Donatas Motiejunas was of course the most talented of all the players in Douai. But he did not manage to lift his team higher than the 7th place. Is it the lack of quality guards in his Lithuanian U18 National or is Motiejunas not a go-to-guy type and leader? This is one of the questions that I asked myself after the tournament. His up and down performances and his trend to be quickly frustrated may make me tend to the second choice.

However, the great talent skill set that Motiejunas displays has no equivalent in Douai. Being 2m14 tall and showing barely and kind of major weaknesses in his game is quite an amazing asset. Posting up and scoring on nearly every ball he receives down low is not a problem as scoring from outside or on the drive. Motiejunas has also no problem to put the ball on the floor and we saw him several times bringing up the ball in fast break situations, and even going for a perfectly timed behind the back pass.

On the downside, Motiejunas seems really to be mentally not always focused or getting frustrated really quick after one or two missed plays. In the last game of the tournament, where he looked really motivated, he came up with way too many three-point shots in the end which he all missed. There was no reason for doing that and it raised once again the mental questions. Still, Motiejunas is probably behind Ricky Rubio the best prospect of the European 1990 generation.

Leon Radosevic is the real inside force for the Croatians. Great athlete and highly aggressive, Radosevic uses his large frame and great physical strength to be a dominator in the paint. As he can run well the floor, he is also a big asset in the fast break where he can conclude as a trailer with powerful dunks.

When he is working on the post, he draws a lot of fouls despite having any real go-to-move he likes to ue. He is more a banger who tries to go with his force to the rim, mostly after facing the basket. When he gets doubled, he can go for the pass to the cutter as well. His jump shot goes until around the key, even it looks not particularly precise from this area.

He prefers to go for the drive as he is mostly guarded by big guys that are slower than him. However, if you close his right hand he has a lot more problems to put the ball on the floor with the left and tries to go for spin moves to come back to his stronger right hand. In defense, he is present in rebounding and can become a big shot blocker.

Maik Zirbes did a nice job in the paint for the German team. He has a massive body and good size and athleticism. However, he was really afraid when playing against Team USA in the semis but did a good job offensively against Croatia for the third place.

His offensive arsenal is based on post-up play and pick-and-roll. From the post up position, Zirbes can score with a sort of jump hook which he protects with his massive body. He is doing pretty well on pick-and-roll situations where he rolls perfectly to the open spots in the lane to score on lay-ups. Additionally, he is a decent passer for a player of his size.

Despite great athletic abilities, he comes up with some soft moves when he has to attack the rim. This is not really understandable as he can go for huge powerful dunks even over people when he tries to. Zirbes also has three point range, but barely shots from the with the national team. Defensively, he was very weak. Laterally, he showed no real speed in defense but I think it is more a question will than anything else.

Enes Kanter was not the impressive presence that he was in Mannheim this time. Still, when he receives the ball down low, he is hard to stop. But this, most of the teams doubled him immediately and he sometimes does not know exactly what to do. When he forced to go to the rim, he even sometimes managed to score then. However, being 2 years younger than the competition, he must be considered as a tremendous prospect for the future.

Tanguy Ramassany is not the type of player that you see in this type of report. But he is a player I personally liked a lot. A massive inside player with no real offensive game but the hard will to do his dirty job in the rebound. Ramassany fights in the paint and is giving the opponents a hard job to attack against him. Far from being a high-level prospect, Ramassany can end up as a great defensive role player in a few years.

Kenny Frease was the best center of the tournament and I can approve that. Really wide body with some interesting moves back to the basket are the main characteristics of his play. He is not the biggest athlete in the world but he is making some damage due to his physical presence. He should be a nice addition for the Xavier Basketball program.

Carmel Bouchman was the surprising SF of the All-Tournament team. Surprising for two reasons. He barely played the SF position but mostly was working in the paint. And secondly, a SF Tournament team spot could have also been awarded to Mario Delas for example if they consider Bouchman as a SF. Whatever…

The 2m05 tall Forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv tried a lot of three pointers in the beginning of the first game I saw him in Douai. As he missed them all, he went a bit more under the basket to play some post game. During all his plays, he looks rather upright in his body but showing good control and knowing how to use his long frame to score.

Bouchman scored a lot of his baskets while cutting perfectly into open areas where he received the ball. Thanks to his correct athleticism, he can score in the paint but also with good shooting touch from outside the key. Additionally, he sees the cutters himself and is not afraid to give the nice dish to them if they are open.

Mario Delas is one of my favorite forwards of the 1990 generation. The Croat plays fundamentally based basketball and has all-around skills. His 2m08 give him the ideal size for the European Euroleague forward which may be his future in a couple of years. With his already nicely developed body, he makes a lot of damage in the paint but can also play from outside if he has a bigger defender.

