Let’s start this report with Pablo Aguilar, not only because he was one of the best players in the tournament but because he is the first one in the alphabetical order. After having seen him several times in the ACB this season, I was however quite surprised how well he did in this setting, being more of a hard working player. First of all, you recognize a very interesting body structure with a nice wingspan (216cm versus 203cm size) and a large shoulders.

The main offensive weapon of Aguilar is his great jump shot which he can hit from around the key pretty well. His baseline shot looks very easy and he has range up to the NBA three point line. He has also a good presence in the rebound and is not afraid to dribble out and go coast to coast. He recognizes the game very well and knows how to get his team mates open with pass fakes for example. He knows what he does on court and looks like playing always under control. His season in Granada helped him to develop into a very interesting prospect. He should stay one more year with his current team in order to gain even more playing time on the ACB level before he can start to be a contributor in the Euroleague

One of the players that I really wanted to see was the Hungarian G/F Adam Hanga. Hanga showed an interesting combination of speed, athletic abilities and basketball skills. Being pretty aggressive on the court, Hanga can handle the ball pretty well and likes to drive to the basket. During stretches, he took the ball to play PG for his team which he did quite well. His great speed helps him to beat shorter players on the drive where he can go for the dunk over the defense or finish for example with a floater, also over taller players.

The main problem is however his jump shot which needs some development. His relatively slow mechanics and a shooting setup with the ball in front of his face don’t give him the possibility right now to arm his shot against aggressive defenders. It will be interesting to see what is Hanga up to next year, if he stays in Hungary or not. First of all, he will try to give some good impressions during the U20 European Championship B Division in Skopje this summer.

The only Lithuanian player in the camp was Mindaugas Kuzminskas from Siauliai. The athletic wing player showed some interesting aspects, good fakes and a nice range, when he is open. He is working well in the offensive rebound despite not being that big or tall. His jumping abilities help him in that area though and his correct speed and ball handling are reason why his drive is one of his best options at the moment.

Carl Ona Embo showed some nice flashes of his offensive scoring talent. Being not that tall with only 1m83, Ona Embo needs to become a better play maker if he wants to have role going further than the scoring guard. He can hit the three pointer in series, also out of the dribble but he struggles in his passing technique as you could see him several times going for too high or too low dishes out of his drives.

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Nikos Pappas was definitely not in his best days in Treviso. You could not see any improvement in his most to be improved parts of the game, athleticism and ball handling under pressure. However, you still have here a player with a terrific understanding of the game. He can drive pretty well despite looking very slow. Out of these penetrations, he can score on the layup correctly but he is more active in creating spaces for his team mates or drawing fouls to go to the line.

Another player that drew a lot of attention was the Kazakh PF/C Anton Ponomarev. The probably best player ever coming from Astana struggled a bit in the beginning to adjust his game to a level that he has never played against. Ponomarev showed a very good jump shot for a guy of his size (2m09) and also displayed an interesting but still to be developed back to the basket game. His court vision and understanding is overdeveloped and you could see him check around what the current game situation is.

His jump shot is at the moment his strongest asset, nailing with high accuracy around the key but also a potential good three point threat. He is very aggressive on the court, fights a lot and is on every hot situation to dive for the ball or to tip the ball away. With his move to Hyères-Toulon where he signed a four year contract, he should develop pretty well over the next years as the level of competition he faces will be a lot higher than in his current situation.

Tomas Satoransky was clearly one of the most talented players in the whole camp. The Czech forward, that can also play guard and even Point Guard, showed an incredible feel for the game, great athletic abilities and an above average scoring will. Even if his shot is a bit unstable which is probably the result of an underdeveloped body at the moment, Satoransky can hit the ball from all around the court when he is open. When he gets defended harder, his shooting mechanics are not that great anymore and his shot looks more like throwing the ball to the rim.

However, Satoransky was really impressive when driving to the basket as he could finish extremely well when being close to the basket. He showed great jumping abilities and hammered down one of the best dunks of the three days with a huge put back against the whole defense. Satoransky ran the show for the team he played and his big time talent was one of the major discussion points during the camp. It is not a big surprise that Cajasol Sevilla signed him according to several reports and he is supposed to make an immediate impact in the ACB right from next year.

