Serge Ibaka (2m09 – Power Forward – 1989 – L’Hospitalet)

Serge Ibaka was the prospect that was observed the most by the NBA scouts because of his extraordinary physical set. Standing 2m09 tall and displaying a wing span of 2m22 with a vertical jump of 85cm, Ibaka is a rare specimen for European standards. Additionally, Ibaka played only in the second Spanish League which made him even more mysterious for people coming from the United States. So what is he about?

First of all, you see that Ibaka lacks a lot of basketball experience. He jumps on nearly every fake and took some bad decision in game situations. Also in the offense, you saw him having serious trouble when starting for drives or putting the ball on the floor which caused him a lot of turnovers due to travel violations. A lot of work is ahead in this department. But on the other hand, Ibaka has already a nice offensive set to score despite being only 18 years old. He has correct shooting touch and can even hit the three point shot. He works very hard on the offensive rebound where he can go for spectacular put back dunks. In defense, he is a good shot blocker but may have to go for better choices when he needs to block and when to avoid the foul call. As Ibaka is reported to stay in Draft, he is a good catch for a long term prospect but he would probably have close to zero impact if he joins a NBA right now.

Vladimir Stimac (2m06 – Center – 1987 – Valmiera/Zalgiris Kaunas)

Vladimir Stimac is probably the worst physical specimen if you go just by his numbers. But he has basketball talent. And knows also how to use his impressive body. Looking exhausted when only entering the floor, Stimac transforms into an absolute beast and fighter under the basket. He gives always 110% and does all the dirty work you need to win a game.

Stimac has excellent positioning in the paint and he is very hard to move. He has no real moves but with his force he puts his defenders so much in trouble that he comes up often with high percentage shots or layups. His shooting touch is not too bad, he can even hit an occasional three but his game is really in the post. Additionally, Stimac displayed some very correct passing skills in a few high-low plays and he loves to play the pick and roll with his guards.

Artem Zabelin (2m17 – Center – 1988 – CSKA Moscow)

Zabelin looks like an incredible talent with fantastic size, excellent fundamentals and a great shot. However, he still has not played anywhere close to his potential on the professional level over the past years. So the camp was once again a demonstration for his skillset which includes nearly everything the modern basketball player needs.

Zabelin has an excellent shooting touch until the three point line from where he can hit several shots in a game, from all around the arc. He also showed some very impressive ball handling skills and drives in traffic which is a very rare gift for a player of his size. In defense, Zabelin is present with some great block shots which are however more the result of his great size than of a particular shot blocking timing. But the main problem that remains with Zabelin is that is nowhere close for the moment to have an impact on the professional level, which may be the result of his soft play. Having turned 20 this winter, Zabelin definitely needs some accrued playing time in order to develop his skills and become a player up to his potential.

Henk Norel (2m13 – Center – 1987 – Alicante/DKV Joventut)

Henk Norel had a very interesting camp where he showed all his potential and the result of several years of hard work in Spain. In those years, he has build a nice body which is far away from the thin kid we saw a few years ago. What has remained however is his very aggressive and quick way to run the floor.

Coming to the basketball part, Norel showed a nice arsenal of offensive scoring possibilities. Mostly acting in the post, he displayed several moves with his back to the basket. He showed nice fakes that looked well coordinated and properly used in order to score on easy layups. He can also use his speed in order to turn around his defender and go up for nice powerful dunks. Three point range is there too, but not one of the main scoring options.

Jakub Wojciechowski (2m13 – Power Forward – 1990 – Benetton Treviso)

The Polish power forward who is since quite a time active for Benetton Treviso was one of the youngest players in the camp and since he never got featured here, I come up with a short report on him. Standing 2m15 tall, Wojciechowski has an amazing shooting touch and can hit three pointers in series. His jump shot looks very sweet and is currently his main offensive weapon. As he only turned 18 this year, Wojciechowski has still a lot of upside and when he adds a bit more kilos and a more developed penetration game, he can become a very interesting face-up player on the PF position.

Reebok Eurocamp Treviso 2008: the Bigs is a post from: European Prospects
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Oleksandr Kolchenko (1m96 – Shooting Guard – 1988 – Khimik)

The Ukrainian Guard did a good job during the days in Treviso and showed why he is considered as one of the best pure shooters in Europe. With his picture perfect shot from behind the arc, he came up with solid performances throughout the camp and exploded with one 22pts performance where he hit 5 out 7 3pt attempts. He has already a very well developed upper body and big arms. He can hit multiple threes in a row and has long range. Due to correct athleticism, he can also shoot over bigger guys if needed.