In his post up game, where he can score in different ways by fade-away shots or back to the basket moves, he also can go for the nice pass for the cutter from the weak side. Hard fouls don’t bother him as he can score even when he gets hacked in the break or on the layup. As he is fairly athletic, Delas is also not afraid at all to throw down a big dunk in traffic if needed.

He has also a nice timing to block shots, even if his defensive game is not based on pure athletic skills. He is more a finesse and technique player, also on the defensive end of the court. In the game for the third place, he totally outplayed Maik Zirbes who guarded him during stretches as he used his nice speed to beat the German big guy off the dribble every time.

Furkan Aldemir is a 1991 born forward from Turkey who may not be the biggest statistical contributor but he is doing all the dirty work that you don’t see on the sheet afterwards. He is a nice athletic shot blocker who has also a good offensive rebounding presence. Offensively, he looks pretty limited so far, but in a Turkish team with a lot of scoring options, he is not the first option either. His contribution comes from setting hard screens and battling in the paint.

Chrislain Cairo, the 1991 born forward from INSEP, did a nice job coming of the bench to bring his athletic abilities and aggressiveness to the court. Playing a bit a similar role than Aldemir for Turkey, Cairo was more present on the offensive end where he also showed correct shooting touch from mid-distance.

Niels Giffey was the all-around forward for the German team that finished on a surprising 4th place. He is another 1991 born player that excels on the defensive end of the court where he even guarded the Croatian 2m10 beast Leon Radosevic in post-up moves. Giffey can play nearly all the positions from 1-4 on this level, which he showed also with the NBBL team of ALBA Berlin in the Top4. His well developed basketball fundamentals help him on the offensive end to get his scores. With one year more, he should be a pretty decent forward next season.

Mamadou Samb did not play anymore the Sunday’s game as he headed back to Barcelona. During Saturday’s action, he showed his nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Baseline jump shot is present as well as jump hook moves coming from the post. He was clearly the most developed player of the whole Adidas Nations Africa team.

Bandja Sy did play a nice tournament in Douai. The forward, that is currently at the Gran Canaria Basketball Academy is a terrific athlete who possesses also interesting basketball skills. He netted some nice three pointers even if he sometimes tends to jump a bit forward when taking his hsots. His ballhandling still remains a bit weak but this can be further developed in the future. A nice prospect for the future.

• The Greek U20 team will get the support from Florida Gator Nick Calathes this summer in the U20 competition as he has reported in a FIBA Europe interview these days. the are also rumors that Kosta Koufos could join the team after the NBA Summer Leagues.
• One of the strongest U20 preparation tournaments will be played from the 16th to the 20th July in Luxembourg. The participating nations are France, Russia, Lithuania, Turkey, Spain and a U23 selection from Luxembourg. Spain has announced their preliminary roster for this tournament which includes also Victor Claver from Pamesa Valencia.
• An interesting U18 tournament will be played this weekend in Syros/Greece with Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria and Greece. The Turkish team will be nearly the same that played already last weekend in Douai.
• The Romanian U20 national team won a preparation tournament in Targu Mures, the location of the B-Division championship in the beginning of August. The team build around Titus Nicoara and Vlad Moldoveanu won its three games against Ireland, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Titus Nicoara earned the MVP trophy in this three days of action.
• Another interesting U20 preparation tournament will be played in the Italian city of Domegge with the participation of Greece, Slovenia, Italy and Georgia. The dates for this event are from the 18th July to the 20th July.
• The German U20 team around Robin Benzing and Elias Harris won its three games in a tournament in Poland this weekend. They beat the hosts twice and Croatia as well. The team of coach Emir Mutapcic will travel to Italy next weekend to play there against Russia, Israel and Italy.
• Finally, I wanted to mention a story that is a bit sad. 1987 born German PG Nicolai Simon could see his basketball career end at the tender age of 21 already. After having cracked the rotation of ALBA Berlin in the 2006/07 season, the former Urspring Academy member injures his back in November 2007 and suffers now from never ending back problems and did not see the court anymore since then.  Even if he does not think about a career end yet, Nicolai is doing everything to avoid this to happen. We wish him good luck as he was one of the most talented players of the German 1987 generation.

Andrew Albicy from France was the MVP of the Finals and got also elected to the All-Tournament team, a deserved recognition for the 1m70 tall PG from Paris-Levallois. Albicy is a scoring PG that lives a lot from his great shooting from behind the arc. Not incredibly fast for his size, he is driving but this is not his main offensive skill. He improved his three point percentage over the tournament after starting with a bad 0/6 in the first game.

