Name: Nikola Mirotic
Born: Montenegro
Country: Spain
Club: Real Madrid
Position: PF
Height: 6’9” (2.09 meters)
Age: 20 (born in February 1991)

As a Bulls fan, I’m happy the NBA Draft happened when it did; back then, people had lots of question marks surrounding Mirotic as to whether he was ready, if he was a complete player, if he needed time to develop, if he could come in and contribute in two to three seasons’ worth of time when he’s ready… If the draft were held today, Nikola would be a lottery pick.

Why?

For those of who you who missed it, Mirotic completely dominated the recent FIBA U20 European Championship Division A, leading Spain to a gold medal on its home soil; he did so by averaging 27 points per outing to go along with 10 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 assists. He shot 59.5% from the field including 63.4% inside the arc and 40% on threes. His 85.1% from the charity stripe was the second-best percentage in the tournament and his ability to get to the line was unmatched, a trait that should carry over to the NBA.

For a guy his size, I’m quite impressed with the above shooting percentages; 63.4% on two-point field goal percentage is very solid and his 40% is nothing to laugh about — it’s not like he went 4-of-10: He made 10-of-25 long balls in the tournament and against Ukraine he managed a 4-for-4 performance. His 85.1% from the line including three games of 100%, including the final in which he nailed all eight free throws attempted against Italy, was nothing short of extremely impressive.

Mirotic’s rebounding numbers are also pretty promising with a total of 10 per game; broken down into 3.3 offensive and 6.4 defensive boards for a Bulls squad that loves suffocating opponents on the glass, he will complement the team’s current rebounders well.

I find it hard to see any negatives in his game, as his 1.6 turnovers don’t send off any signals of poor hands and his 1.8 personal fouls per game show that he isn’t trying to swat every single shot into the bleachers.

The fact that the Bulls can either allow him to develop in Europe for another one, two or even three seasons means that if and when Taj Gibson’s contract is up and they can’t afford to bring him back (thanks to Carlos Boozer’s fat contract), then Mirotic will be able to come in and contribute. The other bonus for Chicago is that they can bring him in right now: While he would play limited minutes because of Boozer, Gibson, Joakim Noah and Omer Asik, if needed, Mirotic is ready.

Whenever the NBA lockout ends, the Bulls will be competitive in 2011-12 — maybe even the year they win a championship; if Nikola can come in and contribute to this team and grab a championship in his rookie season then great, if not then he can do it next year or the year after. With how talented Mirotic is and how talented this Chicago Bulls team is, an NBA Championship is something Nikola can someday add to his U20 FIBA European Championship.

Sam Chadwick is a university student, part-time sportswriter and a coach in the Solent Kestrels organization.

Sam Chadwick is a university student, part-time sportswriter and a coach in the Solent Kestrels organization.

Official FIBA Europe writeup and highlights follow the break.

(FIBA Europe) – A unique performance for Spain bestowed them their first ever gold medal in the U20 European Championship after an 82-70 victory over Italy in the grand final on Sunday night in Bilbao, Spain.

This is the first time ever Spain won the gold medal in this age group, but the victory representing their ninth medal in total – more than any other team. A journey that started with a 49-point win over Turkey on opening night finished with a combined margin of +39 in the semifinal and title games.

Spain, the second team ever to lift the trophy in front of their fans, won two-thirds of their games by a double-digit margin and became only the second team ever to win all the games in the championship.
Italy put up a fight for the first half but couldn’t match up for 40 minutes with the Spanish machine; however, this is the best campaign for Italy since 1994, when they last won the silver medal.

Nikola Mirotic, the announced MVP of the tournament, was everywhere once again and made a huge difference in favor of his team, as he did on every night of this championship. In the final, Mirotic tallied yet another double-double, his sixth in the competition, reaching 29 points and 11 rebounds.

Spain missed their second best scorer in Joan Sastre, who got injured after one minute and didn’t return to the floor. His absence makes the double-digit win even more impressive.

Josep Franch stepped up to take over Sastre’s points and finished with a tournament high of 19 points, just in the right time, next to seven assists and five rebounds. Alejandro Barrera added 10 points.

