Fred Cervantez is a linguistics student at Cal State Long Beach who loves basketball and Pau Gasol. He’s also our European basketball correspondent. Every few months he’ll be giving us updates on the draft-and-stash prospects playing ball across the sea. You can follow him on Twitter dot com at@FMCervantez.
Since our last check in, the Euroleague, the pan-European competition that happens independent of domestic leagues and includes the best teams from throughout the continent, regular season has ended and the second of three phases, the Top 16 has begun.
At the start of the season, 24 teams are divided into four groups. Teams play each team in their group twice, making for 10 games. The top four teams in each group advance to the Top 16, which started on December 29th. The eliminated teams are regulated to the second tier Eurocup where they will compete for the rest of the season.
One of the biggest surprises of the regular season came from David Blatt’s former team, Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C. Maccabi competed in the quarter finals last year but failed to even get out of the regular season this year, going 4-6. There were also some serious concern that Real Madrid would fail to qualify after winning Euroleague, Liga ACB, and the Copa del Rey last season. Led by Gustavo Ayon’s 22 points, Madrid pulled off a must-win game against Bayern München to advance.
Let’s take a look at some of the NBA’s draft-and-stash picks that have moved on.
Draft and Stashed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_Z4-DpzIU
Fenerbahçe has come out of the Top 16 gates firing and remain the only team undefeated after three games. This is in no small part thanks to Bogdan Bogdanović (Rights: Phoenix Suns).
Bogdan is shooting at 62.5 percent from three over the last three games while grabbing three rebounds and dishing three assists. This brings his shooting percentage from three-point land throughout the season from up to 41.5 while taking 3.4 per game. His shooting is helping to open up the floor for what we’re all really watching for: Jan Veselý dunks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijmcg6yYM1o
Dario Šarić (Rights: Philadelphia 76ers) spotted up for the mid-range jumper against KK Crvena Zvezda for the win in the opener of the Top 16.
Cedi Osman (Rights: Cleveland Cavaliers) must have been happy to get out of the regular season, where he shot only 31.6% from two-point range and saw only 13 minutes per game. He is finally starting to show some signs of life in the Top 16, shooting 61 percent from the field and hitting four of his ten threes. He is also averaging five rebounds as opposed to his two in the regular season.
Šarić and Osman both play for Anadolu Efes, a team that has struggled with inconsistency this year despite having a top-flight team on paper. Perhaps a resurgent Cedi Osman can help them find that consistency as the Top 16 heats up.
Other notable draft-and-stash picks throughout the regular season and the Top 16:
Daniel Díez on Unicaja Malaga (Rights: Portland Trail Blazers): 18.31 minutes, 5.5 points, 3.5 rebounds on 51% shooting, 48.1% from beyond the arc.
Willy Hernangómez on Real Madrid (Rights: New York Knicks): 10.18 minutes, 3.9 points, 3.3 rebounds on 70% shooting.
Nikola Milutinov on Olympiacos (Rights: San Antonio Spurs): 11.10 minutes, 2.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, on 50% shooting.
The Future
9 of Top-42 prospects in DX Top100 (https://t.co/K23IlfIjSD) play outside US. Another 7 non-US born in NCAA. Could be banner year for int'ls
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) December 21, 2015
The above draftees are not the only ones that have caught the eyes of NBA fans during this Euroleague season. Draftexpress says that 2016 could be a banner year as with the inclusion of international players in the NCAA, 16 players in the DX top 42 are non-US born, with nine of those players currently playing outside of the NBA.
It will still be a year before we can even predict anything about the 2017 draft, but as of right now the Draftexpress 2017 Mock Draft includes 13 players born outside of the USA. A few are even already showing their skills in Euroleague..
A lot can change in just a few years. As such, I usually am weary of falling for any hype of a player 17 or younger. I will watch, I will make judgments, but I refrain from fan-boying.
That is, until Luka Dončić.
Born in 1999, Dončić is currently playing on Real Madrid. Most impressively, Dončić scored 12 points in just 13 minutes against the 11-2 CSKA Moscow. In the ACB he has hit on 55.8% of his 43 shots. There are definitely moments that he looks like a 16-year old, but many moments offensively where he shows skill. Not “skill for a 16- year old”, but legitimate skill. As in he can play some real minutes against grown men…. right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZFRa2ai5so
Currently, DraftExpress has Furkan Korkmaz, who plays alongside Šarić and Osman, as the 12th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Standing at 6’7, Korkmaz is an athletic scorer that also has knack for passing. He hasn’t seen many minutes in this Euroleague season, but in his nine minutes per game, he has gone 7-17 on his three-point attempts and is shooting 44.4 percent overall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02qSgAm5irs
The Top 16 continues until April 8th and the playoffs start on April 12th.