[TiosecoParticipant]

This is a video of Kiefer Ravena, the most hyped Philippine basketball prospect in quite a while. His recruitment to several different colleges was such big news here in the Philippines with almost all the schools wanting to get him and with reports of several American colleges giving him offers as well. In the end, he chose to stay with the Ateneo de Manila Blue Eagles where he led the high school squad to a 3-peat and just recently led the college squad to it’s 4-peat. He also led the Philippines to a 5th place finish in the Fiba-Asia U-18 tournament last year while also being named to the Mythical Five. He is listed at 5"11-6"0 and just turned 18 last October 27. He obviously won’t fair as well if he were in the States but, I was just curious to your opinions on him.  Here are his strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths: Basketball IQ and court awareness (said to be his best strengths), Great mid-range game, Athleticism (above-average here and probably average for Americans), Terrific defender, Knows how to make his own scoring opportunities, Great leader

Weaknesses: Quite short for international standards, Doesn’t possess elite speed or quickness, Needs to bulk up more, IF he were in the NBA, he has to be more of a play-maker rather than a scorer

[Bmore_DCParticipant]

Its hard to really get a feel for his game considering the competion hes playing against…but he seems to be pretty athletic and a good shooter…he def needs to bulk up but his handles and defense seem pretty good…pretty decent finisher at the rim as well…

[RUDEBOY_Participant]

I really love his aggressiveness..Reminds me a little of Spud Webb…But there are 1000’s of guys that come thru the high school and college ranks every year…with skills similar to him..Some are even taller 6’2r 6’4….

I think becuz he’s from the Phillipines and doing this is, why he’s getting so much hype….

[ShekiruBoomParticipant]

 god damn everyone is so short. sadly no asian guard will ever make in the nba bc of the natural difference in athleticism. the only way asians will compete in the nba is if they are freakishly tall. sigh so sad that so much of basketball is based on athletisicm.

[MuggsyParticipant]

There are Asian point guards who’ve played in the NBA. Currently Jeremy Lin, a few years back Yuta Tabuse played. I’m sure theres been more, but that’s off the top of my head.

[FilipinoElla]

 go Kiefer!!, there was once a filipino player at warriors, it Townsend i guess,

[McDunkin]

A shorter Chen "The Chinese A.I." Jianghua?

[ShekiruBoomParticipant]

 im just saying as a fellow asian im sad that asians cant compete in the nba bc of the differences in natural athleticism no matter the skill. And do we actually consider Jeremy Lin a competent NBA player? Just looking objectively if it wasnt for his story as a player out of Harvard, he would have been completely unknown

[TallmanNYCParticipant]

 Athleticism isn’t the issue. Have you ever played ball against Asian guys? Do you think they are slower and jump less well than White guys? Not the Asian guys I’ve played with. I balled with a true 6′ 0" Asian dude who had a 40" vertical. Short arms though; that is the killer. This guys got those t-rex arms as well. And this kid ain’t 5 11". He looks 5′ 9" with short arms giving him a reach that is way less than the average NBA PG. He has mad hops to be dunking at that size. Tough to tell how he would do against taller defenders though.

And that league, the centers are trying to block his shot and they aren’t getting above the rim on their shot blocks! Go see a good D-III college team and more than half the team can dunk. Take any scorer from a D-I team and he would make the guys above look silly. But maybe it isn’t a fair comparison since I guess these are really high school seniors. 

[TiosecoParticipant]

The video above is a compilation of some of highlights throughout his whole highschool career so, he may seem shorter in some videos because he was still young. He really is 5’11. He’s my schoolmate and we are of the same height. I am 5’11 as well. Haha. And about your point about taller competition, I do agree that he’ll abviously have less effectiveness if he went up against taller players but, again, he did lead our U-18 team to a 5th place finish in the Fiba-Asia and was also named to the Mythical Five. (But it really sucks that we Filipinos are so damn short because we love basketball so much)

[iguapops420Participant]

 Damn, what ever happenede to Chen? I actually thought he had some decent potential. Most have never developed AT ALL.

[TiosecoParticipant]

The video above is a compilation of some of highlights throughout his whole highschool career so, he may seem shorter in some videos because he was still young. He really is 5’11. He’s my schoolmate and we are of the same height. I am 5’11 as well. Haha. And about your point about taller competition, I do agree that he’ll abviously have less effectiveness if he went up against taller players but, again, he did lead our U-18 team to a 5th place finish in the Fiba-Asia and was also named to the Mythical Five. (But it really sucks that we Filipinos are so damn short because we love basketball so much) 

[TiosecoParticipant]

One more thing, like what I said above, there were reports of several American colleges recruiting him for college – some of them D-I teams.  So yeah, just saying. 

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