After the poor showing of France in Mannheim and the request of the coaching stuff to find a PG leader, Albicy has really emerged and improved since Spring. He was the clear-cut go-to-guy in a less talented than the years before French team in general. With him on the court, the French team looked in confidence and went for an incredible 28-2 run during the semis.

He will probably suffer from his size in the future, but seeing the good games his countryman Marco Pellin had in the Euroleague, you can imagine a similar destiny in the future. However, Albicy has not developed the defensive mindset of Pellin so far, something that can still happen. At least, with Paris-Levallois down in ProB next season, Albicy should see lots of minutes with the professionals from this fall on.

Toni Prostran was also elected into the All-Tournament team, and this was even more deserved than Albicy’s selection as Prostran was one year younger than most of the competitors and he was probably among the top scorers of the tournament. The 91 born guard from KK Zadar showed a scoring talent that is rarely seen for a 1m83 small guard.

Prostran lives mostly from his super quick shot release from behind the arc where he can fire up threes at will, even with bigger defenders in his face. His shooting mechanics look super fluid but incomplete as he stops the move after releasing the ball immediately. Additionally, the ball turns sideways on his shot. This does not impeach him to score incredible shots from long distances.

When he gets defended hard on pick and roll, he has no problem to split between the defenders and go for great assists too. When he drives, he often scores tear drop shots or running floaters as he is not super athletic to go up against the big guys in the paint. He can be out of the game for stretches when he is defended by bigger players, but he can also on the other hand go for incredible scoring runs over short periods.

Maurice Stuckey did play a correct tournament in his role as scoring guard coming of the bench for Germany. With his speed and acceleration, he could drive till the basket lots of times as no defender was able to stop his right handed penetration. Stuckey is the ideal complement to the starting German PG Simon Schmitz who is more like an organizer on the court while Stuckey is the energizer.

Stuckey was not hot from the outside during the games I saw in Douai so he used his speed to drive in the lane and score with some running floaters or hanging lay-ups where he could use his nice athleticism. With his drives, he could also create some good opportunities for his team mates in the paint but he tried mostly to go for his own score.

He tried also some mid-distance shots out of the dribble, but he could not connect them in a regular fashion. He also managed to score sometimes of his left hand but his drives were nearly every time on his strong right hand. This was of course also the result of poor defense as they opened him his strong side lots of times. On defense, he put a lot of pressure on the opposing guards, especially when Germany played some kind of full court man-to-man defense.

Maxim Mutaf played some good games in Douai during the weekend. The scoring guard from Fenerbahce, who had a little injury on his hand, was the go-to-guy during moments for a Turkish team that was far away from its level it displayed in Mannheim.

Mutaf has a picture perfect shot from all distances which he can put up with ease against defenders too. He is always attacking his defender as soon as he gets the ball and tries to go for the scoring. When driving, he finished either with floaters of the glass or even when till the rim to score on nice finger rolls. He had also a very athletic back door lay up where he scored against two defenders with beauty.

For his long distance shot, he has no problem to create his own shot. He showed a variety of different shooting positions, coming off the screen or going for a step back three in his defenders face. Additionally, he showed surprising presence in offensive rebounding where he tried to go for every ball. Even his injured did not prevent him to jump into the chairs to get an lose ball. On the other hand, he put himself out of the game with 2 super stupid fouls in the last minutes. But he will learn how to avoid such errors in the future.

Melih Mahmutoglu was the other Turkish SG during this tournament and he came up with his beautiful game that we could already see in Mannheim this spring. With his perfect shooting mechanics, Mahmutoglu nearly netted every open position from behind the arc. Not much of a drive player, he often stops to go for the mid-distance jump shot out of the dribble.

Liran Moran was the top scorer for the Israeli team. He nearly scored only on three point shots, where he was pretty accurate. Moran is listed as 1m91 and I think that he can play the SG spot in the future in a very specific role as shooter. He showed sometimes a nice drive where he can go to the rim but mostly he is the guy receiving the ball from inside and netting the three-ball.

Gilvydas Biruta played only 1 quarter of basketball during the two days I was in Douai, but you could see that this guy has basketball talent. First of all, he is an outstanding athlete going for not less than 4 dunks in one quarter, two of these coming from highly spectacular alley-oop passes after a screen in the back (a play, that you could for example often see for Roanne’s Marc Salyers this season). He did not play in the last game of the tournament as his coach has probably seen enough of his scoring talent of the bench in the games before. One note on him is also that he is playing in the Gran Canaria basketball academy in Spain which is quite uncommon for a Lithuanian youngster.

