Enes Kanter will either fall or rise depending on the draft combine and team physicals. If doctors say that there is nothing structurally wrong with his knees and he compares well in skills tests as well, you could see him get in the top 5 easily. Bigs as skilled as he are hard to find. However, if the reports about his knees are true, then its very likely he falls far. Not Dejuan Blair far, but most likely 12 to 15 far. This would be best case if the Rockets could snag him and take a risk on an injury laden Center. In that case, would the Rockets really want to take a gamble on Kanter when someone like Vessely, or Donatas might be available??... I dont know, but if his game is that much more advanced than theirs then there he could definitely end up being a Rocket with a late 1st round pick.
Do you not realize that most of the European players that are drafted are not even among the best players their age in Europe? Every year most of the best European players in that age are not drafted and guys that are way down the list, way, way, way don the list are drafted. You don't actually think that the NBA and these scout sites actually watch and follow basketball all throughout Europe do you? What they do is they watch a very small number of players that go to work out camps. They might, possibly see a few Euroleague games a year, which would only account for the smallest number of players because most of them don't even play in Euroleague. Even then, the actual good Euroleague players never seem to even get drafted. And Draftexpress.com's scouting reports as they call them are basically made up from talking to the coach of the team and then looking at stats. They don't actually fly all over Europe and scout hundreds of individual players and then rate them. Americans can't seem to grasp how it works. It is not remotely similar to how college players in the US are scouted. One of the reasons there is so much hype about Rubio is because those sites and the NBA ONLY "scout" at those youth tournaments and workouts. So they went nuts when Rubio dominated at an age 16 tournament. They completely ignored that with his club team he is mediocre at best. They lack a proper sample size and then they lack the ability to be intelligent enough to see that dominated at an under 16 means nothing. Really, there were far better European point guards in recent years at age 18-20 than Rubio that were never even drafted. And much of this also is related to NBA marketing. You might not believe it, but it is a fact. The NBA is hugely obsessed with the money it gets from international markets. And so they greatly focus on selecting players from certain countries for marketing purposes. That is why Italy, France, Spain, Turkey - paces like that from Europe have so many draft picks. But there are countries like the former Yugoslav countries (especially Serbia) and Greece that are loaded with top talent players. They are hardly ever drafted. You have the best young point guard in the youth ages in Europe in Teodosic that was never even drafted. But Rubio, who is an average player was taken 5th. Simple. Spain brings in a market to the NBA, Serbia does not. You have the most elite players in their age group in Europe in Greece, guys like Pappas, Papanikolau, Sloukas that are not even in a mock list, yet Motiejunas is. Why? Because Lithuanians watch the NBA and Greeks don't. You have to realize that the NBA will draft guys like Jerebko and make them starters and they were not even a top prospect in Europe, nor even close to it. But they want a Swedish player. That is how it works. Sorry to burst your bubble if you actually thought the drafting of European players was actually based on how good they are.
Vesely is far more athletic than Kirilenko ever was. If Vesely was American he would be one of the 5-10 most hyped prospects of all time.
Europe is similar to college basketball in that not all of the players translate to the quicker, more explosive NBA. Many of the better players in Europe would not survive. There is a template that NBA scouts look for to find what players have the abilities that will carry over. Blake Griffin is lightyears ahead of Jan as far as power, athleticism, talent and explosiveness goes (As well as anything else basketball related). It makes me seriously question everything you have said in this thread. Some of the better european players don't get drafted to go to the NBA because, they would be ****ty NBA players.
Prove it. Show me one clip of video where Jan Vesely could be more hyped than a college Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or Michael Jordan? How about a Shaquille O'Neal or a highschool Lebron James? I doubt you can show me a video that would make Jan a more impressive prospect than the top 1000 prospects to ever come out in the NBA.
