Here we go for quick recap of the action I was able to catch from the Reebok Eurocamp in Treviso so far. A camp that has representatives from all the 30 NBA teams in attendance in addition to a long list of Agents and representatives from European teams as well.

This report has been written Sunday at noon but is online posted right now due to Internet connection problems. More on the Reebok Eurocamp will follow later this week.

• The first game of the camp has been played on Saturday morning where I only arrived so I could not watch it. However, players that impressed were Stefan Markovic who run the PG job very well. Jaka Klobucar did what I like him for apparently. That means, a good shot from behind the arc and his typical left handed passes out of his wrist. Alexey Shved also showed again all his talent.
• In the 2nd game of the camp, Boban Marjanovic finished with an impressive 26 evaluation. The Serbian giant, one of the only Serbians allowed to play here, showed his incredible large game and scored with his typical post up move, some kind of jump hook. He did a good job from the free-throw line and was a big force in the defensive rebound. On the other side, Rodrigue Beaubois showed his nice combination of athleticism and skills but his shot was not falling and he got a little injury that took him out of the morning game of Day 2. Pablo Aguilar showed a good game, something he confirmed this morning. The 1989 born forward has an all-in-control type of play, going for both SF and PF positions. His range goes out to the NBA three point line, but despite not hitting that many shots you could see that he will improve in that area in the next years. The Czech youngster Tomas Satoransky impressed lots of people in the attendance with his great feel for the game and the possibility to see him run the PG in the next years.
• Nando de Colo showed his great court vision on Day 1 with a multitude of high light passes. Next to all these plays, there was one play that impressed me really while seeing him play. In fact, after a lazy behind the back pass by himself, he came back into the game immediately and stole the ball on midcourt to dish an easy assist for one of his team mates. This day was also a good opportunity to get a first impression of the Kazakh player Anton Ponomarev who definitely lacks of high-quality basketball experience and ball handling skills, but showed great will in the rebound and good scoring touch. The French guard Abdoulaye Mbaye showed his scoring talent on the 2-guard position but having a player like de Colo in his team, he had never to handle the ball on the 1 so that his potential on the PG could not be determined.
• On the downside of Day 1 were the disappointing play of guys like Vladimir Dasic, who still seems to have some concentration problems, Nikos Pappas, who struggles to bring up the ball against aggressive defense despite a great understanding in the half court offense or Roger Aboubakar Zaki who insists on shooting from behind the arc with a mediocre result.

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• The German Prospect Lucca Staiger (Iowa State) got elected Big12 Rookie of the Week. Staiger averaged 16.5 points per game in a pair of losses to Drake and Iowa and was 11-of-16 from 3-point range last week.
• Another European prospect is doing pretty well in the NCAA currently. I speak of Latvian shooter Rihards Kuksiks who averaged 17.3ppg at 14/28 from 3pt area for Arizona State
• The names of the 12 teams that will be participating at the 30th Hospitalet Tournament have been officially announced.
• FIBA Europe announces the official venues of the European Youth Championships this week. The Division A venues are already known as the U20 will play in Rhodes, U18 in Metz (France) and the U16 tournament will be played in Kaunas.
• Nando de Colo and Abdoulaye M’Baye have been selected by the coaches for the LNB ProA All-Star Game
• Tim Ohlbrecht got voted as Starter for the German Bundesliga All-Star game by the fans
• The following players have been selected by FIBA Europe for the FIBA Europe Young Men Player of the year award: Danilo Gallinari, Donatas Motiejunas, Enes Kanter, Kosta Koufos, Mario Delas, Milan Macvan, Miroslav Raduljica, Nikos Pappas, Omri Casspi, Ricky Rubio, Tomas Satoransky and Vladimir Dasic. You can vote here. My votes went for Nikos Pappas (1st), Ricky Rubio (2nd) and Tomas Satoransky (3rd).