Team Italy was led by Alessandro Gentile, who finished with only 14 points after a streak of four games with more than 20. Riccardo Moraschini tried to fill his spot and scored 17 points, that weren’t enough. Andrea De Nicolao led Italy’s last comeback attempt in the closing quarter and finished with 11 points and nine boards.

Mirotic scored the first points of the night, but Gentile was aggressive from the start and probably a bit too much while fighting with Sastre for position he injured the Spanish guard that had to leave the floor for medical treatment.

Mirotic continued to score while Riccardo Cervi was a force of Italy’s defense and Melli active on offense to reach six points, giving Italy an 11-8 lead.

Gentile with a steal and strong dunk forced Spain to take a timeout when down by five points, but saw Spain reply quickly and force a 15-15 tie with one minute to go in the first quarter. Mirotic got some rest and saw from the bench how Barrera slash to the rim with force and put Spain back on top before the first buzzer, 17-16.

Moraschini with great penetration and Filippo Baldi Rossi with five quick points put Italy back on top, yet not for long and six points in a row capped by a reverse lay-up by Mirotic forced Italy to call a timeout. Moraschini with a steal and another power dunk tied the score but Mirotic reached 12 points to keep Italy behind once more.

Jose Gil with great hustle and a big dunk was followed by Mirotic, who stole the ball and finished quickly to give Spain a 32-29 lead with a bit over four minutes to play.

Gentile forced a three pointer that went out only to witness Mirotic hitting from same distance at the other side, giving Spain a six-point lead and sending Italy to talk about it once again, before the hosts went too far. The sides then exchanged three pointers, but Spain had more fire as Mirotic set the gap on 40-32 inside the last two minutes of the half.

Achille Polonara with a huge block saved Italy from a double-digit deficit, but missed at the other end and saw Franch push it to a 42-32 game. Gentile with three hits in a row from the foul line set the half time score on 42-35, still wide open for the second half.

The Italian sharpshooter opened the second half with a three pointer but saw Albreto Jodar and Joan Tomas pay with the same bill to make it a 10-point game again at 50-40. Franch, with his familiar slash and dunk, set the house on fire but Polonara with a followup dunk kept Italy in the game, 54-46, after four minutes in the third.

Melli got in foul trouble with four, while Jose Simeon had to leave the court with a foot injury, and it seemed like trouble time for Spain but answered with five points in a row that set the gap to a new high, 59-48, and Italy quickly called a timeout. Yet that didn’t make a big difference, as Spain had already reached a 15-point lead and finished the third quarter up 68-55.

If Italy had any plans to come back, the Spanish scorer had a message to deliver and with an off dribble fallaway three-pointer, he beat the buzzer to make it a 72-55 advantage.

De Nicolao, with pressure on the ball and great plays on offense, led Italy to score nine points in a row and set the score on 72-64, but it wasn’t over yet; Melli’s three-point shot made a long trip on the rim but fell out and stopped the Italy’s momentum.

It was none other than Mirotic who broke the drought and with four points put Spain in a safe place inside the last 2:30 minutes. Melli missed another chance while Franch in another aggressive slash set the gap at 14, 78-64, which put an end to Italy’s aspirations.

Mirotic was called to the bench to earn his standing ovation as the celebrations on the floor and in the stands started.

• The biggest audience in North America for the final game may be in Toronto, as the Raptor Nation considers their first-round draft choice Jonas Valanciunas; FIBA’s official website asks what may be a theoretical question: “How do you stop Valanciunas?” The Lithuanian has averaged tournament highs at 21.4 points (second-best is Team Croatia’s Boris Barac with 19.0), 14.6 rebounds (topping Assem Ahmed of Egypt’s 12.2), and 3.2 blocks (topping the 2.9 logged by Lucas Nogueira of Brazil) per game. The duties today will be handed to Nemanja Besovic, to whom BiE wishes best of luck.

• And just to tease Raps fans a bit more, here’s perhaps the highlight of the tournament turned it by anyone: Valanciunas finishing a monster alley oop amidst his ridiculous 26-point, 24-rebound, five-block performance against Poland.

