[seniokasParticipant]

I had a great opportunity to watch European U18 Championship as Lithuania and Latvia hosted the event. Unfortunately I didn’t find time to go to every game I possibly could but I did watched every game where places from 1st to 8th were decided, so I did see what nice talent countries like Serbia, Spain or Croatia brought to this event.  I will post some of the standout players I saw, although I will do it in parts because it actually is really a lot of writing and I’m not used to it after graduating from school as I don’t need to write as much at university.

So, the first part, hopefully you will find something interesting.

 

Guillermo Hernan-Gomez 6’10,5 PF Spain   14pts 6reb 1.2ast 56%fg

I would go as far as saying that he was the most offensively polished big in this championship. Post ups, face ups, baseline spins, running semi-hooks, midrange shots, he has got everything you want your power forward to have. Very good passer out of double teams can pass either to players on the wing, either to another big for easy opportunity, quick decision maker as he reads the situation very well and quickly decides whether to play by himself or kick the ball out. Has good frame, good hands to catch the ball, runs the floor very well, soft touch around the basket, very coordinated, had nice reverse layup ( in similiar fashion of Kobe’s reverse dunks ) on the break. In the quarter-final loss to Russia 4th quarter had 3 succesfull post ups in a row that ended up with baseline spins ala Gasol that become either foul or points.

On the other hand he is only average athlete and doesn’t have good lenght. Didn’t rebound that well as you could expect from almost 6’11 guy but that could be explained with the fact that he was playing only 25 minutes a game and had players like Diop or Sainz playing together. Didn’t shoot free throws well, only 56%.

Overall, he had really nice tournament although Spain as a team underachieved as they were clearly talented enough to be in the semi-finals. Has to continue working on his skillset, expanding his range ( on warmups he did shoot threes and the release looked nice and fairly quick ) and maximising his athletic abilities. If he plays successfully at mens level, becomes better athlete and expands range I could easily see him getting looks at even first round 20-30 picks.

 

Orioli Pauli 6’7 SG Spain    9,2 pts 2,9reb 39% 3’s

Another interesting talent from Spain. Standing 6’7 Pauli has very good length and is above average athlete these abilites made him target to throw lobs either on fast breaks or half-court sets where he successfully converted. Good lateral quickness and long wingspan with right dedication/effort made him one of the better wing defenders in this championship when he successfully defended many opposing team wings. His biggest asset is clean and extremely quick release. He looked very well in catch and shoot situations, made very nice buzzer beater after in bounds play made for him. We joked with friends I was watching the games together ( 3 girls two of them Lithuanian u18 players ) that he was named after Oreo cookies because he was really cooking against Italy in 5-8th places game where he scored 19 and made 5 of 10 threes.

His biggest weakness is his weight and strenght, standing very solid 6’7 he we weighs not more than 175 I believe, so the question how successfully will he be able add strenght and weight is crucial for him. He also did not showed much in terms of creating for himself or for others but he also wasn’t asked to. He did have one sick crossover against Italian player where defender went completely wrong direction.

To sum up, everything depends on his body ability to get weight and strenght. If he does, I am quite sure that he will be drafted because he has exellent size, lenght and athletism for a 2 guard and a one very strong skill – shooting where he has extremely quick and good looking release. Not a first rounder though.

 

Ilimane Diop-Gaye 6’11 C Spain 10pts 7,2reb 2blk

Another not very spanish looking bigman from Spain. Appears to have at least 7’6 winspan, easily could be few inches more. Alters or blocks many shots, really hard to shoot over. Runs the floor very well, pretty coordinated as 17 years old 7 footer. Shoots the free throws fairly well at 64%, definitely needs to improve but at this age and offensive polishness it’s a fairly good accurracy. Shooting form , though , looks ugly as he leaves his shooting arm very bent, but that probably because he wants to have as lower as possible release point, the arm is bent but always bent the same. Good rebounder, despite his very visible lack of strenght was able to become leading rebounder of team Spain that had other good bigs. Showed willingness and no fear to play in the post where he showed some polish as he was using up and under pretty nicely, although his huge lack of strenght didn’t really let him get his shot off well.

Hands seems to be question, he didn’t catch some passes he should have and didn’t quite well catched others. Takes too much time to make decision, thinks too long whether to play by himself or pass. Isn’t really good vertical leaper just very very long. Still very raw offensively but was years younger than majority of players.

