With the NBA Draft 2010 being held this week, it is about time to check the current situation of the automatically eligible Europeans.

Miroslav Raduljica would probably be a mid to end-of-first round option if the Serbian Center would not have declared and shown that he has no real interest to play in the NBA. Raduljica did not attend the Adidas Eurocamp and cancelled a workout specifically setup for him. He did not work out either for any NBA Team so far and will probably move to a top-level Euroleague team next season. However, there are certainly NBA Franchises that will take a closer look at him when he is still available during the Draft ceremony because the number of skilled and physical seven-footers is always limited. Raduljica averaged 13.7ppg at 57.6% in the Adriatic League where he added 6.4rpg in 26 minutes. The absence of NBA caliber athletic abilities and poor shot blocking presence combined with his “no-NBA-attitude” are probably the reasons why in the end, he may not get drafted at all.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: #45 by Minnesota, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Alexey Shved has been a mystery on the Senior level for a lot of years as his talent level was uncontested but as he has been stashed on the CSKA Moscow bench over the last seasons, it was difficult to see what his real potential is especially as he lost several years of experience but not playing. But his move to Dynamo Moscow in December 2009 helped him to immediately get minutes on the highest level (Russian League and Eurocup) and show that he can play basketball against professionals. Shved should be able to play the PG spot in the NBA with his excellent size (1m96) and fundamentals and he has also the athletic abilities to compete. He finished his season in Russia with 10.3ppg at 55.7% 2FG together with 2.7rpg, 3.7apg and 0.8spg in 22 minutes on the court. He is probably the European played with the most potential upside of the 1988 born automatically eligible players.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: #49 by San Antonio, NBADraft.net: #58 by Los Angeles Lakers

Nemanja Bjelica is probably one of the most interesting players in this draft as the 2m09 tall Serbian forward is really a versatile player that probably impressed several teams during his workouts with his skills. He has been reported to not be the most regular player in terms of production which is underlined by his stats of the past season. However, the Crvena Zvezda player is a talent on its own and can be used in different positions on the court and could be a match-up creator with his great size when used on SF for example. Together with Shved, he is the only 88 born player currently considered by the two main Mock Draft websites, both having him in the second round where he probably will end up. The question remains if he would try to gain a roster spot this summer or stay in Europe. His presence in the United States for workouts shows however that the NBA is in his mind and a goal for him.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: #50 by Dallas, NBADraft.net: #40 by Indiana

