European Prospects

The second day of the Eurocamp was marked mainly by the Next Generation Camp as there have not been many other games. However, it was another occasion to see some of the players in the morning sessions and in a great matchup against Team USA for the closing of the afternoon.

In the morning, we focused a bit on the Spanish Center Moussa Diagne. He showed great vertical presence with quick jumps and a measured wingspan of 2m23. In the paint he was present with shot blocking and rebounding but not much more on the offensive end. Another player that we watched a bit in more details was the Latvian Ojars Silins who made tremendous progress over the last years compared to the first time we saw him in the NIJT in Rome. A lot stronger physically now, Silins has developed on both sides of the court and is now an excellent prospect in the stretch-four profile.

The first game of the day has been played between the French U20 National Team and the Carleton University from Canada. The French team had a lot of problems to get any openings against the great team defense of the Canadians that overcame the physical and athletic deficiencies they had compared to France. Mam Jaiteh, after his good showing against the young Team USA, was not really good against the stronger Canadians and turned the ball over multiple times without being any factor offensively. Alexandre Chassang was the only positive appearance for the French team as the PF has a game quite similar to the Canadian style. Chassang showed his qualities as a Pick and Pop shooter but dished out some very nice assists as well next to his typical presence in rebounding.

After a short break, it was time to discover what can be considered as the future of European basketball as the 14 members of the Next Generation camp took over the main court. These players, born in 1998 and 1999 showed some very interesting stuff but unfortunately, the composition of the campers was really uneven as there were nearly only guards and small forwards with the exception of Isaiah Hartenstein as sole real inside player. This forced most of the campers to play totally out of position setting screens for example to other ball handlers while they were normally the guys who handle the ball in Pick and Roll situations normally. Nevertheless, some players could use this exhibition to showcase their very high potential and some of these kids will for sure be future campers in the mold of the Croatian Dragan Bender who was in the Next Generation group last year.

Players that we liked in this setting were for example the Lithuanian swingman Arnoldas Kubolka who displayed some nice ball handling skills and potential on the drive. With his already nice size and still being quite young in his development, he could grow into a role as point forward in the future as he showed some interesting passing skills as well. The physically strong Aleksa Radanov had some nice plays on the drive where he finished either above the rim or with good footwork to surround the defender. The above mentioned Isaiah Hartenstein was probably the most interesting  prospect as he combined length with great basketball skills as he showed already during the JBBL Top4 a few weeks ago. Another interesting player was the physically strong Bathiste Tchouaffé from France who had some nice drives to the hoop but also scored from outside in catch-and-shoot situations.

In the final game of the day, Vasilije Micic showed why he is considered as the main Draft Candidate in this year’s camp. The Serbian guard organized his team pretty well and found a multitude of great openings for his team mates with a variety of passes going from the simple drive and kick to cross court one handed passes or the no-look for the cutter. He could add some outside shooting that underlined his overall potential as a Point Guard for the highest level. His back-up in the All-Star game, the Croatian Paolo Marinelli had also a very good game as he created shots for his team mates on a similar level than Micic. Next to the two guards, Nemanja Dangubic had a superb game as the athletic Serbian prospect had a couple of high-flying finishes in the paint but could also knock down a his shots from outside which is a great plus for him who is not known as a very reliable shooter.

Rokas Giedraitis had a great game after having more or less a no-show in the first day. The Lithuanian swingman did a bit of everything on the wing and was one of the key factors why this All-Star team played on a rarely seen level together for this kind of game. Another factor for the great team play was the passing game of the inside options Dragan Bender and Johannes Voigtmann who both have a great understanding of the game and tremendous passing skills for players of their size. With a player like Marcus Eriksson on the wing, it is great for big men to go for the kick out pass on the help as you know that the Swede can knock down three-pointer with ease so that in the end, the campers won the game with a rarely seen 119 points in 40 minutes of playing time in the Adidas Eurocamp.