The Oklahoma City Thunder Director of International Player Personnel and former International Scout Rob Hennigan looked really happy about the choice of Pleiss as you can see in the embedded video. Listen to his words as he seemed to be really in love with the potential of the German Center.

He is a guy who is pretty interesting player and a pretty interesting person. When we first started watching Tibor a few years ago, it was not so much the size we saw in him but more the substance: a guy who could move really well, we saw a guy who had some dexterity, a guy who really seemed to enjoy playing. And I know that sounds simple but it is hard to find nowadays players who really love to play, especially players who have Tibor’s size.

I don’t know when the Thunder saw him first but I had a story on him back in 2007 where I travelled to Cologne for the so-called “Circus-Tent”, which was the nickname of the now-defunct Cologne 99ers arena which was in fact a mobile tent with a basketball court, to watch a player who was back then standing out in the first ever German NBBL season by his size and his numbers. During this game, I could see a young player that had really a lot of talent. But as I was only starting to scout players back then, I was probably not aware of his potential as my scouting report on him was really not filled with hype.

What I want to mention about him is that he is a real inside player, trying to score in the paint. He can go out to the three point line and hit the shot from there, but he essentially plays inside. This is the main difference between him and Alexis Ajinca, who has nearly the same size and body, but is mainly playing outside at the moment with Pau-Orthez’s pro team. Pleiß has the advantage of having a coach that was an inside player too (Zoran Kukic) and he can teach him a lot how to use his size inside. His shooting touch helped to get an almost perfect 7/8 from the free-throw line, with his shooting mechanics looking nearly perfect. He uses his long arms effectively on the offensive rebound but he struggled several times on the put back as he lacks physical strength to get up again directly and throw down a hard dunk. He runs the floor very well, he even finished a fast break on a nice direction changing lay-up being the first one on the break and scoring it between two defenders. He used his good court-vision also on a few offensive sets where he saw the open man cutting through and dishing out a perfect pass.

Defensively, he looks really quick on lateral movements for a guy of his size. You could see him regularly go until mid court on the trap on the pick-and-roll defense. His long arms are a major defensive weapon as he has very good timing blocking the shots, without doing outrageous moves avoiding foul calls like that. On Post defense, it is difficult to say if he is any good, as he had no opponent playing him strongly one-on-one. The players that tried too, got blocked or missed their shot.

The few scenes I could tape back then also showed already what type of player Pleiss could become now that he has grown physically stronger. When you see him on the floor back then, you immediately recognize the moves and mechanics that make him such a special player today that the Oklahoma City Thunder are ready to pay 3 million USD just to have the rights to sign him.

After this season, Pleiss entered one of the more complicated years with Cologne as the team had high hopes with a team built around Immanuel McElroy and coached by Sasa Obradovic. Pleiss barely played at all (only 6 games over the year) and the team had major financial troubles in the end of the season with most of the stars leaving. However, the 2m16 tall player had an injury and could not really take profit of this situation and earn minutes unlike other young players on the team.

Everything changed then for him during the 2008/2009 season where Cologne had a lot less financial possibilities and Tibor Pleiss was their main prospect on the Center position. They had no choice but to give him minutes and the Bergisch-Gladbach native took his chance. I went back to Cologne in September 2008 to see how he did.

He started the game against Frankfurt Skyliners but he looked a bit nervous in the beginning and had some problems to defend the shorter but massive Frankfurt inside guys. But his very long arms changed some shooting directions and made it hard for the players that wanted to drive. Of course, the foul calls were falling on him as he had no bonus with the referees anywhere today. Two offensive foul calls were absolutely incredible and prevented him from more minutes and scoring.

His finally only field goal came on a nice post up where he captured the high pass with ease and made some king of lay-up shot from the front of the rim without taken the ball down after the catch. Pleiss has to use the minutes he gets at the moment in order to gain as much experience as possible, especially on the defensive end, as he has the tools to develop into a very mobile and versatile big man in the future.

Despite some problems to defend shorter and more athletic players, Pleiss worked hard and really wanted to improve. After his first full season on the Bundesliga level averaging 5.0ppg 2.9rpg, he got selected by Dirk Bauermann to represent Germany at the Eurobasket 2009. Here, he learned a lot and was also appearing in a highlight reel, unfortunately for him on wrong end of the court.

Pleiss signed that summer with Brose Baskets Bamberg and the fans were already considering this move as “too early” or “not good enough for Bamberg”. However, he took over during the 2009/2010 season and earned the Starting 5 job over former Virignia big guy Elton Brown. The Center started to dominate on both ends of the court and his scoring was only limited by the number of touches he got on offense. When I made a longer report on him back in December, he was already a step further than just being a prospect.

