European Prospects

Today, we will talk about a young player that was one of the surprise of the French Semaine des As played one week ago. Nicolas de Jong, a 1988 born and 2m09 tall center from Vichy, was recently featured in a nice article and interview on the new French website Catch-and-shoot. Europeanprospects.com will translate in the future the most interesting articles from this new website in order to share them with a worldwide audience.

Nicolas de Jong had his outing during the two games Vichy played last weekend during the Semaine des As. He used the playing time accorded to him after the injuries of Dounia Issa and Zoch Moss to produce more than his usual figures (9 minutes with 2pts and 2rebs versus Le Mans and 11 minutes with 5pts 1 reb 1ast versus Orléans). However, the potential of de Jong is beyond these simple numbers.

De Jong has not played in any Youth National team, not even on regional youth selection team. He has not even played in a Youth League as de Jong started to play Basketball in 2006 when he was 18. But today, he is there and plays on the French professional level in the ProA.

He was discovered two years ago in an amateur game of the 4th French division. De Jong only played some garbage minutes with the 4th division team and most of the times was playing with the reserve team on a regional level. However, after that season, he signed a three-year contract with Vichy during the summer of 2008; a contract that surprised him but also motivated him to go further. But when you think on him, you see great size (2m09) and good hands which should help him to integrate a development pool but he jumped the stages and is now in the rotation of the professional team. He played already some garbage minutes last season (7 games with about 4 minutes) but this season should be the break out.

After having practiced during 1 month and a half last summer together with some NBA players in Dallas, he started nicely into the season with 6pts and 5rebs in the first game. But he suffered a lower back vertebra fatigue fracture in the 2nd game of the season and he had to sit out until last weekend. So his performance during the tournament in Villeurbanne may show the direction in which de Jong may heading.

Original Article: Catch-and-shoot.com