The British with Jamaican background Ryan Richards was the youngest of all the Europeans drafted in 2010. After an odyssey through different teams and countries, the Kent raised has now made his first step into the direction of his dream: playing in the NBA. The next step in his trip should now be to earn a roster spot with the San Antonio Spurs. But let’s take a look back and see where Richards comes from.

Jamaica, England, Gran Canaria (Spain), Madrid (Spain), Mons (Belgium), Las Palmas (Spain), Virtus Bologna (Italy), BBC Monthey (Switzerland), Gran Canaria (Spain), San Antonio (USA). What sounds like a veteran career is the way that Ryan Richards has already behind him at his young age. The 19 year old Brit had quickly been recognized as a big-time talent and a multitude of agents and teams were chasing him throughout Europe. Moving away from home was probably the right decision as Basketball is not really big in Great-Britain but the career choices were not always the best for him in his development.

The first time I could see him play in real was during the Nike International Junior Tournament 2008 in Madrid. But before that, he was already called up to the Nike Hoop Summit in 2007 where Draftexpress had the first reports on him.

Throughout the week in practice, Richards displayed a fantastic set of all-around skills for a 15 year old. On the perimeter, he handles the ball comfortably, and can shoot the jumper all the way out to 17 feet. On the low block, Richards has footwork advanced far beyond his years. Though the lefty finishes well with his strong hand on the low block, he rarely makes on moves to the right side of the basket.

Physically, Richards already has the size for a low post player in the NBA and will likely shoot up at least a few more inches in the 4 years before he becomes eligible for the draft. The big man from London also has an excellent frame for a 15 year-old, and will likely develop more strength and athleticism in the coming years.

Though his only playing time was an afterthought to the game, Richards logged 3 minutes, becoming the youngest player ever to participate in the annual game. After making his way onto the floor, he missed a spot-up jumper and followed it up with a missed jump hook from the left block on the ensuing possession.

And then came one of the phrases that shows how big Richards’ potential was seen back then.

If he continues his current rate of development, Ryan Richards has the makings of a potential lottery pick in the distant future.

Everything was ready to develop into really something special. Ryan Richards stayed with Gran Canaria and got an invitation by Real Madrid to compete with Real during the Nike International Junior Tournament during spring 2008. He impressed me with the same qualities that Draftexpress saw in him a year before but there were some signs that gave me doubts about his potential.

Richards displayed everything you need to become a good one one day. On the other side, I did not like at all his behavior on the court. But coming to his game, he showed some very fine moves with his back to basket and was extremely present in offensive rebounding. He has range until the three point line from where he can hit shots without any problem. Being a nice athlete, that helps him a lot but he should be even more present in blocking shots. What bothered me also was the fact that Richards took nearly every time a shot on his own when he got the ball and never went for the pass. This may be considered as a pretty selfish attitude especially when your team is trailing by 30 points like it was the case against FMP Zeleznik.

After this, Richards was not quite sure about how his future is going to be. Real Madrid wanted to sign him but other teams were also on the line. So, after a summer without playing for the British National Team, Richards finally turned down the five-year deal offer of Real because of prohibitive NBA buy-outs. But on the other hand, Richards needed a team where he could develop and earn playing time. He spoke with Chris Finch, who was the coach of the British National Team and additionally the coach of the Belgian team of Mons. Out of this, Mons offered him a two-year deal to complete his scholar duties in the American School in the region and develop his game in the Basketball Academy of the pro team and get some minutes if possible with the professionals.

During his year in Belgium, Richards scored only 5 baskets overall with Mons on the professional level and he was yet again set to leave and see something different. The way brought him back to Gran Canaria with the expectations of integrating the local ACB team. However, he was put in the reserve team after an unsuccessful test for a loan to Virtus Bologna. But the situation has not yet ended and the travelling continued. Gran Canaria sent him on loan to BBC Monthey in Switzerland where Richards for the first time got some regular playing time in a first division in Europe after 3 years of moving around. Even if the level was not the highest in the world, he still was a talented 18 year old seven-footer with a shot and great athletic abilities.

After a few games with Monthey, that’s when he decided to put his name into the 2010 Draft as an early entrant. The trip continued to the United States for a whole lot of workouts which can be followed in the excellent Pre-Draft Timeline of hoopsfix.com. The reactions were excellent in the beginning as he came a bit out of nowhere for most of the NBA observers. And the buzz created around him stayed alive over the weeks before the draft even if Richards did not participate to the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso.