NBA teams miss college players that are playing in their own backyard, so I have no doubt that they've missed a few international prospects. Most international players that are drafted are extremely young and not the MVP's of their team by any stretch -- but scouts see the potential and ability to translate their games. Do I think NBA teams actually follow basketball in Europe? Uhhh... yup. It would be stupid not to. Not to say every NBA team, or any, has a scout for every team -- but the Rockets have an international scout that spends a lot of time evaluating overseas prospects. Jonathan Givony, the owner of DraftExpress, frequently travels to Europe to watch tournaments/matches. Further, Synergy provides access to overseas matchups for scouts in the US. They have every play logged into their system -- Morey could probably sit down and watch every Vesely game if he wanted to. I'm sure he has a scout on his team who has. Yes, Givony doesn't live in Europe. He probably misses most of the games except for the big tournaments (final four). But that doesn't mean he makes up stuff; they stream several games from Europe and as I've said already, Synergy host a number of them on their servers. Here's my point: If DraftExpress made up a scouting report, show me. Show me where DX's scouting report differed so much from what a real NBA scout saw. Unless I'm seeing this Euro guy in DX's top five and he doesn't go in the 1st round of the draft, I don't see how you can say he makes up stuff. He talks to several GMs and gets a feel for where players are projected to be drafted. LOL --- yeah, Americans are so stupid to not understand how it works. One of the reasons there was so much hype about Rubio was because of how he played on his team, his age, and how well he played against NBA competition in the Olympics. He hasn't developed as quickly as people though he would and suddenly people want to jump up and yell "I knew he sucked!!" That's funny. If I'm understanding you correctly, you're insinuating the NBA purposely doesn't draft NBA players from countries that do not have a big NBA viewership. As an American, and NBA fan, I can assure you that is not the case. My GM isn't passing on an incredible talent from Greece to get a "pipeline" with a certain country that watches the NBA more. That's not how it works. Is there politics involved with these recruits? Of course, you'll see that in every sport that has a draft. Agents will push for their players and some guys who aren't as well-represented will more fall by the wayside. But you can't hide talent -- if these kids have enough to be good in the NBA, they will be on someone's radar. You sound like one of those international fans who is still mad at JVG for not giving VSpan a 'fair shot'. The "best young point guard in the youth ages" is averaging: -35% from the field -31% from downtown -4 assist a game OMG!!!! WHY DID MOREY NOT FIND THIS GEM?!?! WHAT AN IDIOT!!! FIRE MOREY!!! This is hilarious. :grin:
Yeah . . . you've officially lost me. Seriously, dude, crank back the hyperbole a notch or twelve. It has quickly become very hard to take your (otherwise valued) opinion seriously.
Watch out guys there is a huge conspiracy in the NBA. You are foolish if you think NBA teams won't draft a player because he is from a certain country. Teams will draft the player that has the best chance to help the team win.
Completely untrue. First of all, the athletic level in Euroleague is far higher than NCAA. Second, the NBA drafts European players with almost zero athletic ability like Rubio at 5. Third, Vesely is at least as athletic as Griffin, and probably more. Fourth, there is no template as this fro European players and there is no such thing as "how does their game translate". That is just complete nonsense. The NBA never scouts in Europe so how would they have any such thing? They ONLY see a European player at a workout camp. You could be the best player in Europe by far and if you don't go to a private workout then the NBA knows absolutely nothing about you. NBA GM's that are interested in a European player might get a suggestion from their scout in Europe and MAYBE they MIGHT go to one game to see the guy play. You simply have no clue how the drafting of European players works. Sorry.
I'm just going to ignore you. I am not here to deal with xenophobic tirades. Anyone that wants to talk about players and not NBA marketing can ask me about the European prospects, but not NBA only fans.
I have no idea why I attempted to have an actual basketball conversation with you. Stick to Rockets games because you know nothing about anything else that is related to basketball.
All I see here is "Vesely is white co this can't be true". You probably don;t even consider Griffin half white, even though he is. Don't bring thinly veiled racism to me. Vesely is at least as athletic as Griffin and probably more so. I'm not going to call it any other way than the fact of the matter and I know exactly what it is when people make comments like that response. It is racism against white people, implying that a white guy could not be as athletic as a half black guy, even though is, if not even more so.
Exactly the response I expected, since OHMSS has no clue what he's talking about. But just for fun: Clueless. too funny. Translation: I have no comeback to your points, so uhh.. you're dumb! Yes, you've discovered the ClutchFans racist, BimaThug. Good work! Never mind that he was comparing two WHITE guys (AK & Jan) -- he must be racist!! Tell Vspan we said hello.
This made me laugh, and having a go at Bima of all people. I think we found DD's VSpan alter ego... BTW, Daryl Morey doesn't do ANY scouting in Europe! He just goes to the camp and looks around you know? :grin:
