The final day of adidas Eurocamp didn’t necessarily feature the camp’s best players, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t a few guys who made their presence felt. The camp’s top prospects were long gone by Day Three, with Evan Fournier, Tomas Satoransky, and even Nihad Djedovic all choosing to forego the last day’s activities.
That left the door open for others to shine, and the main beneficiary of the top players’ absence seemed to be Tornike Shengelia. He showcased a nose for the ball and an ability to do the dirty work inside, along with an energy level and an offensive skill set that’s certainly worth being noticed by NBA scouts. His play on Tuesday, particularly in the final game against the France national team, was definitely one of the day’s highlights.
In talking to coaches and scouts, Fournier and Satoransky were the clear-cut winners of the camp in terms of solidifying or improving their draft position, but many other prospects — specifically the bigs at the 4/5 or the guys at the wing positions — were able to make waves, as well.
Here are some of the other names that stood out on the camp’s final day:
– Daniel Diez (Spain) was measured at 6’8″, 203 at camp. He’s Athletic, flies around the court on both ends, plays aggressive defense with nice footwork, and compliments all of that with a nice offensive skill set. In the camp’s final game, he used his speed to get out in transition multiple times, and defended the passing lanes to perfection. His energy, athleticism, and knack for the game is certainly a winning combination.
– Oleksandr Lypovyy (Ukraine, pictured) was solid in the last game of the day, and one of the better wings in camp overall. There were several times he was able to take it fearlessly to the other team’s bigs — at times absorbing contact in mid-air and continuing to get his shot up on the rim, before following a miss with an offensive rebound and put-back for a score. He was named the camp’s MVP.
– Rudy Gobert participated in camp as a member of the France national team, and he had plenty of opportunities to be seen. He was one of the most athletic and polished big men seen at Eurocamp, and was able to score, rebound, and block shots with ease against most of his competition. He’s still a year away from being NBA-ready, and needs to get bigger and stronger to bang with the bigs he’ll see at that level. But the overall skill set is there, and if he continues to develop as expected, he’s a name you can expect to hear at a draft in the very near future.
– Darko Planinic (Bosnia) was another big man who had an excellent camp. At this stage, his size and strength (6’11”, 255) are his biggest assets, and he still needs to work on developing his offensive skill set. But his activity and toughness around the basket already make him a very intriguing prospect.
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Camp coaching director (and Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach) Bill Bayno held the morning lecture session that Kevin McHale had on Day Two, and once again the topic was post play. But Bayno’s differed in that he focused on specific techniques that guys can use to get to their spots, such as the swim move. Bayno also got quite a workout in himself, putting on the large arm pads and banging hard with the prospect he used to demonstrate the points he was trying to get across.
Bayno spent considerable time teaching post players how to make contact with the shoulder to create space. “Inside shoulder, outside hand” was the mantra he kept repeating — meaning, create that contact with the inside shoulder, before shooting with the outside hand so the defender can’t reach it.
Maik Zirbes (Germany) was the one Bayno worked with while teaching the rest of the players, and Zirbes responded well to the coaching, and looked strong with mostly good footwork while banging with Bayno’s arm pads during the workout. Also of likely interest to NBA scouts is the fact that he had the best measurement at Eurocamp in one of the categories most personnel evaluators like the most: wingspan. Zirbes came in at 87.5 inches.
One other fun note from Bayno’s session: Don’t like the fact that NBA players yell every time they go up for a shot in the lane, trying to draw a foul call from the officials? Blame the coaches, who teach players to yell every time they get hit at a very young age. “The refs play the yell,” Bayno told the players. “Yell and you might get the call. Don’t yell, and you probably won’t.”
Check out the following video of the first six minutes or so fo Bayno’s teaching session on Tuesday.
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Danilo Gallinari and Nicolas Batum were at camp on Tuesday, and held a question and answer session with the players. The two answered basic questions about who was the toughest player they’ve played against — both mentioned the same three in Kevin Durant, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant — and Gallinari was even asked where he gets his hair cut, which he answered with a sense of humor before camp director Arturas Karnisovas reminded the players good-naturedly that he was hoping they’d ask basketball questions.
Gallinari’s most interesting words came when he was discussing what it’s like for European players to transition to the NBA, and how hard they have to work to earn their respect. He also had some interesting things to say on getting his start in the league with the New York Knicks and playing for Mike D’Antoni.
Check out his full comments on these topics right here.
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This was Bill Bayno’s first year as the camp’s coaching director, and he seemed to truly enjoy the experience. I caught up with him near the camp’s close, and while he admitted the NBA-ready talent pool isn’t as deep in Europe as it has been in recent years, he said it was an absolute pleasure to work with the European players. He applauded their work ethic and overall grasp of the game, and gave credit to the European coaches for imparting such a wealth of knowledge to the players at an early age.
“I think it went well,” he said. “I think the talent is down this year in Europe, but I thought we had some really good young kids. Maybe the point guard play wasn’t as good this year; we only had Satoransky and Fournier for a day. All in all, I thought the wings were really good, and the European kids, they’re just fun to coach. They’re highly coachable, they play hard, and I think Europe has gotten stronger and stronger in the NBA over the years because the players are so coachable.
“But also, I think you’ve got to give the European coaches a lot of credit. These kids play hard, they understand defensive concepts, they make it tough for you to even enter the ball, they all know how to deny. Their weak side principles are very good, so it was fun. It was a good camp.”
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All of the participants at Eurocamp were treated to a special players edition of the latest basketball shoe from adidas, the Crazy Light 2. The black/bright orange/white colorway features the adidas EUROCAMP logo on the tongue and sockliner, and looked sharp on the court.
Check out the gallery below for some images.
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