Teams that have no immediate need could of course look a bit closer to a young seven footer and help him to develop over a few years. So it was no real surprise to see San Antonio grab the Brit in the second round. As Richards has already declared that he wants to play in the NBA or even go through the D-League, the chances to see him play for the Austin Toros next season are real. If that will be the case, Richards will meet in one of the first games for the Toros their rivals of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers; coached by Chris Finch.

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

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.

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

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

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

Today, the NBA released the official Early Entry Candidates List for the NBA Draft 2010. You can find the list of all the European players here. We will go through all of them and check where they will probably end up.

Kevin Serpahin – 2m05 – C – Cholet Basket – 1989

The French Center plays his first full season as a professional on the Starting Center position. Even if he had a lot of ups and downs in his performances, the Cholet-bound player is an interesting prospect in terms of NBA potential. Cholet is playing an excellent season and is about to qualify for the Euroleague which may influence the future of the 2m05 tall player. If Cholet runs deep in the French playoffs, Seraphin will mostly likely miss the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso. Additionally, the French Finals are played on the 14th of June which is the Early Entry Withdrawal date. In the case, Cholet goes to the Finals, Serpahin may have no possibility to do individual workouts for NBA Teams which can hurt his stock. In any case, Seraphin will probably stay another year in Europe to play in the Euroleague with either Cholet or a different team.

Prediction: stays in the Draft

Thomas Heurtel – 1m88 – PG – Strasbourg – 1989

The question that we have discussed earlier this year is to know if Thomas Heurtel has progressed. The opinions were diversified and there came even the question on his future position, PG or SG. Right now, Heurtel does not really look like an NBA prospect and he put his name in certainly to test the waters and see if there are NBA teams that show interest in him. He will most likely be at the Eurocamp which is an event where he probably will excel with his flashy play.

Prediction: withdraws

Antoine Diot – 1m91 – PG – Le Mans – 1989

Is Antoine Diot an NBA player or not? The French guard is currently progressing in nearly every domain and will certainly become a high-level Euroleague player in the future. He has already lots of experience at a young age and plays the typical European basketball. His limits in creativity and athleticism will probably hurt him in terms of NBA potential but you never know. He will probably miss the Eurocamp also because of the potential of Le Mans to go deep in the French playoffs.

Prediction: withdraws

Edwin Jackson – 1m91 – SG/PG – Rouen – 1989

Together with Thomas Heurtel, Jackson represents the group of ASVEL players loaned out to a different team in France. The player from Rouen has the athletic tools and mentality to play in the NBA but a limited size for the SG position and still underdeveloped PG skills will hurt him down the road. Jackson will certainly by a good competitor in the Adidas Eurocamp in Treviso and he needs to use this opportunity to boost his stock.

Prediction: withdraws

Andrew Albicy – 1m78 – PG – Paris-Levallois – 1990

The name of Andrew Albicy was quite a surprise for me when it was announced as the tiny PG from Paris has never been hyped up in France as a potential NBA player. The force of the U20 National Team player is of course his defense and he will compete during the Adidas Eurocamp with the U20 French team as guest. He uses this Draft to put his name on the boards of the teams that did not know him but in the end, he will most likely not play in the NBA one day.

Prediction: withdraws

Robin Benzing – 2m08 – SF – ratiopharm Ulm – 1989

The German forward played an excellent first season on the Bundesliga level after having his break out event at the Eurobasket in Poland. Benzing has an excellent combination of skills, height and speed but had lots of trouble on the defensive end. He is a below average rebounder for his size and needs to gain in strength. He will be at Treviso for sure and will certainly be a player that gets a lot of looks by NBA teams before the withdrawal date. And depending on what he will hear, he may stay in the Draft.

Prediction: withdraws

Tomasz Nowakowski – 2m09 – PF – Luka Koper – 1990

The Polish player came into the Draft as a total unknown so the main goal of his early entry is already reached: people know his name and at least check out who he is. He will probably be in Treviso for the Eurocamp where all the teams can evaluate him.

Prediciton: withdraws

Ryan Richards – 2m06 – PF – BBC Monthey – 1991

The British player is one of the youngest players that has entered his name this spring and he is all about potential at the moment. After an odyssey throughout Europe over the last seasons, Richards has settled down in Switzerland but he has not played a game there since March. He will probably be at the Adidas Eurocamp in June.

