Re: [外電] 選秀&教練新消息

[pennykidd (回到青蘋果的年代)]

Playoffs in Europe

Although the Final Four of the Euroleague is over with Panathinaikos Athens
reaching the European title, playoffs in national leagues are just starting
or even to be started. That means that the season for a bunch of prospects
for this year's draft is not over yet and if you have some time between
watching NBA playoff and discussing new coach and the draft, below is a short
summary of the players who are still in the game in Europe. As the cohort of
European players who might reach the NBA seems to be really weak this year
(with an exception of Rubio and Jennings being a top10 picks), I will limit
the story only to the players tha have been mentioned on this page recently,
i.e. on Rubio, Jennings, Llull, Casspi and Claver.



Ricky Rubio ended the regular season strongly, helping Joventut to fight for
the fourth place in the Spanish league and thus for having the home-court
advantage in already-sure duel with Real Madrid (Madrid won the final
regular-season game at Ricoh Madresa as well and secured the fourth place,
eventually). Rubio had 16 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 6 steals and 8
received fouls in 31 minutes, having one of his best performance this year.
He was also awarded as the second best pointguard of the Spanish league this
season (behind Pablo Prigioni) despite his injury-shortened season, however,
the award consisted of proportional voting from coaches, journalists,
players, but also public and he received much hype from public voting.

As I wrote, Joventut will play against Real Madrid in the first-round of the
playoff (eight teams advanced to the playoff). Real won both games this
season, however, Rubio missed the first game in November because of the
injury and in the second game, he recorded 15 points, 7 rebounds and 10
assists in 26 minutes. Real has good players at the pointguard position with
Raul Lopez (the third pg of Spanish roster at the Olympics) and Sergion Llull
(a secound-round prospect of this draft) plus couple of other fine players
such as Felipe Reyes (recent MVP of the Spanish league) and Alex Mumbru, both
having played at Olympics for Spain.

The schedule is now on and they will play (in the best-of-three series) on
May 16,18 and possible 23.

***

Sergio Llull will play against Rubio in the series for Madrid. I wrote a
short comment on him here and have very little to add to that. He used to
play a good amount of time for Real Madrid recently (20-30 minutes per
night), coming from the bench behind Raul Lopez, often however playing along
with him with Real playing two pointguards. He still preserves his efficient
game (good A/TO ratio - 2.26 in the Spanish league, 2.80 in the EuroLeague),
but it seems to be more the result of his careful and risk-free
decision-making and the presence of other players who are offensice leaders
of the team. Under 5 assists per 40 minutes (even under the European rules)
is really not that much. Moreover, unlike Calderon, for example, Llull is not
that particularly good shooter with the season average under 40% for three
(although with a good efficiency for two - he is a fragile but good and
athletic finisher - still not enough for the NBA, I guess). He is propsoed as
an early second-round pick, but (despite being unable to compare him to US
college players) I doubt he is worth that much, especially being almost 21
years old already. Maybe his status of European player and the possibility
that he could develop and come to the NBA later might give him some pros, but
not necessarily with as high second-rounder as Kings have...

***

The third prospect playing in Spain is Victor Claver, playing for Regasa
Valencia who finished seventh in the regular season and will have tough times
playing against FC Barcelona in the first round of the playoff.

Because of the leg-fracture, Claver missed most of the season from late
December to the middle of April and this makes his assessment a bit
uncertain. He was actually considered to be the second-best prospect from
Spain and a possible first-round pick. Despite poor bal-handling, Claver is a
very good shooter (unable to create his own shot) and a very good and
athletic finisher (again, not a good penetrator on his own because of his
ball-handling, hence, too few free-throw attempts), somehow stuck between SF
and PF (actually a SF with bad ball-handling, he is a solid rebounder also).
His height is recently listed around 6'10'', or 208 cm being 20 years old (21
in September).