Vladimir Dasic is another player that may have 1st round potential but the Montenegrin has shown serious mental problems over the last years that generate a lot of doubts about his professional career. After having signed a 3 year deal with Real Madrid last summer, Dasic could never fulfill the hopes that Madrid had in him and he moved away to Gran Canaria during to get ejected as well. He played only the first day of the Adidas Eurocamp because he was apparently injured and he did not appear in any NBA workouts over the last days. From the talent level alone, Dasic can be described as a physically strong wing who can score both from inside and outside. But the current situation implicates that the main topic for Dasic is to find a team whatsoever for next season.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Ludovic Vaty has done a multitude of workouts for NBA Teams in preparation for the NBA Draft and he was also present at the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. The French big guy did not impress though with any particular skills and remained in his rebounder role. He can score close to the basket but has no really go-to-move when playing in the low post. Vaty will probably remain undrafted as neither the talent level nor the athletic abilities are good enough to have a role in the NBA.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Paulao Prestes played his first full ACB season in 2009-2010 with CB Murcia and is a player that has not really drawn a lot of interest by NBA teams or international media. Draftexpress had a long article on him a few weeks ago and we have never covered him so far which may be also due to his Brazilian nationality. His ankle injury from end of April put him out of the Adidas Eurocamp as well as unable to do some workouts with NBA teams previous to the Draft. If there are NBA franchises that have done their homework, they have scouted him in the ACB over the season and are aware of his potential. Draftexpress sees him in the second round.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: #44 by  Portland, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Stefan Markovic is a Serbian PG that is rumored to have signed already a two-years deal with Benetton Treviso this spring and not really considering the NBA as an option. He has not participated to the Adidas Eurocamp nor to any NBA workouts so far but several teams have certainly seen him play with Hemofarm this season and may consider him. However, Markovic is not really the prototype of the NBA Pointguard and it would be a major surprise if he gets selected on the 24th June.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Boban Marjanovic is probably an option that some NBA teams are thinking about as the 2m22 tall Serbian Center has played a fairly correct season with Hemofarm. However, Marjanovic’s name has not been mentioned in any NBA Workouts so far. Marjanovic brings fantastic size with him and is quite a nice basketball player, even if he is a bit stiff and slow, even for his size. But there may be some teams that take some bet on him and draft the Serbian giant. Remember Slavko Vranes who has been drafted also? This player is certainly a bigger talent on the offensive end.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Marko Keselj is yet another Serbian player that is automatically eligible in this year’s draft. Considered as a top-talent a few years ago, Keselj had made some choices in his early career that probably stopped his development when he saw no serious minutes with Girona. After a year in Germany, Keselj plays now an important role for Crvena Zvezda in Serbia where he averaged 9.1ppg in the Eurocup. The 2m09 tall wing was present in the United States for some workouts but we did not hear anything particular out of it and which teams may be interested in him. Keselj himself would like to play for the Los Angeles Lakers according to the presentation on his agent’s website.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Artem Zabelin played at the Reebok Eurocamp in 2009 and is currently in the United States to do some workouts with NBA Teams. The 2m15 tall Russian has however never really seen important minutes on the Senior level with CSKA Moscow so that it is hard to judge his real value. From a strict talent level, he has everything you need as the 7 footer is mobile, can shoot the ball, run the floor but remains however a really thin player who prefers to play on the wing than battling in the post. Maybe some franchise likes his potential and will spend a second round pick on him.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Tim Ohlbrecht has preferred to do his Draft preparations exclusively in the United States and did not participate to the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. We did not hear anything particular on how this choice has impacted his Draft potential. Ohlbrecht comes of a good season after a disaster in the last year he was in Bamberg. He can have a role a shooting and shot-blocking big man on NBA level as he has the necessary athletic abilities to compete. However, Ohlbrecht has not really developed a serious back to the basket game yet but his progress curve has again turned upwards over the last months.

Current Mock Situation (20th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

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After having discussed the NBA prospects in Treviso, I take a closer look at the other players present in Treviso that may be NBA candidates in the next years or stay in Europe.

Let’s start this report with Pablo Aguilar, not only because he was one of the best players in the tournament but because he is the first one in the alphabetical order. After having seen him several times in the ACB this season, I was however quite surprised how well he did in this setting, being more of a hard working player. First of all, you recognize a very interesting body structure with a nice wingspan (216cm versus 203cm size) and a large shoulders.

The main offensive weapon of Aguilar is his great jump shot which he can hit from around the key pretty well. His baseline shot looks very easy and he has range up to the NBA three point line. He has also a good presence in the rebound and is not afraid to dribble out and go coast to coast. He recognizes the game very well and knows how to get his team mates open with pass fakes for example. He knows what he does on court and looks like playing always under control. His season in Granada helped him to develop into a very interesting prospect. He should stay one more year with his current team in order to gain even more playing time on the ACB level before he can start to be a contributor in the Euroleague

One of the players that I really wanted to see was the Hungarian G/F Adam Hanga. Hanga showed an interesting combination of speed, athletic abilities and basketball skills. Being pretty aggressive on the court, Hanga can handle the ball pretty well and likes to drive to the basket. During stretches, he took the ball to play PG for his team which he did quite well. His great speed helps him to beat shorter players on the drive where he can go for the dunk over the defense or finish for example with a floater, also over taller players.

The main problem is however his jump shot which needs some development. His relatively slow mechanics and a shooting setup with the ball in front of his face don’t give him the possibility right now to arm his shot against aggressive defenders. It will be interesting to see what is Hanga up to next year, if he stays in Hungary or not. First of all, he will try to give some good impressions during the U20 European Championship B Division in Skopje this summer.

The only Lithuanian player in the camp was Mindaugas Kuzminskas from Siauliai. The athletic wing player showed some interesting aspects, good fakes and a nice range, when he is open. He is working well in the offensive rebound despite not being that big or tall. His jumping abilities help him in that area though and his correct speed and ball handling are reason why his drive is one of his best options at the moment.

Carl Ona Embo showed some nice flashes of his offensive scoring talent. Being not that tall with only 1m83, Ona Embo needs to become a better play maker if he wants to have role going further than the scoring guard. He can hit the three pointer in series, also out of the dribble but he struggles in his passing technique as you could see him several times going for too high or too low dishes out of his drives.

