The EuroCamp kicks off on Saturday in Treviso, Italy, and DraftExpress will be out covering the event for the 7th straight year.
Following the acquisition of Reebok in 2005, the EuroCamp will now be run by adidas for the first time, and with it we find a slick new website and an increased focus on promoting adidas athletes at the camp, such as Rodney Stuckey and Nicolas Batum.
adidas Basketball is very excited to partner with such a great event. Eurocamp has become a cant miss event for NBA and European scouts, said Jim Gatto, adidas Head of Basketball Sports Marketing. adidas looks forward to playing a significant role in the development of the top international players in the world.
The camp will be conducted from June 5th to 7th at the La Ghirada Sports Complex in Treviso, and will be held under the watchful eyes of representatives of all 30 NBA teams and all the most influential members of the European basketball community.
One of the most appealing aspects of the Eurocamp as far as NBA teams are concerned is the fact that it acts as a one-stop shop for International prospect scouting, saving an incredible amount of time and money for executives that otherwise would have to trek around Europe for months to see each of the players individually.
Instead, they are neatly assembled here in a very convenient setting, allowing us the chance to evaluate their skill-sets in numerous drills on a daily basis, as well as in five on five scrimmageswhich is a valuable thing considering that the competitive aspect of the NBA Pre-Draft Camp has been eliminated.
The EuroCamp will also host two influential guest speakers: 3-Time NBA All-Star and international pioneer Detlef Schrempf, as well as Benetton Treviso head coach Jasmine Repesa, who coached Brandon Jennings in Rome last season.
An added benefit will be the presence of the Croatian and French U?20 national teams playing head to head, which will give scouts a chance to see another large chunk of prospects that they otherwise would have had to go out of their way for.
In terms of the camp itself, 49 prospects have already been confirmed, with a few more potentially on their way pending the results of their teams domestic league playoff campaigns.
The Roster
NBA Draft 2010 Early Entries
Robin Benzing 610 SF/PF
Thomas Heurtel 62 G
Edwin Jackson 63 G
Xavi Rabaseda 67 SG/SF
Semen Shashkov 68 SF
Stefan Bircevic 610 PF
Tomasz Nowakowski 610 PF
Mindaugas Kuzminskas 69 PF
Bangaly Fofana 70 C
Uros Lukovic 70 C
Sarra Camara 69 PF/C
Miralem Halilovic 69 PF
NBA Draft Eligible (players born in 1988)
Miroslav Raduljica 70 C
Oleksandr Kolchenko 66 SG/SF
Jonathan Tavernari 66 SF
Ludovic Vaty 69 PF
Vladimir Dasic 610 SF/PF
Titus Nicoara 67 F
Daniel Clark 611 PF/C
Lucas Alves 69 PF
Pietro Aradori 64 SG
Rolands Freimanis 610 PF
Abdoulaye Mbaye 61 PG
Next Generation
Tomas Satoransky 65 G
Nikos Pappas 65 G
Josep Franch 66 SF
Janis Strelnieks 63 PG
Matias Nocedal 64 G
Andreas Person 62 PG
Nihad Djedovic 65 G
Dairis Bertans 64 G
David Jelinek 65 G
Sead Sehovic 67 SG/SF
Filip Covic 511 PG
Meng Duo 64 SG
Can Ozcan 67 F
Orhan Haciyeva 67 PF
Lynos Chrisikopoulos 69 F
Dong Hanlin 69 F
Augusto Cesar Lima 69 PF
Dejan Musli 70 C
Mamadou Samb 610 C
Vladimir Jankovic 67 SG/SF
Rasid Mahalbasic 610 PF
Roberto Rullo 64 PG
Jeremy Tyler 610 PF
Siim-Sander Vene 68 SF
Bogdan Bogdanovic 65 SG
Jakub Wojciechowski 611 PF/C
As always, the EuroCamp (under the steady guidance of director Pete Philo and project leader Jelena Soce) has done a nice job assembling a good mix of different types of prospects, some who need to be evaluated immediately for this years draft, and some who will emerge as serious draft prospects in the future.
Past participants include the likes of Danilo Gallinari, Serge Ibaka, Andrea Bargnani, Marco Belinelli, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, Marcin Gortat and many others.
The two players with the best chance of being picked in the first round this year are probably 1989 German-born small forward Robin Benzing, and 7-foot Serbian center Miroslav Raduljica.
Plenty of eyes will be focused on small forwards Real Madrids Vladimir Dasic, Zalgiris Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Barcelonas Xavi Rabaseda as well.
An interesting trend that we already saw starting last year was the presence of young American players who played overseas. That continues this time with Jeremy Tyler, who few people saw this year in limited playing time with Maccabi Haifa, but will become draft-eligible automatically next June.
Two Brazilian players, Lucas Alves and Jonathan Tavernari will be present, both fresh off completing their college careers at BYU-Hawaii and BYU-Provo.
A new and very exciting development is the presence of two Chinese players, Meng Duo and Dong Hanlin, likely spurred on by the extremely strong ties that adidas has in the Far East. It will be very interesting to see how the two fare, particularly Hanlin, who is already a Chinese national team member and was named to the CBA all-star team at the age of 19.
Perhaps the EuroCamps greatest value lies in getting an early read on promising young players who are just on the verge of becoming important players at the professional level, something that holds true for both the NBA and European talent evaluators in attendance.
The last few camps gave us the opportunity to evaluate the likes of Jan Vesely and Donatas Motiejunas for example, now considered two of the top young prospects in European basketball, which was extremely helpful.
Players such as Dejan Musli and Tomas Satoransky fit into that mold perfectly as far as the consideration they will likely get from NBA teams in the future. Seeing how theyve progressed over the past year playing professionally in the Adriatic League and ACB respectively should be very interesting.
Augusto Lima, Nihad Djedovic, Mamadou Samb, Matias Nocedal and Josep Franch fit that mold as wellthey all happen to hail from the various Spanish leagues, but theyll all be here under one roof showing their wares.
In addition, there are a good amount of players on the roster with names that dont roll off the tip of the tongues of even the most knowledgeable NBA international scouts. Some of them are draft-eligible 22-year olds, such as Romanian power forward Titus Nicoara, and some who are as young as 17-years old, such as Greek forward Linos-Spyridon Chrysikopoulos.
Current coaches returning to the Eurocamp include, Jack Sikma, Tony Ronzone, JB Bickerstaff, Bill Bayno, Kenny Atkinson, Dennis Lindsey, Rimas Kurtinaitis, Eric Hughes, Zan Tabak, Jim Boylan, Dave Joerger, Jason Fawcett and ESPNs Fran Fraschilla.
Stay tuned this weekend as we kick off our coverage of the EuroCamp.
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