Nicolas de Virieu is a French Documentary movie maker that has produced a lot of highly interesting movies about Basketball. Among them, you can find different portraits or coverage of the famous Slam Nation dunkers in their worldwide tours. For fans of young European basketball players, two films are highly recommended.

The first movie covers the NBA Draft preparation in 2008 of the two French players Nicolas Batum and Alexis Ajinca. You can see how they fly around the States to do their different workouts, how they get interviewed and how the “hype” is created by their agency in order to get them drafted by the “right” franchise. Even if the move is in French, all English dialogues are subtitled in French. See below the Trailer and watch the full movie at Nicolas’ Dailymotion account.

The second movie covers the U19 World Championship in Serbia of the French 1988 generation around Nicolas Batum, Alexis Ajinca and Antoine Diot. Watch the Trailer of the movie below and the full movie can be seen here.

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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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Here are the latest rumors concerning the NBA Draft that will start tonight at 1h30 CET.

• After the period of Nicolas Batum‘s heart problems, the medical bulletin has not been released by his agents. The only teams that have it right now are the San Antonio Spurs (26th) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (19th).
• After the hype on Alexis Ajinca after his workouts and some Mocks having him as high as the lottery, his stock seems to plummet in the last hours. The NBA teams I spoke too don’t see him that high too. However, his agents (the same than Batum’s) see him higher than the player from Le Mans.
• Serge Ibaka won’t probably go in the first round as his agent reported to Draftexpress yesterday. It looks like Ibaka has a big offer from a Spanish powerhouse that virtually would make him unavailable if he gets drafted in the late first round. These rumors have however not been reported anywhere in Spain so far.
• From Croatia, I just got these two clips on their NBA Draft candidates: Ante Tomic and Damjan Rudez.
• Jonathan Givony interviewed Danilo Gallinari on the NBA Draft Media day.
• I don’t cover Australian Basketball but here you can see the Aussie prospects for this Draft.
• The rumors who get drafted where are of course the most interesting ones. As it was a clear thought that the Spurs will draft Nicolas Batum at 26th, ESPN reports that the Spurs want to trade their 26th pick. They probably know that Batum won’t be available anymore there.
• Another rumor is that the New Jersey Nets try to move up from 10 to 5 as they really like to draft Danilo Gallinari which seems to be a target for the Knicks at 6. BallinEurope reported already in May that Gallinari may end up in the top 5 according to an international NBA scout.

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A few days before the NBA Draft, I will give you recaps of my former reports on the European Early Entrants so that you can see a bit their development. I will also add the current status.

To start with, here is a short report I had on Ajinca from the 2006 Albert Schweitzer Tournament.

Ajinca looked a lot better than one year ago, when I saw him playing for the last time. He has improved nearly in every part of the game which shows that he has very good potential. Even if his legs still look very thin, his upper body has gained some muscle over the last year. He can beat his opponent on the drive nearly every time, but he is not forcing it. His leaping ability is fabulous, he made two alley-oops really above the rim on the set play. His ball handling skills on the drive a very good for a seven-footer, but he showed some problems catching the ball on the passes from his teammates. Has still no back to the basket game, when he gets the ball in the post-up, he turns to face his opponent and tries to beat him like this. But what impressed me the most, was his improvement on shot blocking. One year ago, he nearly jumped on every fake to block a shot, committing a lot of fouls. Now he stands in front of his opponent with his arms raised, and he only jumps when his opponent goes up. All in all, his progression since last year was impressive.

During the 2006 U18 European Championship, I had the following report on the French seven-footer.

He has even been compared to Kevin Garnett by some people, which is an unfair comparison at the moment. He still has incredible mobility for a player of his size but he lacks of physical density. The problem I see with this is that if he bulks up, he will loose his excellent speed which makes him so special. If he concentrates on a role of a defensively minded shot blocker, he has NBA potential as he can be considered already now as a world-class shot blocking talent.

Ajinca moved to Pau-Orthez then where he wanted to earn Euroleague minutes. I had the opportunity to see his first minutes on the highest European level in December 2006.

This week, Alexis Ajinca had his Euroleague debut. He played one minute in the game against Fenerbahce, where he had the time to take two three point shots. Of course, this limited playing time did not show anything of his talent, but nevertheless it was a first experience on the highest level for this kid. He still looks extremely thin, and he still plays outside being 7 foot tall. His first shot was totally out of reach, but the second one already could have gone in with a little more luck. It will be interesting to see if he can crack the rotation in the upcoming weeks.

