A new initiative established by FIBA Europe and sponsored by Champion was the U18 All-Stars camp for young European players held these days in Poland. 32 players got selected according to their performances at the U18 European Championships and went to work in several sessions with established coaches like Svetislav Pesic .21 players got an All-Star selection for a game that has been played today.

The value of such a game can be debated, at least the first twenty minutes of the contest did not really amazed me with brilliant plays. Except the huge performance by Jonas Valanciunas who grabbed 14 rebounds and had several big dunks in the first half, there was not much to be seen. It was however a good opportunity to see players from the B Division tournament like the two Swedes Andreas Person and Christopher Czerapowicz (more on him in the next weeks), the Montenegrin Nemanja Radovic or Janos Eilingsfeld from Hungary. Radovic, a 2m06 tall forward who averaged 20.3ppg and 10.0rpg during the European Championship in  July showed a nice arsenal of offensive moves including the catch and shoot three point shot or drives with the left hand where he also displayed some good footwork to surround his defenders.

The second half was not really more exciting and even if the final result of 77-75 may suggest some suspense, there was none to be felt. Valanciunas continued to dominate in the paint and finished the game with a MVP performance of 18pts, 19rebs and 3blks. Dejan Musli, who was his main opponent on the White team simply did not look motivated as he finished the game with 2 very poor airballs (one on a free throw attempt) and never really showed any kind of dominance inside. He preferred to play some kind of PG out of rebound situations when running the break. Whatever, it was an All-Star Game and you could see that several of these kids prefer to play real games than such exhibitions. Probably the most intense and ambitious guy on the court was the German Philipp Neumann. The 2m10 Center displayed a me-first show not giving away any ball he got into his hands and trying to score all the time. It was something that we already observed during the U18 European Championship and Neumann did not show any kind of development in this area in this All-Star Game. He finished the game with 14pts though and had also 3blks but he needs to learn how to share the ball.

The most regular guy over the whole game next to Valanciunas was Radovic who came up with positive things throughout the whole game. He finished the game with a nice 12pts and 9rebs in just 15 minutes of action. He got some scoring help for the Blue Team by the Serbian shooter Lazar Radosavljevic who netted 3/6 threes for a total of 11pts. For the defeated White Team, Toni Prostran had 13pts but 7TOs while the aforementioned Musli finished with 10pts and 13rebs.

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

After the Guards, I will talk about the wings today. It was probably the position that showed the least talent in France this summer, however several players need to be mentioned.

Danilo Andusic (1m95 – SG/SF – Serbia – 1991)

Danilo Andusic made it to my personal All-Tournament because of his very important role as bench scorer for the Serbian team. His role increased through out the tournament as he started with only 8 minutes in the opener and he finished with a tournament high 27 minutes in the Final. This shows how important Andusic was in the end in his task as long distance scorer.

Andusic is mainly a catch and shoot three point shooter. With his very quick release, he can arm his shot from all around the three point line easily. His release point is however a bit low as he does not shot really over his head. This does not take away any danger coming from him though as he fires it up even with the defense on him. The quickness of his shooting mechanics helps him to overcome this deficit.

On the negative side is of course his ball handling and penetration skills which are probably below average. You could barely ever see him drive to the basket and if he did so, it ended up mostly in a bad pass or an offensive foul. The fact of taking only 12 shooting attempts at two points underline this as those include the baskets he scored on the fast break. He is also not really an out of the dribble or coming of the screen shooter, but he moves very well without the ball in order to create himself open positions to catch the ball and shot it immediately.

He can shot the ball in series and also nail the three pointer immediately after coming from the bench. He is not afraid to take the big shots, it was him that made a ultra important three pointer in the Final to stop a French run in the decisive moments. He has to improve his ball handling and drive though but also integrate of the screen or out of the dribble shooting over the next years when he wants to develop into more than just a “catch and shoot machine”.

Stats: 13.0ppg (48.1% 3FG 26/54) 2.1rpg 18.3mpg

Evan Fournier (1m98 – SF/SG – France – 1992)

One of the youngest players of the tournament was also maybe one of the most talented scorers in Metz. Evan Fournier had an up-and-down start into the tournament as his long distance shot was not falling (1/10 during the first 5 games, 8/17 over the last 4 games) and his confidence may have been hurt. But a tremendous game in the decisive matchup with Germany (29pts at 77%) opened him and his team the way to the Silver Medal.

