European Prospects

Today, I had the possibility to follow two games of the German Bundesliga that featured some of the most promising prospects that see the floor on a regular basis. Here is my report about these three young men.

Cologne has changed its team and its ambitions according to their now limited financial possibilities. So there is the opportunity for some youngsters to get considerable minutes. And one of the most promising players in their roster is the 1989 born 2m15 tall Tibor Pleiss. He started the game against Frankfurt Skyliners but he looked a bit nervous in the beginning and had some problems to defend the shorter but massive Frankfurt inside guys. But his very long arms changed some shooting directions and made it hard for the players that wanted to drive. Of course, the foul calls were falling on him as he had no bonus with the referees anywhere today. Two offensive foul calls were absolutely incredible and prevented him from more minutes and scoring. His finally only field goal came on a nice post up where he captured the high pass with ease and made some king of lay-up shot from the front of the rim without taken the ball down after the catch. Pleiss has to use the minutes he gets at the moment in order to gain as much experience as possible, especially on the defensive end, as he has the tools to develop into a very mobile and versatile big man in the future.

Philipp Schwethelm is already a bit further in his development as he played already big minutes during the last season. So it is no surprise to see him playing the game in a more confident way. After a very disappointing Reebok EuroCamp this summer (where Schwethelm flew in with only 3 days of preparation after being on holiday), he looks a lot more in shape right now and scored a very difficult shot to start the game. After that, he was not very present except for two long distance shots in his little fade-away style. If Schwethelm can gain a bit of speed and athleticism, he should be very interesting to follow on the guard position as he has excellent size and a good shooting touch. And he is quite confident as his minutes are guaranteed with the current roster of the team.

Everything was set in the second game of the afternoon for Tim Ohlbrecht. After a nice debut during the week, the Bamberg Power Forward was supposed to play big minutes as Starting Center Alexander Johnson was injured. But directly in the first minutes of the game, you could see that it would not going to be Ohlbrecht’s night. Being very passive, Ohlbrecht did not see a lot of ball in the offense and struggled in defense. Göttingen immediately attacked him in the first possessions and Ohlbrecht did not went out for the jump shots of his opponent. And on the drives, he came up with some stupid fouls so that his playing time was limited to about 7 minutes in the first half without any offensive play. Ohlbrecht started the second half on the bench because of his foul trouble and only came back into the game in the mid of the third quarter. He was then more present in the defensive rebound but offensively, his participation to the game was limited to set screens. All in all, it was a disappointing game by the German top big man prospect.

What should have been a Tim Ohlbrecht party came out to be the big game of the surprising 1985 born Dominik Schneider who impressed with his hustle play and hard screens.