You can see him score the jump shot around the key with very nice shooting mechanics. His range is going out until the three point line, still he does not take a lot of shots from out there this season. Pleiss progressed a lot in the attack of the bucket with the dribbling this season. Either from the top of the key or from the side, he is not afraid to take the drive.

With his back to the basket, he displays different post-up moves that he can finish either on the jump hook, turn around jump shot or with underhand scoop finger rolls for example.

In rebound situations, Pleiss is regularly overmatched physically but goes hard for boxing out his opponents. He needs to fight maybe a bit more when he is in a bad position in order to gain the favorable position back. Due to his excellent presence in shot blocking and trajectory changing, he loses his spot for the rebound several times too and needs to find it back faster when the shots are missed.

Now it was Pleiss who shined on highlight reels and this especially on a set-up play drawn for him and which Bamberg used a lot through out the season to start quarters.

A German championship and cup win as well as the Rookie of the Year trophy later, Tibor Pleiss was ready for the NBA Draft. He entered his name and did not withdraw despite only having a very short time stretch to do some workouts. But right from the start, there was only one team that was really aware of his potential and tried to do everything they could to bring him over. The Oklahoma City Thunder are now thinking on either bringing him over immediately or letting him develop yet another year in Bamberg and gain more experience by playing Euroleague. Tibor Pleiss is set to show the United States that his hometown of Bergisch-Gladbach is not only able to produce Super-Models but also a Super-Center.

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With the number of European prospects drafted this year, I decided to have a review on every specific player. The first name that has been announced was Kevin Seraphin from France. It looked like David Stern has specifically practiced his French before the draft as he started his announcement with a very proud “Now listen to this” that he found so funny that he continued his speech with a little smirk on his face. So let’s check out who Seraphin really is, you better listen to this Wizards fans.

Even if Seraphin was in reality selected by the Chicago Bulls, there are no doubts that the French Center will be traded to the Washington Wizards at the beginning of the NBA Trading period. A destination that was the first choice of Seraphin’s entourage as his agents confirmed to the press. Seraphin spoke about Washington while still wearing his Chicago Bulls head in the post-Draft press conference and he is already excited to play with John Wall.

I have a good feeling with the team in Washington. They told me they really count on me, and I’m going to work. I know that I have to work hard now. And to get the opportunity to play with John Wall is going to help me, too, because John Wall is a tremendous player.

When it comes to his playing style, Seraphin also gave the journalists and fans some indications what they can expect from him.

The career of Seraphin started back in 2007 when he joined for the first time the professional roster of Cholet Basket, a team that is known for producing a lot of young talent and its great relations with the different French oversea territories. A multitude of French players have their background in Guyana or Guadeloupe and struggle in the beginning when they come over the Europe. With other players having the same background in his team, Seraphin integrated quickly the real rotation of the professional team and was soon looked at as the next big thing coming out of Cholet. Nearly every year, the team produces NBA talent (2009: Rodrigue Beaubois, Nando de Colo, 2010: Kevin Seraphin) and the pipeline of future talents is full with prospects like Christophe Leonard or Rudy Gobert.

Seraphin developed step-by-step and earned more and more minutes during the season 2008/2009. With Comsport starting to take care of his career, the trip was predictable and the next stage was the participation to the Nike Hoop Summit in April 2009. The French guy used this event to put his name on the table of a multitude of NBA Franchises with an interesting performance.

Being only used during limited minutes in Cholet, the event in Portland was a bit of a coming out party on the highest level for the French Center. Displaying great athleticism and very large hands, Kevin Seraphin showed a big presence on the rebound on both ends of the court. You could see his arm raise several times out of the paint to get the ball far above the rim. He also had several blocked shots coming on help situations or as a second row goalkeeper.

Offensively though, Seraphin has still a lot of progress before as he is not very accurate when it comes to jump shots. Close to the rim, he finishes with dunks or layups but missed a couple of close shots around the basket. He has already a big body and knows how to use in order to gain a favorable position over the defenders. He should see a lot more minutes from next season on in the French championship and it will be interesting to see at what level he will be after a full season of professional basketball.

With the growth of Seraphin, his team Cholet Basket also grew in terms of competition it faced. While they played in the 3rd class EuroChallenge during the 2008/2009 season, the team from Western France qualified for the 2nd class Eurocup in 2009/2010. In the same line, Seraphin improved his game and averaged good 6.5ppg, 6.5rpg and 1.2bpg in this competition. In December 2009, I scouted him during a Eurocup game against Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. His game looked already improved despite a slow start into the season with a multitude of DNP-Coach Decision games.

Down low, once he has got the ball, he can easily dominate against smaller or less physical players than himself. The jump hook looks currently to be his main offensive weapon as he can use it either by turning to the baseline or by turning to the middle. Close to the basket, he looks to be ambidextrous even if he mainly uses his right hand for the hook. However, you could see him for example go for a nice post move where he used his left hand to turn around his defender and score on an underhand finger-roll. He also shows surprising mobility and speed in the post as he can also go baseline for underhand reverse layups.

