European Prospects General Thread

[thiago94]

OK, Kayil and Grujicic are interesting. But by no means I would put Germany in front of France or Spain. Those named are to top tier prospects, at least ATM. Let's see how they will develop though. I don't see next Schroder in Kayil to be honest.

I would add Christian Anderson Jr., Davi Remagen and Fabian Kayser to the list. The latter one is praised as the most promising German PG prospect ever, but time will tell. How would you rate Kharchenkov? Into my order he is the one and only player on the list I can not see not make it into the NBA, in case he does not suffer a serious injury. I see a mixture of Bojan and Bogdan Bogdanovic with comparable talent, what obviously does not mean he will have a similar successful career. Overall the amount of backcourt talent is unique for German basketball standards, still there is no guarantee of development and success as the likes of Mushidi, Freudenberg and Niklas Kiel showed us. We have to wait and see how these players will develop and fingers crossed they stay healthy. The future of our frontcourt may be more settled and the transition might come right after the Olympics. Hartenstein has renewed his interest to play tournaments for Germany in the near future several times. Tristan da Silva will be added and become a fix part of the national team, together with his brother. Johan Gruenloh is our biggest frontcourt talent. His offensive skillset is very raw at this point, but his defensive IQ is something I have not seen at this age very often. He will contribute as rim protector. Declan Duru has not polished his game over the last four years. He has shown some flashes regarding his passing, beside that, I see a great athlete without any qualities power forwards need to deliver in half court. Hukporti and his health stay a big question mark. Michael Rataj could develop into something. That is it. Hopefully the likes of Thiemann and Moe Wagner keep playing NT for some more years.

[Straight forward]

I would add Christian Anderson Jr., Davi Remagen and Fabian Kayser to the list. The latter one is praised as the most promising German PG prospect ever, but time will tell. How would you rate Kharchenkov? Into my order he is the one and only player on the list I can not see not make it into the NBA, in case he does not suffer a serious injury. I see a mixture of Bojan and Bogdan Bogdanovic with comparable talent, what obviously does not mean he will have a similar successful career. Overall the amount of backcourt talent is unique for German basketball standards, still there is no guarantee of development and success as the likes of Mushidi, Freudenberg and Niklas Kiel showed us. We have to wait and see how these players will develop and fingers crossed they stay healthy. The future of our frontcourt may be more settled and the transition might come right after the Olympics. Hartenstein has renewed his interest to play tournaments for Germany in the near future several times. Tristan da Silva will be added and become a fix part of the national team, together with his brother. Johan Gruenloh is our biggest frontcourt talent. His offensive skillset is very raw at this point, but his defensive IQ is something I have not seen at this age very often. He will contribute as rim protector. Declan Duru has not polished his game over the last four years. He has shown some flashes regarding his passing, beside that, I see a great athlete without any qualities power forwards need to deliver in half court. Hukporti and his health stay a big question mark. Michael Rataj could develop into something. That is it. Hopefully the likes of Thiemann and Moe Wagner keep playing NT for some more years.

I'm grounding my opinions only on highlights in this case, but I don't see it in Kharchenkov. Not nearly as smooth and skilled as Bogdan or even Bojan. There's certain rigidness in his frame and skill. I don't see massive upside.

Anderson Jr, Davi Remagen and Kayil seems like good PG prospects who can reach EL level (maybe even be on NBA radar), but I don't see anything special ATM (again, watched very little). To me it seems like Kayil has most fundamentals and I would trust the most. While Remagen might be most special going down hill and an athlete, but again not even close to Schroder in terms of athleticism.

I like Grijicic as reliable shooter and Kayser as highest ceiling prospect from all this bunch. But Kayser is not PG, at least surely not pure PG. I barely see him as full time ballhandler. More like he's versatile wing, with some flashy, but pretty lose handles and special feel for the game, but it's hard to predict how it will translate later (he's 2009 gen, so it's a long shot).

If Kayser turns out to be true NBA material, first rounder, then prime Franze and young Kayser would be interesting at the start of 30s. Two super creative wings. But I can see a hole in Germany's BB after Schroder will retire or decline. No-one will be able to step into his shoes right away and probably long term. On other hand, he's just 31yo this summer. So maybe he can give full next Olympic cycle for Germany at elite level. We'll see.

[thiago94]

It is absolutely legitimate to rate offensive skills based on highlight videos. Interesting, I might be not objective enough to fairly rate him. Next season Kharchenkov will start to see significant minutes at Bayern Munich and will most likely help us to project the skillset he has shown in youth tournaments and the third division in Germany to professional basketball.