Nic Wise was the clear leader of Team USA on the PG position and did hurt the opposing defenses a lot with his huge drives where he was not afraid to go against the big guys and even scored several times against them with the foul. With his great handles and speed changes, he was a tough match-up for any player that tried to guard him.

Mohamed Koita was the only guard on Team Africa, so he had to play 40 minutes per game. And he was mostly a scoring threat with a lot of turnovers in the setup of the game. Koita can hit a lot of threes despite a quite mechanical shooting way. His outstanding athleticism helps him on the drives but he lacks a bit of basketball understanding due to his limited playing on the highest level so far. He is currently at the Stoneridge Academy in the United States.

• The first game in the morning saw the nice victory of Lithuania against a tired Adidas Nations team Africa. The Baltic guys won it in the end 90-73 but their dominance was bigger than the result. For Lithuania, Donatas Motiejunas showed his huge skillset to finished with 30pts, 7rebs and 2 steals. Nobody could really stop him and he just hurt his three point percentage (1/6) in the end by overshooting from outside. He look in general a lot more motivated than yesterday. He got some nice support from the surprising Edvardas Pikalavicius with 13pts and 8rebs. For the Africans, we saw big scoring from Mohamed Koita who netted 35pts but lost 5 balls. Another good game in the tournament came from Bandja Sy who had 19pts.
• The game for the 5th place between Turkey and Israel was extremely close. When the time was running up, nobody could take the decisive lead and we went into overtime. Here, the Turkish depth helped to bring this one home and end at the 5th place after the 99-89 win after 45 minutes of game action. For the winners, Maxim Mutaf started great in the first half but his scoring lead was taken over by Melih Mahmutoglu in the second half. In the paint, Enes Kanter did not start the game and only played in the second half. In those 27 minutes, he was once again dominating every body with his force and scored 21 in just 27 minutes. For Israel, Liran Moran shot well from everywhere and finished the game with a team high 22. Ron Sabag did a good job on the point where he scored the big FTs in the money time of Q4 and dished out 11 assists additionally.
• The Bronze medal game of the 2008 edition of the Douai World Tournament saw Croatia beating Germany by 3 points. The Germans had the chance to go into overtime but the last attempt of Simon Schmitz from behind the arc went not in. It was a match-up of the big guys in the paint with Maik Zirbes (22/5) facing of against Mario Delas (15/12/4) and Leon Radosevic (25/5/3). Toni Prostran was defended well by the German guards but scored however 22pts at 8/18 attempts. For Germany, it was a huge difference with what they did yesterday against Team USA while Croatia that played without their most talented player in Tomislav Zubcic did a very nice job by reaching this third place, a huge improvement to their performances in Mannheim this spring.
• The Final game of the tournament saw Team USA playing against the home crowd favorites France. And it was the French team that finished with the Tournament victory in the end. After a very disappointing showing in Mannheim, the team from the Hexagon managed to win Douai despite having a world-class talent in his roster, something that was the case mostly in the last years. It was the Finals MVP Andrew Albicy that led France in the decisive minutes with his long distance shooting and drives. He finished the game with 19pts and 5asts. But it was the defense that made the French win who lack a great scorer.
• The All-Tournament team that has been elected is the following:
• PG Andrew Albicy (France)
• SG Toni Prostran (Croatia)
• SF Carmel Bouchman (Israel)
• PF Mamadou Samb (Adidas Nations Africa)
• C Kenny Frease (Adidas Nationas USA)
• If you are interested if Video material from the tournament, contact me via email and I can send you an offer for DVDs of the games (christophe.ney@europeanprospects.com)
• During the next days, I will post detailed reports on the different players that were present