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Nikos Pappas was definitely not in his best days in Treviso. You could not see any improvement in his most to be improved parts of the game, athleticism and ball handling under pressure. However, you still have here a player with a terrific understanding of the game. He can drive pretty well despite looking very slow. Out of these penetrations, he can score on the layup correctly but he is more active in creating spaces for his team mates or drawing fouls to go to the line.

Another player that drew a lot of attention was the Kazakh PF/C Anton Ponomarev. The probably best player ever coming from Astana struggled a bit in the beginning to adjust his game to a level that he has never played against. Ponomarev showed a very good jump shot for a guy of his size (2m09) and also displayed an interesting but still to be developed back to the basket game. His court vision and understanding is overdeveloped and you could see him check around what the current game situation is.

His jump shot is at the moment his strongest asset, nailing with high accuracy around the key but also a potential good three point threat. He is very aggressive on the court, fights a lot and is on every hot situation to dive for the ball or to tip the ball away. With his move to Hyères-Toulon where he signed a four year contract, he should develop pretty well over the next years as the level of competition he faces will be a lot higher than in his current situation.

Tomas Satoransky was clearly one of the most talented players in the whole camp. The Czech forward, that can also play guard and even Point Guard, showed an incredible feel for the game, great athletic abilities and an above average scoring will. Even if his shot is a bit unstable which is probably the result of an underdeveloped body at the moment, Satoransky can hit the ball from all around the court when he is open. When he gets defended harder, his shooting mechanics are not that great anymore and his shot looks more like throwing the ball to the rim.

However, Satoransky was really impressive when driving to the basket as he could finish extremely well when being close to the basket. He showed great jumping abilities and hammered down one of the best dunks of the three days with a huge put back against the whole defense. Satoransky ran the show for the team he played and his big time talent was one of the major discussion points during the camp. It is not a big surprise that Cajasol Sevilla signed him according to several reports and he is supposed to make an immediate impact in the ACB right from next year.

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Alexey Shved is already a regular participant to the Reebok Eurocamp, but he did not show that much of a development since last year. However, his upper body looked a lot stronger. He is a great scorer when his shot is falling and his jump shot looks so easy and nice from any distance. Shved should finally get playing time with CSKA next season and after that, it will be interesting to see what level he can reach. He seems to recognize now better when to stop shooting and switching in his role to be a PG, a problem that was present the previous years. He is still one of the most interesting players in Europe right now.

To finish the report, let’s take a look at the Russian Center Artem Zabelin. He gained more than 10kg this season which was totally lost for him because of a severe injury. In general, Zabelin did not look like he has lost anything in his basketball talent, his jump shots look impressive for a player of his size and in defense, he excels in shot blocking. On the other hand, he is not that explosive as a player and he did not really showed polished move in the low post.

