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2007 Reebok Eurocamp: Day Two
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By Aran Smith
NBADraft.net
6/11/07
The second day started much like the first with morning drills. Mickael Pietrus spoke to the campers after the morning session. He mentioned to me that he would have loved to have played here but never had the chance.
The Team Reebok squad is on hand and their team of 8 can be seen walking around. The big name on their team is Bill Walker who appears to have put on a good 25-30 pounds.
The games began at 4 PM, with 2 games. The camp consists of five teams so one team sat out.
Team 3 (Orange) 48 - Team 1 (Carolina Blue) 43
French point guard Rodrigue Beaubois suffered a hamstring injury early in the game and was unable to return which meant he didn't play in the all star game against the junior team. His team is off tomorrow, so it remains to be seen if he will be back for the final day. He was impressive once again in practice out-jumping a number of bigger players in the vertical test the campers were put through after the morning practice. Beaubois finished with 2 pts.
Georgos Printezis had another impressive game and is establishing himself as one of the more "draftable" players here. He's a little hunched with regard to his posture and his feet seem to be a step behind his head but he plays with a lot of spirit and makes things happen. He shared the game high in points with Team 1's center Antoly Kashirov.
Printezis had shown some solid athletic ability, but really raised some eyebrows with his hammer dunk over a defender. He rose way up and flushed the ball, the best dunk of the camp so far. He is making a statement here and very possibly could be a player a team will take in the second round with the idea of watching him develop in Greece for a few years before bringing him over.
Antoly Kashirov is one of the better bigmen in camp. He lacks any real leaping ability. But at 7-feet, the CSKA Moscow player has solid scoring ability and fluidity. He scored on a variety of dunks and inside baskets.
After leading the camp in scoring on day one, Rudy Mbemba came back to earth with 6 points on 2/4 shooting.
Luka Bogdanovic had 8 points but shot just 2/8 and hasn't done anything to warrant NBA attention.
Spaniard Javier Rey had 10 points for the victors. He lacks huge leaping ability but he has a big frame, long arms and plays hard. The 6-10 PF looks like a solid European power forward prospect.
Team 2 (Cardinal) 55 - Team 5 (Royal Blue) 28
In an absolute snorer of a game, the only intrigue left by the early second half was whether the Cardinal squad would be able to double up their opponents. They weren't, but it was close.
A number of scouts have questioned why Marco Belinelli is here. He is obviously well known and playing against mostly younger players and doing well doesn't really prove much. But he did just that scoring 17 points with relative ease on 4-8 shooting and 8-8 from the line. He had a dunk on the break as well as a steal in the back court for a lay in. Scouts would have liked to have seen Belinelli play in Orlando, and he likely would have played very well as he's an excellent athlete and polished scorer. Belinelli is off to the states to workout for teams so he will miss the rest of the camp.
Ali Traore has not been as sensational as he was in Orlando so far, but a lot of that can probably be attributed to his teammates. He has a very outgoing personality and hasn't seemed to let the lack of quality teammates affect him. He scored 10 of his team's 28 points and likely would have doubled that if the team had someone that could get him the ball. The Royal team's backcourt is painfully bad as their 3 assists to 18 turnovers in this game shows.
Portugal's Joao Gomes also had 10 points for the losing squad. He has solid athletic ability and an imposing set of tatted arms. He would surely go undrafted if he were in the States as there are tons of NCAA guys with his athletic ability with more skills. However, the intrigue of taking a player with the chance to develop elsewhere while owning his rights gives a number of these players an advantage. Gomes still appears to be a long shot to get drafted. His feel for the game is very limited, and his athletic ability, while impressive, isn't enough alone.
Mantas Kalnietis finally played after missing the first day and a half and looked solid. He had one steal and breakaway dunk in which he showed excellent aggressiveness and body balance. He finished with 11 points on 5/6 shooting. He is a very heady player, as he showed in Japan last summer starting for the Lithuanian team in place of injured Jasikevicius. The Royal squad surely could have used Kalnietis services.
Reebok All Star Game
Rudy Mbemba
The Reebok All Stars were led by Bill Walker who looked like a reincarnation of John "Hot Plate" Williams coming back to training camp after a summer of Dairy Queen binging. When they told Walker to stay off the knee apparently they forgot to tell him to work on his push away move, as he has apparently has not been pushing away from any dinner tables.
Walker actually played well, it's amazing he can move even half as well as he is with the knee brace and extra 30-40 pounds. But compared to the old Walker, this wasn;t pretty. On the positive side, Walker showed a polishing skill level with a number of steals and solid shots off the dribble. He attempted one monster dunk over a defender, apparently forgetting he is just weeks off of surgery to repair his knee. The dunk came up short as he sort of got stuffed by the defender and rim at the same time. Sort of like a scrambling quarterback with a leg injury force to stay in the pocked, the injury is giving Walker a chance to work on the other areas of his game, as right now he cant rely solely on his athletic ability.
It's too early to say how he will recover from the knee injury, as his physical conditioning seemed to be slowing him down as much as his knee.
For the Reebok Eurocamp All stars it was the Rudy Mbemba show as he toyed with the talented but younger and undermanned (8 players) American team. Mbemba ran the show passing the ball very well, guiding his teammates on backdoor cuts and hitting them for perfect ally oops. At one point he drove and attempted a dunk over the American squads bigman. He missed but the play brought Baron Davis, who is here with Pietrus, off his feet. Davis seemed to enjoy watching the young Swedish point guard play.
Also impressive for the Eurocamp squad was Victor Claver who used his size and athleticism well against the smaller opponents. He has a good two inches on rising senior Darius Miller and used it well scoring on dunks and mid range jumpers.
The American team held tough for the first quarter but wer blown out in the second half ultimately losing by around 30.
Early Entry Notes
Georgetown's Jeff Green is still considering going back to school. He'd like to get some guarantee in the top 10 and would really like to know where he is going before signing with an agent (likely David Falk). Green would tip the scales in Georgetown's favor as the #1 college team in the nation if he decided to return.
Green recently worked out for Philadelphia who drafts 12th and impressed. There's almost no chance he would fall past Philadelphia at 12, but knowing the specific team that he will go to might be more important for Green. A team such as Minnesota at 7 or Milwaukee at 6 might want to consider promising Green who is one of the most NBA ready players in the draft. The problem is should a player like Brandan Wright or Yi Jianlian fall, those teams want the flexibility to take someone that slips.
We're hearing both Ramon Sessions and Dominic James will keep their names in the draft. Sessions had a strong workout against Gabe Pruitt in Phoenix and may get some looks in the late first round area. Phoenix, with two late first rounders, is said to be high on Pruitt.
Croatian bigman Ante Tomic pulled out of the draft reportedly due to disagreements with his team.
Sean Singletary is still 50/50 on staying in the draft.
Stanko Barac will likely keep his name in the draft. He is scheduled to workout in NYC on the 16th.
