The Eurobasket 2009 is history now and I take a look at the players that can be considered as the most interesting prospects of the tournament. The players featured in the article are those that are still potentially NBA Draft candidates, so all the players born in 1988 or earlier but not drafted yet.

Automatically eligible in 2010

Tim Ohlbrecht (2m10 – Center – 1988 – Germany – Telekom Baskets Bonn)

The German PF/C Tim Ohlbrecht is currently in a situation where he gets more playing time on Eurobasket level than with his former club team of Brose Baskets Bamberg. This situation should change next season as his new coach (former EL winner Mike Koch) and team (Telekom Baskets Bonn) foresees him as a Starter on the PF position for a EuroCup team.

Ohlbrecht needs absolutely to develop either a back to the basket game to play C or to improve his ball handling in order to be able to attack his defender from outside with the drive, something he should be able to go for with his speed. Basically, he scores right now out of dishes from his team mates, which he does pretty well and what he will improve next season with a pass-first PG (Jarred Jordan) and on offensive put backs. His athletic abilities help him a lot in this domain. Defensively, he needs to get better in terms of avoiding foul trouble. As he is an above average shot blocker, he tries sometime to go too much for the rejection and gets called a lot on cheap fouls in these situations. Right now, it was not a big problem as he did not play major minutes (or did he not play major minutes because of foul trouble) but for the next season, which will be determining for him as he is automatically eligible for the NBA Draft (NBAdraft.net foresees him right now at the end of the 2nd round), he needs to work on this point in order to go for more than being just a rotation guy.

Stats: 5.0ppg (9/17 2FG 9/13FT) 2.2rpg 0.4bpg

Nemanja Bjelica (2m09 – Forward – 1988 – Serbia – Crvena Zvezda Belgrade)

Nemanja Bjelica is one of the most interesting prospects who played at the Eurobasket 2009. Being 2m09 tall, Bjelica can play the SF position and even if he never found his shooting rhythm during the tournament, he showed that he has all the tools to become a great player in the next years. Athletically, Bjelica has quite nice leaping ability, has good speed with the ball and also laterally on defense and he displays a nice wingspan. Everything is there to become a high class defender on the wing, the role that he saw the most minutes in with Serbia during the Eurobasket.

Due to his athletic skills, he is an above average shot blocker for his SF position and he is not afraid to go reject the big guys from the help side. He is highly active in the defensive rebound (he was the best Serbian rebounder of the tournament despite playing only 17 minutes per game and grabbing only 2 in the last two games combined). Offensively, it was not the best days for Bjelica as his shot was not falling at all, but he never lost his confidence and took the open looks that he got. One play that I remember particularly well was an offensive situation where Bjelica missed a dunk on the drive, sprinted back on defense and on the next offensive situation immediately got the ball back in the corner to hit the big three pointer from there.

Bjelica is certainly a player that some NBA team will take a closer look at as he is one of these rare combinations of height, athleticism, shooting and overall basketball skills with a defensive presence. With Crvena Zvezda in Serbia, he will certainly get a lot of minutes this season in the Adriatic League as well as in the EuroCup and he should be able to get a look at in the 2nd round in 2010.

Stats: 2.6ppg (4/13 2FG 3/12 3FG) 5.1rpg 1.0spg 0.4bpg

Stefan Markovic (1m91 – Guard – 1988 – Serbia – Hemofarm Vrsac)

The Serbian PG had a tough role behind the scoring leader Milos Teodosic. But Markovic earned his minutes through big time defense and unlimited fighting spirit. He was very active on the court, finishing the tournament with a nice stat line except for his shooting percentages. I don’t know what happened to his long distance shot, even if he has never been a tremendous three point shooter, but in Poland, he was simply ice-cold. So with the time, he started to recognize that and you could see him follow his own misses pretty well to get offensive boards. With his club team, he will go back into a more offensively minded role as scoring PG and we will see how he develops over the upcoming season.