In March 2007, Ajinca had his longest Euroleague minutes with Pau in a game against TAU Vitoria and Tiago Splitter.

A problem that consist with Alexis Ajinca who had the most minutes of the season in this game. He remained scoreless with his two only shots being three pointers again. He started with a nice drive but ran into the defender getting an offensive foul. He had one good action on an offensive board where he tipped the ball to his teammate who could score at the buzzer. But he struggled a lot on defense, where he got totally overpowered by Splitter in the rebound. He had tremendous problems to block out his man after a free-throw. But he needs really to get stronger if he wants to have any chance to play in the Euroleague more often. But still being really young, he has some time; but he needs to avoid injuries if he does not want to get thrown back in his evolution all the time.

In April 2007, Ajinca participated at his first Nike Hoop Summit where he finished a disappointing season with Pau-Orthez.

Alexis Ajinca was for most writers a disappointment; I think he showed exactly what he is, a great prospect but far away from being a player that is ready. His problems to play against physical opponents was already known to anybody that has seen him play this year. I guess that his selection hurt his stock considerably, as he showed his game during practice but he can not translate it at the moment to the court.
Of course, he will not enter the Draft this year, and he needs to bulk up a lot during the next months or totally change his game to a more SF orientated position where physical tools are not as needed as when playing in the paint.

In June 2007, Ajinca played with the French U19 team during the World Championships in Serbia.

The long and still thin Alexis Ajinca is developing into a defensive role player at the moment who uses his incredible wingspan to block shots and disturb opponents. Offensively he is physically to weak to to go for any inside moves but he knows how to use his speed to face his opponents and beat them off the dribble.

In the summer 2007, Alexis Ajinca moved from Pau to Hyères-Toulon where he was expected to get more playing time. Which he did. And he developed more and more into a physical inside player.

You can see his impressive showing in the second quarter where he was everywhere. He came up with some really impressive shot blocking action on the defensive end.

In the offense, he showed some presence in the paint going up for some explosive dunks. He looked really powerful on his plays and even if the physical development is still not finished, he already showed some improved upper body shape.

Of course, his huge wingspan helps him a lot as you can see in the clip, but what is really interesting for me is the fact that he looks like really working hard to become an inside player. As pointed out already, he is not taking any three point shots this season, he works in the paint to get his scores.

In February 2008, Ajinca had probably his best game of the season in the French Semaine des As, in front of many NBA scouts.

The second game of the first night brought up an astonishing defensive performance by Alexis Ajinca. The long seven footer is apparently developing into what will be his future position: defensive center. With 14 rebounds and 7 block shots, he was playing like a goal keeper in soccer. And even these 7 blocks seem to be under the absolute value of his performance as he declared that he had 10 blocks in the game in the press conference. After the nice offensive effort two weeks ago, Ajinca showed how present he can be in the defense and what he is capable of doing when he becomes stable in his play.

After his more than correct presence at the Nike Hoop Summit 2008, Ajinca impressed a lot of NBA teams in his recent workout and is one the edge of the lottery right now according to Draftexpress.com. This position is of course unexpected for somebody that was really down 1 year ago.

For the best plays of Alexis Ajinca this season in France: watch here

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A few days before the NBA Draft on Thursday, I will take a look at the latest editions of the Mock Draft and calculate the positions for the different Europeans that are still in the process.

Danilo Gallinari (10th)

The consensus is that Gallinari will fall at the 10th place to the New Jersey Nets. But the rumors of him being drafted by the Knicks are still there and he may move up when you check out the teams he was working out for. But he is definitely the European player that will get drafted first.

Nicolas Batum (21st)

Another little slide for Batum who did good workouts but got diagnosed with some minor heart problems these days. This may hurt his stock in the next days but the overall impression he gave for the team he worked out for were good to very good.

Alexis Ajinca (24th)

The runner of the last weeks is Alexis Ajinca who rocketed up the boards. His intriguing skills may have been one of the reasons and so he showed all his potential in the workouts. The teams have to considered still that he is not a huge contributor in the French league right now but he may have nice potential. Be prepared to not see him getting big minutes in the NBA next season.