• Serbia’s big gun is clearly last season’s Euroleague wunderkind Bogdan Bogdanovic, who finally broke out after playing sparingly for most of the tourney to go for 25 points and eight rebounds in 35 minutes in the 76-71 semifinal win over Argentina. Below is Bogdanovic’s post-game interview especially for anyone who thinks he doesn’t speak English…

• These two squads met previously for an international title in the 2008 FIBA Europe U20s final, with Serbia besting Lithuanian behind Miroslav Raduljica and Marko Keselj.

• In this tournament, however, Team Lithuania got the better of the Serbs with a decisive 71-54 victory in game four.

• On a bit of a tangent, the greatest highlight-reel producer in the tournament was probably Patric Young of Team USA, which was beaten by Croatia and Russia along the way to its fifth-place game matchup against Australia. American media blames a lack of star power for the Yanks’ relatively poor finish, but you’d never knowing it watch the University of Florida Gator go to work here.

• The final begins at 8.15pm CET (2.15pm EST). You can watch live online here; a day pass to FIBA TV is €7.99.

For the second consecutive year France and Greece met in the decisive match of this tournament and, despite a complete roster makeover, Les Bleus also handed the Greeks their only loss in the competition for the second year running.

The team dedicated the win and the tournament to former teammate Jonathan Bourhis, who in September was killed in a car accident.

Team France wasn’t particularly well-esteemed going into the U20s tournament, starting the competition without big man Jeoffrey Lauvergne and bringing in an entirely new bunch to transform the squad that finished second in 2009, but any lack of height was made up by the dominant backcourt of Paul Lecombe and Andrew Albicy, the latter of which deservedly took the tournament MVP award.

Highlights and official FIBA writeup follows the break.

(Paul Nilsen, FIBA Europe) – France were crowned champions of the U20 European Championship Men 2010 in Croatia thanks to a 73-62 victory against Greece and amidst scenes of high emotion after the final buzzer, the tears flowed freely as the team immediately dedicated their gold medal success to former teammate Jonathan Bourhis who died tragically in a car accident last year.

Epitomizing the very essence of teamwork, Les Bleus surprised everyone with a swashbuckling first half-performance and a 20-0 run that blew reigning champions Greece out of the water and left them with a mountain they couldn’t climb.

Last year’s gold medalists struggled to come to terms with the athleticism and relentless French defence that made life particularly difficult for the likes of Kostas Papanikolaou; Panaikolaou found his usual options severely limited and this proved to be a big factor.

Not as big a factor, however, as the leadership of the fantastic Andrew Albicy: The point guard again led his team superbly well and finished with 20 points on the way to a thoroughly deserved winners medal.

Just as important was the rejuvenated perimeter shooting of France. Having not been able to get anything to drop in Makarska, their love of lighting it up from the perimeter inside the Kresimir Cosic Hall continued and Les Bleus just kept on knocking down their shots.

Without any truly established stars, France just continued to work together to squeeze every last drop from their main strength. The incessant chanting of defence coming from the French bench on each possession throughout the tournament was a constant reminder of their solid backbone.

Behind 6-4 midway through the opening period, France ripped the game open in spectacular fashion and stormed out to a 24-6 lead. As hard as Greece tried, they couldn’t overhaul the deficit.

During the final few minutes of the game, the French wobbled briefly and nerves began to jangle when Greece cut the margin to five points at 63-58 with two minutes to go: But France is a team that relies on solid fundamentals and perhaps rather aptly, they made 17 of 17 free throws.

For a champion team like Greece, the loss was tough to take, and this latest “golden generation” suddenly had to somehow settle for silver. For many of their class players so used to success, the final result was difficult to take: This certainly wasn’t the farewell to Youth basketball they’d been anticipating.

After all, this was Greece’s only defeat in the entire tournament – but oh boy, was it a critical one.

France got past Spain 86-83 in yesterday’s thriller in Croatia, while the host nation’s team lost to the Greeks a bit earlier, 71-56.