Fournier is a really versatile scorer. He excels of course in the open court where he can use his speed and athletic abilities but is far away from being stuck when it comes to set offense. He can attack the rim pretty well and is not afraid to go to the contact with the big guys. And he can score with the foul as he protects himself very well in the air when going for the layup. He has great skills in that area and you could see him display a multitude of difficult finishes in the paint.

Driving along the baseline with right handed dribble but finishing above the rim on a left handed finger roll or a two handed dunk after two direction changes against the the set zone defense were two of the highlights that I remember pretty well. With his ability to go to rim, he is regular visitor on the charity stripe (4.4 attempts per game) where he has however some potential to improve as he connects only 67.5% of these attempts. And there we come to his shot who looks a bit streaky right now.

As mentioned before, his three point shot does not fall right now on a regular basis. But he is still very young (he only turns 17 in October) which gives him plenty of time to adjust. Right now, he shows that he can be a threat from outside, be it on catch and shoot with defense or out of the dribble. And he can create that much with his drive, also for his team mates that this deficit is not that important . But he needs to focus on it and develop his consistency over the next years.

Stats: 12.4ppg (63% 2FG – 33.3% 3FG – 67.5% FT), 2.2rpg, 1.6spg

Mael Lebrun (1m93 – SG/SF – France – 1991)

Mael Lebrun came into the tournament injured and you could not imagine the impact he would have on the French team by the end of the tournament. Being hyper athletic, he was somehow the player that France needed to reach the next level and be a Medal team. With his game, he fitted perfectly in the group of players as they exactly missed an energizer and mid-range player like him.

Lebrun showed scoring talent nearly every where on the court. Driving to rim and finish with powerful dunks as well as three point shots are in his repertoire. But what made him specific is that he can take the jump shot from mid-range, either in catch and shoot, coming of the screen or out of the drive; a skill that not many young players have these days. His good footwork helps him to stop his drives at full speed and go up for a perfect jump shot. He can create for himself the necessary space to get the shot open or to get some space for his team mates.

His athletic and physical abilities give him the necessary background to develop into a very interesting player for the next level. His body balance and control look very promising and he is very strong on his drives. One play that I remember is a base line drive followed by a very strong one-handed dunk over a defender with staying really in the air despite a hard foul by the defense. He can use his drives also with a spin move if he recognizes the defense coming at him. The floater is also in his skill-set.

It will be really interesting to see how he develops the next years. He is a member of the French Euroleague team Orléans and he will be on the professional roster this season. His physical and talent may give him a shot as short-stretch defender or aggressive guy to get a shot or two. Of the 1991 born players of the French team, he is probably one of the most talented.

Stats: 12.0ppg (52.5% 2FG – 42.3% 3FG), 4.4rpg

Nemanja Jaramaz could have been put in the guards post but for whatever reason he landed among the wings. As Jaramaz can play every position from 1 to 3. He has a normally a good three point shot in catch and shoot fashion, even his attempts were not falling. The main force is of course his height which gives him a multitude of match advantages on this level when playing on the PG position which he sometimes does. He can use his arms to deflect some balls (nearly 2 per game) which makes him also a very interesting player on defense.

Lazar Radosavljevic is another player that created some match-up advantages for Serbia as the SF used his height pretty well when being defended by a smaller guy. He posted up some times but mainly he was an outside player. For him too, the 3pt shot was not falling which limited him somehow in his offensive production but he looked to be the better penetration player than Jaramaz. His ball handling looks also good for a player of his size and he is a good presence in the rebound with 6 boards per game.

Saulius Kulvietis was the starting PF for the Lithuanian team in most of the games despite not being an inside guy at all. Kulvietis was more of a pure out side shooter who finished the tournament with great percentages from behind the three point line (52.9%). His shot looked pretty nice but he also displayed some skills with both hands on the drive after a shot fake. He is very long with a good wingspan but pretty skinny.

Alberto Jodar did not show something brilliantly new during this tournament. His talent level is still not in doubt but on the hand, you still miss the spark that makes him outstanding. Top scorer of the Spanish team with good shot selection and an effective work in the rebound, Jodar is a great combination of size and skills for the modern wing. He can score from nearly anywhere and is a match-up nightmare for the defense due to his height and speed. He has become a pretty regular scorer right now but he did not explode in the decisive games and even had his worst statistical effort in the lost quarter-final against Turkey.