• In the first game of the day, Israel destroyed Adidas Nations Africe with nearly 30 points. The Africans started the game in a zone defense which was immediately punished by the Israeli as they hit 4 three pointers to start the game. The first quarter continued in a total domination by the physically weaker Israeli guys. The 1st quarter ended 24-5. The game was then going on a bit and Israel finished this one easily to win 76-48. The main scorers for Africa was once again Mamadou Samb who had 20pts and 8 rebs. Africa that plays without a real PG struggled a lot against the aggressive defense by Israel, they lost a total of 28 balls. For Israel, Liran Moran did a great job from behind the arc where he hit 6 out of his 10 attempts to finish the game at a scoring high of 22pts in 27 minutes of play.
• The second game of the day was a very close one between two of the most talented teams with some high potentials in their roster. Surprisingly, this was only for the places 5-8 of the tournament as both teams could have gone for the Final. But the results are the results. So it was Turkey that beat Lithuania 94-89 in a very nice game. The Turks, where Enes Kanter is present but not as dominating as during the AST (he got doubled on every touch), had a nice team effort with 4 scorers in double figures. They were led by their 1991 born scorer Can Mutaf who had 23pts, 6rebs, 3asts and 3stls. Deniz Kilicli came up with his unorthodox play only in the second half but had some very bad choices in his passes. For Lithuania, Donatas Motiejunas showed once again his incredible talent but could not win the game for the Greens. He got some support by the surprisingly athletic Gilvydas Biruta who scored 14pts in just 15 minutes.
• In the first semi-final, Germany got beaten easily by a Team USA that dominated the paint with ease. The German big guys seemed heavily afraid in the beginning of the game and so the semi was decided after Quarter 1 (20-7). The Germans did well during several minutes after the break when they were more aggressive on defense, but they could never come back in the game. Maurice Stuckey was still the best scorer of the team as he was not afraid to go scoring against the bigs. The Urspring guard who came of the bench had 18pts (6/17 FG) together with 3rebs 4asts and 3stls. For Team USA, big guy Kenny Frease scored 14 and grabbed 14 impressive rebounds while the tiny PG Nic Wise topped all the scorers with 22.
• The second semi-final saw France beating Coratia in a thriller 75-73. The game did not look like it was going to be close as Croatia directly started with a 9-0 in the first minute. But an incredible 28-2 run by the French changed the game completely. However, the Croats managed to come back in the game and have a chance to win it on the buzzer but the shot from Toni Prostran was too short. France was led by the surprising Jonathan Bourhis who scored 22pts. For Croatia, which plays without Tomislav Zubcic, Mario Delas had 17pts and 7rebs while Sven Smajlagic scored 21pts, had 6rebs and 5asts.
• The three point contest has been won by the Israeli Rub Omer with 10pts in the Final against the French PG Jonathan Bourhis.
• The level of the tournament this year is correct. Unfortunately, the system of the groups forced a team like Lithuania to play now for the last place despite being probably one of the most talented squads. On the other hand, Germany was not really a semi-final team but had won the games the had to win.
• Because of the NBA Draft, not a lot of NBA teams were present in Douai. We just saw one team represented and several NCAA and European scouts but in general, less than the years before.
• We heard from sources that the French coaching staff was not motivated to reach the Final because they have booked (as only team) their return tickets to Paris for tomorrow night. The player however won the game and now the coaches asked to advance the Final for half an hour in order to catch their train. I don’t know if that will happen. We will have more on this incredible story tomorrow.

And it was Africa that defeated the USA in this first game 66-63. Team USA played reportedly without two of their announced top stars, Demar DeRozan and Tyreke Evans who only will arrive today.

On Day 1, Croatia destroyed Team USA while Lithunia had a short win over Israel in the group phase. Germany had a nice win against Turkey, a team they lost against in the Albert Schweitzer Tournament a few weeks ago. Erik Land was the top scorer for the Germans with 18pts. France had not too many problems to beat Team Africa where Mamadou Samb had a game high 30pts and 13rebs.

Day 2 saw a 3 point victory for Lithuania against Croatia while Team USA defeated Israel. This means that the Lithuanians are already qualified for the semi-finals. Team USA will play Israel on Friday in order to have a slight chance to advance to the  semi-finals in the case of a eventual defeat of Croatia against Israel. In the other group Germany defeated France and qualified a bit surprisingly for the semis. France and Turkey will most likely play a sort of a final in order to qualify for the last four on Friday evening.

• 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.

Uros Tripkovic is a nice shooter that also can play Point Guard. He saw limited minutes with Partizan Belgrade this season in the Euroleague. His chances to get drafted are probably close to zero. He was considered as a bigger prospect a few years ago.

Nikola Pekovic is probably the best player on the European level for the moment of the whole list. Pekovic is a large 2m10 center who was a dominant force in the Euroleague for Partizan this season. He is not very highly regarded by most of the Mock Drafts. He just signed a big 3 year deal with Panathinaikos so a first round selection would not be a good choice for an NBA team if they want to bring him over one day.

Tadija Dragicevic is the main option in the offense for the ULEB Cup team of Crvena Zvedza Belgrade. Dragicevic has great size for the SF spot and can net the open three point shot without any problem. He has progressed heavily this season and was one of the best scorers in the ULEB Cup with 18.4ppg. More of a Euroleague type player in terms of athleticism and speed, some teams may give him a try late in the 2nd round.

Novica Velickovic is the third guy from Partizan in this review and may be the most complete one. 10.6ppg and 6.9rpg are in the books for the Serbian forward who is also developing a pretty nice three point shot. He plays mainly on the PF position for the Serbian powerhouse, a spot that he would have some trouble in the NBA. A late second round spot would not be lost on him.

