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

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

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

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

Danilo Gallinari (10th)

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

Nicolas Batum (21st)

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

Alexis Ajinca (24th)

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

Serge Ibaka (26th)

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

Ante Tomic (41st)

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

Omer Asik (42nd)

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

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

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

Goran Dragic (47th)

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

Semih Erden (50th)

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

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

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

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

In the last part of my review of the Reebok Eurocamp 2008 in Treviso, I will tell who were the big guys that impressed the most during the camp.

Serge Ibaka (2m09 – Power Forward – 1989 – L’Hospitalet)

Serge Ibaka was the prospect that was observed the most by the NBA scouts because of his extraordinary physical set. Standing 2m09 tall and displaying a wing span of 2m22 with a vertical jump of 85cm, Ibaka is a rare specimen for European standards. Additionally, Ibaka played only in the second Spanish League which made him even more mysterious for people coming from the United States. So what is he about?

First of all, you see that Ibaka lacks a lot of basketball experience. He jumps on nearly every fake and took some bad decision in game situations. Also in the offense, you saw him having serious trouble when starting for drives or putting the ball on the floor which caused him a lot of turnovers due to travel violations. A lot of work is ahead in this department. But on the other hand, Ibaka has already a nice offensive set to score despite being only 18 years old. He has correct shooting touch and can even hit the three point shot. He works very hard on the offensive rebound where he can go for spectacular put back dunks. In defense, he is a good shot blocker but may have to go for better choices when he needs to block and when to avoid the foul call. As Ibaka is reported to stay in Draft, he is a good catch for a long term prospect but he would probably have close to zero impact if he joins a NBA right now.

Vladimir Stimac (2m06 – Center – 1987 – Valmiera/Zalgiris Kaunas)

Vladimir Stimac is probably the worst physical specimen if you go just by his numbers. But he has basketball talent. And knows also how to use his impressive body. Looking exhausted when only entering the floor, Stimac transforms into an absolute beast and fighter under the basket. He gives always 110% and does all the dirty work you need to win a game.

Stimac has excellent positioning in the paint and he is very hard to move. He has no real moves but with his force he puts his defenders so much in trouble that he comes up often with high percentage shots or layups. His shooting touch is not too bad, he can even hit an occasional three but his game is really in the post. Additionally, Stimac displayed some very correct passing skills in a few high-low plays and he loves to play the pick and roll with his guards.

Artem Zabelin (2m17 – Center – 1988 – CSKA Moscow)

Zabelin looks like an incredible talent with fantastic size, excellent fundamentals and a great shot. However, he still has not played anywhere close to his potential on the professional level over the past years. So the camp was once again a demonstration for his skillset which includes nearly everything the modern basketball player needs.

Zabelin has an excellent shooting touch until the three point line from where he can hit several shots in a game, from all around the arc. He also showed some very impressive ball handling skills and drives in traffic which is a very rare gift for a player of his size. In defense, Zabelin is present with some great block shots which are however more the result of his great size than of a particular shot blocking timing. But the main problem that remains with Zabelin is that is nowhere close for the moment to have an impact on the professional level, which may be the result of his soft play. Having turned 20 this winter, Zabelin definitely needs some accrued playing time in order to develop his skills and become a player up to his potential.

Henk Norel (2m13 – Center – 1987 – Alicante/DKV Joventut)

Henk Norel had a very interesting camp where he showed all his potential and the result of several years of hard work in Spain. In those years, he has build a nice body which is far away from the thin kid we saw a few years ago. What has remained however is his very aggressive and quick way to run the floor.

Coming to the basketball part, Norel showed a nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Mostly acting in the post, he displayed several moves with his back to the basket. He showed nice fakes that looked well coordinated and properly used in order to score on easy layups. He can also use his speed in order to turn around his defender and go up for nice powerful dunks. Three point range is there too, but not one of the main scoring options.

Jakub Wojciechowski (2m13 – Power Forward – 1990 – Benetton Treviso)

The Polish power forward who is since quite a time active for Benetton Treviso was one of the youngest players in the camp and since he never got featured here, I come up with a short report on him. Standing 2m15 tall, Wojciechowski has an amazing shooting touch and can hit three pointers in series. His jump shot looks very sweet and is currently his main offensive weapon. As he only turned 18 this year, Wojciechowski has still a lot of upside and when he adds a bit more kilos and a more developed penetration game, he can become a very interesting face-up player on the PF position.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

• Nicolas Batum and Goran Dragic have arrived in Treviso this morning and participated in the drills. Batum looked like we know him, excellent athleticism and still a shoot that is far from being regular. Dragic showing some correct shooting but he went a bit too much for the flashy plays in the Transition drills.