Joan Sastre was more of an unknown player to me before the tournament but now he is not anymore. In my eyes, he was probably the key guy in the Spanish team as he was among their offensive leaders, a big threat from behind the three point line and a surprisingly athletic finisher in the paint. Several times, you could see offensive set-ups for him as a backdoor alley-oop player. He can also post up shorter defenders despite being rail thin. His three point shot is a real set shot without any height on the jump but Sastre nets it in with great accuracy. Technically, he seems pretty gifted too, so he only needs to bulk up a bit to become a true ACB small forward in the next years.

Pavel Antipov really looked like highly talented guy on the Russian team. Unfortunately, he left the tournament after only three games on a virus infection. Luckily, I had the chance to see him in action against Lithuania and I must admit that I was impressed by his basketball talent. He showed great skills when using different moves in order to score in the paint. Fakes, jump hook, pivot moves, spins, all coming out of drives that look very strong and well coordinated. His jump shot looks a bit strange though as his left arm falls away a bit on every shot attempt but Antipov looked like a really nice player, at least during the game I saw from him.

Riccardo Moraschini finished the tournament on a nice game against Croatia and had an overall pretty satisfying showing in France. Moraschini has of course a less important leader role than he displayed with Virtus Bologna in the Stella Azzurra tournament but he was the main scoring option for the Italians on the wing. His three point shot was not the main thing he had to offer but his drives, especially coming of the left hand were powerful and speedy. He can finish those easily on dunk against the defense but also step at mid-range and pull up the jumper or go for a head fake to create an open under hand score.

Matthis Mönninghof was the scoring leader besides Philipp Neumann for a interestingly talented German team that was built on their 92 generation. Next to his great size for playing the SG spot (where he may end up in the future), Mönninghof has a very nice looking jump shot from behind the three point line but he also displayed a good drive where he uses his athletic abilities that are above average for a European player. He needs though to improve his ball handling but that seems not to be a problem for him in the next years. His understanding of the game seems good and his different offensive possibilities make him one of better talents for the U18 tournament of next year.

Edo Muric was the clear scoring leader of the Slovenian team and his physical presence was often unmatched at the wing on this level. He fights, takes a lot of jump shots from mid range and has also good court vision and a huge presence in rebound. Everything is there from that point of view but the question remains if that is not all coming from his above average physical abilities that once he plays on the professional level will easily be matched. Nevertheless, he looks to be very versatile as he can hit the buzzer beating three point but also enforce his defender in the low post with hook shoots.

Linos-Spyridon Chrysikopoulos is the most interesting player that Greece had to offer in this tournament as the 1992 born forward combined good height with an interesting skill level. He has good speed, can create spaces for his team mates with his court vision and ball handling but can also nail big shots.

Ondrej Kohout was not that impressive when you just take a look at his numbers. He also left the tournament after three games for unknown reasons to me but the game I saw from him impressed me with his talent level. He shows good basketball fundamentals, footwork and overall talent, but he could not impact the game anyhow with scoring which raises however some questions marks.

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

The favorites

If you consider the different tournaments that have been played so far this season, the main teams to win this year’s edition of the competition are Greece and Serbia. After the astonishing dominance in Mannheim, the Greek team around Nikos Pappas showed a great talent level despite missing some inside forces.

On the other hand, the Serbian team, that is build around the FMP Junior Team core of Andrija Milutinovic, Bojan Subotic and Dejan Musli. The non-consideration of Branislav Djekic or Lazar Radosavljevic may be a surprise for some people but still Serbia looks like a clear cut favorite to reach the Gold medal game.

The outsiders

Some other teams can be considered as potential Medal candidates, and those are the traditional teams like Spain, France or Lithuania. The Spanish guys, that will of course play without Ricky Rubio may lack of some size because they don’t have any player taller than 2m06 in their roster. So the paint has to be kept clean by guys like Toni Vicens or Alberto Jodar who either miss the necessary size or are no inside players. The least that one could say is that the Spanish backcourt of David Garcia, Alejandro Hernandez and Dani Perez is ready to face some tough opposition.

I also spoke with Luis from Draftexpress.com and here is his opinion on the Spanish U18 team.

I think Spain has a chance to reach the medals, although I think Serbia is just on an entire different level and no other team should be able to challenge them (perhaps not even Greece, although they are the other top candidate for the final).

Regarding Spain, I like the fact we have a heady PG in Dani Pérez, a skilled guard in Alex Hernández, aggressive and skilled wings in Jorge Santana or Marcos León, both capable of slash and shoot, an all-around physical freak in Alberto Jodar, and finally, we’ve added some size. You probably remember Toni Vicens, the undersized and over weighted hustler quite effective under the rim.