Prediction: withdraws

Mindaugas Kuzminskas – 2m03 – SF/PF – BC Siauliai – 1989

The Lithuanian forward had a nice Treviso camp last summer and entered his name to the Early Entry list this spring. He played an excellent season both in Baltic League and Eurocup and may go back to Zalgiris this summer as return on the loan. Kuzminskas tests the water this year to see his value for the NBA Draft and may remain in the pool if he likes what NBA teams will tell him. The big time potential is however not there.

Predicition: withdraws

Bojan Bogdanovic – 2m02 – SG/SF – Cibona Zagreb – 1989

Finally, Bogdanovic plays on the highest level after travelling through lower Spanish divisions for several years. He boosted his stock in terms of an NBA future nicely this season but is he the type of player NBA teams are looking for. I have some doubts if he will be at the Eurocamp in a month but the NBA teams had enough possibilities to scout him in real conditions so that those teams that may want to draft him should be aware of his qualities.

Prediction: may stay in

Tibor Pleiß – 2m14 – C – Brose Baskets – 1989

The German Center made a big step forward this season as he is a starter for an ambitious Bundesliga team. His presence on the defensive end as shot blocker is excellent and he also made some progress in his physical presence. Offensively, he is developing and he has still a major potential upside. Being seven foot tall and far from being stiff, he is certainly one of the European players in this Draft getting the most attention. It is highly possible that he won’t be in Treviso because of the German playoffs.

Prediction: stays in

Donatas Motiejunas – 2m13 – PF/C – Benetton Treviso – 1990

With the absence of Jan Vesely, the Lithuanian forward is the biggest stock from Europe this year. Combining excellent basketball skills with great size, Motiejunas is one of the players that lots of teams like because he has no real counterpart in College Basketball. He may be at the Adidas Eurocamp, living just next door. He may end up being the only European in the 1st round if he stays in which seems to be not so sure according to different sources.

Prediciton: stays in

The 2nd part of the analysis will follow later.

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

Division A

• Croatia did not have too much problems to beat a Latvian team that won’t probably repeat their Bronze medal act from last year. Mario Delas was everywhere for the Croats with 24pts, 9rebs and 3asts.
• Germany beat France in a very important game already as this group looked pretty equal. The M&Ms were on fire with Maurice Stuckey scoring 20pts in 23 minutes and Maik Zirbes going for a double-double with 22pts and 11trebs.
• In the game of the night, Greece overcame Spain in a closer game than everyone thought in the beginning. The Greeks started quickly despite a calm game of Nikos Pappas. They increased their lead and used their inside players Leonidas Kaselakis and Zisis Sarikopoulos very well against a small Spanish team. In the 2nd half, when Spain was switching to a zone, the could come back behind some good defensive efforts and a few nice plays by Alejandro Hernandez. However, it was Vladimir Jankovic and Konstantinos Papanikolaou who sealed the game in the game and a last second three pointer from mid-court by the Spanish guard could not change the result.
• Serbia, who misses all their players of Crvena Zvezda because of injury, struggled badly in their opener of the tournament and lost 83-68 against a Lithuanian team that was lead by Tautvydas Slezas and his 16pts, 13rbs, 3asts and 2blks. For Serbia, it was especially Bojan Subotic who was far away from his normal level with 2/10 shooting and 0/3 FTs.
• Bulgaria had nearly the comeback of the day after trailing by 17 in the fourth quarter. But it was not enough against the 24pts and 9rebs of Enes Kanter for the Turkish team.
• ERT World Sat broadcasts the game of the Greek U18 team. You can follow the Live Stream here from tomorrow’s game Greece-Israel starting at 18h00 CET.

