Today we continue our review of the players from the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso with a few additional names that we are thinking are worth to be mentioned.

Nihad Dedovic – SG – 1m97 – 1990

The Bosnian guard had one of the fastest shot releases of the whole camp. The release is so quick that it looks like he does not really prepare his shot. But he needs to fire the ball that quickly as he has the ball a bit before his face when taking the shot and therefore is always at risk of being blocked in his attempts. He likes to come of the screens and immediately fire the ball from any distance. Coming of the curl on the weak-side and receiving the diagonal pass is one of the situations in which Dedovic excels and scores with high percentages.

Additionally, he is very active on defense with his hands and steals quite a few balls. Dedovic is doing a nice job on the fast break as he can accelerate nicely and score the layup with the foul as he is a correct athlete. A first season on the ACB level with regular playing time behind him, the Bosnian will now make the next step forward and knowing that he came back from a injury recently, there are some nice things ahead for him in the next years. It may not be enough for NBA level but we should see him play on Euroleague level in a few years time.

Josep Franch – PG – 1m87 – 1991

Josep Franch played a very interesting camp and is considered already as the future PG of Joventut Badalona. The fast Spaniard broke the defenses on multiple occasion with his hesitation moves or accelerations and was not afraid at all to go against the big guys to score on a multitude of different underhand lay-ups. He looked to be more of a scoring guard in the camp as he did not particularly show amazing passing skills and mostly went for his own options.

Pietro Aradori – SG – 1m93 – Auto-Eligible – 1988

The Italian guard had an up-and-down camp and showed that he is not really NBA material at the moment. Aradori had some limits when it came to the NBA three-point line as his shot did not look regular when going for an attempt from that distance. Athletically, he is not quick enough to defend SGs despite correct leaping abilities for a European player. His skill set is a lot more adapted to European basketball and he will certainly do a lot of damage in the next years. With his scoring skills and understanding, Aradori will probably be among the major scorers for the next years in European basketball.

Dairis Bertans – PG/SG – 1m93 – 1989

The Latvian guard showed an interesting scoring talent in Treviso combined with good athletic abilities. More of a scoring guard than a pure play maker, Bertans has already some high-level experience due to the minutes he plays with Ventspils. Bertans’ main offensive options are his three point shot and driving hard to the rim. He is not afraid to dunk on the big guys and got some severe rejections during the camp that did not de-motivate him to try again. He likes to go for several cross-over moves to create the necessary space for his shot. The Latvian guard is able split defenses with his speed and is high-percentage long distance shooter.

David Jelinek – SG – 1m94 – 1990

One of the younger players that I really liked was David Jelinek. The Czech guard showed excellent athletic abilities and a real will to score the basketball. He has already NBA three point range in catch and shoot situations, which he executes particularly well. Jelinek can speed up the fast-break and finish on highlight-reel like dunks. He has already a nice arsenal of ball and pass fakes when driving that give him the opportunity to score the ball close the basket. He needs to develop his mid-range game a bit and probably get a bit stronger but the minutes he gets on ACB level are certainly helping him in his development.

Nikos Pappas – PG – 1m91 – 1990

The Greek guard looked improved this year compared to what we had in mind of him. Still not a NBA or European top-level athlete, Pappas has the feel for the game and he is far from losing it. His dominance from two years ago on U18 level is not there because he can not outsmart the players on every occasion anymore. But his passing skills are excellent even if he forced too much the highlight play in the camp which gave him a terrible amount of turnovers. As we heard, he did quite well in the Greek League this season on the Senior level so it will be interesting to see what is next for him.

Mindaugas Kuzminskas – SF/PF – 2m03 – Early Entry – 1989

The Lithuanian early entry candidate played a camp where you could barely see him, somehow similar to last year. But he has a very interesting arsenal of offensive moves and showed in Treviso that he has NBA three-point range as well. Kuzminskas can put the ball on the floor and finish with two-handed dunks against the defense when attacking the basket. He is doing also a lot of the dirty job that is not seen in the stats which is a bit different to his role he has with his team in Lithuania. This shows that he is a guy who can easily adapt to any situations.

Dejan Musli – C – 2m11 – 1991

The best Center in the camp was the Serbian Dejan Musli who looks better and better when it comes to his body structure. Still not a very explosive or elegant player, his moves look a bit smoother right now and he feels a lot more confident when putting the ball on the floor. During the camp, there was nearly anybody that could stop him once he has found his position in the low post and received the ball. He can finish here with either hand on the jump hook but most of his moves look a bit soft. His hands are great and he nearly catches all the passes he gets out of the Pick and Roll situations to finish.