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Joaquin Colom (1m88 – Point Guard – 1988 – Spain)

Colom was the Spanish starting PG and was elected to the All-Tournament team. This was may be more the result of a tournament that lacked high-quality PGs that managed to bring their team to the Medal round. However, Colom is a quality player, but when you talk about upside, he is not the guy to look for at the moment.

Quino Colom is a good under control player that offensively is doing his job. He can hit the three pointer out of the dribble, also coming of a nice cross-over movement. With his drives, he attracts the defense and has no problem to go for kick-out passes to find his open team mates on the wing. With the plays, he arrived to be the top-assists player of the tournament and his all-around mature impression gave him the Tournament Team spot, which was deserved.

Martynas Gecevicius (1m93 – Shooting Guard – 1988 – Lithuania)

Gecevicius remains the best scorer of the guards of the whole tournament and earned a All-Tournament Team spot. The Lithuanian shooter can come up with long distance shots as well as with mid-distance jumpers. The shots out of the dribble are no problem for him at all. But his best shot is the three pointer in catch-and-shot fashion from the corner.

It was also him that took the game in his hands in the difficult moments to score the baskets his team needed. With some drives, he could create positions for his own mid-range shots but he does not go to the hole for a lot of times. His experience in the Euroleague is also to be seen as he knows how to create contacts and get the referee calls for him.

Zygimantas Janavicius (1m90 – Point Guard – 1989 – Lithuania)

The left handed Lithuanian Point Guard showed his well know strengths: good speed and nice left drives. His shooting is still some up and down, especially from behind the arc. His main offensive power remains however his drives where he can go until the rim and also score against the real big guys.

Still, his drive to the right is by far not as effective than when he can go to his strong left. He showed however some nice scores of his right hand too. On his drives, he has quite a good view for his team mates and goes for some interesting dishes. Something that bothers me a bit is his overreaction on every contact in order to get a foul call. He loses his own control sometimes with these moves.

Sarunas Vasiliauskas (1m88 – Guard – 1989 – Lithuania)

The first option coming from the bench in the Lithuanian back court, Vasiliauskas showed several times that he can be an energizer for the team over short periods. With his drives, he creates great options for himself which he finishes with high layups of the glass or tear-drop shots.

His three point shooting is not his main force on the offensive end, something he should develop this point because of his limited size to play on the SG position. His drives are mostly ending in scoring positions for himself as he is not really looking to go for the assist.

Dogus Balbay (1m82 – Point Guard – 1989 – Turkey)

For the Turkish guard, I could not see any real development over the last years, unfortunately. He is still the super athletic but short sized  PG that is very versatile. But neither his long distance shot has improved, nor did he show better maturity in his Point Guard skills.

But I don’t want to talk only about the problems that Balbay faces as he is still a very talented player. With his athleticism, he can go for difficult scores of the drive where he knows how to use his body and leaping abilities to score. He also tries to step up with some mid-range jumpers but they did not fall in Riga.

Sead Sehovic (2m00 – Guard – 1989 – Montenegro)

The Montenegrin guard, who also had to play on the SF spot during some stretches showed some very interesting potential in Riga. With great size for the guard spot and promising athleticism, Sehovic is a nice scoring option in a team that relied mostly on their top player Vladimir Dasic.

Sehovic has first of all a nice catch-and-shot jumper to score from everywhere, including three pointers. Additionally, he can go for drives which he concludes often very close to the basket where he uses his correct leaping ability.

Last, but not least, I want to give also a few words about the Serbian backcourt. In a team stuffed with insides forces, the guards were not the main attraction of course. But you have to mention the good job of guys like Dusan Katnic. Other players to mention at this level are for example the French SG Abdoulaye MBaye who came up with some big scoring efforts. Alexey Shved, who I could not see in Riga because of the schedules was however a disappointment to me as he did not manage to lift his team higher than a 9th place. Other names to be mentioned are of course Antoine Diot, Pietro Aradori or the Ukrainian sniper Sergiy Gladyr.

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