Next to his low post game, he started to show some face-up game as well and how to use his interesting speed and explosiveness.

From the top, he can attack the basket with one to two dribbles, finish after a spin move or on a short jump shot. Seraphin is quite explosive off his two feet and dunks the ball with ferocity. He can run the break as a trailer but needs to be more effective on the finish of those situations as he got for example rejected on a layup attempt where he may have gone for a dunk. He showed the right reaction after that play as he has learned how to finish and concluded the next play with a massive one-handed thunder dunk after one dribbling.

The NBA Draft seemed to come closer and with the announcement of his name as an early-entry candidate was not a big surprise. With the successful season of his team Cholet and a long run in the French playoffs, you could imagine already that Seraphin was not able to workout for a lot of teams or participate to the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. Additionally, a slight knee injury even took him out of the court for the French finals and reduced his visits to NBA Franchises only to Interviews and psychological tests. What looked on one hand as a handicap for him as he could not show his skills to interested NBA teams, those franchises that really wanted him and scouted him back in Europe knew that they have an advantage. With the announcement of David Stern as 17th pick and the trade of the Bulls sending him to the Wizards, the dream of the Cayenne native has come true.

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Kevin Seraphin – #17 by the Bulls – most likely traded to the Wizards

Seeing the French Big Guy from Cholet in the first round is not really a surprise but he was not foreseen to be drafted that high as most observers saw him between 20 and 30. It will now be interesting to see if Seraphin will stay in France and play the Euroleague with Cholet or if he decides to come to the United States immediately. The PF/C is on the list of France for the upcoming World Championship in Turkey but on the other hand, the Wizards will most likely try to bring him over to play the Summer League as well which looks like a first conflict situation.

Bouna N’Diaye and his team have once again showed that they can place a player in the first round. The future will tell how Seraphin will adapt to the NBA where his skills and physical built are not as special as they are in Europe.

Tibor Pleiss – #31 by the Nets – traded to the Thunder

With the first Pick of the Euroleague players Draft, the Nets select Tibor Pleiss from Brose Baskets Bamberg. With Nikola Pekovic in 2008 and the German Center this year, the #31 spot is looking more and more to become the best place to get future high-level Euroleague talent as the top pick in the second round gives the team all possibilities in terms of salary to sign the player in the future. Pleiss has declared several times that he will not come over immediately and at least play one year in the Euroleague which he can do with his team next season.

Additionally, he will be a member of the German National Team this summer and play major minutes during the World Championships in Turkey. It would be a surprise for me if he comes over this Summer to do some workouts or Summer Leagues. The Oklahoma Thunder got what they wanted in Pleiss as the rumors were around that Sam Presti was really high on him and they even thought about bringing him in at #18. But at #31, they go their big guy that may end up as the better player than their #11 pick Cole Aldrich.

Nemanja Bjelica – #35 by the Wizards

With the rumors around his signing with Benetton Treviso being denied by the player himself, Bjelica looks to be very open in terms of possibilities for next season. The 2m09 tall forward found an NBA home with the Wizards now but it is not so sure about what he is going to do. Several European teams are chasing him as well and Bjelica will most likely be a member of the Serbian National Team for the World Championship which prevents him from participating to some Summer Leagues.

Bjelica has interesting tools for the NBA and seems to be a late developer as coach Luka Bassin explained in our Draft countdown. With Seraphin, he is the second European selected by the Wizards in this year’s Draft but he will most likely remain in Europe for some time. At least, everything else would be a surprise for me.

NB: Bjelica has been traded to the Wolves

Ryan Richards – #49 by the Spurs

The Brit got what he wanted, he is drafted by an NBA team. Even if he was announced “not falling lower than #33”, he ended up with the Spurs at #49. The team from San Antonio is known for drafting high-reward long-term prospects and Richards may be in the same mold. The fact that the British player wants to absolutely stay in the United States, most likely means that he will go to play for the Austin Toros, the Spurs NBDL team. With the rumors of the Spurs bringing Tiago Splitter over, the roster seems a bit stacked on the frontcourt and it would be a major surprise to me if Richards will crack the rotation immediately.

Pape Sy – #53 by the Hawks

The big surprise of the Draft from a European point of view is Pape Sy. He did exactly one workout, at least that is what we heard and he got selected by the Hawks that have seen him play in their facilities on the 16th June. Sy is a tall guard (1m97) that takes the PG spot during moments and is an interesting three point shooter. But still, this does not make him an NBA player nor do his stats: 5.2ppg and 1.3apg in the French League. But the Hawks must have seen something special in him as they were the only team inviting him for a workout and finally also drafted him. Maybe their scouts were present in France on the 27th February where Sy had his career game with 17pts, 7rebs and 4asts.