Musli has clearly improved in his game when he needs or wants to dribble the ball. He can easily bring his man down to the low block when he receives the ball on the wing by backing him up with a few dribbles and moving closer to the basket. He is also not afraid to start the fast break with several dribbles, even if this is not really his role. As he is not the fastest player, it would also be a better decision making if he shares the ball on these moments and runs the break as a trailer option. He needs to finish stronger though when he is close to the basket to become a really dominant player on this level but being born in 1991, there is still a lot of progress margin left.

Ousmane Camara – C/PF – 2m04 – Early Entry – 1989

One of the more unknown players in the camp was the French Center Ousmane Camara. Even if he has only limited offensive skills because of poor hands, the player from Le Havre showed an extreme will and massive presence on the rebound. He worked very hard throughout the camp in this aspect of the game and nearly score all his baskets on offensive rebounds or after good passes of his team mates. His Free-throw shot looks very bad and underlines his current weaknesses. Camara can score the basketball only when being very close to the basket and the question is how much upside he has when it comes to his shooting touch. Physically, he has all the tools to become a high-level player, but he needs to work on his basketball skills and fundamentals if he wants to have an impact on the next level.

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With the year 2009 coming to an end, it is time to look back at what happened during the last months. The EuroCup season is quite shorter than the Euroleague but the teams playing here are stuffed with interesting talent. So it is time to take a quick look at those players that are emerging in the 2nd best European competition.

Antoine Diot is currently playing his best season of his career. The 1989 born French guard of Le Mans is doing a great job leading his team and could also improve his statistics consequently. I had a long report on him this summer which I can only recommend to read as it describes the progress he has made, especially in the reading of pick and roll situations and with his long distance shot.

Stats: 7.8ppg, 3.0rpg, 3.0apg

Stefan Markovic is another PG that has made a big step this summer playing with the National Team and being now the leader of a Eurocup team. However, Markovic still struggles with his long distance shot these days as he is turning just around 18% from behind the arc. His all-around presence through strong rebounding and good defense overcome his decreasing scoring average over the last two years.

Stats: 7.0ppg, 4.3rpg, 5.5apg

Milan Macvan had one big game in this season’s Eurocup against Le Mans where he finished with 14pts and 6rebs. The 1989 born forward is imposing himself as a key player for Hemofarm, even he could not yet reach the level he played on last season.

Stats: 8.0ppg, 3.0rpg

Boban Marjanovic is still the 2m22 giant in the middle who has a major impact on both sides of the court. He is automatically eligible for the NBA Draft in 2010 so we could see him being a interesting pick down the road for several teams looking for a real big guy. Having a pretty nice shooting touch and a huge frame, Marjanovic has all the tools but currently is not yet making the next step in his development

Stats: 7.0ppg, 4.3rpg, 1.3bpg

Mindaugas Kuzminskas is one of the major surprises of the beginning of the Eurocup season. Kuzminskas who signed a long term deal with Zalgiris this summer but was loaned back to Siauliai is doing a great job as starter for the Lithuanian team. Being present both as a scorer and rebounder, Kuzminskas is doing an all-around job in his second Eurocup season. The 2m05 tall and 1989 born player is currently hitting his three point shots with great accuracy. His shooting mechanics look excellent with a quick release. He understand the game pretty well and he can use his size to post up smaller defenders when playing SF. He is also very effective when driving to the basket as he attracts the help defense and knows how to dish the ball to his open team mates. Fundamentally, he is at a very high level and athletically, he is above average for European standards. On the downside, he looks to be kind of a soft player when it comes to contact, especially in the lower body. He loses his balance in the air easily when going for the layup against defense and struggles to convert his attempts then. However, he is one of the most promising players in the Eurocup this season and I won’t be surprised to see him playing Euroleague with Zalgiris in 2010.

Stats: 12.5ppg (63.6% 7/11 3FG), 3.5rpg

Deividas Gailius is the 2nd player of BC Siauliai in this report and the electric combo guard born in 1988 is doing a great job in his first season with the team. Gailius is a highly energetic guard that displays a relentless effort on the court. He is more of a scorer, that’s why Siauliai uses him a lot on the SG position, even if he is starting most of the times at PG. The 2m00 tall guard pushes the ball very hard on the break and tries to go for the score against anybody. He looks like being always at full effort, it is not sure if he can really slow the speed down. In general, he has all the tools to become a very good player, he can shoot the ball in catch-and-shoot situations or out of the dribble. He is not afraid to drive hard and tries to dunk the ball when possible.