• Ettore Messina talked during 45 minutes to the campers after the different work-outs and explained them passing angles, bounce passes and how to read the defense. It was extremely interesting and I really want to see if any player will use this newly obtained skills in the afternoon games today.
• Some elements of the morning sessions featuring Nicolas Batum and Serge Ibaka among others
• Tonight, the Camp All-Stars will play against a Ukrainian selection which features reserve players mainly.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

• Rudy Mbemba is once again the highest jumping (38″ vertical) and the fastest guy (2.51 sec for the half court sprint) in the camp. But he is also once again showing that he still struggles to make the difference between precipitation and speed in game situation.
• Serge Ibaka is probably the best combination between size and athletic skills here in Treviso. If he adds now at least a bit of ball handling skills, he can be a very interesting player in the future.
• The Reebok All-Stars of today’s game against the French U20 team were: Rudy Mbemba, Ivan Paunic, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Serge Ibaka, Dusan Katnic, Henk Norel, Vladimir Dasic, Jaka Klobucar, Semen Shashkov and Viacheslav Kravtsov.
• The players that gave a good impression to me today were Vladimir Dasic (showing a nice mix between basketball skills, physical build and shooting touch), Oleksandr Kolchenko (nice jump shooter, especially from three point area with big upper body), Nikita Kurbanov (all around skills, great defense and good basketball IQ) and Alexey Shved (perfect high shooting mechanics, great work in rebound and control of the game).
• Thomas Heurtel showed with the French U20 why he was the MVP of the Trophée du Futur and how he made an astonishing 25pts, 15asts and 7rebs performance in the Finals. He came up with a very interesting showing today against the Reebok All-Stars.
• For me, it is the first time that I attend such a camp. It is really a good possibility to see a lot of different prospects. But still, the game situations are not comparable with real match-ups as you see that lots of players prefer to go for the nice plays instead of playing “real” basketball.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

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

Danilo Gallinari (8th)

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

Nicolas Batum (20th)

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

Serge Ibaka (40th)

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

Alexis Ajinca (41st)

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

Omer Asik (43rd)

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

Nikola Pekovic (46th)

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

Ante Tomic (50th)

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

Semih Erden (54th)

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

Goran Dragic (55th)

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

Omri Casspi (56th)

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

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

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

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

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

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

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

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

Mikheil Berishvili
Outlook:???

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

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

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

Danilo Gallinari
Outlook: lottery pick

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

Sergey Ilin
Outlook: unknown but 7″6 tall

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

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

Maxym Korniyenko
Outlook: ???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ronalds Zakis
Outlook: cf. Sheleketo

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

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

Danilo Gallinari (9th)

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

Nicolas Batum (18th)

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

Serge Ibaka (37th)

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

Omer Asik (48th)

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

Nikola Pekovic (49th)

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

Ante Tomic (51st)

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

Alexis Ajinca (52nd)

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

Goran Dragic (57th)

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

Semih Erden (58th)

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

Anton Ponkrashov (59th)

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

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

While not having seen the game (if anyone wants to send me a copy would be nice ), I had to take a look at what the other websites are saying about the Europeans present in Portland. I found a nice article from SI.com taking a look particularly at Serge Ibaka and Alexis Ajinca.

So Ian Thomsen is not known as being a worldwide recognized scout but he quotes some NBA personnel in his article about the Hoops Summit. So here are the main points about Serge Ibaka.

He doesn’t know how to play, but athletically he’s off the charts — there’s no telling how good he can be.

There are a lot of American 18-year-olds like him, which is to say that Ibaka must improve his skills and feel for the game if he hopes to stand out in the NBA someday.

This does not sound very promising to me as he looks like another athletic freak with still poor basketball knowledge and feel for the game. But I don’t want to judge before having seen him play a bit more. And he is only 18.

An impression confirmed by Mike Schmidt from Draftexpress.

Ibaka appears to be a physical freak with some very nice tools to work with, but he appears to be years away from making an impact at the NBA level.

I hope to get a copy of the game soon, so that I can give you my opinion on him also.

The other big guy that got a lot of attention is of course the already highly discussed Alexis Ajinca. According to the scouts quoted by Ian Thomsen,

Ajinca showed skills with the left hand, the three-point shot — he showed more aggressiveness.

He is a very interesting player, very quick, and his hands are better than last year.

Finally there were also some words about German big man Tim Ohlbrecht who had a rather poor showing according to the reports. But one scout seems to have higher hopes on him.

He’s better than he showed, I think the importance of this game got in his head.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.

Let’s start with the guards where we have the Argentinean 1989 born Diego Gerbaudo who is actually playing for Real Madrid. You see here a clip of his best plays during the Hospitalet Tournament 2006.

For the Lithuanian guard Zygimantas Janavicius, it was pretty impossible to find good clips on the net where he is the main part of it. So I let it like that and about the next guy, Torgrim Sommerfeldt, I can not tell you anything as I never heard even his name until I read the roster of the World Select Team. He is however considered as the best Norwegian basketball talent for ages.

The next prospect on the list is Serge Ibaka, the Congolese forward actually playing in Spain. About him, you find some interesting clips on the net with his actual LEB Oro team of Hospitalet.

Coming to the next big guy, we have the German PF Tim Ohlbrecht who is actually playing for Brose Baskets Bamberg. Here is a clip I made of him when he played with his U19 team in last year’s Final Four of the German Youth Championship NBBL.

To find a good video of the French PF Alexis Ajinca is also pretty hard. You can check out this clip where he is represented several times with what he does best: blocking shots. Of course, there is also this clip but it does not show all what he can do.

Feel free to Flattr this post at flattr.com, if you like it.