Claver declared himself for the draft but said the he would probably decide
after the season will be over, which means that his performance in the
playoff (probably just two or three games considering the strength of
Barcelona) will be crucial. He played only five games since November with the
total of 68 minutes and might be considered a risk now, especially for the
position in the draft he was expected to reach before the injury. I have not
managed to see him since his return in April and it would be wuite
interesting to see what progress he is doing. Especially against Barcelona
with a bunch of talented forwards such as Ersan Ilyasova (who has improved a
lot and might be heading back to the NBA), David Andersen or even Fran
Vasquez.

The schedule for the series is 17, 19 and possibly 24 May.

***

Brandon Jennings and his Lottomatica Roma have comfortably secured the second
place after the regular season in Italy with 20 wins and 10 losses
(Montepaschi Siena won the regular season with 29 wins and just one loss -
not from Lottomatica). They will play against Angelico Biella in the first
round of the playoff which is (unless I'm wrong) played in the best-of-five
format with games scheduled on 14, 16, 18 and possibly 20 and 22 May.

Much has been written about the development of Jennings recently, especially
about his im/maturity and mental development. Draftexpress gives a
statistical break-down of his play which is quite interesting. In last eleven
games of the season, Jennings has not managed to score at least ten points,
on the other hand he has a pretty impressive numbers in steals (2.1 per game
in 17minutes per game) and his assists ratio (2.3 or 5.3 per 40 minutes) is
the 23th best in the Italian league. On the other hand, his stats in the
EuroLeague had been a bit better. His still struggles with his outside shot,
though. I think the rest (athleticism, mental awareness etc.) is a good part
of any discussion about Jennings and it makes no sense to include it here.

***

Finally, Omri Casspi is another early second-round prospect from Europe. 20
years old and 6'8'' tall, Casspi is known for a good movement and mobility,
solid body for a SF, basketball IQ and especially energy and toughness he
brings to the game. He played an important role for a traditionally strong
Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the Euroleague.On the other hand, his basketball-skills
and especially ball-related are a bit questioned.

The play-off in Israel has already begun but it is a bit less dramatic event
than in Spain or Italy, probably. Maccabi have actually won the Israeli title
47 times in 54 years including 14 times in the last 15 years. On the other
hand, they lost in the finals last year to Hapoel Holon (by one point).
Maccabi (led by Carlos Arroyo) defeated Ashkelon in the first round in four
games (best-of-three series) with Casspi averaging solid 15 points and almost
6 rebounds per game.

The play-off in Israel now advances to the final four which starts (I think)
on 21 May.

***

Finally, there was a mention in one of the threads about how many games per
season a player plays in Europe. I took a look at Rubio's last season and it
seems that he played 16 games in the ULEB cup (the second best international
European competition), 34 games in the regular season in Spain and 5 in the
play-off, and 3 games in the Copa del Rey (a 'final eight' style additional
competition in Spain for the best eight teams). That makes 58 official games
plus Olympics and some pre-season games. I am not sure what an average number
for a college player might be, but 58 games (despite playing only like 20-25
minutes per night) is a pretty solid for a 17-years old boy (and Joventut won
two of the three aforementioned competitions that year).


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→ pennykidd:Casspi跟Claver有種Hedo/Peja的感覺 Casspi感覺比較硬比
→ pennykidd:較全面 Claver感覺是比較有天賦但球路受限於持球能力像
→ pennykidd:體能更好的Peja但是Csaapi的球路感覺成熟度較高紮實全面
推 eliczone:Casspi不賴
推 tahikuro:Casspi我不明白他的評價這麼高的原因 他的潛力在外籍球員
→ tahikuro:算是低的  個人看法他的NBA前景受到很大的高估
→ tahikuro:Casspi好像全面 但是他在NBA屬於樣樣通樣樣鬆 沒有一項
→ tahikuro:真正可能相信的特質 另外他也快定型了 提昇空間不大
→ tahikuro:他其實只有6"6 身材以外籍球員來說沒有任何優勢
推 RonArtest93:Llull有說要選嗎?  名單上沒有他啊
推 hunight:Llull是1987的
→ tahikuro:Llull不用選 他已經自動得到選秀資格