Goran Dragic is probably the closest to an NBA point guard in this year’s draft. Highly athletic, creative and quick, the Slovenian player has also great size. A problem that remains is his long distance shot where he does not feel very comfortable. But his left handed drives are hard to defend, also on the NBA level. He could end up as high as the 2nd round even for a team that wants his s back up PG in a few years time.

Anton Ponkrashov was highly regarded as NBA prospect a few years ago because of his nice combination of height and playmaking skills. His development has however stagnated a bit over the last two years and his showing at the Reebok Eurocamp was not giving him a boost in the pre-Draft process. He could end up undrafted after he was considered as first round material 2 years ago.

Kaloyan Ivanov has entered the NBA Draft process last year by entering his name in the Early entrants list. This year, it has been a little bit quieter about him but he remains a strong rebounder and banger in the low post. His chances to get drafted are very low.

Martin Miklosik is 2m26 tall and… Well that’s about it.

Albert Moncasi had an awful season with Barcelona where he barely saw the court in the Euroleague. Moncasi has however nice size with 2m09 and can hit shots from three point area. But is this enough for getting drafted?

Dusan Sakota had finally a season where he played basketball with Panionios Athens and reached the semifinals in the Greek league. Big time prospect back in 2005, Sakota never lived up to his potential of the new 2m10 scoring forward which he was in U18 and U20 categories. Now he is likely to go undrafted.

Mantas Kalnietis is the second athletic PG in this years draft when it comes to Europeans. The Lithuanian youngster showed a correct camp in Treviso which may have helped him to get some attention in the late second round.

Damjan Rudez worked out for the Milwaukee Bucks this week and impressed some people there. He is yet another 2m07 forward who can also hit the three ball. He just signed a new deal with Euroleague team Olimpija Ljubljana so seeing him in the NBA next season would be a surprise.

Luca Vitali is the tallest Point Guard in the NBA Draft with his 2m01. He played an extraordinary season in Italy this year where he averaged 10.3ppg, 2.5rpg and 3.1apg. He will be a Euroleague player for the next season but if his development continues at the current pace, he can end up of being a good producer on the highest European level. For the NBA, it wont be enough.

Semih Erden developed steadily into a correct Euroleague center who has great size and correct athleticism. He did a private workout for attending NBA teams in Treviso where he showed his accuracy around the key. He is also a good shot blocker and could end up somewhere in the middle of the second round.

Mickael Mokongo had a little strange parcours for a French prospect as he moved to Italy and Turkey in his young years. Mokongo was considered as a bottom line NBA prospect but his recent performances did not improve his chances to enter the 60 places available.

Manuchar Markoishvili is on the European scene for many many years now and he is still only automatically eligible this season. He showed his typical game in Treviso with aggressive scoring on the drive and correct three point shooting. His upside seems limited however. That’s why we won’t see his name on Thursday pronounced.

Peja Samardziski is also present for a long time already. The Macedonian Center has great size at 2m15 and his good fundamentals help to build a nice presence in the post. His development however was not as good as expected but he did a nice job in this year’s edition of the Adriatic League where he was the 2nd best shot blocker.

Omer Asik appeared a bit out of nowhere in 2007 when he averaged a double double for the Turkish Alpella Istanbul team. He moved over to Fenerbahce to feel the Euroleague and became a top shotblocker of the highest level outside the NBA. His private workout in Treviso gave a good look at his all around skills for a big man and maybe a possible selection in the 2nd round.

Giorgi Tsintsadze is a correct Point Guard from Georgia who did a nice job this year with Tartu Rock in Estonia. He reached the Final Four of the FIBA Eurocup and was named to the FIBA Eurocup First team because of his 14.4ppg, 3.8rpg, 5.2apg and 1.8spg in this competition. His Draft chances are however extremely slim.

Vladimir Golubovic is a 2m12 tall center who was present at the Orlando Pre-Draft camp this summer and even had a workout for the Sacramento Kings. But seeing him getting drafted would be a nice surprise after his correct season in Serbia where he averaged 13.3ppg and 8.7rpg in the Adriatic League.

Nikita Kurbanov is probably undersized to play the PF spot and not quick enough for the SF spot in the NBA. He is however one of the most hard working guys in the list and shows great understanding of basketball. For me, he was one of the best players in the Reebok camp in Treviso. But his NBA chances are close to zero.

Let’s start with the Albert Schweitzer Tournament in 2006 and the MVP trophy for the French forward.