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Ryan Richards from Great Britain is probably one of the more surprising choices if you only consider his past years in Europe. But the Brit has one clear goal in his mind which is the NBA despite all odds. Even going through the D-League process is an option for him so he stays in the Draft despite having not the best cards according to the different Mock Drafts. Richards has done a multitude of workouts over the last weeks and nearly every NBA Team should have seen him at least once. The potential is of course there, the doubts remain about his career choices so far and the fact of staying in the Draft and taking the risk of going undrafted or through the D-League is yet another one. The examples of some French players that took this way like Ajinca or Mahinmi and still struggle to get serious minutes on the NBA level are not hindering Richards to work his way through this direction.

Current Mock Situation (15th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Tibor Pleiss from Germany is currently still competing to win the Bundesliga title with Brose Baskets Bamberg (5.8ppg 8.0rpg 1.3bpg over the 4 Finals so far, the last game being played today). The rumors in Germany say that he has a promise by the Oklahoma Thunder at #26 but everybody knows that this may change with the NBA Draft coming closer. The German Center has also declared on multiple occasions that he will not play in the NBA next season preferring to stay in Europe to earn some Euroleague experience before moving over. This is certainly the better way as game experience on the highest possible level for the player’s abilities is an asset that nobody can take you away afterwards. Pleiss is on the right track and if the NBA does not work out for him, he will most likely be a long-lasting Euroleague-level center for the next decade.

Current Mock Situation (15th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Kevin Seraphin from France is the only candidate that is getting some consideration at the moment from all the different Mock Drafts despite being injured and not available for workouts. The Draft masters of Comsport (his agents) are certainly knowing exactly what they do by letting Seraphin in the pool for the 2010 edition. The teams that seriously consider the French Center have seen him in action during the season and additional workouts could even hurt his stock if he can not compete at full force. Seraphin’s team Cholet won the French championship and qualified for the Euroleague so that if Seraphin stays another year in Europe, he is sure to play at the highest level outside the United States and an additional year of experience will help him to be more NBA-ready, something that he is not at the moment.

Current Mock Situation (15th June 2010): Draftexpress: #22 by Portland, NBADraft.net: #32 by Oklahoma

Thomas Heurtel staying in the Draft is one of the big surprises of the announcement of the 14th June. The French PG played an interesting camp in Treviso and he probably impressed enough NBA Teams so that he chose to remain eligible for the Madison Square Garden ceremony. He is currently in the United States to work out for a couple of selected NBA Teams but it will still be somehow of a surprise if he gets selected on the 24th June. Heurtel’s game may be closer to the NBA standard than to the Euroleague but his physical limits may be a problem for him. He is still under contract with ASVEL Villeurbanne for three more seasons which is a point that NBA Teams consider. But getting a hand on him now is an option that some franchises probably consider for the future.

Current Mock Situation (15th June 2010): Draftexpress: #52 by Boston, NBADraft.net: undrafted

Dusan Korac stays in the Draft but remains a total unknown to me as to probably all of the NBA Teams.

Current Mock Situation (15th June 2010): Draftexpress: undrafted, NBADraft.net: undrafted

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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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Robin Benzing – SF/PF – 2m09 – 1989 – Early Entry

The German forward came to Treviso as one of the few NBA Draft prospects with legit 1st round possibilities either this or next year and after the three days in Italy, Benzing did really show what an interesting potential he is and that he is now quite a sure lock for the NBA Draft. Despite still being really thin compared to NBA standards, Benzing showed however great speed for somebody who has been measured at 2m12 with shoes, which is nearly 7-feet in the United States. Together with his excellent shot release and great movements without the ball, the German forward has certainly improved his stock and has drawn some major interest by at least one 1st round team according to his agent.

Benzing struggled a bit in the beginning of the camp as he approached the games like normal Basketball games and adjusting to the NBA three-point line. He found his rhythm however by taking some long twos (Euro 3s in fact) or by putting the ball on the floor. By doing so, Benzing created a lot of contacts with his defenders that ended often with a foul call but also some situations that put him totally out of balance. This is one of the points on which he needs to work as it looks like the slightest contact can put him in trouble. Once he can hold his own against this physical play, he will be probably step to the FT line a lot; an area where he excels as he did not miss one free-throw over the whole camp going for 11 hits out of 11 attempts.

Offensively, the Ulm forward has a large area of moves that he can use to score. Next to the classical catch and shoot on the kick out, where he will develop NBA three-point range in the coming years for sure, he can also put the ball on the floor when he has his defender on him. His above average speed and ball handling skills help him to beat the defense with either hand and to conclude with the mid-range floater, the pull-up jumper or by creating for himself the open layup after a spin move for example. It is however very rare to see Benzing finish his drives with a dunk and his floater looks a bit flat which risks to be rejected against NBA defense.

Another typical move of the German player is attacking the basket immediately after the curl on the wing. He puts the ball on the floor directly and is rarely called for the Travelling violation in those cases. He can finish these plays by a jump shot or by some kind of running hook. Benzing looks to be as well a nice transition offense player as he runs the court well and is absolutely able to put the ball on the floor on the break and go from coast to coast. He showed in the end of the camp that he is a good passer as well as he connected with a number of good passes from the high post but also out of the drives.

On the downside, we must admit that Robin Benzing is currently a terrible rebounder. He got pushed out of his positioning by even smaller players and he was never really able to go strong for the rebound on both ends of the court. This is not a major trouble as he mainly played on the SF position but when being used more on PF, he must absolutely improve in this area. Additionally, he may need to become more aggressive on offense in NBA game situations but as he remains another year in Europe (and most likely with ratiopharm Ulm where he is still under contract without an NBA-out), he should be able to become the uncontested team leader and scorer on Beko Bundesliga level and improve in this area as well.

Linos Chrysikopoulos – SF/PF – 2m03 – 1992

One of the new additions to the camp was the 1992 born Greek forward Linos Chrysikopoulos. After a somehow disappointing showing at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament a few months ago, the long wing player had an outstanding camp in my eyes and can certainly be considered as one of the next big prospects in Europe. On the first look, Chrysikopoulos may have done nothing exceptional; he averaged only 5.7ppg, 3.3rpg and 1.3apg over the three games of the camp; but what he showed during the days in Treviso was however impressive for such a young player.

Nicely athletic and with a good feeling for the rebound and the block shot, Chrysikopoulos had some interesting impact on the defensive end and stood out in this area in an environment not really favorable to it. You could see him often as the first guy back on defense despite battling for the offensive rebound and already being there to put the fast break in a difficult situation with his height.

On the offensive end, Chrysikopoulos needs to become more stable from three-point area as he can shot the brick followed by a nice swish from behind the (Euro)-arc. Being nicely explosive, he can use his good defensive reads to steal himself free in the back of the defense and finish on the powerful dunk. Putting the ball on the floor is another option for him and he can beat his defender of the dribble to either finish or go for the nice dish out of the full-speed drive. It will be interesting to see how Chrysikopoulos develops as he is the leader of a rather poor generation in Greece and will therefore need to develop also more scoring skills if he wants his Youth National Team to bring home some victories.

Edwin Jackson – SG/PG – 1m88 – Early Entry – 1989

The French Guard started the camp extremely impressive with great scoring efforts, and improved decision making and still above average athletic abilities. After a season with the low-level team of Rouen, where he averaged more than 26 minutes per game in the highest French League, Jackson has shown major progress in his game and seems now ready for the next step. He will be the SG back-up for a Euroleague-level team next season and is also in the first selection for the World Championships in Turkey this summer.

The main offensive weapon of Jackson remains his jump shot which he is taking at a great height and with extreme confidence coming of the screen or on catch and shoot situations. He has deep range and has no problems to net the ball from behind the NBA three-point arc. When he puts the ball on the floor, he has learned how to go around the big guys waiting to take the charge and to finish with the typical long European steps.

Jackson has really improved in the general approach to the game as he has become a real leader on the floor taking over the responsibility in the hot moments of the game. Being very vocal, encouraging his team mates through out the game, he was one of the few players that showed real will to win the games on every moment on the court. Unfortunately, Jackson stepped back a bit as long as the camp went on in his performance. But he was definitely one of the players that gave us the most satisfaction in his development over the last 12 months.

Thomas Heurtel – PG – 1m88 – Early Entry – 1989

The official Eurocamp MVP Thomas Heurtel did not totally convinced me throughout the three days in Treviso. Despite showing of course a great feel for the pass to the open man, Heurtel looked to me more like trying too much to go for the spectacular play or score instead of really playing the game. Of course, the setting of such a camp is not all about decision making, but this is what I am looking for with a PG. Additionally, Heurtel sometimes really over-dribbled the basketball instead of going immediately for the pass, especially on the fast break where he preferred to dribble up the ball instead of directly starting the break with a long pass.

But there were of course reasons why Heurtel got the MVP trophy. There is first of all his ability to beat nearly everyone of the dribble with either the big cross-over move or the quick first step. Out of the drives, he goes mostly for the dish that comes to him out of the help situations but he is not afraid to go as well for the difficult shot out of the movement. He passes really quickly when he is dribbling the ball but he needs sometimes a bit too much time to go for example for swing passes as he mostly uses a two-hand over-head pass for this kind of play.

Heurtel can hit the shot from nearly everywhere on the court but remains however streaky from behind the arc. He takes a lot of difficult attempts which does of course hurt his shooting percentages. This is however not the first question mark with him as he mainly needs to improve in his decision making. He is up to another season on loan to get a lot of minutes and work on this. We had an article on his specific case a few weeks ago which I highly recommend to read as it includes the thoughts of two of his coaches.

Tomas Satoransky – PG/SG – 1m99 – 1991

After taking over the 2009 camp by storm, there were a lot of high hopes on Tomas Satoransky this year. After a first season in the ACB earning about 7 minutes per game, Satoransky was expected to have improved. Playing the whole camp as PG, it seems like he is currently making the transition from being a swing man to a full-time PG. At the first look, this transition is far from being done as Satoransky did not really show anything really impressive over the three days in Treviso.

First of all, the Czech player has gained about 4 kilos of muscle over the year and even improved his numbers in vertical free jump compared to the last camp. He is slowly growing into his body as he remains still a very young player being born in 1991. With his re-positioning to the PG spot, he creates less on the offensive end for himself and is more occupied by organizing the offense than by slashing to the basket as he did last summer. Here comes the question mark if this is a good idea as he looked more intriguing when playing an off-guard role. Of course, with his excellent feel for the game and good court-vision, Satoransky may play the PG role but he looked however a bit out of position to us.

As you see, we do not really write a lot about what he actually did on the court in Treviso but this is the result of Satoransky showing barely any positive offensive plays that we are thinking are worth to mention compared to what we already knew of him. With his great athletic abilities and first step, he excels when attacking the basket and is able to convert all kind of attempts when attacking the rim with both hands. His shot remains not very consistent, especially from behind the three-point line. It will be interesting to see how his development will move on next season and what will be his future position.

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The German Early-Entry Candidate Robin Benzing is currently preparing for the Adidas Eurocamp with European coaching legend Svetislav Pesic in Berlin. The 2m08 tall Small Forward has been scouted regularly throughout the season by NBA franchises when he played with his club team ratiopharm Ulm.  Benzing will be one of the players followed particularly during the days in Treviso as he represents an interesting combination of size and skills. Check below for some short video takes from his workout with Pesic.

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With the signing of Kim Tillie this Tuesday, the French team of ASVEL Lyon Villeurbanne has brought the next high-quality prospect to their team after having confirmed the arrival of Leo Westermann a few days ago. With the already under contract Bangaly Fofana, Paul Lacombe, Thomas Heurtel and Edwin Jackson and some interesting young players growing with the youth sections, it was time to take a closer look at all these interesting prospects that are being guided by Vincent Collet in the next years.

Collet spoke about his recruitment in an interview for the club’s homepage and here are the most interesting parts concerning the young players.

What can you tell us about Kim Tillie?

Kim is an athlete. He is very tall and can move very well which makes him a real potential to become a modern basketball player of high level. He is PF with energy, particularly on the rebound, and a good shot even if he did not have the possibility to show it that much with Utah where he was playing in a very strict system with very little personal initiative allowed. That’s mainly the principal challenge for him: the discovery of the professional world and its expectations and therefore the satisfaction of what we want him to achieve. The expectations will be high because we believe in the potential of somebody who has been European Champion and Bronze Medalist at the World Championships with his generation.

With Kim Tillie joining Paul Lacombe, Bangaly Fofana, Edwin Jackson and Leo Westermann, ASVEL is building a really young team. Is this done by conviction or because of lack of other possibilities?

We have announced that we are going to build a younger team. This is my philosophy. It is not in contrary with the expectation of results. All the files on which we advanced this spring turned in a positive way for us. That’s good for the future. We have now a group of players with high potential and which are all under contract for at least two years. And I don’t want to forget Thomas Heurtel who is still under contract with us for three more years. But Thomas does not want to accept a back-up role. As we can not guarantee him a starting job immediately, he will be loaned for another season. I expect from all these players that they will bring enthusiasm and freshness, values that we missed sometimes this season. Additionally, we fulfill future recruitment needs with having already now the necessary number of Home Grown Players. We have now all our back-ups and can start to build our “real” Starting Five in a very open market of American players.

Don’t you think that these young players will offer you some negative surprises?

We know three of the five players very well as they have played with us this season. We are not moving into unknown territory with them. Kim has shown good potential with the National Team and at Utah and we followed him over the last two years. For Leo, the situation is different. He is from the next generation only and we give him more time even if we are convinced that he can contribute quickly. We know exactly what are the forces and weaknesses of the guys so that our goal is to find five experienced players with complementary qualities to the five youngsters. We have of course no possibilities to take the wrong pieces for this puzzle in order to avoid putting the youngsters into difficult situations or urgency of result.

