European Prospects

The 2nd day of the Adidas Eurocamp 2013 was marked by the fact that there have been no games between Camp Teams and the appearance of the Next Generation workout for U16 teams. Nevertheless, there are some stories to report so here we go.

In the morning sessions, that were marked by some drills but also some scrimmaging, it was a bit sad that only half of the players could be followed by the people in attendance. In fact, two teams practiced on the main court while the two others were in the side gym and never exchanged.

Augusto Lima was one of the players who really did well on Sunday with his relentless activity on both ends of the floor. The Brazilian big guy was helping all over the place and was quick enough to get back in position afterwards. He went hard to the board rebounding and had also a good presence as shot blocker. However, he does not have the upside that everybody expects for Bebe for example as Lima is more or less the same player for several years now and looks like he has matured already.

After the exercises of the morning session, Flip Saunders gave a clinic to the young players about ball handling with some basic knowledge that the prospects need to add to their repertoire. This was more based on the fun part of basketball than highly developed tactics. His speech was followed by the first real game of the day that saw France play Team USA. For the French team, it was again Alexandre Chassang who showed his nice stretch-four game as he dominated the offensive glass and shot well from behind the arc. He got the support of Boris Dallo who impressed with his all-around game scoring 12, grabbing 9 rebounds and having 7 assists. For the US team, Devin Robinson did a great job again and should get looks by high-majors in the 2014 Class.

In the afternoon, Dimitris Itoudis and Marcelo Nikola ran a two hour practice with the Adidas Next Generation players, all prospects born in 1997 or earlier. I was not a big fan of this addition to the camp but it gave a good rest to the real campers so that they remain full of energy for the last day on Monday.

The day was concluded by the best game of the camp so far between an All-Star selection and the Serbian U19 National Team. Raul Neto showed again that he is among the best PGs here finding his team mates well but also giving a good feel for creating his own shot. Alessandro Gentile showed up in this All-Star Selection too and he gave a little clinic of shot fakes and jab steps to the Serbian defense. Augusto Lima underlined his good impressions from the morning by going hard all the time. Oleksandr Lypovyy was continuing to be really good as the Ukrainian guard made some tough shots but also created good situations for his team mates. Ryan Broekhoff is for me one of the surprises of the camp as the Aussie with Dutch passport is very active on both sides of the field. Very aggressive on defense and showing a good shot, Broekhoff should not have problems to find an interesting situation in Europe during the summer.

For the Serbian team, Djoko Salic scored some nice points against the big guys in the All-Star selection giving a lot better impression than I got from him during the NIJT in London. Dusan Kutlesic stepped up in the beginning of the game with some nice shots from behind the arc and good reads of the defense. Serbia though was dominated all through the game by the superior talent from the All-Star selection.

Lucas Nogueira skipped the rest of the camp after his good Day 1 as he has scheduled flights to the USA already. Nemanja Nedovic had to leave as well because of a minor injury while the above mentioned Gentile was the only late addition. Gentile though as well as Aquille Carr are not warming for Day 3 during the time I am writing this text.