MVP of the tournament, Nicolas Batum showed great shooting skills. He is a very good catch and shoot player of the screen coming from under the basket up and getting the ball to hit immediately the shot either straight up or as a fade away. Fantastic athlete and great hustle on defense. He looks unimpressed by the game, always calm and without emotions. Batum had a fantastic scoring percentage for a guard/forward with 60%. He looks like an all-time talent that can easily become a contributor on the next level.

In Douai 2006, I have made the following video of Nicolas Batum together with his team mate Ludo Vaty.

During the U18 European Championships in Summer 2006, Nicolas Batum won another MVP trophy.

Nicolas Batum was voted MVP of the tournament. He is the top talent of his age group and he has absolute NBA talent. He is developing in a very good way, as he is a hard worker. He has all the tools to become a top forward on the NBA level. Some people question his motivation as he is “disappearing” during some games. (a weakness also matched with Boris Diaw in his early NBA games, but you all know how well he developed) On the defensive end, he still has some problems to stop smaller or quicker players, but this is just a question of time before he also has the necessary defense force to stop that type of player. He still can block them as his shot blocking skills are amazing. His shot looks pretty “mechanic”, but he scores with high percentages which is the most important.

In November 2006, Nicolas Batum had his first great Euroleague game in a clash with the Greek top team of Olympiacos.

In this weeks Euroleague matchup between Le Mans and Olympiakos, Nicolas Batum had his best game on a professional level so far. Getting a lot of minutes because of the injury of Bogavac and Alain Koffi, as well as the departure of Mate Skelin, the young French SF played 25 minutes and scored a career-high 15 points. He also made a good defensive job guarding Alex Acker who scored his 21 points mainly when Batum was on the bench. Nicolas started well with a three point shot that gave him some confidence. His hoot still looks pretty strange but he is not afraid to take the three pointer now. He has to add this as a regular weapon as he was mainly using his physical tools to score. But he can hit from everywhere, especially of the pick.
He was using his penetration skills to draw some fouls and he was perfect from the line. All in all, it was a complete game as he added 4rebs, 2asts and 2 steals as well as 1 block shot.
Coach Collet seems to give him more and more playing time as in this weekends LNB game, he played once again 25 minutes. He proves his value and with the return from Bogavac from injury, Batum can not be benched again for the whole game after his performances of the last games.

Of this game, I had also made a detailed video analysis of Batum’s skills.

In April 2007, Nicolas Batum had a great showing during the Nike Hoop Summit.

Nicolas Batum came clearly out of the game as the top prospect, which he was already before the game. He is the most talented and experienced player of the whole World team, and he showed this during the practices and during the game. Without him on the court, the USA team could make a 19-0 run to get a 40-13 lead in the second quarter.
His agent already announced that Batum will be in the Draft 99% sure, even if Batum declared himself directly after the game that “(…) it is an ambition, a dream to play in the NBA for me but I will go into the draft in 2008, not 2007. I am not getting too excited about all the talk.” So we will see what will going on with him when the deadline approaches.

In June 2007, Nicolas had a nice appearance at the Douai Tournament in order to prepare the U19 World Championships of that summer.

The absolute top talent on the French squad is Nicolas Batum. He can dominate the game at will. It looks like he only plays when he needs to, if the opposition is not that hard, he tries to get his teammates more involved. In the game on Saturday against Team USA, a weaker team, Batum was not trying to much offensive plays. He only took 8 shots during that game, and made 6 out of them. However he had 4 assists during that game. Against Australia on Sunday, he took the game in his hand doing everything on the court. But in the last minutes, it was not him anymore that was going to make the points to win the game, and France lost the game.
On the technical side of his game, there is not much to add anymore, his forces are already well known. However, I saw once again slight progression on his shooting mechanics which are still a little unstable. His shot looks sometimes little different, but he makes it so this is not a big issue. But he is working hard to stabilize his shooting mechanism. He has become indeed a quite serious three-point shooter which is a nice addition to his game and opens him a lot more possibilities. He has also the gift of making shots in crucial moments with very high percentages. You could see him score on a three pointer at the 24 second buzzer for example.
Batum will be a big contributor next season with Le Mans in the Euroleague and after that season, he should be ready to attack the next level.

During this U19 World Championships, Nicolas Batum had a so-so performance with a more team orientated playing style, that his coach ask him to go for.

Nicolas Batum once again showed what a big talent he is, but he also showed that he is becoming more and more a player that wants to involve his teammates instead of making the difference on his own. You can consider this as an asset and say, they reached the bronze medal. But you can also say that he has to take the game in his hand in the crucial minutes to be the decisive player. But he has not reached that level so far.

In October 2007, I had another opportunity to take a close look at Nicolas during a French League game.