Stats: 1.8ppg (4/10 2FG 0/16 3FG) 3.0rpg 1.8apg 0.7spg

Miroslav Raduljica (2m13 – Center – 1988 – Serbia – FMP Zeleznik)

Miroslav Raduljica had only a limited role with the Serbian team despite being a Starter at times. With Nenad Krstic as clear inside leader and the improvements of Kosta Perovic during the tournament, the minutes for the young big remained limited and he could not show that much. With the two aforementioned and the unlimited number of new quality bigs coming out, Raduljica will be in a constant battle in order to secure his spot in the National Team for the upcoming years.

Stats: 3.3ppg (8/14 2FG) 0.9rpg

Baris Hersek (2m07 – Forward – 1988 – Turkey – Banvit)

The Turkish Power Forward got some minutes during this tournament when there was either no danger of losing the game (against Bulgaria) or after the injury of Ersan Ilyasova during the 5-8th place games. Hersek is a very active guy on the court with a lot of energy. When he gets the ball, he goes mostly in a head-down style of play where he tries to score with his physical presence. After a full season in the Turkish first league, he needs to confirm with Banvit in order to show if he is ready for the next step. Right now, he does not look like being a candidate, even for the 2nd round of the upcoming NBA Draft.

Stats: 2.7ppg 2.7rpg 0.8spg

Future potential NBA Draft picks

Robin Benzing (2m08 – Forward – 1989 – Germany – ratiopharm Ulm)

Coming out of the second division in Germany (ProA with TV Langen) to play the Eurobasket is not the easiest thing. But Robin Benzing showed that he is already now a serious rotation player on the European level and probably one of the most interesting SF prospects. Playing against Euroleague and NBA level players have certainly helped the young kid to develop and he should be able to play a major role in the Bundesliga next season.

Benzing is a 2m08 tall forward with a nice out side shot and an interesting drive. His three point shot is falling at a correct 35% right now (he scored 2 out 6 in Poland with a game winning three against Russia and went for 52/166 over the full last season) and he shots most of it in catch-and-shot fashion. The release is not the quickest one but this may be the result of his height. His drives look very energetic, especially of the left hand where he manages despite being not that physical to reach the rim most of the times and where he can finish it with both hands under pressure. His footwork on the drives gives him the possibility to go for very nice spin moves to pass his defenders as he did for example very nicely against Antonis Fotsis of Greece. Additionally, his drives give him a lot of foul calls and he connects it very well from the free throw line.

Because of his size, he can offer his team lots of mismatch situations as he is able to post up smaller guys and to finish with some basic back to the basket moves. Defensively, Benzing struggles of course against smaller and faster wings, but he did for example a nice job to guard Zoran Planinic against Croatia during the few moments he defended against the long guard. Benzing, who has signed a deal until 2011 with the German Bundesliga Team ratiopharm Ulm, needs now to confirm his status on a regular basis (he went for ups and downs in Poland: 0pts against France, game winner against Russia, 2pts against Latvia, 16pts against Greece). His first season on the highest German level will show where he might go in the next years.

Stats: 5.5ppg (8/15 2FG 2/6 3FG 11/12FT) 1.6rpg

Lucca Staiger (1m94 – Guard – 1988 – Germany – Iowa State)

The Iowa State player came up here in this Eurobasket with his first games on the European senior level and he showed quite some interesting moments on the court. After a more or less slow start, Staiger improved his game in the 2nd round of the tournament and having a great shooting night against FYROM where he made 14pts at 4/6 3 point shots, the two misses coming in the final minutes where he took difficult shots to come back in the game.

Staiger excels when coming of the screen for the catch and shoot three point shot. He does not look particularly quick when running but his shooting mechanics allow him to fire the ball up immediately after catching it, even out of a direction change or spin. But he can also hit the ball out of the dribble as he showed once or twice, especially with a nice fake, dribble step back three against Croatia. He nailed some clutch free throws in the final seconds against Russia in order to secure the only German win in the tournament. With his massive physical presence and good athletic abilities, Staiger is also able to become a high level defender in the next years. After yet another season with Iowa State, Staiger should be ready to take over the Starting SG job in the German National Team.