Serge Ibaka (26th)

Ibaka also arrived now in a consensus 1st round area, which is probably the result of his showing at the Reebok Eurocamp. Even more raw than Ajinca, but also a year younger, Ibaka is another long-term potential who may end up as a good player or as a total bust.

Ante Tomic (41st)

Tomic is the only European early-entrant that stayed in the Draft and has no 1st round position among the Mock Drafts. He may be happy with a 2nd round spot as he is probably way more interested in a career in Europe than in the NBA. Being drafted in the 2nd round is better for him too as he may sign a big-money deal in Europe before moving to the NBA in a couple of years.

Omer Asik (42nd)

Asik had a nice workout in Treviso but is that enough to qualify for a 1st round pick. I don’t think so and him being around the 40th pick is probably the best for him and for the drafting team. Asik has more time to develop in the Euroleague and can decide if he moves to NBA in a couple of years. The 2nd round spot gives him also better salary conditions than being in the late 1st.

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

Pekovic, who is officially now a Panathinaikos Athens player remains exactly where I had him on my last Mock Review. Not a lot has changed for him in between as he is not doing any work outs either and does not display big interest in the NBA in general.

Goran Dragic (47th)

Dragic also took some advantage from his showing in Treviso and moved up in some of the Mocks. Some NBA scouts consider him as one of best prospects of the 1986 generation in the Draft internationally. So far, I did not hear anything about NBA workouts for him either. But we may see him end up somewhere in the 2nd round and developing a few more years within TAU Ceramica.

Semih Erden (50th)

For the moment, you don’t hear a lot about him. Still he moved up in some Mock Drafts as he was 54th in the last Review.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Not a lot of change for Ponkrashov either who could not boost his stock in Treviso with up-and-down play and a lot of individual choices. Still, he remains a good player who can do some good plays but his NBA chances seem very slim these days.

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Private workout of Alexis Ajinca (Part1)

Private workout of Alexis Ajinca (Part2)

Alexis Ajinca worked also out with the Charlotte Bobcats together with other seven-footers.

Victor Claver working out for the Portland Trailblazers.

Nicolas Batum works out for the Phoenix Suns together with some other forward prospects.

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With 30 days left until the 2008 NBA Draft, the sprint around the Globe for GM’s, scouts and other executives has begun. And europeanprospects.com comes up with its latest Mock Draft Review to check what are the trends in the most popular Mocks on the Web.

Danilo Gallinari (8th)

The uncontested  European No1 remains Danilo Gallinari. After having finished his season with AJ Milano with a 0-3 loss in the playoffs against Montepaschi Siena, the Italian forward can now concentrate fully to the upcoming Draft process which consists of camps, workouts and interviews. Despite the rumors that Gallinari may stay another season in Italy, he is a clear-cut lottery pick that even could go to the Top5 according to some NBA scouts. And the link with the Knicks at the 6th spot may be more than just a journalist’s story. But remains the question, if “il Gallo” is still available when the Knicks have their choice.

Nicolas Batum (20th)

The stock of the French forward is still falling and he reached the 20th spot in the Review this time. The recent comments by Pacers Larry Bird, who draft at 11, may boost him back into the lottery for some Mockers, but it would be more interesting to watch his current performances during the French playoffs. A nearly triple double (11pts 7rebs 9asts) in the match-up with Cholet qualified his team Le Mans for the semi-finals where they will play against the French champion Roanne.

Serge Ibaka (40th)

The Congolese PF is still the total mystery man in the Draft. While two of the most up-to-date Mock Drafts (DX and NBAdraft.net) don’t have him in at all, the other Mockers see him in the first round. So his stock could rocket up when he decides to remain in the process. He will be one of the most followed guys in Treviso in 10 days for sure and this camp may decide a lot on his future this year. He finished his regular season with L’Hospitalet in the second Spanish division with 10.7ppg and 8.0rpg while blocking 3.1 shots in just 25 minutes per game.

Alexis Ajinca (41st)

The long not that skinny anymore French Center is still moving up the boards as he is now considered as a Draft candidate for this season by nearly all of the Mocks. And those, that consider him see him at the end of the 1st round mostly. Ajinca, who is surprisingly not on the list of the Treviso invitees finished his season with Hyères-Toulon in a nice fashion and despite a limited playing time came up with some nice performances during the year. The next season should be his real break-through year if his learning curve remains as steep as it was this year. A little bit more regularity and we have a excellent prospect for the future.

