European Prospects

Thomas Drouot followed the Final Phase of the U20 European Championship 2011 in Bilbao and he has sent us his scouting on the best players from the tournament in his eyes. Let’s see what he has to say.

Nikola Mirotic is a Spanish PF with great talent and he has been selected MVP of the tournament because of his 27 points and 10 rebounds per game. He is 2m09 tall and has good athletic qualities. He makes the difference in the game through his very well developed offensive fundamentals. He knows how to play in the low post where he can finish on the hook shot with either hand but also with the fade away jump shot. Facing the basket, he can shot the three-point shot or drive; he is really effective when taking the mid-range jump shot out of the dribble attack. Mirotic is an intelligent player, he can adapt his offense to the qualities of the defender and recognize the weaknesses. That’s why you could see him most often post up the smaller players and take the taller players out to the three-point line.

Joan Sastre, Spanish Small Forward being 2m00 tall, has averaged 14.4 points per game with a good percentage from behind the three-point line (46.7%). The forward plays in a very intense way and reads the defense very well when coming of the screen. Effective from behind the arc, he can also score on the drive as he showed some very good athleticism. He has by the way scored on several particularly impressive dunks out of the set offense. He played only two minutes in the final as he got broken his nose right in the beginning.

Alessandro Gentile, Italian Small Forward of 1m97, has averaged 17.2 points per game. Not really attracted by playing defense, he has been very performing on offense where he was the leader of his team. This player is first of all a scorer, capable of shooting from three-points, shot out of the dribble, drive and even to post up. He has shown a good capacity to pass the ball when the defense is focusing too much on him. He has a huge mentality, he wants to play the last possessions. Physically, he is very strong which helps him a lot to play his situations even with defensive pressure and contact.

Evan Fournier played as a SG/SF for France and had 16.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. He is a very elegant player and impressive in finishing close to the basket where he can handle defensive pressure very well and has a good touch. He can also score from behind the arc or with the jump shot out of the drive. Being a very clever player, he manages to steal a good amount of balls on defense (2.1 per game) and he is very efficient in defensive rotations. But he has to progress in defensive 1-on-1 situations in the next years.

Bojan Dubljevic played the inside positions for Montenegro and finished with 22.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. The 2m05 tall player has very good hands and is very efficient finishing close to the basket where he showed great touch. He is very efficient to find the good positions in the paint or in the low post. Next to being a good finisher inside, he is able to kick out the ball when he is being doubled in the low post. He has a good shot from around 5 meters and can also score the three-point shot.

Furkan Aldemir played the Center position for Turkey where the 2m07 tall player averaged 14.8 points and 15.9 rebounds per game. He was the best rebounder by far of the whole tournament and he has an incredible feel for the boards and plays additionally with great intensity. Very strong defensively, he has dominated his direct opponents in the low post. He is efficient in scoring from close but he struggles when receiving the ball outside the paint to score.

Nemanja Nedovic was the point guard and leader of the Serbian team. He is 1m96 tall and has good fundamentals. He can do a bit of everything: shoot the three (46.7%), score out of the dribble and finish close to the basket with his very good athletic abilities. He averaged 19.6ppg, 3.1rpg and 3.8apg. Very strong, he knows how to use his physique on offense but he does not really use this on the defensive end where he could be more present and aggressive against the opposing guards.

Hüseyin Köksal played the 2/3 position for Turkey. The 1m93 tall guard has played on every outside position for the Turkish team during the tournament. Very strong in 1-on-1 situations, he has often been the creator for his team. He finished the competition with 12.0ppg, 7.0rpg and 3.2apg. On offense, he scored mainly on the drive where he used his large shoulders to finish against the big guys. He is also able to score from behind the arc. Defensively, he is impressive, strong on the man and has a good activity on rebounds and on defensive rotations.

Thomas Drouot is working for Levallois Sporting Club Basket and Paris-Levallois since 2004. He has been youth coach of LSCB first and of the Nationale 3 team for two years. Since the team has been promoted to the French ProA, he is the responsible coach of the “Centre de formation”. His team finished third of the regular season and played the finals of the Trophée du Futur in 2009/2010 and has won the national championship last season while losing in the Trophée du Futur Final. Since 2010/2011, he is also the second assistant of the professional team of Paris-Levallois.