Strengths: Very strong mentally with impressive physical characteristics as well ... A long athletic forward, with good agility and smoothness in the open floor ... Has a nice skill set offensively with the ability to face the basket and shoot from outside as well as get by his man to the basket ... His combination of height and agility plus offensive polish makes him a very dangerous player ... He likes to play open and when he has some space he normally eludes his defenders because usually he's faster ... He possesses great confidence as a scorer, with the ability to shoot from distance, especially from the corners where his percentage is best ... In the paint he likes to play facing the basket and doesn't waste dribbles ... He attacks the rim with aggresiveness and often finishes with fantastic dunks. Has developing ballhandling ability and possesses vision to see the floor and find teammates ... he's adept at recognizing double teams and passing out of them ... Similar to Jorge Garbajosa, Claver has a real sense for the game, very smart ... Claver's great length (big wing span) gives him an edge defensively where he's a solid shot blocker and rebounder ... Great leaping ability and a willingness to put his nose in the play make him strong on the boards ... Despite his youth, Claver has already played in the highest level in Europe and has shown great maturity. This year he has played his better games in Playoffs 2007 (11.5 ppg, 2 rpg,. 75 bpg) assuming a very rare offensive responsibility for its age. He is a very intelligent player who knows to choose the best option in offensive game ...

Weaknesses: He needs to add strength although he's very tough and doesn't seem to have any issues with his body, just further developing strength as he's still just going on 19 ... He also needs to improve on defensive rebounds ... Due to his physical development, he is still in the process of defining his position. During a great part of his career he has played as a small forward, but this year in Pamesa Valencia has played his better matches as a power forward ... At this point he lacks the strength to play inside (as a 4) in the NBA and he's a little slow footed with his foot speed laterally on defense ... He's such a talent he should be able to play both forward positions, but finding his best fit either at the 3 or 4 will be of help to him ... He's generally a better offensive player than defender, he should improve his defense because is a little bit soft and less focused there ... As power foward needs to gain muscle and toughness to battle opponents on the boards ... Offensively he needs to improve his mid-range shot and his back to the basket game as he often gets too enamored with drifting away from the basket ... Having an inside/outside game ala Dirk Nowitki would be a big advantage for him ... He is excellent at drawing fouls from his opponents, but his percentage of free throws is just average at 62%, so becoming a better foul shooter will be a great help to him ...

Overall: Despite being a very mature player for his age, Claver needs to gain more experience in Europe, to assume greater responsibilities and to progress technically so he can eventually jump to the NBA with total security.

*Alvaro Paricio is a Spanish Journalist