So far what Collet is saying about his young guns. Here is short recap on the five players that will be on the ASVEL roster for next season.

• Leo Westermann: will probably only play with the Espoirs team next season as he is recovering from a severe knee injury. His goal will be to become the leader of the team in the next years as the 92 born player is a real presence on the court and was a major piece of the French Silver Medal at the U18 European Championships last summer.
• Edwin Jackson: after a season with Rouen where the son of Skeeter Jackson played major minutes and could work on his scoring talent, the guard needs now to become a booster coming from the bench. Collet had him already in his preliminary group for the Senior National Team last summer and it seems that he is awaiting a lot from the athletic back-court player.
• Paul Lacombe: cracked the rotation a bit by surprise last season and played more minutes as the season went on. The versatile guard can play the PG position and should be used as a back-up to bring the necessary size and surprising athletic abilities to the back court. The 1990 born player is somebody to watch in 2010/2011.
• Kim Tillie: athletic wing with a nice shot from around the key, especially from the baseline. He is used to play a back-up role as he did it with the French Youth National Teams for years. The son of former professional volleyball playing parents has the necessary athletic abilities for the French league but may need some time to find his marks after four years in the United States.
• Bangaly Fofana: long and athletic center that had some impact this season already when given playing time, especially as a shot blocker and finisher close to the basket. He has entered his name to the NBA Draft pool this year and will probably play at the Adidas Eurocamp in June.

The situation of Thomas Heurtel remains the same than a few weeks ago when we had already a longer article on him. Collet is not sure about him being a starter for his team right now and as Heurtel does not want to be a back-up, he will not play for ASVEL in 2010/2011.

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One week ago, the Final 4 of the Adriatic League was in the Press for days because of the incredible finish where Partizan won the Final with an improbable Buzzer Beater. But this Final 4 was also a good opportunity to see two interesting NBA Draft prospects playing the Small Forward position. Let’s take a closer look at what happened in the Final game of the Adriatic League.

The two protagonists are of course Jan Vesely, who has been featured here several times over the last two years and Bojan Bogdanovic. The Cibona Zagreb forward, who has entered his name for the 2010 NBA Draft, has never been a hot topic (unfortunately) over the last years for this website but his move out of Spain for the Euroleague team of Cibona has put the spotlights on a player that has been scouted already by lots of teams at a very young age. Back in 2006, I had the opportunity to see him already twice at the Albert Schweitzer Tournament and during the Douai World Tournament. Here is what I had on him back then.

Bojan Bogdanovic looked like a big time talent, even if he did not score one basket on Saturday’s game at the AST. He scored although 9 points form the free-throw line before he left the court injured with a sprained ankle. He has very good body control and surprising shot blocking qualities. He goes to the rebound with ease and can post up his defenders. Unfortunately, I can not give you more details about his play as he only played 16 minutes.

Bojan Bogdanovic showed once again his versatile talent. This 2m02 guard has the whole package to become a very good international player. He is athletic enough to play against US boys, and he has great technique and ball handling. He goes to the rebound, and also has a very nice defensive positioning. He has very good basics and good footwork. He also showed that he can be dangerous from behind the arc. As I saw him against the Netherlands, which was a very weak team, his coach used Bogdanovic only during 18 minutes, but that was enough to score 18, grab 4 rebounds and have 2 steals and 2 assists.

Back in Douai, I also put together a short clip of Bogdanovic with his Croatian U18 National Team which you can see here.

In 2005, Bogdanovic signed a 5 year deal with Real Madrid and “disappeared” in the Spanish Minor Leagues without really breaking the rotation at the ACB part of Real Madrid. But his move back home to Croatia was the right thing at the right moment as the 2m02 tall player averaged 8.1ppg and 3.8rpg in the Euroleague this season.

Bogdanovic has found its place on the Small Forward position where he is used mainly as a 3rd scoring option behind Jamont Gordon and Marko Tomas. The main threat comes from outside with this team and while both Gordon and Tomas play the drive a lot, Bogdanovic is mainly focusing on the outside shot. Being defended most of the time by the taller Vesely, Bogdanovic could not really take his shot as he is used to and missed all of his attempts from behind the arc until the very last one. His speed was not good enough to beat an excellent defender like Vesely on the drive where the later one shows excellent lateral quickness for his size. However, the long arms of the Czech player help him to be a constant shot blocking threat as well as being a potentially good ball stealer.

In this game, you could also see once again why Vesely is so foul-prone. He is not afraid of defending his man full-court and try to go for steals or charges on every possession. As you can see in the video below, the foul calls on Vesely where always contested ones but of a kind that they are avoidable. The thin line between hustle and over-excitement is still one of the problems of the Partizan Belgrade forward. Vesely could on the offensive end never really use his size when being defended by Bogdanovic. Despite being about 10cms taller, he never went to the low block with the Croat to post him up but tried to score in his typical style with garbage points and the occasional set shot from behind the arc. The few drives he took ended mostly in turnovers.