Stats: 5.0ppg (2/2 2FG 8/14 3FG) 1.2rpg

Elias Harris (2m01 – Forward – 1989 – Germany – Gonzaga)

Elias Harris was a major factor in the preparation games for the Eurobasket as well as during the 1st round. But since the game against Greece, his playing time was reduced (his PT went up steadily through the first 4 games from 11 to 23 minutes but then fall to 6 and then 4 minutes in the last two games). This was probably the result of the emergence of Lucca Staiger late in the Eurobasket as Coach Bauermann used Harris mainly as back-up on the SG position, the same spot that occupied Staiger.

The usage as SG backup was one of the big surprises that Bauermann created with this young German team as Harris was so far considered as a PF who may play SF one day if he improves his shot. The problem was that with his size (2m01), he is a bit short to guard European PF so that the German coaches decided to play him as defensive stopper against the opposing guards, something he did very well through his excellent physical and athletic abilities. Offensively though, he was not a real option with the team this year, maybe because he had to play a position that was unusual for him. When joining Gonzaga this fall, it will be interesting to see how the College coaches will use him and what will be the future position of Harris.

Stats: 2.2ppg 2.3rpg

Tibor Pleiss (2m15 – Center – 1989 – Germany – Brose Baskets Bamberg)

This Eurobasket was more of a learning process than a playing time outburst for the tall German C prospect. With limited minutes, Pleiss could not show his nice shooting touch and suffered from his physical deficits. With Brose Baskets, he will need to get stronger physically as he will arrive there as a successor of Tim Ohlbrecht in a role as back-up Center and will also face the more physical but younger Philipp Neumann to grab the minutes behind the Starter Elton Brown.

Stats: 1.3ppg 1.0rpg

Milan Macvan (2m03 – Forward – 1989 – Serbia – Hemofarm Vrsac)

After a strong start into the tournament, the impact of the youngest Serbian player of the tournament decreased in order to be a minor role player at the end. Macvan still displays a limited athletic ability combined with  nice basketball IQ, good positioning and an improving shooting. His three point percentages are improving over the years but his limited speed hurt him when attacking the basket. He can however overcome this weakness with his understanding of the game.

Stats: 2.8ppg (3/12 2FG 4/10 3FG) 1.9rpg 0.9apg

Antoine Diot (1m90 – Guard – 1989 – France – Le Mans)

The French Guard finished a dream-like summer on a very strong note. After a Silver Medal with the French U20 team, Diot got a call-up to play with the French senior team this summer, earned his rotation spot during the Additional Qualification Round and became a member of the 12-men roster for the Eurobasket 2009 where he finished strong on two great games with either 13 and 18pts. Antoine Diot is now a full member of the French Senior National Team.

Diot is currently playing a role as combo-guard with a tendency for being the backup of Tony Parker as the PG of the French National Team. His great improvements in terms of long-distance shooting helped him to be an asset that the French team is looking for, a reliable exterior threat. It was him who initiated the turn-around in the game for the fifth place by netting 4 FTs in a row after having opened the comeback run with a three point shot. His long-distance shots are especially effective when he can take them from the corner in catch-and-shoot fashion after receiving the pass out of drives from his team mates.

When positioned to play the PG, he likes the Pick-and-Roll situations where he has improved over the last season. He can drive to the basket and can also finish close to the rim as he is a correct athlete and pretty strong physically. On the defensive end, he can hold his own against big European guards and be very aggressive to harass the opposing PG bringing up the ball.

Stats: 5.1ppg (5/13 2FG 9/21 3FG) 1.9rpg 1.0apg

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Mladen Jeremic (1m95  – Small Forward – 1988 – Serbia)

Jeremic was probably the best pure shooter of the whole tournament, only being matched in this category by Martynas Gecevicius from Lithuania. But Jeremic had a different role in his team where he was not the first scoring option. First of all, Jeremic was mostly the guy that had the special defensive roles of his team in order to stop the opposing scoring guards.

On the offensive end, most of his scores came from his perfect three point shots. His picture perfect shooting mechanics helped to him to score either in catch-and-shot fashion or even coming of his own dribble.