All of them carry some question marks around: Anderson Jr. has to build up and learn how to play against physical opponents and make good decisions under pressure. He is clearly not use to it as he plays high school basketball, while Kayil was part of the rotation of Rasta Vechta II in the second division of Germany. You can see the difference. Kayil lacks some proper decision making though and is so far more playing like a SG than a PG. This is of course not uncommon, Schroeder till example had the same issues that age, but so far Kayil lacks some feeling for the game. Just to clarify, I do not want to make any comparison to Schroeder, it was just to underline my point. Some german and international youth experts (quote Per Guenther) compared him to Nolan Traore though and come to the conclusion, that the talent gap is not exceptional big. I would clearly not go that far as Traore is the real deal to me and someone who guarantees a great NBA career, in case he stays healthy, but I am positive Kayil could turn at least into a really good Euroleague player some day. Davi Remagen suffered a knee injury (don't know any specifics) last season, which is suboptimal. Hopefully it does not effect his lightning-quickness too much and he comes back as strong and talented as ever.

I have seen my first two full games of Kayser last week, therefore my opinion is mainly grounded on professional experts I trust and they rate him as future point guard. In the two games of our U17 NT last week he was primarily used as secondary ball-handler and at his club he is mostly playing as SG. Maybe it is not that important anyway in what position he will end up, in case he will become a thread in pick and roll situations and be able to initiate ball movement in half-court. You are absolutely right though. It's a long shot and too early to translate his talent into our future national team.

Our game will definitely change a lot without Schroeder and so will our culture. So far it is all centralized around our two main players in Schroeder and Wagner, who are surrounded by role-players who suit them perfectly. Without Schroeder roles would change significantly and some players are forced to step up and take more responsibility as we most likely can't fill his shoes with one single player and Wagner should not be forced to carry us all by himself. I think we might still be consistently rated as one of the four to seven best National Teams in Europe in the post-schroder-era in case three of the discussed players live up to their potential, but our overall quality will most likely drop and it will be nearly impossible to reproduce the quality of the last three years. I fear Olympics will become not only the last dance for coach Herbert, but as well for many of our key players.

[Straight forward]

Our game will definitely change a lot without Schroeder and so will our culture. So far it is all centralized around our two main players in Schroeder and Wagner, who are surrounded by role-players who suit them perfectly. Without Schroeder roles would change significantly and some players are forced to step up and take more responsibility as we most likely can't fill his shoes with one single player and Wagner should not be forced to carry us all by himself. I think we might still be consistently rated as one of the four to seven best National Teams in Europe in the post-schroder-era in case three of the discussed players live up to their potential, but our overall quality will most likely drop and it will be nearly impossible to reproduce the quality of the last three years. I fear Olympics will become not only the last dance for coach Herbert, but as well for many of our key players.

This seems to be spot on summary.

[Straight forward]

Damn, France dominated the youth. They have tons of big prospects coming next.

https://x.com/NextGenHoops/status/1828076519735865585

[Dreamcatcher]

Saraf who dominated EC U18 averaging 28 pts, and now in the first game of a season in a new team in Bundesliga he scored 21 pts. At 18 y.o. he looks like a special offensive player.

[pohani komarac]

Some scout said few years ago Luka Ukić, 14 year old son of Roko Ukić is best prospect since Dončić. And to be honest after watching him in I can say I'm hyped. Tough at the moment he is 4th best player in talented 2010 generation behind Jerkić, Volf and Garma he does look like generational prospect with his skills and quick decisions making

https://youtu.be/FhiF6iVy8yo?feature=shared

[Straight forward]

Some scout said few years ago Luka Ukić, 14 year old son of Roko Ukić is best prospect since Dončić. And to be honest after watching him in I can say I'm hyped. Tough at the moment he is 4th best player in talented 2010 generation behind Jerkić, Volf and Garma he does look like generational prospect with his skills and quick decisions making

https://youtu.be/FhiF6iVy8yo?feature=shared

Too soon to tell. Looks interesting. It will be seen more when he turns 18 or at least 16, how his skill and smoothness get together.

[Straight forward]

I watched Saraf and he's good. To me he's something between Satoransky and Beno Undrih. I'm not sure he has enough of feet work, agility and athleticism to be special in the NBA, but I like how he reads the game, his mid range jimmy. NBA level player, just not sure about his upside yet. Three point shot goes in, but I'm not high on the form and doesn't seem to have long range, might struggle a bit in NBA with it.