Team France gave its U20 roster a 100% makeover, completely regenerating a roster that last year boasted the likes of Kevin Seraphin, Antoine Diot and Thomas Heurtel. No matter: La Republique found plenty of talent kicking around in the country and assembled a quick, fun squad for the 2010 FIBA tourney.

Above all, the super backcourt tandem of Paul Lecombe and Andrew Albicy is leading the way for Les Bleus. Each is scoring 11.4 points per game, but the latter in particular is becoming the individual talk of the tournament: The diminutive 1.77-meter (5’9½”) tall point guard has been tout partout in this tournament with 6.1 assists and an insane 3.3 steals per through eight games thus far.

Though he’s shooting a tad too often for as cold as he’s been – Albicy is just 28-for-81 (34.6%) in overall shooting – this lad shows much promise, and perhaps someday we’ll reminisce about the 2010 U20s as the international breakout of another French star.

On the other side, Team Greece reestablished its form in taking care of business yesterday. After surviving consecutive hair-raising games against Lithuania, Montenegro and Serbia, Greece dominated Russia before taking care of Team Croatia for a bid at the championship.

Team Greece is bringing one seriously talented bunch into the championship: As a *team* they’re making 52.1% and 35.0% on twos and threes, respectively. In fact, if you subtract the current cold-shooting Leonidas Kaselakis (just 24-of-73 overall including 5-of-20 from long range), Greece is connecting at an incredible 50.9% rate.

Nikolaos Pappas, Konstantinos Papanikolaou, and Konstantinos Sloukas are the double-digit scorers for Team Hellas – all three are part of “Greece’s already-storied 1989-90 generation” which led them to the 90-85 championship win and an 8-1 run in the 2009 tournament.

Of course, that one loss last year was to … you guessed it: Team France.

The FIBA U20 European Championship Men 2010 championship tips off at 9.15pm CET (3.15pm EST). Croatia plays Spain in the third-place game at 7pm CET; Russia vs. Montenegro for fifth-place starts at 4.45pm CET; and Serbia meets Ukraine for the no. 7 spot at 2.30pm CET.

Also going on today are games pitting Turkey against the Czech Republic and the Netherlands versus Germany. Czech Republic will be relegated to “Division B status for next year’s tournament and one of these other three teams will be joining them.

At the FIBA U17 World Championship tournament in Germany, Team USA and Team Poland have dominated the competition, each putting together a streak of seven consecutive wins and so fittingly will meet in today’s championship game.

The main force for Poland thus far has been generously-named 6’11” center Przemyslaw Marcin Karnowski, who’s gone for an average double-double of 16.1 points and 11.7 rebounds plus an even two blocks per game in this tournament. Deadshot guard Mateusz Ponitka leads Poland’s scoring attack (the team is averaging 84 points per U17 game and winning by an average margin of 19 points, twice scoring 100) at just under 20 ppg on incredible 62.7% two-point field goal shooting.

Ponitka deadly in U17s for Poland

Pontika and Karnowski are each no. 2 overall for the tournament in the scoring and rebounding categories, and according to eyewitnessing European Prospects, the multifaceted Team Lithuania could still find no answer to Poland’s inside-outside attack.

Notables among the Team USA squad thus far include Michael Gilchrist, Bradley Beal (who has committed to Chaminade) and UNC-bound James McAdoo, the team’s double-digit average scorers. Gilchrist and McAdoo have helped form a sick frontcourt for the Americans, combining for 28.3 points and 15.0 rebounds per. Along with his 18.1 ppg, Beal’s also contributing 2.1 assists and nearly 2.5 steals per game to lead the tournament in the latter category. Plus, Quinn Cook and future Kentucky Wildcat Marquis Teague and first and third among tourney statistical leaders in assists at 6.9 and 5.7, respectively.

Though Team USA is a heavy favorite going into the finals, only one thing is certain about the championship game: It will be high-scoring for sure. The Red-White-and-Blue have only *not* topped 100 once during the 2010 U17 World Championship and that was in game one; they’ve won by an average margin of 35, though to be fair Poland has shown itself to potentially serve as the best competition Team USA has met thus far.