Kolchenko also showed several drives to the basket where he mostly tried to come until the rim. He never really showed some in-between game or any kind of out of the dribble mid-distance jump shot. But his big scoring capabilities from behind the arc and his still young age make him a sure bet for a good Euroleague role player with his shooting skills.

Mantas Kalnietis (1m96 – Point Guard – 1986 – Zalgiris Kaunas)

Kalnietis started the camp a bit shaky with some bad decisions and bad shooting. But with the days going on, the days became better for the Lithuanian PG who is automatically eligible for the NBA Draft this year. Easily one of the best athletes in his generation, Kalnietis excels in the drives to the basket where he can score in traffic with his great leaping ability and dish it of when the help comes. Still, he sometimes struggles to make the correct choice in the right moment. When he goes to the basket, he can score with both hands with good touch of the glass.

Kalnietis started to take better shots the last days of the camp and also knocked them down. His game will however remain more penetration-driven than being a huge threat from outside. Another thing to add is that Kalnietis did not display real leader skills, something he should acquire and use in such situations where he is one of the most experienced players.

Alexey Shved (1m95 – Guard – 1988 – CSKA Moscow)

Alexey Shved was once again amazing and show his incredible feel for the game of basketball. With his sweet shooting touch, he came up with several impressive games and saved the best for last and a 8/15 effort from behind the arc. He can hit the threes in every way, out of the dribble or catch and shot are no problems for him. Despite a still very thin and underdeveloped body, Shved can drive and score against the big guys using a good leaping ability. He can even go for some surprising dunks in the traffic.

What Shved is still missing is the experience. After one season on the bench for CSKA, next year Alexey needs finally to get some serious playing time on a good level in order to develop his excellent skills and fulfill his potential. A loan to another Russian team like for Ponkrashov could help Alexey to develop. But also some changes will be made in CSKA rosters so that Shved’s role could increase during the next season.

Anton Ponkrashov (2m00 – Point Guard – 1986 – Khimky Moscow)

Another player that started the camp badly was Anton Ponkrashov who forced a lot of plays. Is it some pressure he puts on himself in order to impress the NBA scouts or has his game changed that much over the season in Khimky? Because his court-vision and passing skills were nowhere to be seen and the Russian guard relied mainly on his scoring skills during the games.

Because he has excellent playmaking skills, and he knows how to use, but unfortunately, he only showed them in a few rare moments. The other time he tried to impose a game that seems not to be his instead of playing what he really excels in. You could also see him several times being very loud on the court and talking aggressively to his team mates when they did not catch a pass or did something wrong.

Jaka Klobucar (1m98 – Shooting Guard – 1987 – Geoplin Slovan)

Klobucar is a favorite of the author for several years now but that is not the only reason why I mention him here. The Slovenian guard showed once again his excellent basketball fundamentals which means nice left handed long distance shot and great court-vision and passing skills. Klobucar is perfect when he comes off screens and receives the ball from his left to catch, turn and shoot the three pointer even with a defender in his face.

Because of his great size, he has a pretty good court-vision and can go for nice two handed passes for cutters or the big guys. Neither the fastest, nor the most athletic guy in the camp, his all around physicals are great. Klobucar will probably move to a bigger team next season despite still being under contract with Geoplin Slovan in Slovenia since his youngest days.

Dusan Mladjan (1m98 – Shooting Guard – 1986 – Lugano Tigers)

One of the big surprises in the camp to me was the Swiss-Serbian guard Dusan Mladjan. Having never heard anything about him before, Mladjan showed a nice arsenal of scoring skills with 3pt range, mid range jumpers and fast breaks. On the downside, Mladjan has some problems in the ball handling area which makes him limited when it comes to drives. Still, it was a good showing by him in Treviso in general and he could be interesting for some bigger teams than his actual Swiss squad.

Rudy Mbemba (1m81 – Point Guard – 1987 – Solna Vikings)

The years go by and Rudy Mbemba is still in Treviso. And the problem is that you don’t see any real progression in Rudy’s game. Still, he is extremely athletic and has incredible speed. But what about some game control, improved shooting or playmaking duties. Mbemba will probably remain an athletic phenomenon if he does not work on his game. Because he has the tools to develop into an excellent player as he has the handles to play the point. But he needs to use his quickness in a more effective way in order to reach anywhere the potential he is.

Goran Dragic is also worth to be mentioned but he did only play one day in the camp. The game he was on the floor, he showed all what we knew from him before. Excellence in running the fast break, huge athletic skills and a long distance shot that is still not his force. However, he can be considered as having showed the best performances of the camp in the guard area together with Alexey Shved.