Stats: 10.3ppg, 4.5rpg

David Jelinek saw some playing time in the beginning of this EuroCup campaign and he used the limited minutes to show his scoring talent. The Czech born forward from 1990 will probably have more impact in the coming years as the 2m03 tall player has the talent to become an interesting rotation on ACB and EuroCup level.

Stats: 5.5ppg, 2.5rpg

Pere Tomas is improving his numbers throughout the competition as the 2m01 tall forward gained the starting lineup position for the last two games. The versatile 1989 born player is showing his all-around talent combined with his athletic abilities make him a prospect that should fulfill all the promises during the next years.

Stats: 5.3ppg, 2.8rpg, 1.3apg

Tim Ohlbrecht has been featured in a very recent report here on the website so I suggest you to read that piece.

Dimitry Khvostov seems to be there for years, he was present with the Dynamo Moscow team back in 2006/2007 already with similar stats to today. For me it is difficult to say anything else on him as I did not see him play in EuroCup action for several years.

Stats: 4.0ppg, 2.5apg 2.3topg

Alexey Shved has made the move that finally will give him the playing time to showcase his talent. Coming to Dynamo Moscow during the season, he exploded immediately in the EuroCup behind 16pts and 8rebs. In the year of his automatic eligibility for the NBA Draft, it is important for him to put some numbers on the table that are in line with his incredible talent. Hopefully, we will have more on him later in the season.

Stats: 10.5ppg, 7.0rpg

Marko Keselj is doing a good job this year with Crvena Zvezda but still does not live up to the major hype that was built up around him several years ago. Being born in 1988, the long forward who excels from behind the three point line, is probably not on the board of a lot of NBA teams at the moment. The financial situation of his team though brought him in a situation where is looking for a different club as he has not received his salary since March.

Stats: 9.7ppg (5/11 3FG)

Elmedin Kikanovic has not been discussed that much recently but the Bosnian 2m10 Center is once again producing excellent numbers with Crvena Zvezda. Living mostly from his excellent jump shot, the 1988 born player is not a massive physical force which does not make him that interesting for NBA teams. However, Kikanovic will certainly be a major target for Euroleague teams in the future.

Stats: 14.3ppg, 3.3rpg

Nemanja Bjelica is more interesting in terms of NBA potential as the 2m09 tall forward is showing excellent athletic abilities and large versatility in his game. Bjelica is also an excellent defensive player and one of the best rebounders on the forward position. Bjelica is however struggling with his shot at the moment as he connects only 34% of his attempts.

Stats: 4.5ppg, 6.8rpg

Donatas Motiejunas raised some eyebrows this summer when he announced that he will sign with Benetton Treviso. But the move seems pretty clever right now as the Lithuanian top talent is having a good role in the rotation of the Italian team and plays around 20 minutes every game. After the Euroleague qualifiers, I had no opportunity to see him play in the Eurocup thus far, so I hope to get a bit more on him later on in the season.

Stats: 7.5ppg, 2.3rpg

Alessandro Gentile is probably the biggest surprise of the whole Eurocup as the 17 year old player has cracked the rotation of Benetton and is putting on a scoring show during the minutes he is on the court. He scored 16pts in just 21 minutes against Dynamo Moscow and did better than the highly regarded Shved on the same game. Gentile plays with the Benetton Junior Squad at the Stella Azzurra tournament these days, so I will get a more complete report on him in the next days when I am back from Rome.

Stats: 7.3ppg, 4.3rpg

Kevin Seraphin has been covered recently in a longer report which you can find here.

Stats: 7.0ppg, 6.3rpg, 1.3bpg

Carl Ona Embo is getting some back-up minutes at the PG in Biella. He is currently doing a correct job as his three point shot is falling in the Eurocup competition. Still, Ona Embo is not a real PG but more of a scoring combo guard combined with PG size which makes it quite difficult for him to find the right position for the future.

Stats: 4.3ppg, 1.8rpg, 1.5apg

Pietro Aradori is simply among the best players of the competition. I had a long report on him a few weeks ago which you can read here.