Promised Team Poland assistant coach Gerzegorz Zielinski when asked about his team’s game plan: “We will seek appropriate tactic[s], but we will not tell you. We think that the USA coach also reads the [FIBA news]. We can promise it will be a very good game and we invite you all to it.”

The FIBA U17 World Championship final tips off today in Hamburg at 4pm CET. You can watch the game via stream on FIBA.tv for €4.

In Croatia, three pool-round games have been played among the 16 teams vying to become the FIBA U20 European champion. Greece and France are the only squads to have gone 3-0 this week, the latter most recently edging Russia for a 60-59 victory to top the group.

The expected power of this tournament, Team Serbia, is again sharing the lead at 2-1 atop Group B after thoroughly beating up on Lithuania with all stars (Dejan Musli, Andreja Milutinovic, Nemanja Nedovic, Nemanja Jaramaz) shining brightly. Team Spain is shrugging off its slow start to reclaim top dog status in Group D, as yesterday they managed to overcome hosts Croatia in a 64-59 dogfight.

Pool play in the FIBA U20 European Championship continues tomorrow beginning at 4.45pm CET and runs through Wednesday. Knockout stages begin Friday.

The fans’ wishes are BallinEurope’s command, so here’s the book (and the YouTube) on Monsieur Sy; apologies for allowing the Pape to fly so far under the BiE radar. As we run down his résumé, however, the reasons why may become evident.

His vital stats put Sy at 22 years old and at a height of 190 centimeters (6’7”). He played the two and three spots for STB Le Havre in France’s Pro A this season and Sy’s been with the club for his entire pro career of six seasons.

This season for Le Havre, Sy went just a sliver better than 50% in overall shooting, going 47-of-93 in 30 games played, including 41% on threes. He averaged under 5.2 points, just over 1.0 assists and about 14 minutes per game.

In terms of recent international play, Sy was a member of the ninth-place Team France squad at last summer’s 2009 U20 European Championship Men. Though Sy appeared in every game, he ended up just 10th in minutes played for Team France, grabbing bench time behind the likes of Marc Judith.

Bringing so relatively little to the table in terms of curriculum vitae (seriously, did anyone project this guy anywhere in any mock draft?) makes one wonder why the Hawks took the plunge with Sy; Associated Press reportage on the no. 53 selection noted that “Sy won over Hawks officials by paying his way for workouts in Atlanta.”

(That sound you heard was thousands of Hawks fans dropping to their knees to pray the 2009-10 isn’t as tragic as recent years’ crops…)

Those of you who’d prefer to accentuate the positive of M. Sy’s prospective NBA career can take some solace in fantasy basketball website Rotoworld’s clever reminder that “the last time [the Hawks] had a 6’7” forward from France (Dominique Wilkins), it worked out just fine.”

Aaaaand that’s about it at present; seriously, just check out what the excellent factmongers over at NBAdraft.net have on the man, for example. If you’d like to know more, perhaps you can friend ol’ Pape Sy on Facebook. (Turns out he’s a fan of “Omar et Fred,” Chris Paul, and … hey, Nando De Colo is a friend of his!)

Bogdanovic was last seen playing for Team Croatia in the FIBA U20 European Championship Men, where he averaged 17.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. He spent most of the 2008-09 season with Real Madrid’s second team; Bogdanovic has called Spain home since 2006, when he first signed with Madrid after spending much of the 2005-06 on loan to the team from HKK Zrinjski Mostar. Welcome back to Croatia, Mr. Bogdanovic!

When asked about the prospect of entering the NBA Draft, Motiejunas said in part:

In Lithuania, they are all talking about that. But [...] I’m concentrating on the European Championship. And about teams where I will play next season, nobody knows because I don’t know either. I’m waiting for after this tournament. Then I will go back home and decide where I will play next season. And all Lithuanian journalists are waiting, writing that Donatas will do this or that. For me it’s silly. I’m sitting right here, I’m playing with the team. And they’re writing that I’m rejecting some offer from Zalgiris or some other team. It’s ridiculous.

The full interview with Donatas Motiejunas may be read at heinnews.com.