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Alexey Shved is already a regular participant to the Reebok Eurocamp, but he did not show that much of a development since last year. However, his upper body looked a lot stronger. He is a great scorer when his shot is falling and his jump shot looks so easy and nice from any distance. Shved should finally get playing time with CSKA next season and after that, it will be interesting to see what level he can reach. He seems to recognize now better when to stop shooting and switching in his role to be a PG, a problem that was present the previous years. He is still one of the most interesting players in Europe right now.

To finish the report, let’s take a look at the Russian Center Artem Zabelin. He gained more than 10kg this season which was totally lost for him because of a severe injury. In general, Zabelin did not look like he has lost anything in his basketball talent, his jump shots look impressive for a player of his size and in defense, he excels in shot blocking. On the other hand, he is not that explosive as a player and he did not really showed polished move in the low post.

Reebok Eurocamp: the best of the rest is a post from: European Prospects
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When starting with the guards, the names of the two French players from Cholet, Nando de Colo and Rodrigue Beaubois come into your mind as first ones. Both of them did not play the full tournament but both of them grabbed their chance to show what they are able to do. While Beaubois had to set out with a minor wrist injury after day one, de Colo still played on the second day but has left Treviso on Monday.

Rodrigue Beaubois showed in his only game of the camp the absolute will to impress the NBA executives in attendance. He was present everywhere on the court, scoring, rebounding, passing and even going for two block shots on defense. However, this high energy game produced some mistakes so that his overall performance on that game was only medium. His display of potential though impressed with next to his above average athletic abilities a real potential as scoring guard.

Even if his shot was not there, Beaubois had several more opportunities to put points on his stats line, either by driving of his left hand or going for out of the dribble jump shots. The problem is though that Beaubois struggled when it comes to PG play. Being only 1m86 tall, his size may be a serious issue to play on the 2 spot on the NBA level. His impressive wingspan and leaping abilities helps him though to play bigger than he really is.

Nando de Colo looked as the better short-term option for a PG position. Displaying a better size but less athletic abilities, de Colo looked awesome when it came to creating opportunities for his team mates. Both on set plays, where he excels in pick and roll play, or on the break, his great court vision combines with a very precise passing on the right heights for his cutters. Several highlight plays have been remembered by the assistance.

The best thing about de Colo is probably his talent in these pick and roll situations. Next to his good view for his team mates, he has a good jump shot, which however has not the highest release point, that he can take out of the dribble. If the hedging defenders are not aggressive enough to come around the screen, he can pull it up easily until the NBA three point range. If the hedging on the screen is stronger, he has the nice feel for throwing the pass in the right moment for the rolling screener to give him open looks.

Defensively, de Colo may have some trouble to match up with ultra quick guards. He knows however how to draw a charge which helps him probably more in the European game than on the NBA level. He can definitely be considered as one of the top PGs out of this talent group.

Daniel Hackett showed an interesting camp in my eyes but was a bit behind de Colo when it comes to determine the top PG of the three days. Claiming the leader position on the team, Hackett tried to make his team mates better, talked a lot to them, organized huddles and motivated them in defense. However, it looked always like he was trying to much himself in the end forcing some decisions especially when it came to his own scoring. He finished the camp with an below average 7/17 shots.

Another player using the ball a lot was the Ukrainian SG Sergyi Gladyr. The 1989 born early entrance candidate managed however to put his name on the table and NBA Draft.net gives him now a spot in the second round. Gladyr is a typical SG scorer running through the screens to get open shots. Being rather quick and athletic, he has no problems to get open and his quick and high release gives him possibilities to take the shot even when the defender is on him. But he can also create opportunities for himself, either on the drive or for example with step back three point shots. He needs to work a bit on his shot selection though as his game looks at the moment a bit too forced instead of letting the opportunities come to him. So you can see him a bit too much going for difficult shots right now. A change to a more competitive team than his current Mykolaiv team in Ukraine would certainly help him to improve in this area.