For France, their performance in Mannheim was really bad, but the uncommon practice methods of their coach seem to have some results. Les Bleus won their tournament in Douai behind a great team effort and playing without their supposed best player in person of Christophe Leonard who signed a pro-contract with Cholet recently. Ludovic Puigcerbier, who is following French youth basketball for basketsession.com gave us his thoughts on the chances for the French in Greece:

After a difficult preparation, the French U18 team could hurt more than one team during this year’s U18 competition. Despite some bad results in Mannheim, Euro-Essone and Manzanares, the French team has however beaten teams like Spain, Croatia or Lithuania during their preparation and has also won the tournament in Douai. The team has the necessary talent with players like Christophe Léonard, Andrew Albicy or Alexis Tanghe but we have to see how the team will play and behave during the tournament. But they have the possibilities to beat every team on any given night. On the other hand, the inside sector looks pretty weak though to be a contender for a medal. I think, they will finish between 5th and 7th place.

Lithuania is always present when it comes to Youth Championships. And this year, with super talent Donatas Motiejunas in the middle, Lithuania could eventually be considered as one of the main teams for a medal. But one player does not make them a Gold Medal team as they significantly miss some offensive quality in the back court. For the Lithuanian federation, the official goal is between 3 and 8 but the current results made some people think that this goal will be hard to reach especially if you take into consideration that Motiejunas was injured during two weeks and he is badly wanted by the U20 team to play with them. So eventually, he may leave after a few games if the U18 team can not reach a medal. Because of the lack of potential in the 1990 generation except Motiejunas and Tautvydas Slezas, the coaching staff added some interesting 1991 born guys where especially Gilvydas Biruta showed good talent so far.

Who else do we have?

Another team that has to be mentioned is of course Croatia and their impressive front court composed of Tomislav Zubcic, Mario Delas and Leon Radosevic. With the addition of Toni Prostran in the backcourt since the Albert-Schweitzer Tournament, the team is improving on the talent side but now remains the question if they can translate this into decisive games. The Croats, who should win their group will have their real opponents in the 2nd phase where they will play against France, Russia, Germany or Ukraine.All in all, this side of the table looks a lot easier to reach the semis than the other side where Serbia, Lithuania, Greece, Spain and Italy fight for the two spots most likely.

The Turkish team played also a interesting tournament in Mannheim and showed some stints of talent in Douai too. However, I have some doubts if they can go for it all in Greece as they seem to depend too much on their PF beat Deniz Kiligli who is not the most regular player in the world. They have some good scoring in the backcourt and feature 16yr old Enes Kanter who can dominate in the paint but it really looks like the left-handed hook machine from Fenerbahce is the guy that decides about the performance of the Turkish team. And one bad game may be enough to fall from 1-4th to 5-8th place.

Germany played an interesting tournament in Douai where they won the games they have to win. In their home event in Mannheim, they lost the game they had to win to qualify for the Top8. So Kay Blümel and his team know how good or how bad they can play, especially after the poor performances in Spain a few days ago. But the absence of some of the main players may be a reason for this as explains the German head coach:

After the very bad performance during the tournament in Spain, where we played without six of our first 10 players (Maurice Stuckey, Simon Schmitz, Robert Hülsewede, Femi Oladipo, Niels Giffey and Alexander Schrempf) and lost heavily against Spain, France and Croatia, the motivation of the team was really down low. We tried to improve this during our training camp these days. Unfortunately, we have to play without Oladipo (torn ankle) and Hülsewede (broken foot) during the Championships which lets a big hole on our SF position. Our goal is to reach the third place in our group first of all and avoid the relegation round.

The game against France in the beginning will be extremely important for us, because they have a team that we can beat.  Russia has improved and showed good games in the Moscow tournament and seems hard to beat. Ukraine is the unknown team in our group and it’s hard for me to predict how good they are right now. But as it will be our third game in the tournament, we have enough time to scout them during the Championship. If we reach our goal and qualify for the next phase, we will see how we continue. But we don’t want to become to high on ourselves and remain with both feet on earth. A place somewhere around 9th like last year would be very satisfying for us.

The Russian U18 team was very disappointing in Mannheim but has found a way back to be a serious outsider in Greece after their performances at the Petrenko Cup in Khimki. The squad has beaten Italy, and the Czech Republic while only failing shortly against the top favorites from Greece. Currently, no world class talent has emerged of the 1990 generation in Russia but the mixture of aggressive guards and long tall forwards that characterizes the Russian game is still present. So they are definitely a team to watch in Amaliada and Pyrgos.

