European Prospects

With the Reebok Eurocamp starting off in just 10 days, I will give an update on those players that did not get invited or won’t be present in Treviso for several reasons. I will start with the German PF Tim Ohlbrecht.

Ohlbrecht is on the Draft radar already for quite a time, and Europeanprospects.com gave a big update on him just one year ago during the NBBL Top4 tournament. Now, Ohlbrecht has come of his 2nd season with Brose Baskets Bamberg and earned his first minutes in the Euroleague and has also become a full member of the rotation of the German team.

While the season of Bamberg ended surprisingly already in the first round of the playoffs, it was once again in the post season where Ohlbrecht showed his best games. With limited playing time, Ohlbrecht did the maximum out of the minutes where he was on the court (5.8ppg 6.3rpg in only 11mpg). Very aggressive in the defensive rebound where he picked the ball high in the air with two hands and protecting it very well once he grabbed it, Ohlbrecht was also by far the most present player of the team on the offensive boards. The most of his points still came from tip-ins or open lay-ups he got from his team mates passes. However you have to mention his agressivity in this area where he mostly finished with powerful dunks.

This gave him excellent shooting percentages (80% over the game series) as his attempts were mostly in the key. He did not show any kind of back-to-the-basket move for two reasons. The very few times he got a ball down low, he either went for a pass out or got fouled. When this was not the case, he struggled to put any kind of real move on the floor. He tried some kind of dribble to the middle action but could not connect it. But most of the times, he was the 5th option on the court. In several situations, he posted up well, but his team mates did not pass him the ball, for whatever reason.

As he knows that his minutes will be limited, Ohlbrecht can go hard in defense and try to block shots as his foul trouble is not that much of a problem at the moment. Even if he goes for two quick fouls, this did not put him in trouble as he is not a main part of the rotation at the moment. So it is hard to analyze if his defensive presence has improved or not. Still, he is pretty slow in lateral moves when he has to defend smaller or quicker forwards, which happened quite sometimes as he mostly played on the PF position. His game in the offense has however moved really inside. You don’t see him that much waiting around the three-point line for the open shot. Something that happened often the years before.

How will the future look like for the top German prospect of the 1988 generation? Ohlbrecht has signed a 1-year deal with Bamberg for next season this spring, at a time when head coach Dirk Bauermann was still supposed to stay with Brose for another season. Despite several offers, Ohlbrecht wanted to stay in Bamberg where his role in 2008/2009 was supposed to be more important. But with the current situation and the fact that no coach has been named so far, this role will mostly depend on the direction to which the new coach will move.  For the summer, Ohlbrecht can play everything from nothing to the Olympics. For the moment, it is not clear if he gets selected for the Senior National Team or the U20 National Team or both. It is also possible that Ohlbrecht may take a time-out in order to prepare individually for next season. We will keep you updated on this…