European Prospects

Here is the part two of the NBBL Top4 Review.

Fabian Thülig (1m96 – SF – 1989 – Bonn/Rhöndorf)

Thülig had a tournament that was difficult to analyze as he probably could not play up to his possibilities due to foul trouble and injuries. Fabian is a player who looks like he is always fighting and showing extreme will on the court. He seems also to have a nicely developed basketball IQ which you could guess on some of his defensive plays.

On the offensive end, Thülig plays a lot inside despite his limited size for an inside player. He can hit an occasional three, but he mostly works inside the paint. He goes also for some nice drives where he loves to go baseline and score on laybacks. He can defend bigger post players as well and did a correct job on the press defense by stealing balls in the passing lanes.

Dominque Tholey (2m01 – SF – 1989 – Bonn/Rhöndorf)

Tholey had a good tournament as he was one of the first scoring options for the team from headcoach Pete Miller. Tholey has a nice size for a Small Forward and comes with a very nice jumpshot executed with excellent shooting touch. Additionally, he was present in rebounding and also showed some interesting presence in defense. Dominque will have a bigger role next season with his home team Dragons Rhöndorf that moves back to its roots which are the talent development.

Stefan Dinkel (1m83 – PG – 1989 – Breitengüssbach)

Dinkel played a good tournament according to his skills. He is a short but strong PG with great shooting skills. He went for incredible shooting series and hit for example 6 threes in one halftime. All of these shots came from catch and shot plays as he has serious trouble to create his own shot because of his short size. I doubt about his future development as he lacks the athleticism and speed to play a specialist shooter role on the professional level.

Dimitry McDuffie (1m98 – SF – 1989 – Breitengüssbach)

A player that can go for it all or totally bust. McDuffie has all the tools and skills to become a very interesting player. He can handle the ball, has a nice drive and has three-point range. However, he looks like being not really focused on what happens on the court and overplay in lots of situations. He totally missed his semi-final by firing from three instead of using his quick feet to pass his opponent with a drive. He definitely needs to clarify with himself what he wants to do on the court as he could develop well if focused to the game.

The next generation (91-92 borns)

Kevin Bright was clearly the player with the most impact of this age category. The Rookie of the Year showed an impressive debut in the semis where he scored the first 8 points of his team. Bright is also a great shooter from three-point area and has nice body control and already good athleticism. Definitely the leader of the German 92 generation.

Niels Giffey is present for several years now and he showed really interesting skills. Good defender and very versatile, Giffey played nearly every position during the tournament from PG to PF. He was also responsible for one of the most spectacular moves of the weekend with a nice hesitation move on the break concluded with a powerful one-handed dunk over the defense.

A player that may be worth to follow is the 2m01 tall guard Daniel Leithner. The left handed kid showed nice range in his shot. He did not see big minutes in the semi-final but showed some interesting skills during the Bronze medal game.