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NBA Draft Review - International Players

Dionysios Nikiforos

2009-07-01 18:06

NetScouts Basketball Greek Basketball scout and guest blogger Dionysios Nikiforos has put together a wrap up of the recent NBA Draft focusing on the International players who were chosen and a few that went undrafted. (Thanks Dio! Chris Denker).

I’ll be the first to admit that this year’s draft was weak regarding international talent although basketball is becoming more popular and almost every NBA team has a foreign born player.

The Darko Milicic & Yaroslav Korolev effect? Nobody bought the hype on Ricky Rubio although this kid IS for real and will be making noise when he finally enters the NBA world. Other than Ricky here are my thoughts on some players I’m familiar with and their future in NBA:

* No 22 Victor Claver 6-9 226 F Pamesa Valencia (Spain): Claver is a gifted, extremely athletic forward than can shoot and run the floor who has shown lots of potential but has also proved to be injury prone; a project that fits the NBA game style.

* No 23 Omri Casspi 6-9 211 F Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel): Another versatile combo forward known for his toughness; he loves contact and is probably ready for the physical style of NBA but he has struggled to get constant playing time.

* No 25 Rodrigue Beaubois 6-2 182 PG Cholet (France): It’s clear that the Mavericks are getting ready for the post Kidd era. This guy is a freak athlete and a solid defender but he will have to develop his PG skills to play in the NBA; another project and the Mavericks decided to take the gamble with him and Calathes in hopes of one of them developing.

* No 34 Sergio Llull 6-3 180 PG Real Madrid (Spain): An intelligent combo guard who’s also struggled to get minutes in a deep roster; his team in Spain picked his option so he will be staying overseas at least for the next year. Kid can shoot and has already enough pro experience I think he’s a lock to play in the league.

* No 53 Nando De Colo 6-5 190 PG/SG Cholet (France): He and Beaubois were on the same team last year forming a very athletic backcourt. I was surprised to see De Colo slip down in the second round as I believe he’s definitely NBA ready; great size, fancy passer and good defender he knows how to run an offense.

Finally a couple projects that went undrafted and whose names might come up the next couple years: Milenko Tepic (Panathinaikos - Serbia), Milos Teodosic (Olympiacos – Serbia), Nemanja Aleksandrov (Red Star Belgrade – Serbia, so sad the kid has been plagued by injuries), Vyacheslav “Slava” Kravtsov (BC Kyiv – Ukraine).

Keep an eye out for them!

Any guys in your country we should be watching for?

About the author: Dionysios Nikiforos is a scout for NetScouts Basketball LLC, “The International Basketball Connection”™ and has extensive experience and knowledge of the Greek League and European Basketball.

Source: netscoutsbasketball.com