Bogdanovic on the other hand showed good control when driving to the basket. He came up with some nice penetrations immediately out of catching the ball. He has the court-vision to kick the ball out but he can also go to the rim. Against the tall Partizan defense, he tried mostly the floaters where he missed the necessary touch to convert them in this game. On the defensive end, Bogdanovic needed to play an outside defender role when Cibona was back in a 2-3 zone. He struggled when he needed to stay in front of faster guards as his lateral speed is not top notch. He has correct athletic abilities and is able to come up with nice some dunks on the break but he does not use his jumping abilities for example for the jump shot which looks more like a set shot with however a quick release.

Take a look at the Video below with most of the plays of both players from the Final of the Adriatic League 2010.

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Today we check out the second part of the NBA Draft Early entrants from Europe. This list contains mainly those players where the presence for the NBA Draft 2010 has only been announced a few days before the early entry deadline.

Xavi Rabaseda – 1m99 – SG – FC Barcelona – 1989

A somehow surprising name here as Rabaseda has never been mentioned in any Draft related articles. It looked like he will play his career in Europe but with this presence, he shows to have NBA ambitions at least somewhere in his mind. The Barcelona player saw his minutes mainly for Cornella this season in LEB Gold and will most likely not be a name in the Draft in the end.

Prediction: withdraws

Stefan Bircevic – 2m09 – PF – Metalac – 1989

Unknown player to me that used this opportunity to get his name around and may be present at the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. He saw some minutes in the Balkan League and the Serbian League this season but nothing really to hit the eyes from a statistical point of view.

Prediction: withdraws

Uros Lukovic – 2m12 – C – Radnicki – 1989

What counts for Bircevic is also the case for Lukovic: not very known so far but having played some minutes in the Serbian League and signed with the same agent. We will see what he is able to do in Treviso in June if he gets an invitation.

Prediction: withdraws

Bangaly Fofana – 2m12 – C – ASVEL – 1989

The French Center is certainly one of the main prospects when it comes to athletic and physical gifts. However, Fofana could so far not really crack the tough rotation of ASVEL on a regular basis. He showed sometimes that he can be a factor but still remains really raw. As ASVEL is out of reach for the French playoffs, it is highly likely to see him Treviso where he may impress some NBA teams with his potential.

Prediction: withdraws

Pablo Aguilar – 2m03 – SF/PF – Granada – 1989

Pablo Aguilar had a really nice showing last year in Treviso and there were certainly some NBA teams that have put his name in the books. This year he is back as an early entry candidate and it depends on the ACB playoffs where Granada is not sure to qualify if the forward will be in Treviso again or not. His fundamentally sound play is certainly very interesting for the highest European level but for NBA teams, Aguilar must play fully on the SF spot to be a factor.

Prediction: withdraws

Ousmane Camara – 2m04 – PF – Le Havre – 1989

Camara is a surprising presence here as the French Center could only crack the rotation of the weak Le Havre team late this season. His potential seems to be limited as well as he has neither the size for playing C nor the ball handling skills to move outside the paint. Treviso will be a good opportunity for him to showcase what he is able to do.

Prediction: withdraws

Miralem Halilovic – 2m06 – SF – Fenerbahce – 1991

The Bosnian forward was already last year in Treviso as a late addition and maybe did not get the most looks at as not everybody was aware of him. Still, Halilovic has a good combination of size and skills and can be an interesting player down the road once he gets regular playing time on a good level.

Prediction: withdraws

Dusan Korac – Centar BP – 1991

Totally unknown and no information available on him for me.

Prediction: withdraws

Luc Louves – 2m07 – PF – Maurienne – 1989

Louves has not been seen on courts in France for quite a long time. After leaving Orléans this summer for Aix-Maurienne in the second French division, he did not play one game there so far. 

Prediction: withdraws

Fernando Raposo – 2m06 – PF – Pau-Lacq-Orthez – 1989

The French-Portuguese Fernando Raposo comes of a season in the 2nd French division where he had lots of troubles to get into his rhythm because of injuries. And later on, he went through lots of ups and downs which certainly did not help his draft stock. He will probably be in Treviso and needs to have a better showing there than last summer where he did not really impress anyone.

Prediction: withdraws

Semen Shashkov – 2m00 – SF – Ural Ekaterinburg – 1989

It’s time for Shahskov to show something as the former top prospect is currently playing in the 2nd Russian League only. His potential is of course interesting but so far, he could never really impress anyone with results. Maybe Treviso 2010 will be his coming out party as at least he saw some minutes this season on a correct level.

Prediction: withdraws

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