European Prospects General Thread

[Toruko]

I agree to some extent on Wagner and Prkacin, but at the same time they are versatile enough to appear on the map in such context. Some treat Wagner as potential secondary facilitator at times, we'll see.

Hahahaha surely not. Wagner is a spot up shooter with a solid shooting motion and he can attack closeouts intelligently and this is simply everything what he can do in the offense right now. His ball handling is decrepit. He cant create anything for himself or for others. Franz is on the other hand a very good off ball defender. He moves very well without the ball and he is fast enough to guard all four positions and has long arms. He is also great as a helpside defender. His awareness, focus and will is great.

Franz has potential to be an elite role player but nothing more.

I havent watched many games of Prkacin yet but about Franz you can trust me fully.

[Straight forward]

My aim was to have a place where we could discuss general trends of European prospects and so on. I pointed out top prospects and they seem to be more or less of the same general kind, off course, Victor is more of a unicorn than multi-dimensional forward a la Lebron.

I agree to some extent on Wagner and Prkacin, but at the same time they are versatile enough to appear on the map in such context. Some treat Wagner as potential secondary facilitator at times, we'll see. The point is that there's plenty of versatile forwards who reaches beyond traditional forward description. It's a trend. It's good that you mentioned Avdija, absolutely. I think it deserves to be mentioned that some Banchero should go No.1 overall and a year or two later it's Victor in the same position and I've seen Jovic being projected as high as 6th pick, That's interesting shift for European basketball, specially that last year Europeans took it all, NBA MVP, NBA finals MVP, DPOY, if not qualifying tournament Doncic could be the best player in Olympics as well. It's good momentum overall for European basketball.

[Toruko]

Its not quite clear what you want to discuss about. Is it a thread about wings who can create for themselves and others or is it a European prospect thread?

Some years ago wings job were to defend and make the open shots but the Celtics showed after some time that a wing who can create has more value. You still need a solid guy but all 5 guys must be able to shoot and put the ball on the floor to some extend.

Wagner and Prkacin are not part of this description though. Wagner is very limited in terms of creating for himself let alone for others. His drives with his weak hand are horrible. To some extend Deni Avdija could be mentioned altough he is also limited. KD on the other hand doesnt need anything or anyone to finish. He is the best scorer imo of all time.

A proper play maker is still a necessity but in a world of switching defenses a guard with an elite penetration ability is gold. Of course some intelligence should be there. A Dennis Schröder (brainless baller) is not much of a help.

[Straight forward]

Some argue that recently in basketball most important position is SF/PF. Not traditional forward, but the forward with guard skill. Lebron, KD, Leonard, Giannis to some extent, even the same Doncic is a guard in SF body. The way I see it, Europe is catching up the trend.

Paolo Banchero should be 1 or 2 pick in 2022.
Nikola Jovic should be in lottery 2022.
Victor Wembanyama should be one of top 5 picks in 2023 or 2024.

I do believe these 3 today are top European prospects currently.

Others to mention in Pokusevski, Wagner, Prkacin, Buzelis, Demir Dogan and others. Seems like this versatile forward position is prevailing and that's the future of basketball along with guards off course.