Division B

• Poland had a lot of trouble to win against a English team without Ryan Richards who is not with the team because of slight injuries. Behind the 30pts of 1991 born guard Sebastian Szymanski, the Polish team won despite having their top prospect Jakub Wojciechowski fouled out in just 16 minutes. England coach Andre Alleyne told me after the game that he wasn’t happy in the way we played defense in the first half. We picked it up in the second and if we transfer that to the Portugal game tomorrow, we will be in a better position. The goal of the team is to finish better than last year (18th) and everything below 10th place would be a failure in coach Alleyne’s mind.
• Austria had a nice win to start into the tournament and put some pressure on the Netherlands. Behind the great effort of Rasid Mahalbasic who scored 28pts and had 10rebs, the team of coach Robert Langer has now chances to go to the next round. It was a very intensive game. Our team has fought very well and we stuck together. We have overpowered the Dutch but we can improve, told the coach after the game to the press.
• Sweden managed to beat Bosnia-Herzegovina behind 21pts in 24 minutes of Omar Zaghden. The Swedish PF got some nice support from his outside scorers Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz who both were in double figures. The Bosnian team relied a bit too much on Dino Hodzic who had to do it all.
• Finland outscored Hungary in the second quarter 30-14 to go for their first win. A surprising performance by the Kouvot SF Matti Nuutinen with 22pts and 10rebs and the awaited scoring efforts of Sasu Salin and Roopi Ahonen were enough to give the Hungarians their first loss.
• One of the tournament favorites Slovenia will start their run for Division A tomorrow when they will play against the other strong team of their group Sweden.

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

Group A

The first group of the tournament features five teams that with the exception of Norway can hope to advance to the next round. In fact, two teams qualify for the Top8 in each group and have the possibility play for moving up to Division A.

The Czech Republic looks a bit like the favorite in this group as they feature some high quality players like Jan Vesely and David Jelinek but also has quality guys like Adam Zampach or Tomas Satoransky on its roster. However, the team disappointed heavily last year where they could not manage to win more than 4 games in the tournament. But still, on the talent level, they should not have any opposition in this field

Montenegro will be driven by the 2m13 of Milos Lopicic who has already played an interesting competition last year with the U18 team. He will get passes from the 1991 born PG Stevan Lazovic who is currently playing for the Italian team of Bari.

Austria could become the outsider in this group with the best chances to move on. The generation that finished 4th at the U16 B Division level 2 years ago has matured and is now ready to attack the next tournament. I spoke with coach Robert Langer and he gave me the following info about the current situation of his team.

If everything goes well, we can reach the same level of play this year than we had 2 years ago at the U16 tournament where played face to face with nations like Georgia or the Czech Republic. And if we reach the Top8, everything is possible for us.

During the qualification, which was chosen to be especially intensive, we had some bad losses but also showed that we can play the teams we are facing in Debrecen. We lost maybe to the Czech Republic three times, but that was in the beginning of our preparation. We played against teams like Latvia, Slovenia or Turkey to see what the level is. Maybe we lost, but now we have to win. And to win every game is possible.

Unfortunately, we had some injuries during the year and even now, we have to let away some of our important rotation players. This gave us on the other hand the possibility to bring in some talented 1991 kids.

The Austrian team will be led by its combo of Moritz Lanegger who was the All-Tournament PG two years ago and the forward Rasid Mahalbasic who averaged already 7.7ppg in the Austrian Bundesliga. The surprise however could come from scoring guard Jesse Seilern und Aspang of Kapfenberg Bulls.

The Netherlands have put together a team that also has some chances to move to the next round as they showed during their preparation. Especially during the Albert Schweitzer Tournament this spring where the team showed some promises for B Division. And the head coach Tyronne Marioneaux is pretty optimistic as he told FIBA Europe.

My expectation is that we can win it. And the reason I think that is because last year, I was with the U16 and we played against both finalists, Hungary and Poland. We were up 10 points in the first quarter against Hungary and we were ahead of Poland by five points with a couple minutes to go. So the experience was important. If I can get my guys stronger, I really think we have a chance, especially after this (Albert Schweitzer) tournament. When I see what we could do here, it gives me a lot of confidence for what’s coming up.

Luuk Kortekaas, who recently signed for Niagara University in the NCAA seems to be the man in the middle who should help the Dutch team to move to the next round.

For Norway, who probably is the weakest team of the group, Anders Stien has to go for miracles if they want to qualify into the next round. But with their short team, only one player taller than 2m, the Nordics will probably play aggressive defense. At least, they managed to win the Nordic Championship this Spring which is not a bad performance.

Group B

In this group, there is a clear cut favorite with Slovenia that had to come down to division B after their mediocre showing in Madrid last year. But this year, the team of coach Rade Mijanovic should be among the best squads in the tournament as the 1990 generation features some interesting players. Matej Bergant, who follows the Slovenian basketball for eurobasket.com gave me his insight on the U18 team from his homecountry.

Slovenia U18 NT goal is to try and qualify from U18 B division again to division A. Our youngsters fall to B division last year after winning only two teams (Croatia and Romania) and losing to Bulgaria, Italy, Germany and Lithuania.