The Swedish forward Jonas Jerebko was one of the most awaited participants in Treviso this weekend. And the player from Angelico Biella arrived on Sunday to participate in all of Monday’s action. He immediately showed his great feel for the game, never forcing anything but taking his open opportunities and converting them perfectly. His jump shot looks great, having a very high release point due to his size and jumping skills. Catch and shoot threes out of inside-outside dishes look very well for him. His athleticism gives him additional possibilities on the drive where he is not afraid to finish with dunks in traffic but also go for the elegant running hook shot. Jerebko has certainly not lowered if not increased his Draft stock by his only game he played in Treviso. Svensk BasketTelevision visited the 2m06 tall forward just before the camp in Biella and had also this following interview with his current head coach in Italy.

The Montenegrin PF Vladimir Dasic started the camp on a very disappointing note but improved over the days in Treviso to show again why he is considered by several observers as a legit NBA prospect. His physical attributes are above average for the European game combined with a high quality skill set give him a great natural born basketball talent. The question mark on him is of course his mental toughness to play Basketball on the highest level.

Dasic showed a full set of tools to score, strong and powerful drives, long distance shot, footwork and ball handling. Everything is present to become a real good player. His hands are really good for a player of his size and you could see him going for finger rolls, tips ins and even some kind of miraculous baskets after having lost the ball in the air already. On his drives, he also showed a spin move going in both ways which gives him lots of opportunities to beat his opponents. His athleticism helps him to create on the fast break too where you can see him in the action from the box out situation until the transition game by bringing the ball up over mid-court.

Henk Norel came to Treviso fresh of an injury that prevented him playing for several weeks. This did not hurt him though to go for highly aggressive style of basketball. Being match with bigger and stronger players in the post, you could see him erupt for great steals out of the post play due to his great speed and arm movements. It is always difficult for Centers to play well in this type of settings, but Norel did a tremendous job to create opportunities for himself and his team mates by running with a second of rest up and down the floor, setting hard screens, working on the offensive glass and finishing on his own when an opportunity came to him.

The major asset of Norel is that he seems to understand the game very well. He sees how to create a good positioning for himself in the paint and is tough enough to use his elbows to get this done. Sealing bigger players is not a problem for him on this level. Additionally, Norel displayed a nice long distance shot even going for a camp-high 11/15 from behind the NBA three point line during the shooting exercises. It remains however rare that he takes that kind of shot in a game situation, he is more active down low on the block where he showed several interesting post moves including a left handed jump hook. Facing the basket, he prefers the jump shot out of mid-range than attacking his player on the drive which seems to be a good choice as his ball handling does not allow him to go for penetrations without risking to many turnovers.

Reebok Eurocamp: the NBA Draft prospects is a post from: European Prospects
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This report has been written Sunday at noon but is online posted right now due to Internet connection problems. More on the Reebok Eurocamp will follow later this week.

• The first game of the camp has been played on Saturday morning where I only arrived so I could not watch it. However, players that impressed were Stefan Markovic who run the PG job very well. Jaka Klobucar did what I like him for apparently. That means, a good shot from behind the arc and his typical left handed passes out of his wrist. Alexey Shved also showed again all his talent.
• In the 2nd game of the camp, Boban Marjanovic finished with an impressive 26 evaluation. The Serbian giant, one of the only Serbians allowed to play here, showed his incredible large game and scored with his typical post up move, some kind of jump hook. He did a good job from the free-throw line and was a big force in the defensive rebound. On the other side, Rodrigue Beaubois showed his nice combination of athleticism and skills but his shot was not falling and he got a little injury that took him out of the morning game of Day 2. Pablo Aguilar showed a good game, something he confirmed this morning. The 1989 born forward has an all-in-control type of play, going for both SF and PF positions. His range goes out to the NBA three point line, but despite not hitting that many shots you could see that he will improve in that area in the next years. The Czech youngster Tomas Satoransky impressed lots of people in the attendance with his great feel for the game and the possibility to see him run the PG in the next years.
• Nando de Colo showed his great court vision on Day 1 with a multitude of high light passes. Next to all these plays, there was one play that impressed me really while seeing him play. In fact, after a lazy behind the back pass by himself, he came back into the game immediately and stole the ball on midcourt to dish an easy assist for one of his team mates. This day was also a good opportunity to get a first impression of the Kazakh player Anton Ponomarev who definitely lacks of high-quality basketball experience and ball handling skills, but showed great will in the rebound and good scoring touch. The French guard Abdoulaye Mbaye showed his scoring talent on the 2-guard position but having a player like de Colo in his team, he had never to handle the ball on the 1 so that his potential on the PG could not be determined.
• On the downside of Day 1 were the disappointing play of guys like Vladimir Dasic, who still seems to have some concentration problems, Nikos Pappas, who struggles to bring up the ball against aggressive defense despite a great understanding in the half court offense or Roger Aboubakar Zaki who insists on shooting from behind the arc with a mediocre result.

