BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Barcelona’s future: Alex Abrines, Mario Hezonja, Marko Todorović

At just 17 years old and despite missing the entire 2011-12 regular season, Hezonja finally got a taste of the action in Barça’s 78-48 laugher over Beşiktaş in Turkey last Friday night. His Euroleague debut stat line read five points, two rebounds and one steal in a few ticks under 12 minutes of play.

Hezonja again did not play in Spain this weekend, unlisted on the roster for Barca’s 81-64 win over Cajasol in Liga Endesa play; the 12th-man spot was filled by 20-year-old Todorović of Montenegro. In the Beşiktaş game, Todorović’s 12 minutes of court time was the most he’s gotten all season and the national teamer was good for four points, four rebounds and two blocks.

Potentially the nucleus of a shiny new Barca frontcourt? Continue Reading…

Sports media and the blogosphere blew up a couple days ago, as the possibility of adding a third round to the NBA draft was reported to have been discussed as part of the ongoing labor negotiations. By day’s end Wednesday, some had publicly opined that this idea could be the “Best Thing To Come From [the] Lockout.”

Below, BallinEurope UK guy Sam Chadwick takes a look at some of the pros and cons – or rather the Massive Benefits and Consequences of an NBA Draft round three – vis-à-vis European basketball. Plus, there’s some stuff about Darko Milicic.

So how many rounds is too many? The current NBA Draft has two rounds, two picks per team with a total of 60 players making the grade to join the world’s most elite league.

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One of last year’s projected top five selections in the NBA Draft has declared instead for the 2011 edition of the world’s biggest hoops talent lottery: Big man Donatas Motiejunas deferred in 2010 because “really felt like he needed another year of international ball before he was ready for the NBA” … so how has one more go-around with Benetton Treviso enhanced his chances in the American league?

Approximately one year ago, the following was BallinEurope’s take on Motiejunas, in part.

Strengths: Donatas is a highly touted, talented centre coming out of Benetton Treviso (the same team that produced NBA draftees such as Toni Kukoc, Jorge Garbajosa and Andrea Bargnani) and is a shooting centre with range all the way out to the 3-point line and can hit it from almost anywhere, as well as this he has a good dribble-drive and can finish with either hand, resulting in him being exceptionally hard to guard…

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America’s National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame has announced its inductees for 2011, well representing basketball with an NBA executive, a college notable and one of the most significant figures ever in Maccabi Tel Aviv history.

In the spirit of “last shall be first,” BallinEurope first congratulates Talbot “Tal” Brody. After his senior, All-America year with University of Illinois in 1964-65, Brody was chosen by the Baltimore Bullets as the no. 12 overall pick in the ‘65 NBA draft – but he forewent the opportunity to play ball in the big league, instead preferring to finish a graduate degree (imagine that happening today).

For the 1966-67 season, Brody began his career with Maccabi; the team immediately ascended to the European Champions Cup final four round with Brody starting at no. 2. Military commitments returned Brody to the ‘States for a couple of years and the SG played with the fifth-placing Team USA at the 1970 FIBA World Championship.

Returning to Israel for good for the 1970-71 season, Brody was soon made immortal in Israel sports history by guiding Tel Aviv to the European Champions Cup in 1977, part of the franchise’s first triple-crown season and the country’s first major sports championship. His post-game comments preserved a spot in history proper when he declared, in the face of certain geopolitical pressure from the Soviet Union throughout the competition with specific reference to Israel, the Cup victory to signify that “We are on the map, and we are staying on the map – not only in sports but in everything.”

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As BallinEurope closes the book on the 2009-10 basketball season, it’s time to take stock of the year that was with the clarity of history. Without further ado, let’s retrospect on the top 10 Eurocentric basketball stories of the season.

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An early “Welcome to Europe!” goes out this morning to All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference guard Rico Pickett, who yesterday announced that he’d be foregoing his senior year at Manhattan College to test his fortunes on The Continent for a season – this less than two months after announcing he’d be entering the NBA Draft.

The Rivals scouting report on the Decatur, Alabama-born guard praises his “very nice combination of size and athleticism at the point guard position,” stating that “Pickett is an unselfish setup man with good court vision. Good with either hand on the drive and [on] the finish, he can score both at the basket and from the outside. He does tend to force things to the rim when he gets in the lane, though, and has plenty of room to improve as a defender.”

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Another European player has announced his intention to enter the NBA Draft … the 2011 NBA Draft, that is.

Team Germany/Brose Baskets Bamberg big man Tibor Pleiss, the 2009-10 Bundesliga Rookie of the Year, recently informed German press that he’d like to play one more year in Europe before seeking to fulfill his dream in the NBA.

Said Pleiss to German-language Sport1 (translation courtesy Germany-based heinnews), “The NBA of course is a dream and I would definitely like to achieve this goal. [...] everything I have wanted to happen has happened. I will certainly stay in Bamberg one more year and prepare for the future. I still want to continue to improve to reach an NBA level.”

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BallinEurope today presents round two of our 2010 NBA Draft mockup; there’s a pleasing European accent to the list, with the big Belarusian Artsiom Parakhouski figuring to go in this round (see to whom in this projection and quiver) and the tantalizing possibility of Kevin Seraphin potentially becoming the 12th French player in the NBA.

And then there’s Ryan Richards. Much to the chagrin of BiE’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, Richards seems personally hellbent on proving wrong those who, ahem, assessed him as just another European designed to waste away on NBA benches.

In any event, we present the official BallinEurope 2010 NBA mock draft 2.0 round two below. Round one can be found here.

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Now that the order for the 2010 NBA Draft has been officially settled, BallinEurope’s man in the U.K., Sam Chadwick, revisits his mock draft of last week with updated prognostications for the first 30 choices.

Prospective European draftees in Donatas Motiejunas and Miroslav Raduljica haven’t budged on Sam’s chart and much of the lower half remains the same, but new BiE favorite Nemanja Bjelica manages to sneak into the first round. And the inevitable shakeups in the top 10 keep things interesting as ever. And the BallinEurope crystal ball says…

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Courtesy of the Everyone Else Is Doing It So Why Don’t We Department comes the official BallinEurope mock NBA draft for 2010. Our man in the UK, Sam Chadwick looks into his metaphorical crystal ball to see how the American clubs might be thinking on draft day. BiE will be running official mock draft 2.0 next week, once the chaos theory of the pingpong balls has taken effect.

1. New Jersey Nets: John Wall (6’4”, PG, Kentucky, Freshman). This will be the easiest pick of this year draft and is clearly everybody’s no. 1 pick no matter who wins the lottery. If the Nets drop to second, I’d suggest Evan Turner or Wesley Johnson at three or four, as they already have enough bigs.

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