Slovenia U18 performed well in the preparation period, losing only twice, once against Turkey in a strange game (few players responded on Turkish provocations and started a mass fight which ended in a way that Turkish players decided to leave the court) and once against Poland. During the preparation period in my opinion the main roles were given to Sarajlija, Murič and Vranjkovič.

I have high expectations for this team, I believe it’s very talented and I think we have decent chances to qualify to A division of European Championship U18 – although Montenegro and few other National Teams have same expectations as well.

The PG Mirza Sarajlija will of course split some defenses with his drives and Dino Muric will do his job everywhere on the court. The surprise of the tournament may however by the sharpshooter Matic Sirnik who signed his first professional contract with Olimpija a few weeks ago.

The team from Switzerland is a one of the more unknown teams in this competition but it features some guys that could be interesting to follow in the next years. First of all, there is PG Cedric von Düring who played for the German NBBL team of Bonn/Rhöndorf and signed recently a professional contract with ratiopharm Ulm. On the other, and probably even more interesting will be the performance of Stefan Petkovic who played already some ULEB Cup minutes despite being only born in November 1992.

The group of players from Bosnia-Herzegovina will probably be among the teams that has some chances to move up to division A this year. Their back court looks promising with Dino Hodzic and Eldin Camdzic but also the inside section looks interesting with seven footer Aldin Klinac and the 1991 born PF Nermin Buza.

Sweden looks like the biggest competition in this group for Slovenia as they showed during their excellent presentation in Mannheim this spring. Coach Tommie Hansson told me the following about his team and its preparation.

We are getting better every day and thanks to AST we are really well prepared going in to the tournament.

We have a really tough group but if we succeed coming out as one of the two first teams of our group I think we can beat all the other teams in the tournament. We will have a lot of confidence coming in to the playoffs.

Andreas Person, Alexander Lindqvist and Christopher Czerapovich are three players that I think will be really good players in the future. Kevin Okot and Jonathan Larsson are two other players that have developed a lot the last two years.

I think Czech Republic, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia and Poland will be our strongest opponents.

So I don’t have a lot to add here as Tommie already presented the main guys of his team for Debrecen where only Christopher Ryan will not be present because of injury problems.

For Ireland, the trip to Debrecen will probably become pretty tough as the team faces a lot of stronger and taller opponents. Additionally, most of these young kids have never faced such a level of play. This may change however as the Irish Superleague has to decided to have from next season at least 3 home grown players on the court at every moment to give its younger kids playing time at the highest level of their national league.

Group C

Coming to the third group of the competition, we have to start with Portugal. Last year, the team feature a high profile player with Claudio Fonseca, but this year, there is no name that strikes out right now. The preparation had some ups and downs with a particularly huge defeat against Spain. So it looks like the team of coach Alvaro Amiel will have some hard work to do in Debrecen.

Another team and another time not that much to say. Even more unknown than Portugal the Belarus roster is filled with names that I am not familiar with. Good luck to them.

Poland features a nice roster built around the Benetton Treviso prospect Jakub Wojciechowski. The Polish big guy with the excellent shooting stroke will try to lead his team to a possible Division A spot but he needs to get some support by his team mates. 1991 born Sebastian Szymanski could be the necessary back court guy to make the game more variable. The team will in any way be among the Top8 and can go for it all.

England features a nice bunch of talent but the problem is if they can stick together and play. In the preparation, with losses against teams like Ireland or the Netherlands, they showed that their team play is still limited. Ryan Richards and his team mates have to improve during the tournament if they want to have a chance to go up.

Romania comes of a terrible tournament last year in Division A after the went up the year before behind their great 1988 generation. Not a lot to add from my side though as I don’t know any players on their roster.

Group D

Georgia looks like the big favorite of this group as the team features an incredible amount of young talent. Nika Metreveli, who is playing for Montepaschi Siena’s youth teams looks like the team leader. He gets support in the back court from Konstantine Tomaradze who plays for FC Barcelona. During the preparation, the team has beaten Division A team Ukraine twice and showed their potential.

Denmark is totally unknown to me and they will probably struggle to go for wins in this group. Nicolas Christensen was the name of the 2007 squad that is still there and that had already some impact in the game last summer.

Finland looks like having an interesting roster to play this tournament. With their typical game of outside shooting and team defense, they have the possibility to go to the next round, something that my friend Hippo can confirm.

This team does have the tools to climb up to Division A, but the team can afford no mistakes or injuries. While they have the chance to finish first in Div B championship, they might as well drop down to somewhere between 8th and 12th spot.

