European NBA Prospect Rankings: Winter 2016
2016 was quite the year for European basketball. A fantastic Euroleague finish saw Russia dominate headlines, with Lokomotiv Kuban making a shocking Final Four run and CSKA Moscow winning the title. A record 15 first-round picks in the 2016 NBA Draft were born abroad, with seven prospects drafted directly from European clubs. The summer saw a massive influx of European talent to the NBA, as Dragan Bender and Juancho Hernangomez, and other NBA Draft picks were joined by Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Dario Saric, and Davis Bertans from high-profile European clubs.
With so much talent headed out of Europe, the fear was that the 2016-2017 season wouldn’t be as successful. But with new formats for Euroleague and Eurocup, and a new continental tournament sponsored by FIBA, the 2016-2017 season has gotten out to a strong start. We’ve seen posters left and right. Milos Teodosic and CSKA Moscow are putting on a Spursian clinic in Euroleague. New potential NBA players, like Nicolo Melli and Will Clyburn, are stepping up in the place of guys like Saric and Malcolm Delaney. Anthony Randolph is doing things. And from a prospect perspective, guys like Ante Zizic and Luka Doncic are setting a pace few young European players have been able to do before them.
Since we like to cover European hoops from the lens of an NBA fan, we decided to end 2016 with a ranking of Europe’s best NBA prospects. A new group of young talent has shown its potential early on, and while the 2017 NBA Draft might not have the depth of international talent that 2016 did, there’s still plenty of scouting to do overseas. As we head into 2017, here are the fifteen best names to keep an eye on, ranked according to NBA readiness. You’ll see names here to keep an eye on for the 2017 Draft, the 2018 Draft, and draft-and-stash options that could be brought over in the summer.
Honorable mention: Rodions Kurucs, who’s injured; Jonathan Jeanne, who has immense potential but hasn’t cracked the senior team yet; Ilimane Diop, an NBA-level rim protector prospect who likely missed his draft window.