I had the possibility to watch Nicolas Batum’s first real top level game this season. The 18 year old forward from Le Mans finished its game with 16pts, 6rebs and 3 assists in a loss of his team in Gravelines this week. But what is behind these figures, that look promising, but his team lost already his second game in three starts.

Batum started the game on the SG position next to Yannick Bokolo who has the role as starting PG. In the first minutes, you could see already the typical Batum movements like catching the ball with one hand and immediately going to dribble out of a turn. His first play in the game was however a nice steal on an inside pass from his opponent. He continued with a great sprint over the court where he showed amazing speed for a player of his size. He is listed now at 2m04 without shoes. He finished the fast break easily with an impressive two handed dunk. Then came something that characterized his plays throughout the game. He received the ball on the free-throw line for an in-out fake and a jump shot. His shot still looks perfectible as his arms does not stretch out completely on his move. And the open shot did not fall. He continued then with a nice assist for a posting teammate and tried a drive on his right hand which he wanted to finish of an acrobatic up and under lay-up in MJ style, but he missed. Came then a first attempt from behind the arc, which he missed too. His last play in the first quarter was a powerful drive from the top where he missed the floating layup, but he came up quickly from the floor to tip the ball in that was playing around the rim.

In the second quarter, there was nothing extraordinary to be noticed by Batum. He was on the bench for some time and when he was on the court, he was very discreet.

He started the the third quarter again, with a missed three point attempt. But you could see already that he is clearly the first offensive option on the team for the outside play. In defense, he blocked a shot and could give a great assist out of his running dribble in the next offense for a team mate’s dunk. He had later then a very elegant baseline drive, on his right hand, which he finished on a nice underhand up and under layup where he showed his fantastic shooting touch around the basket. He continued in the third quarter with another missed jump shot from the free-throw line. On an airball of one of his team mates, he was coming off the weak side to tip it directly into the basket with his two hands. He showed here his good eye for the offensive rebound which is one of his better abilities. His right hand drive helped him then to go through the whole defense to finish on a spectacular one hand dunk. He then took a charge on mid court defending the opposing PG.

In the last quarter then, we could also see the other face of Batum. He disappeared after another score on an offensive rebound. But what you could also see that was that now he was not anymore the first option of his team. The setups ended mostly on difficult shots but other guards or by forcing inside play. Batum was not yet the leader that really asked for the ball from the veteran players. But he was clearly the most talented of them and showed it also during the first and third quarter. Still, his jump shot needs some improvement, especially on the shooting mechanics which are perfectible. But on the drive and on offensive rebounding, his skills are amazing for an 18 year old kid, that only turns 19 in December.

An update on his Euroleague debut against Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Nicolas Batum made his debut against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday and he showed some good improvement. His all-around game is more developed than ever, but still the same problems persist. Still, his outside shot is far from being regular, but he compensates with improved passing and especially great instincts on the defensive end where he collected 6 steals. His impressive wingspan but also his understanding of the game help him to intercept especially on the passing lines more than being a “out-of-the-hand” steal type of player. His presence on the offensive end is going way above being a simple scorer. He is always looking for the open team mate and he is even going too far in that area becoming a bit of a Boris Diaw type of pass-first, pass-second, shoot third player. This may also be the result of his non-confidence in his shooting from outside. Concerning his shot, you still see that his arm is not completely stretched out in the shooting move.

At the end of December 2007, I made an update on his progression.

When you check his numbers in the Euroleague, you see dramatically improved figures in scoring (9.0ppg from 4.3ppg last season) on nearly the same shooting percentages. So, even if his scoring aggressiveness has improved, he has still not developed a more reliable jump shot, especially from behind the three-point line where he remains average with only 29%. You can however mention his shooting extravaganza in the home game against Maccabi Tel Aviv where he went perfect all throughout the game. If you take that game away, Batum was at a poor 5/24 from behind the arc.

A category where he really improved is the assist section. He showed already during the U19 World Championships during the Summer that he can create for his teammates. He even went too far in that exercise in some occasions. So he has translated this passing skills into his game with Le Mans too. He is averaging correct 2.7apg in 27mpg which I consider as interesting and even improvable.

The main weakness besides his shooting remains the regularity in his game. Batum can come up with monster games or stretches where he dominates, but then he disappears for some moments or comes up with poor games. I saw several Euroleague matches of Le Mans this season and Batum was never the go-to-guy in the Final minutes. He even was not on the court on some of these moments as he was not able to take the ball and make the big plays. This is the part of his game that he needs to improve the most as he has all the qualities to do it. He just needs the confidences to do it.

There we are right now for Nicolas Batum who fell down in the different mocks recently due to his possible health issues. As this has been resolved, he should end up somewhere in the middle to the late first round.