Omer Asik (43rd)

Up and down may be story for Omer Asik from Turkey. Draftexpress had recently a long report on him after they had the possibility to analyse his game for the first time. And the least one could say is that they were delighted and immediately put him higher in their Mock. this has affected Asik’s position in the Review as well and so he is slowly moving up again in the second half of the 2nd round.

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

Still quite a deep position comparing to his current playing level, the Montenegrin Center from Partizan Belgrade remains some kind of doubtful in terms of NBA material. If the Draft would be for European teams only, he would be a Top 3 pick for sure. But we are talking about NBA here and so his “normal” athletic skills don’t give him the necessary credit among the Mock Draft writers.

Ante Tomic (50th)

Tomic is still hurt by some Mocks that don’t consider him at all. But Chad Ford for ESPN even sees him in the first round going to the Spurs. Well if that happens, in a few year’s time, everybody will say what a steal that was. Or not… Not a lot of news about him during the past few days though.

Semih Erden (54th)

The Turkish Center is still predicted somewhere in the late second round by most of the Mocks, so here we did not see a lot of change for him only moving from 58th to 54th spot.

Goran Dragic (55th)

Another candidate who has been in our reviews for the last months and always being picked around that 50th place. The athletic guard currently playing for Olimpija Ljubljana in the Slovenian playoffs could be an interesting pick in this region of the Draft as he has the necessary athletic skills to play in the NBA. but if that is enough?

Omri Casspi (56th)

A new entry in our review is the Israeli forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv. After an up-and-down performance during the Euroleague Final Four in Madrid, his name is now entering the boards throughout the net and he could end up somewhere in the second round if he stays in the Draft. Nothing is more unsure than that however.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Having led Khimky to the Russian Finals, Anton Ponkrashov’s season is now ever and he can concentrate on a possible NBA Draft career. He should be one of the top performers in Treviso of the 1986 class if he attends and is motivated as his talent level is without any doubt. What his future looks like is not so sure for the moment as he is just on loan with Khimky and it is probably not in his hands if he stays or will go back to CSKA Moscow for next season.

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Today, the French press announced the MVP trophies of the last season for the ProA and ProB league. And the least one could say is that these votings have been dominated by young prospects.

As I Love Basket reports, Nando de Colo has won the MVP trophy of the regular season for the French players in the ProA. The 2nd place in that vote went to Nicolas Batum. De Colo is the youngest player to win this trophy since Antoine Rigaudeau who won this trophy at the tender age of 20 years. And the last winner of this trophy who was 21 like Nando de Colo was Boris Diaw. If these are signs, one could say that Nando will have a bright future. But it also gives credit to the extraordinary season of the young French player from Cholet who won already the MVP of the All-Star Game, MVP of the Semaine des As and now MVP of the regular season. And additionally, he plays the Final of the Coupe de France tonight, so maybe another trophy will be added to his extraordinary run this year. You can watch here some highlights of one of the last games of Nando de Colo.

And if this was not enough, the MVP trophy of ProB went to Adrien Moerman. The young French PF who has been loaned to Nanterre from Roannne played a huge season in the second highest French league.

And finally, the trophy of the best young player of ProA went to Nicolas Batum, just ahead of Alexis Ajinca and Ludo Vaty.

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The list of the European early-entrants has been published a few days ago, so I took the time to go over it and give you my opinion, who will get drafted, who will take his name out again and other thoughts on the list.

Alexis Ajinca
Outlook: will stay in the Draft and will probably go in the 1st round

Nicolas Batum
Outlook: will stay in the Draft and can go for a lottery pick. According to the different mocks, his stock was dropping however the last weeks.

Rodrigue Beaubois
Outlook: is in the pool for the 2nd time after his surprising declaration last year which gave him a huge buzz. This season, Beaubois is doing pretty well and could stay in if he gets a promise

Mikheil Berishvili
Outlook:???

Omri Casspi
Outlook: boosted his stock during the season with some very interesting performances. But will take his name out probably and go for another season playing in Europe

Victor Claver
Outlook: testing the waters in my opinion and we will see his name dropping out before the deadline

Nando de Colo
Outlook: probably testing the waters to see how high he can go. Played an outstanding season so his stock may be at its highest point right now.

Danilo Gallinari
Outlook: lottery pick

Serge Ibaka
Outlook: has to go for a good camp in Treviso in order to keep the buzz on him alive.