As with Pauli adding strenght and size is most important work for Ilimane to do. Has to continue work on his post skills and touch around basket. I do believe that with improved strenght he will be able play much better and more effitiently offensively and his hands will be OK as he gets stronger. Possible lottery pick, as he has huge inside and already is big power defensively despite lack of strenght.

 

Alberto Diaz 6’3 PG/SG Spain   10pts 6reb 3,1ast

 

Possibly the best defender of the tournament. Extremely tough player, doesn’t look strong from the first look, but as you watch him playing, start to understand that he is really strong. He is one of those players you don’t want to be defended by. Good transition game. Good lateral quickness and quick hands, his steal in the last minute of quarter-final game against Russia could have won the game but unfortunately he didn’t convert on layup. Good ball handler and passer but not outstanding. Penetrates very well as he uses his strong body, good ball handling and great basketball IQ, isn’t afraid to take contact inside. Very unselfish. Great rebounder, especially considering very average athletic gifts.Seems to be a nice guy off the court and a leader and the toughest guy on the court.Acts very nicely with referees, show a lot of respect to them.

Being average athlete at best and not having very good lenght certainly doesn’t help him to convert on his drives. Not much of a shooter, midrange shot was semi-decent but three pointers are very mechanical and very slow. Not a real PG but doesn’t have size to play 2 guard. Average quickness.

If he heavily improves his shooting and PG skills could get some looks at the second round because of his defense, but more likely won’t be drafted and will have nice international career.

 

Mikhail Kulagin 6’2 PG/SG Russia  14pts 8,5reb 2ast

Younger of brother of ’92 standout Dimitry Kulagin. Brother is 6’5, parents who were in the attendance looked pretty tall too, so could grow another few inches. Good athlete with good frame that has started filling up. Incredible rebounder with very good nouse for the ball. Above average defender with good hands. Very good passer and quick decision maker as he elevate for a shot few times but saw free teamate and was able to quickly react to it with passing instead of shooting. Very unselfish as he looked to pass more often than not although it might be affected to the fact that he didn’t find his shot throughout the tournament as he shot only 38% from the field. Still, showed ability to create for himself and for others. Had a very deep three pointer that cut Croatia’s lead to 2 points 15 seconds left to the end of the 4th quarter.

He also is a litle bit turnover prone as sometimes he tries to do too much or too quick. Not a real PG at the moment and doesn’t have size to play SG.

Overall, he has to work on his PG skills and continue getting better with his shooting. I still believe that he will be drafted in a few years if he shows good improvement in PG skills because he does have good athletism, passing skills, court vision and size as a PG, just has to play at this position regularly instead of playing a lot off ball.

 

Nikola Rebic 6’1 PG Serbia 2.4pts 1.4reb 1.4ast 13min

First time saw him in Serbia’s win against Greece. Rebic played 17 minutes, missed all 4 of his shots but really intrigued me with terrific effort and outstanding lateral quickness on D. Came back home and found that he actually is years younger than majority of players, being born in 1995 and one year ago had great u16 perfomance where he averaged 15, 3 and 4.5. Didn’t see much of him in the quarters and semis but Nikola’s Radicevic injury opened an opportunity for Rebic to play against Russia in bronze medal game. Young serbian did not dissapointed me in their win as he had 7, 4 and 4 in 32 minutes of action. 

Rebic seems to be very quick guard with nice frame and appears to have solid wingpsan. Lateral quickness was very good as he seemed to be able to slide through screens always staying in front of his man. On offense he didn’t not rush things played more of distributive role, possibly because of his very limited role in the team. In 3rd place game where he got a lot of minutes to play he did show ability to penetrate and split defenders as well as very very good stepbacks where he was able to creat a lot of space for himself extremely well. He also showed willingness to take responsibility of taking important shots as he got ball in his hands about 5 seconds till shot clock and decided to shoot himself, he did actually missed three-pointers, though. His release is pretty good looking and quick, although he did shoot very poorly throughout the tornament connecting only on 19% of his attempts and missing all 5 three pointers.

It’ll be interesting to watch how will he be filling his frame as he is pretty skinny at the moment. Improving his shot and overall decision making is also important as he didn’t shoot well this year,although limited minutes definitely limited his efficiency.

 

 

[JunkYardDogParticipant]

the tournament was great… SARIC is way above the others but there are some very interesting guys (love the lithuanian team as every young team)

congrats to england who jumped into division A !

[Author]

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