Italy that played a correct tournament in Mannheim will see their top talent of the 1991 generation Nicolo Melli joining them. And with this addition on the wing, everything is possible for the Squadra. The young forward may be one of the best talents in Europe and if he can elevate his game to what he showed during the LegaDue semi-finals, he may be the leader that could help the Italians reach an unpredictable success in the tournament.

Fighting for relegation

Belgium went up to Division A in 2007 behind a great team effort and the nice games of Jorn Steinbach and Jean-Marc Mwema. But these two guys are born in 1989 and will not be available anymore. But some talent of the last year’s win is still on the roster and the addition of Yannick Moray should give the team of Fred Wilmot the necessary power in the back court. On the other hand, no real inside presence on this level will be tough to handle.

Israel, who plays Belgium in the group stage may be the team that can avoid relegation the easiest way in beating the before mentioned in their opener. The departure of Daniel Rom back to Russia lets a big whole in the middle of course but the typical fighting spirit and the athleticism of Carmel Bouchman may help them to stay in the league. This opener will be extremely important for both teams.

Estonia will feature one of the most interesting players to follow of the tournament with Siim-Sander Vene who played already a good tournament last season. Next to him, not too much talent is to be seen but maybe it is worth to take a closer look at the 1991 born Kristjan Rinaldo (yes, that’s his name) who put up some correct stats with the U16 last summer and plays for the Honka Academy in Finland.

Not much to say about the Ukrainian team as I barely know any player there and could not find any results or comments on them on the net. The main goal for the team is to stay in the Division as they have a pretty interesting 1991 generation that could compete next season on the highest level.

Lauris Blaus tries to lead his Latvian team to the necessary wins in their group to stay away from the Relegation round. He will hopefully get some support from the talented 1991 generation around Janis Antrops and Harijs Rubenis.

Bulgaria will be built around their back-court combo of Hristo Zahariev and Bozhidar Avramov. I have put them in this part of the preview one loss against Latvia could mean that the team has to play on relegation round. On the other hand, the team has the talent to pass against Croatia or Turkey but I don’t know how they could handle the inside presence of these two nations.

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

First of all, I wanted to mention a few quick general thoughts about the tournament. The level was excellent this year and the qualification process through different tournaments was a very good idea. The problem is that not every team from Europe can compete in these tournament and so virtually there might be a better team somewhere in Europe. I hope that the Euroleague can find agreements with other tournament for next season to have an even broader competition.

What is going to happen with the Spanish National Team in a few years? If you take the two represented teams (FC Barcelona and Real Madrid), they had not one Spanish inside player who had any kind of impact. I can understand the responsible persons of the teams to try to bring in the best talent available to have a competitive team. But what about their own National team? With these decision to take like 5 foreigners in a youth team (FC Barcelona), they will hurt the Spanish basketball and what has made him strong for the next generation.

The two teams that finished the tournament without any win were also the two Wildcard teams: Crvena Zvezda and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Both teams featured limited talent compared to the other competitors. While the Israeli team showed the traditional fighting spirit, the Serbian team had the typical Balkan type of players in their squad. Here are some short reviews of the players that caught my eye during the only game I observed both teams.

Carmel Bouchman (2m05 – PF – 1991 – Maccabi Tel Aviv)

The Israeli forward who is listed 2m05 but looks a bit shorter had his best game of the tournament against Zalgiris with 19pts and 12rebs. Bouchman showed nice athletic abilities and also some explosiveness, especially on the offensive rebound. His body is still very thin. His shooting mechanics look a bit strange but he showed long range and even netted several three point shots. He is working hard to rebound, at least in this game. Because he only 4 rebounds in the two other games of the tournament combined.

Lazar Radosavljevic (2m03 – SG – 1991 – Crvena Zvezda)

Radosavljevic showed some interesting skills in Madrid. Besides having a good size to play either as SG or SF, the Serbian kid has a very nice shot which he fire from nearly everywhere on the court. He excels in catch and shoot actions but he can also score close to the basket. He is however relying a lot on his outside stroke, not going too much for drives. On the other hand, he showed better than average passing and court vision.

Nemanja Nedovic (1m91 – PG – 1991 – Crvena Zvezda)

Sometimes, I like players for some kind of reason that I can not explain. Nedovic is such a player. He showed very good scoring skills but he also looked lost on the court during moments. What I liked were for example his drives which were nicely aggressive and he tried to score close to the basket. On the other hand, he also knocked down some three pointers and Nedovic was only 16 during this tournament as he is born in June 1991.

The reports about the teams of the NIJT will continue throughout the week.

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