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• France continued their run to finish the tournament unbeaten. And it was also Kim Tillie that continued his impressive play during this tournament. After the performances here, France U20 can seriously be considered as a Medal candidate in Riga for the U20 European Championships. Having a back court rotation with Antoine Diot, Thomas Heurtel, Aboulaye M’Baye, Rudy Jomby and Edwin Jackson is particularly impressive on this level. And the inside sector with hard working role players like Guy-Marc Michel and the scoring Adrien Moerman is also on a very high level.
• Lithuania finished 2nd of the tournament with only one loss, against France. After totally dominating Spain on Friday, the Lithuanians had a nice comeback win on Saturday against Russia while they had no problems to destroy Luxembourg tonight. The Baltic team has multiple scoring options and is of course having their clear-cut leader in Martynas Gecevicius. But also guys like Vaidas Cepukaitis, Sarunas Vasiliauskas and the surprising Canada located Evaldas Zabas are doing a good job. Zabas only joined the team this year after he came to Lithuania and showed up at the preparation camp asking if he could join the team. He practiced hard and made the cut and is now in the rotation. Zabas is currently considered as the 2nd best PG in Canada just behind Devoe Joseph.
• A disappointing Spanish team finished however on the correct 3rd place. Disappointing especially in the games I saw them play. But if you add Victor Claver, who just got cut from the Spanish senior National team for the Olympics, you have a very talented and well equilibrated team. Pablo Aguilar was playing a correct tournament over the whole days doing a bit of everything. With the addition of Claver, the inside game will be enforced because for the moment, Spain was a bit weak over there.
• The fourth place was for Turkey after their wins against Russia and Luxembourg. The team from coach Orhun Ene was clearly led by Dogus Balbay and Baris Hersek but the rest of the team could never come up with top-level European performances. In Riga, we won’t probably see a lot of improvement for them as the roster simply lacks of quality in my eyes.
• Russia finishes fifth of the tournament with a lonely win over Luxembourg. Despite aligning talented players like Dimitry Khvostov, Artem Yakovenko, Artem Zabelin or Ilya Syrovatko, Russia could never setup great basketball or at least, could not stand to play on a high level for 40 minutes. The addition of Alexey Shved is questionable and with the displayed attitude here, I won’t see them going far in Riga.
• Luxembourg finished last of the tournament but showed extreme will and fighting spirit throughout the 5 days. Being incredibly inferior in terms of size, the team played a speedy guard game based on aggressive defense and three point shooting. They showed their best game probably against Turkey where they remained in the game until the 32nd minute but then got killed in the last 8 of the game. A very big honorable mention for the whole team.
• My personal All-Tournament team would be the following:
  PG Sarunas Vasiliauskas (Lithuania)
  SG Edwin Jackson (France)
  SF Pablo Aguilar (Spain)
  PF Kim Tillie (France)
  C Vaidas Cepukaitis (Lithuania)

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• In the first game of the tournament, Turkey lost against Lithuania where the three point shooting was going. Behind the 4/4 from Lukas Brazdauskis, the Liths beat the Turks 85-82 where Dogus Balbay showed that he is fully back after his injury year in the United States.
• Spain beat Russia in a poor game where the two main player for every team were not present. Neither Alexey Shved, nor Victor Claver traveled to this tournament and so it were the other guys that played the game. For Spain, let’s notice the correct performance of Pablo Aguilar while for the Russians, Artem Yakovenko did his job. Artem Zabelin however looked extremely soft and was more focused on discussing with the refs than playing basketball.
• France had no problem to beat a poor Luxembourg team. Kim Tillie played great after his season in Utah.
• Day 2 started with another defeat for the underperforming Russian team where Yakovenko was correct again. Dogus Balbay is playing a nearly perfect tournament so far for Turkey as he is currently having an incredible 16/18 2FG. He sees good support from Baris Hersek who hits his long distance shots.
• France made a defense show against Lithuania and totally destroyed the Baltic team 83-58. A great collective effort and extremely aggressive defense were the keys for the 2006 U18 champions generation where Kim Tillie showed once again his athletic game and good shooting touch.
• The game of the night was however at the surprise of everybody in the gym the matchup between Luxembourg and Spain. The huge favorites from Iberia were a bit surprised when the Luxembourgish team that played with 4 guards and 1 forward was only trailing by 5 at the half. The Spanish managed to make the game winning effort in the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half but Luxembourg fought back to lose only by 16 points. Spain did not really looked concerned about this game as they should. But Luxembourg also hit an incredible 16/27 from behind the arc.

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In the last part of my review of the Reebok Eurocamp 2008 in Treviso, I will tell who were the big guys that impressed the most during the camp.

Serge Ibaka (2m09 – Power Forward – 1989 – L’Hospitalet)

Serge Ibaka was the prospect that was observed the most by the NBA scouts because of his extraordinary physical set. Standing 2m09 tall and displaying a wing span of 2m22 with a vertical jump of 85cm, Ibaka is a rare specimen for European standards. Additionally, Ibaka played only in the second Spanish League which made him even more mysterious for people coming from the United States. So what is he about?

First of all, you see that Ibaka lacks a lot of basketball experience. He jumps on nearly every fake and took some bad decision in game situations. Also in the offense, you saw him having serious trouble when starting for drives or putting the ball on the floor which caused him a lot of turnovers due to travel violations. A lot of work is ahead in this department. But on the other hand, Ibaka has already a nice offensive set to score despite being only 18 years old. He has correct shooting touch and can even hit the three point shot. He works very hard on the offensive rebound where he can go for spectacular put back dunks. In defense, he is a good shot blocker but may have to go for better choices when he needs to block and when to avoid the foul call. As Ibaka is reported to stay in Draft, he is a good catch for a long term prospect but he would probably have close to zero impact if he joins a NBA right now.