Sergey Ilin
Outlook: unknown but 7″6 tall

Jonas Jerebko
Outlook: a little surprise to see his name here. Jerebko will only test the waters and show his skills at the Reebok Treviso Camp and drop out

Mladen Jeremic
Outlook: another surprising name in this list. The same that coutns for Jerebko will also count for Jeremic: name advertising, Treviso, drop out

Maxym Korniyenko
Outlook: ???

Luc Louves
Outlook: did not see any minutes in France but could go for a Beaubois-like buzz 2008 edition

Rudy Mbemba
Outlook: has been in the Draft process for ages and played a great season in Sweden. But is that enough to stay in the candidate list?

Henk Norel
Outlook: Steady progess over the last years for the Dutch big man. He can use Treviso to show his potential and maybe some team falls in love with him like Joel Freeland

Maxim Sheleketo
Outlook: I am very surprised to see him here but this maybe the Latvian VEF Riga attack to the NBA.

Giorgi Shermadini
Outlook: has a promise for the 1st round according to his agent so he will stay in the Draft

Ante Tomic
Outlook: is this year the year of Ante Tomic? Maybe a 2nd round spot is the ideal for him so that he can develop 2 more years in a top European team.

Maksym Vilkhovetskyi
Outlook: name dropping and testing the waters. He will hit some threes in Treviso and take his name out.

Ronalds Zakis
Outlook: cf. Sheleketo

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A little bit later than usual, but here it is again: the European Prospects Mock Draft Review. After adapting the formula to calculate a bit in order to take into account the update dates of the different mocks, here we are with the results as of today.

Danilo Gallinari (9th)

Gallinari is still at the top of the European ranking. After having announced officially that he will enter the Draft, the spot of the highest European pick seems now clearly decided. Still, the different mocks are not quite sure about his exact position. While he is seen as high as 6th by Draftexpress and NBAdraft.net, ESPN only sees him as the 15th best pick.

Nicolas Batum (18th)

Batum is continuing his slide in the different mocks. The French forward’s ups and downs are maybe one of the reasons for this drop in the rankings. Still, he showcases an amazing combination of physical tools and basketball skills which is probably not topped by any European prospects right now.

Serge Ibaka (37th)

Serge Ibaka is now considered as a first round pick by nearly any of the mocks. While his performance during the Nike Hoop Summit game was not the most remarkable, his physical tools amazed some of the scouts in attendance of the practice sessions. The question remains if Ibaka will enter this year’s draft or not.

Omer Asik (48th)

Another slider of the last weeks is Omer Asik. After a thunderous beginning of the season, the Turkish power forward/center is not seeing as many minutes as he plays with a much stronger team. So his numbers went down as well as the consideration for him by the mock draft writers.

Nikola Pekovic (49th)

Pekovic announced that he is not very interested by the NBA. Maybe this is the reason for his drop to the 49th position this time. As he is automatically eligible, there will probably one or another team that will however try to grab him somewhere in the second round. On the other hand, his agent told the Greek TV that Pekovic is not sure yet about what he does next season and that he is getting a lot of attention by the NBA teams at the moment.

Ante Tomic (51st)

His position has still a lot of upside potential as he is not considered by every mock so far. He has announced that he will be in this year, but was that not the case already some years before. Also, more and more top names in Europe want to sign the tall Croatian for next season. He can move up a lot in the Mocks but also totally fall out when he is not even in the early entrants at the end.

Alexis Ajinca (52nd)

Ajinça did everything right with a second appearance in the Nike Hoops Summit. His stock has moved up and his position in the different mocks ameliorated. However, the only Mock that had him in before the Summit has him now in its 2009 Mock. So there is still a lot of potential when it comes to his final position.

Goran Dragic (57th)

A big drop from the 47th to the 57th for the speedy Slovenian guard. He suffers probably a lot under the announcements of some college underclassmen to enter the Draft which were not in the lists before. Dragic’s future is also not clear for the moment as his “transfer” to TAU a few year’s ago is still in the courts now to be validated.

Semih Erden (58th)

The biggest slide came for Semih Erden, the athletic Turkish Center. For him may count the same story than for Dragic, suffering from the US early entrants. Erden is automatically eligible and should however find some interested team in the late second round.

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

Ponkrashov is still there but is he a legit NBA prospect? He played a good season so far for Khimky Moscow but it may be possible to see him back with CSKA next year and not in the NBA.

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