Young Blood From The Old Continent

by user Moritz Wollert

See also: http://mos-basketball.blogspot.com + http://mos-baseball.blogspot.com

A look across the recent mock drafts and draft boards becomes much more complicated these days for american basketball experts. The key word here is "american". More and more do they read international and weird sounding names among the top US college prospects. With good results in recent international competitions (Olympics 2004 and World Championships 2006) the non US basketball world has gained a lot of respect, especially on the european continent. [1] We have seen numerous european players come and go in recent years, or not come at all like Fran Vasquez or Milos Vujanic. The development toward a more international league can't be overlooked. In the past five NBA Drafts there were atleast 14 international players selected per year among the 60 players. At the beginning of the 2006/2007 season almost 20% of the NBA players owned a foreign passport.

Sixers GM Billy King agrees: "I think the game has now become, as our commissioner likes to say, so international that you would be foolish not to look overseas for talent." Well, David Stern might care more about the dollars on his bank account than about the talent or game level of the league. Yet it is still clear that not only the clubs but also the entire league makes an attempt to open up the borders and fish some raw diamonds from the huge european talent pools.

But words and good intentions alone aren't enough. While the recent years have shown a difference in how the european/international game is viewed in the United States, the whole development is still walking around in kids' shoes. For many franchises european scouting is more of an adventure than a true way of upping their teams' talent.

Taking advantage of the european basketball market isn't as easy as it sounds. It's not like a GM or a scout can just get a shopping cart and get rolling through the Alpes, along the French coast and to the plains in Spain. International scouting is a matter of dedication, willingness to invest time and money and the idea of opening up your mindset. Basketball is a global game and just because a euro player may not be dunking over cars, french people or tables doesn't mean he isn't a very good player. The difference is most apparent in March when GMs just have to watch CBS and the NCAA Tournament on TV to see the best american prospects. European guys? Yeah, let's fly people over the atlantic, travel from country to country and all those other complications. Sure, many NBA teams have their scouts for that but draft results in the past ten years clearly indicate that there are huge differences how teams approach the european/international search for talent.

The team that's clearly above everyone else in that category are the San Antonio Spurs.

[2] Yes, the NBA champions in four of the last nine years... thanks in part to the contributions of Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginobili (Argentina, background in the european top leagues) who both have been excellent in the last three Texas title runs. It isn't that fact that the Spurs always find european talent in the Draft, it's where they find their future stars. Tony Parker was selected 28th and Ginobili 57th. Two of the current best international big men already are selected by the Spurs: Robertas Javtokas (Lithuania) and Luis Scola (Argentina).

Yes, you guessed right, they were also selected near the end of the draft. Both were drafted with the 56th pick.

Maurizio Gherardini, former GM of european power Benetton Treviso, visited the Spurs every summer before he joined the Toronto Raptors in 2006 as an assistant GM. He is generally regarded as one of the best international basketball executives in the entire world. He also knows about the great name the Spurs enjoy around the globe: "They are clearly one of the most recognizable and respected franchises in the world. They have a very very good reputation." San Antonio also has great connections to european top coaches.

[3] The funny thing though is, the Spurs haven't had a full-time employed international scout recently.

Excuse me?

"It's true", says Spurs GM R.C. Buford. "We try not to allow a european scout make decisions for us. We want to be the ones making the decisions."

Here we are again, time, dedication... all these stories. The success of the Spurs and the inability of other NBA teams to find very good european players late in the Draft or even as free agents (as the Toronto Raptors did with Jorge Garbajosa and Anthony Parker in 2006) proves that the international way of building or strengthening the team isn't as far advanced as David Stern or some other people might think. "The less you know about a player the more you can dream of what he might become. That's how it goes with many international players. You see their size, their skills and you can dream of the next Dirk or Pau Gasol. Yet you have to take a much deeper look if you really want to find a future star."

Drafting a european player raises a lot more questions than the selection of a NCAA standout. How is he going to adjust to the american game? How about the language? How fit is he? Is he mentally strong enough? There are positives too like the exceptional basketball education many european players possess already at an early age. They are fundamentally sound and often add a different dimension to an US team. Even if people expect a lot from them, they aren't facing the same hype as college players have to endure during the month of March and April.

Some of these questions might have prevented Rudy Fernandez and Marco Belinelli from going higher in the draft this year. Both were among the top european guards on the entire continent and that at the young age of 21/22. It'S incredible how much these guys already have gone through in basketball. Yet Belinelli was only selected 18th and Fernandez even dropped to 24. I think they will make some noise for many years to come.

[4] I think many NBA teams unlike the Spurs aren't taking enough advantage of the current situation. You have let's say about ten teams that really care about european basketball and are open for any kind of influence and new players. That leaves you with 20 teams on which you could have a very important advantage down the road. You don't have to invest high draft picks for every european or international star these days.

Not yet. The situation might change over the years as others follow the Spurs' example and work on their scouting methods overseas. And then you won't be able to find as many late steals as the Spurs had in recent years.

One thing is for sure. The talent pool in europe is still filled up to the top.

Some NBA teams should look to make a splash here soon, unless they want to share the pool with other franchises...