Stats: 16.7ppg (65% 2FG), 5.0rpg, 2.3apg

Karsten Tadda is probably the best example to see that hard work pays off. The defensive specialist has worked himself into the heavy rotation of Brose Baskets Bamberg during last season and has progressed ever since. Being used mainly as a defensive stopper, Tadda is able to hit the three pointer with ease when being open as shows his current percentages in the Eurocup where he is at an incredible 72.7% from behind the arc. Tadda is starting now for his team at SG and may also see minutes on the Point Guard in the next years. The 1m90 tall and 1988 born guard may be limited in terms of pure basketball talent but he is the perfect role player and shows this already now on the Eurocup level.

Stats: 8.5ppg (72.7% 3FG)

Tibor Pleiss has been covered this week in a long report.

Stats: 10.5ppg 6.3rpg 1.3bpg

Janis Strelnieks (Stats: 12.3ppg 4.0apg), Lauris Blaus (Stats: 2.5ppg 1.8rpg) and Dairis Bertans (Stats: 4.0ppg 2.0rpg 1.3apg) have been covered during the Euroleague qualifiers and confirm their talent level in the current Eurocup competition.

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Back in 2006, at the beginning of this website, Pietro Aradori was one of the first players that I covered as he was a major factor for the Italian team at the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament. I scouted him later on again in 2007 at the U20 European Championship in Gorizia and now, at the edge of 2010, Aradori is living up to the high expectations I had on him back then.

When I read what I have written in 2006 on Aradori, some of the characteristics could be copy/pasted like this to a current scouting report.

Physically, he looks well developed and showed some interesting athleticism. He can pull up the three point jumper off the screen with ease. He can connect to the open player but goes more for his own shot. Near the basket on post up moves, he can go either with the left or the right hand.

When I saw now recent games of Aradori in the Italian League with Biella, most of this is still valid. The 1m93 tall guard looks pretty mature physically, not being a typical athlete type but strong and present on the court with a certain aura. The 1988 born player, who is automatically in the NBA Draft 2010, is the major offensive threat of his team, as he is simply the best Italian scorer in the whole Lega. His scorer qualities are really above average and he has a full arsenal of possibilities to put the ball through the net.

First of all, he has a shot that has a nice and quick release and that he can take out of every situation. When he has the ball, he can create his own shot either by using the pick, by driving against his opponent in one-on-one situation or after a good cross-over dribbling. His shot looks even better when he can fire it up in catch-and-shot situations when he had the time to prepare. His release is however a bit in front of his face at moments which is a little problem when playing against taller player. But his quick mechanics make this not that important.

His drives are pretty powerful and he can conclude them close to the rim with underhand scores on unorthodox “euro-steps” or by going for some running floaters. His good offensive fundamentals help him in those situations as he can go strong to the basket with both hands. His confidence level right now is pretty high so that even the tough lay-ups and scores fall for him.

A very interesting part of his game is that he has quite a good back-to-the-basket arsenal. You can see him several times go to the low post as soon as he gets defended by a smaller player. He recognizes these situations well and sends away his team mates to play the isolation on one side. He backs them up then and can score either with the hook or the turn around fade-away jump-shot, a jump shot that has a nice high flying curve.

Aradori excels also in the open court as he likes to run and finish strong at the basket. You can see him not afraid at all going for the dunk on the break even with a defender on him (watch No3 play of the Top 10 plays here for an example). On this particular play, you see also the flair he has on defense to go for the steal. But when talking about the defense, we have to mention also the downturn of the Italian guard.

His lateral speed is far from being good and he gets beat on one-on-one situations easily. Additionally, his defensive positioning is improvable as you can see him getting lost quite some times in defense not seeing the ball and the man. This brings him in difficult situations in the defensive rebound where he can not box out his man all the time. However, he is still a decent rebounder for his size as he shows a good feel for the ball and excellent timing. If he improves in his defensive orientation, he can become even a great rebounder for a guard.

A negative point that could be added on the offensive end is that Aradori tries most of his passes out of the jump, an error that he absolutely needs to overcome in the next years as it ends up several times in a turnover. His court-vision is decent but he needs to use it better and not going always for these jump-passes. Because he sees the open man and also recognizes double-team situations on post-up for example. He also needs to work a bit more off the ball, as he is clearly a player that wants the ball in his hands and feels a bit lost when not implicated in the offense.

After several different teams over the last years, Pietro Aradori has now found the perfect situation in Biella to develop in the season of the NBA Draft. If he gets a look at in the 2nd round is however questionable because of his limits in athleticism on NBA level. However, there are not that many scoring talents like him currently in the 1988 generation. Together with Marco Belinelli, Andrea Bargnani and Daniel Hackett, the Italian National Team is at least sure to have enough scoring power for the upcoming years.

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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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