Vladimir Stimac (2m06 – Center – 1987 – Valmiera/Zalgiris Kaunas)

Vladimir Stimac is probably the worst physical specimen if you go just by his numbers. But he has basketball talent. And knows also how to use his impressive body. Looking exhausted when only entering the floor, Stimac transforms into an absolute beast and fighter under the basket. He gives always 110% and does all the dirty work you need to win a game.

Stimac has excellent positioning in the paint and he is very hard to move. He has no real moves but with his force he puts his defenders so much in trouble that he comes up often with high percentage shots or layups. His shooting touch is not too bad, he can even hit an occasional three but his game is really in the post. Additionally, Stimac displayed some very correct passing skills in a few high-low plays and he loves to play the pick and roll with his guards.

Artem Zabelin (2m17 – Center – 1988 – CSKA Moscow)

Zabelin looks like an incredible talent with fantastic size, excellent fundamentals and a great shot. However, he still has not played anywhere close to his potential on the professional level over the past years. So the camp was once again a demonstration for his skillset which includes nearly everything the modern basketball player needs.

Zabelin has an excellent shooting touch until the three point line from where he can hit several shots in a game, from all around the arc. He also showed some very impressive ball handling skills and drives in traffic which is a very rare gift for a player of his size. In defense, Zabelin is present with some great block shots which are however more the result of his great size than of a particular shot blocking timing. But the main problem that remains with Zabelin is that is nowhere close for the moment to have an impact on the professional level, which may be the result of his soft play. Having turned 20 this winter, Zabelin definitely needs some accrued playing time in order to develop his skills and become a player up to his potential.

Henk Norel (2m13 – Center – 1987 – Alicante/DKV Joventut)

Henk Norel had a very interesting camp where he showed all his potential and the result of several years of hard work in Spain. In those years, he has build a nice body which is far away from the thin kid we saw a few years ago. What has remained however is his very aggressive and quick way to run the floor.

Coming to the basketball part, Norel showed a nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Mostly acting in the post, he displayed several moves with his back to the basket. He showed nice fakes that looked well coordinated and properly used in order to score on easy layups. He can also use his speed in order to turn around his defender and go up for nice powerful dunks. Three point range is there too, but not one of the main scoring options.

Jakub Wojciechowski (2m13 – Power Forward – 1990 – Benetton Treviso)

The Polish power forward who is since quite a time active for Benetton Treviso was one of the youngest players in the camp and since he never got featured here, I come up with a short report on him. Standing 2m15 tall, Wojciechowski has an amazing shooting touch and can hit three pointers in series. His jump shot looks very sweet and is currently his main offensive weapon. As he only turned 18 this year, Wojciechowski has still a lot of upside and when he adds a bit more kilos and a more developed penetration game, he can become a very interesting face-up player on the PF position.

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• The top statistical performers from the last day of the Reebok Eurocamp were Artem Zabelin with a 20pts, 7rebs game, Henk Norel who had 14pts and 4rebs while going 2/2 from behind the arc, the surprising Swiss guard Dusan Mladjan who had another nice 17pts 3rebs and 5asts game for his team. Jaka Klobucar finished his all-in-all very good camp with 15pts 4rebs and 3asts while Jonas Jerebko did a good job with 14pts and 9rebs in the last regular game of the camp.
• Talking about Jonas Jerebko, you can see him in action here during the morning sessions where he was showing his three-point shooting skills.
• The very last game of the camp was another apparition of the Reebok Camp All-Stars where it was all Russian yesterday. Alexey Shved showed once again his excellent shooting skills (8/15 3FG) to finished with a game high 26pts with additional 5asts and 4rebs. Semen Shashkov showed in that game too why a lot of people are very high on him. The 2m06 tall forward came up with 14pts 6rebs and 5stls.
• Alexey Shved was unfortunately not that hot in the morning sessions where I followed him during his three point shootout.
• The lecture in the morning by Bob Hurley was not that interesting as the one of Ettore Messina the day before. When asking him about the possibility to get these drills and daily workout routine to use it with his team, a coach got the following answer: just check out Steve Nash’s DVD, it is all from there.
• A final video clip with most of the participants of the camp in another morning shooting exercise.

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