The best pro prospects in this team are SASU SALIN, a 187cm, 1991 born combo guard who had a solid rookie season with the Honka Playboys and ROOPE AHONEN of ToPo Helsinki, a 187 cm, 1990 born guard who has impressive offensive abilities for someone so young. Big man SAMULI VANTTAJA (203 cm, 1991) is raw but promising; he can play basically three positions, is faster than most guards but at the same time is physically as raw as tomorrow’s sushi. Vanttaja also has to find stability; he can finish with 14/8 and 3 blocks in game 1, but with 0/1 and four fouls in game 2.

Hungary may come up with some surprises this summer as they have an interesting amount of talent on their roster. David Vojvoda was already a great scorer last year for the team and he should have improved over the season. Additionally, you have the very promising big guy Adam Lepsenyi who dominated during last years U16 European championship. Another player to observe is probably Norbert Takacs who could not play the U16 in 2007.

Slovak Republic is another unknown team that comes to Debrecen and I hope to get some more info on them in the future.

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

• Interview with Ryan Richards during the Nike International Junior Tournament.
• A few plays from Nicolo Melli during the Legadue playoffs
• Check out the main French prospects of the ProA in Video
• German U18 NT coach Kay Blümel selected 20 players for the preparation phase of the U18 European Championship this summer
• The 9th Meneghin – De Silvestro International Basketball Tournament in Domegge (Italy) will feature the following U20 National teams from 18th to 20th July: Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Georgia
• PAOK Salonici qualified for the Final of the Greek Youth Championships behind the huge scoring efforts of Charis Giannopoulos
• This weekend, the Cadets tournament in Riom faces off the U16 National teams of France, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Latvia. Find here the French and the Slovenian rosters.
• The Adidas Nations Africa team will play the Douai tournament this year. Check here for some names that will probably be on the roster

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

When we talk about Cibona Zagreb, we have of course to mention Tomislav Zubcic. During the AST this spring, I had already made a first report about the Croatian forward, so here I will just come up with an update of this report. I don’t have to mention that fantastic combination of size and skills that the Croatian forward displays. He played a lot of SF during the tournament where he could use his speed and size. Despite showing decent individual statistics, Zubcic is still not the leader that can make his team winning. This has already been the case with the Croatian U18 team in Mannheim and is still the case with Cibona in Madrid. Also what I wanted to add is that his shot position is not always perfect. He loves to go for some fade-away shots when it is not necessary which results in perfectible shooting percentages. As I said, I don’t go for the outstanding individual skills; the only thing I want to add in this area is that Zubcic displayed great rebounding will throughout the tournament.

Leon Radosevic has also already been featured during the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament so here is also only a short update on what he displayed in Madrid. Playing mostly really inside where he wants to use his above average athleticism for European standards to overpower his opponents. Unfortunately, this ends up sometimes in forced moves which he has to limit. On the other hand, this style of plays gives him a lot of FTs to shot where he has some room for improvement left as he scored only 63% of his attempts.

Nikola Mirotic (2m06 – PF – 1991 – Real Madrid)

Here we have another example of the already typical European power forward. Large shooting range until the three point line, good size, correct athleticism and so on. Mirotic had his worst game when I was there, so it is difficult to judge his level. But he is player that has nice potential because of his excellent fundamentals, good size and nice shot until the three point area. He showed several times some kind of nice back to the basket move with a turn-around, fake and then a sort of up and under to avoid the block shot. He also had interesting shooting skills out of the dribble with notably a 3pt fake,1 driblle and then a step back to swish it from long range two. Definitely a player to watch in the future.

Ryan Richards (2m06 – C – 1991 – Real Madrid)

First of all, the British Center was only one that could stop Dejan Musli in any kind of way, by playing him extremely physical. But is that enough to make him a great prospect, I don’t know. Richards displayed everything you need to become a good one one day. On the other side, I did not like at all his behavior on the court. But coming to his game, he showed some very fine moves with his back to basket and was extremely present in offensive rebounding. He has range until the three point line from where he can hit shots without any problem. Being a nice athlete, that helps him a lot but he should be even more present in blocking shots. What bothered me also was the fact that Richards took nearly every time a shot on his own when he got the ball and never went for the pass. This may be considered as a pretty selfish attitude especially when your team is trailing by 30 points like it was the case against FMP Zeleznik.

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