Marko Keselj (2m09 – Forward – 1988 – Serbia)

Keselj was the man of the Final. He had the plays that gave Serbia the decisive lead in the game. After his nice season in Germany, he developed now his full potential and should be ready for the higher level from next season on. Keselj is a super long forward with excellent basketball fundamentals and correct athleticism. He showed this with 2 great dunks in the Final game.

Despite he big size, he looks very coordinated and under control. He does also the little stuff which you normally don’t see but gives your team a small advantage like the hustle steal or taking a charge. He was clearly the main option for Serbia when the inside game did not work and with his nice shooting he could open up the court for the inside guys to do their job. For me, he was the MVP of the Final.

Lukas Brazdauskis (2m05 – Forward – 1988 – Lithuania)

Lukas Brazdauskis was one of the interesting surprises for me during the tournament. The Lithuanian forward, that plays a lot in the shadow of super talent Donatas Motiejunas was the key player for the Silver Medal run of Lithuania. With his strong defense on Victor Claver in the semis and his all-around game, he fills up the stat sheet without doing special things and highlight plays.

He has a good presence in the rebound where he tries to go for every ball while he can also muscle on bigger opponents defending them in the low post. Offensively, he showed a nice variety in his game coming of with some good drives but also with long range three pointers. Shots which he takes in a perfect position and is not unstable due to approaching defenders. He may lack a bit of physical presence to play already a role on the top senior level though.

Victor Claver (2m08 – Forward – 1988 – Spain)

The athletic wing from Spain was not really the go-to-guy you could hope him to be. After a preparation with the senior team, Claver only joined the U20 team a few days before the European Championship and so his non-integration in the plays if not a surprise. However, you could await a bit more from a player that has already impact minutes in the ACB. At the end, he goes home with a deserved Bronze medal but a non-deserved All-Tournament team spot.

Coming to his actual playing, Claver had to play as PF most of the time because of the lack of size of the Spanish team. He used his speed and footwork to beat several times his opponents of the dribble coming from the top. He has excellent control over his moves he goes for and he can also go for some nice passes outof his drives. The three point range is there but all in all, he is not a player I really liked in what he showed. But he is definitely one of the top prospects in Europe for the 1988 generation.

Baris Hersek (2m05 – Forward – 1988 – Turkey)

Baris Hersek could have been in the All-Tournament team in Riga as he deserved the spot at least as much as Claver. The Turkish Forward was the go-to-guy of his team and led them to the semi-finals with his strong play. Hersek has nice size and huge body for the SF spot on this level and he used this advantages several times in order to score close to the basket.

But he is really more a player, that likes to get the ball outside the three point line and create. He holds always a very large position that makes it difficult for players to take the ball away from him. On his drives, he uses his wide frame to protect himself and create space in order to finish in the paint. He has good three point range and can also go for some difficult running jump shots. Unfortunately for him, he missed out the game for the Bronze medal and could not lead his team to a third place.

Vladimir Dasic (2m08 – Forward – 1988 – Montenegro)

Save the best for last, this is how I could describe the placement of Vladimir Dais in this post. The Montenegrin forward continued what he has shown in the Reebok Camp in Treviso earlier this summer. An all-around play with great scoring, team-leading and success. A 5th place for Montenegro is of course way too high in the international competition and if you take Dasic out, the team would probably play for the relegation.

Whatever, Dasic was one of the most talented players of the whole tournament. After a poor season in Buducnost, the forward put all his energy in his summer and showcased his immense talent. He can either play with his back to the basket if he gets defended by a smaller player or take the game outside. His jumpshot looks close to perfection in terms of mechanics and he nets it with high precision. He has himself under perfect control and can go for complicated direction changes in the drives.

His ball handling is very good for a player of his size, and he can also go fro excellent passes to his cutting team mates. He recognizes the game situations very well and never forces the game despite being the go-to-guy. Rebounding is not the strongest part of his game but he was however always present in the battles under the rim. We will see how he will do next season but with his showing here in Riga, he should be among the top players of the upcoming Adriatic League.

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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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