Reebok Eurocamp Treviso 2008: the Guards is a post from: European Prospects
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• The top statistical performers from the last day of the Reebok Eurocamp were Artem Zabelin with a 20pts, 7rebs game, Henk Norel who had 14pts and 4rebs while going 2/2 from behind the arc, the surprising Swiss guard Dusan Mladjan who had another nice 17pts 3rebs and 5asts game for his team. Jaka Klobucar finished his all-in-all very good camp with 15pts 4rebs and 3asts while Jonas Jerebko did a good job with 14pts and 9rebs in the last regular game of the camp.
• Talking about Jonas Jerebko, you can see him in action here during the morning sessions where he was showing his three-point shooting skills.
• The very last game of the camp was another apparition of the Reebok Camp All-Stars where it was all Russian yesterday. Alexey Shved showed once again his excellent shooting skills (8/15 3FG) to finished with a game high 26pts with additional 5asts and 4rebs. Semen Shashkov showed in that game too why a lot of people are very high on him. The 2m06 tall forward came up with 14pts 6rebs and 5stls.
• Alexey Shved was unfortunately not that hot in the morning sessions where I followed him during his three point shootout.
• The lecture in the morning by Bob Hurley was not that interesting as the one of Ettore Messina the day before. When asking him about the possibility to get these drills and daily workout routine to use it with his team, a coach got the following answer: just check out Steve Nash’s DVD, it is all from there.
• A final video clip with most of the participants of the camp in another morning shooting exercise.

Today’s picks (back from Reebok Eurocamp Treviso) is a post from: European Prospects
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• It was Nicolas Batum day today. But it was not his day in the only game he played in the camp. Forcing a lot of shots, which is not his game at all, Batum finished the game with a poor 6/18 with 1/7 from 3 and a 0/3 from the free-throw line. The forward, that is known for his altruist playing style did not even connect for one assist. So all in all, his showing was disappointing in my eyes.
• The players are getting tired after three days of hard practices and games. So the top statistical guys of the day were having less impressive stats too. And the winner of the day in this category was the Cologne 99ers forward Marko Keselj who had the best individual performance of the day with 13pts at 86% and 6 rebounds and 5 steals.
• Vladimir Dasic confirmed its good performances of the day before with another good effort and 17pts together with 10 rebounds. His shooting percentage was correct too with 55%.
• Anton Ponkrashov finally showed some talent today in both the normal game and the All-Star game against an Ukrainian selection. The Russian guard forced a little less from the perimeter and hit the shots he took.
• Talking about that Ukrainian selection, the 1986 born PF Andriy Agafonov did a nice job. He is a total unknown to most people in attendance and put his name on the board with his game today. Talking about him as Draft prospect may be a little bit too much but some of the European GMs in attendance may have written down his name.

Tonight’s picks (live from Reebok Eurocamp Treviso) is a post from: European Prospects
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• Nicolas Batum and Goran Dragic have arrived in Treviso this morning and participated in the drills. Batum looked like we know him, excellent athleticism and still a shoot that is far from being regular. Dragic showing some correct shooting but he went a bit too much for the flashy plays in the Transition drills.

• Ettore Messina talked during 45 minutes to the campers after the different work-outs and explained them passing angles, bounce passes and how to read the defense. It was extremely interesting and I really want to see if any player will use this newly obtained skills in the afternoon games today.
• Some elements of the morning sessions featuring Nicolas Batum and Serge Ibaka among others
• Tonight, the Camp All-Stars will play against a Ukrainian selection which features reserve players mainly.

Morning picks (live from Reebok Eurocamp Treviso) is a post from: European Prospects
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• Rudy Mbemba is once again the highest jumping (38″ vertical) and the fastest guy (2.51 sec for the half court sprint) in the camp. But he is also once again showing that he still struggles to make the difference between precipitation and speed in game situation.
• Serge Ibaka is probably the best combination between size and athletic skills here in Treviso. If he adds now at least a bit of ball handling skills, he can be a very interesting player in the future.
• The Reebok All-Stars of today’s game against the French U20 team were: Rudy Mbemba, Ivan Paunic, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Serge Ibaka, Dusan Katnic, Henk Norel, Vladimir Dasic, Jaka Klobucar, Semen Shashkov and Viacheslav Kravtsov.
• The players that gave a good impression to me today were Vladimir Dasic (showing a nice mix between basketball skills, physical build and shooting touch), Oleksandr Kolchenko (nice jump shooter, especially from three point area with big upper body), Nikita Kurbanov (all around skills, great defense and good basketball IQ) and Alexey Shved (perfect high shooting mechanics, great work in rebound and control of the game).
• Thomas Heurtel showed with the French U20 why he was the MVP of the Trophée du Futur and how he made an astonishing 25pts, 15asts and 7rebs performance in the Finals. He came up with a very interesting showing today against the Reebok All-Stars.
• For me, it is the first time that I attend such a camp. It is really a good possibility to see a lot of different prospects. But still, the game situations are not comparable with real match-ups as you see that lots of players prefer to go for the nice plays instead of playing “real” basketball.