Today’s picks (live from Treviso) is a post from: European Prospects
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• The official participants list has been revealed and includes several players that are neither playing in Europe or Europeans. The absence of any other official Pre-Draft Camp including 5-0n-5 settings can explain this
• The German U20 National Team already started their preparation for the European Championships and beat Poland behind 19pts of Robin Benzing and 16 of Elias Harris
• England published their first selection for the upcoming U16 European championship
• Jonathan Givony from Draftexpress shares his thoughts on the upcoming Reebok Eurocamp
• The 2009 edition of the Future Stars Tournament in London confirmed the speakers of the conference that will be held during the tournament. Find all the info on the updated website
• NBA Draft.net talked to Patrick Mills just ahead of the Reebok Eurocamp

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Mbemba still impresses with a great physical built which is clearly above average for European standards. In a recent interview with a our friends at Svensk Basket Television, he admitted that he even gained 12kg of muscles in order to be ready for the NBA challenge.

Next to his short size (1m83), the main question on Mbemba is of course his understanding of the game and the possibility to play the Point Guard position. His shooting percentages have developed into a very good territory right now from what they have been the previous seasons; he turns currently at a correct 55.9% from 2FG and a good 37.5% from behind the arc. However, his FT shooting is dramatic with only 46.2%.

A first thing that you see is that Mbemba has improved his shooting selection, at least in the games I saw. And the improved percentages show that he only takes shots that he feels comfortable in. His three point shot in catch and shoot fashion looks correct right now and you don’t see him too often to go for these out-of-dribble shots anymore. The association with Troy Bell, who is another typical scoring guard forces Mbemba to play a pass first guard and you see during the games that Mbemba tries to force himself into a role that is not his inborn type of playing basketball.

And sometimes, his out-of-control style of play comes back again. Mbemba has no problem to beat his man of the dribble, but what comes out of these situations is often not a positive thing for the team. He sees his cutters pretty well, the problem is though that he tries to go for difficult passes for himself or for the cutter to catch. Several times, he tried to find back door alley-oop passes in traffic for his wings. These attempts ended more often out of bounds than in a high light real.

Out of his penetrations, Mbemba barely tries to go for the score as he has no real move to score of the drive. You never see him go for a running floater or tear drops, nor for a controlled jump shot. This lack in his offensive play limits him badly as he can not really play as a scoring guard because of these difficulties. With the gained muscular mass, he looks also a bit slower than he was before but still this is not really a handicap right now.

Finally, Mbemba probably needs to develop into a defensive stopper if he wants to become a better player than he is right now. He has all the tools to do so but he looks not all that focused on that side of the court. Being caught in pick-and-roll situations on LegaDue level shows that he really needs to improve in this area but it may be the specialty that he needs to develop to raise his level. The positive thing is that you see him progress, step by step. The control of the game is however still the part that he needs to develop the most if he wants to become a PG on a higher level.

With the LegaDue Finals going on to at least a fourth game to be played on Sunday 7th June, Mbemba’s presence at this year’s Reebok Eurocamp is excluded so that he can not use his year-long showcase to impress the NBA scouts. However, the NBA teams interested in him and present in Europe because of the camp will certainly take the opportunity to make the trip inside Italy to go scout Mbemba in a competitive setting.

Rudy Mbemba is finally in the Draft is a post from: European Prospects
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