llull had his breakout party this year and boosted the Real Madrid play during stretches with his athletic and speedy drives or three point bombs. While Nando de Colo had a great last season, he slowed down a bit this year but he may be picked down the road somewhere late in the second round.

A first look at the upcoming 2009 NBA Draft is a post from: European Prospects
Follow me on Twitter to get even more updates or become a fan on Facebook