Today’s picks (live from Reebok Eurocamp Treviso) is a post from: European Prospects
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From the Early-Entrants list, we just saw a drop out by the Australian Joe Ingles.

When it comes to the automatically eligible player, we saw that Uros Tripkovic, Vladimir Golubovic, Rafael Hettsheimeir and Michelle Antonutti are not anymore on the official list. They got replaced by Goran Dragic, Igor Milosevic and Dusan Mladjan. The addition of Dragic is of course a excellent quality boost for this group as he is a legit candidate for being drafted in the 2nd round, something that did not count for the other guys that are in or out now.

The most changes were seen of course in the Next Generation part. So we say good-bye to Boban Marjanovic, Vitor Faverani, Luigi Datome, Chavdar Kostov, Stefan Markovic and Andrey Vorontsevich. These 6 guys have been taken out but 10 new guys are now on the list. Yannick Driesen from Belgium, Charis Giannopoulos from Greece, Edwin Jackson from France, Dusan Katnic from Serbia, Johannes Lischka from Germany, Nenad Mijatovic from Montenegro, Marc-Antoine Pellin from France, Philipp Schwethelm from Germany, Dmitris Verginis from Greece and JanVesely from the Czech Republic.

As you know, these list are only definitive when the players really arrive in Treviso. Europeanprospects will be in Italy from Sunday to Tuesday and give you a detailed report about the camp.

Reebok Eurocamp Participants update is a post from: European Prospects
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NBA Draft Early Entry Players
1) Danilo Gallinari
2) Nicolas Batum
3) Rudy Mbemba
4) Serge Ibaka
5) Joe Ingles
6) Henk Norel
7) Giorgi Shermadini
Jonas Jerebko
9) Luc Louves
10) Nando De Colo
11) Ronalds Zakis
12) Maxym Korniyenko
13) Maxsym Vilkhovetskyi
14) Sergey Ilin
15) Mladen Jeremic

All the main guys of the early entrance list are present on the list. Of course some of the guys will not be present because of League playoffs going on in France or Serbia. Danilo Gallinari and Giorgi Shermandini are reported to eventually only go for shooting and not participating in the game situations. It will be very interesting to see a guy like Luc Louves against this competition as he comes out of a year where he barely saw minutes with his team and only had some appearances at the end of the season.

NBA Draft Eligible (players born in 1986)
1) Anton Ponkrashov
2) Tadija Dragicevic
3) Uros Tripkovic
4) Mantas Kalnietis
5) Vladimir Golubovic
6) Rafael Hettsheimeir
7) Damjan Rudez
Manuchar Markoishvili
9) Nikita Kourbanov
10) Roland Hendlein
11) Andrija Stipanovic
12) Michelle Antonutti
13) George Tsintsadze
14) Ryan Read
15) Sam Van Rossom

Not that much intrigue about this group as the most talented players will probably not join Treviso because of their activity with their club team in the Serbian playoffs. This explains also the non-presence of Nikola Pekovic on this list. Anton Ponkrashov will probably be the most followed guy here but he is still active in the Russian playoffs right now with Khimky. The camp also gives a possibility to scout some less-known prospects like Roland Hendlein from Hungary or Ryan Read.

“Next Generation”
1) Nemanja Aleksandrov
2) Boban Marjanovic
3) Vladimir Dasic
4) Vitor Faverani
5) Semen Shashkov
6) Nicolo Melli
7) Alexey Shved
Adrien Moerman
9) Slava Kravtsov
10) Ivan Paunic
11) Donatas Motiejunas
12) Luigi Datome
13) Jakub Wojciechowski
14) Jaka Klobucar
15) Chavdor Kostov
16) Oleksandr Kolchenko
17) Marko Keselj
18) Elemden Kikanovic
19) Stefan Markovic
20) Artem Zabelin
21) Andrey Vorontsevich
22) Aboubakar Zaki
23) Vladimir Stimac
24) Maxim Krivosheev

The part of the list with the most upside but also the most question marks is like always the “Next generation”. If all of these players will really show up in Treviso, you can have an extremely good overview of the upcoming prospects in Europe. Some of them are already present on a very high quality level like Vladimir Stimac who won the MVP trophy of the Baltic League or Adrien Moerman who is the freshly named MVP of the French ProB.

We will see who will come to Treviso in the end. But the thing that is sure is that europeanprospects.com will be present this year for the first time in Treviso and give you updates and reports on most of the present prospects.

Reebok Eurocamp Treviso: the participants is a post from: European Prospects
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