drosestruts wrote:A couple of things about Deni:
- When playing in specific U-17 or U-19 tournaments he's looked dominant. I think had he played in college and been playing against his peers we'd all be a lot more excited about him.
- As it is, he played in Euroleague, where he didn't necessarily light the world on fire.
- Most successful European NBA players had more individual success in Euroleague then Deni. It's something to note, but not something that immediately suggests to me that he can't be successful as few of them were having said success at Deni's age (Luka being the obvious exception, but comparing anyone to Luka is starting to look unfair).
To share some stats for Deni's U-20 basketball run:
18 points per game, 8.3 RPG, 5.3 APG, 2 SPG, 2.4 BPG. Shot 43% overall and 28% from 3. In the Semi-Finals and Finals matchups vs France and Spain respectively he shot 41% from 3 and 82% from the free-throw line, so it was nice to see him step his game up in the tournament's biggest games. Suggests to me he's a gamer. You want guys that elevate their games in big moments.
Sharing the highlights below of his game vs France. He got to the line a lot in this game by attacking the rim, you also see him compete on defense, which often stereotypes against European players is they're soft on D, not Deni.
Deni moves around on my personal big board between 2-4. At some point I'll have to lock in my thoughts on these prospects, but I'm clearly able to talk myself into Deni being the right move.
This analogy will get me crucified here. But here it goes. Wait for the main point before exploding in laughter. Larry Bird, on tape, was not a tremendous athlete by the way we measure prospects today. He wasn't particularly fast. He had no vertical to brag about. Yes, he was THE elite shooter of his day. But what made him the player he was was ANTICIPATION. He instinctively knew where to be, what the situation called for, and how he could exploit what was in front of him. He saw the game in slow motion, like Wayne Gretzky did in hockey. This clip shows that Deni has the gift of anticipation. His defense in this clip was more impressive than his offense. He was probably the player for Israel that the coaches for France schemed to defend. He was 18 or barely 19 in this game. Playing against guys with more experience. And he stood out, at least to me. We don't need him to score 20. But if he could give us 10, play the kind of defense he displays in this clip, and involves his teammates in the offense he could be just the player we need to make the other 4 better.
I'm not going to join the "blow it up" chorus. I've seen all of the other 4 potential starters look like all-stars at one time or another. Considering what our young guys have had to go through with Boylen and an inadequate development and training staff I agree with AK and the posters on this board who think they need a year under a real coach. Playing up to potential, a lineup of Coby, Zach, Deni, Lauri and Wendell could pose some real problems for teams. That's a dynamic scoring back court. I think you'll see Coby perhaps challenging Zach for the high scorer on the team. He looked dynamic in the scrimmage games. And Zach is one of the best athletes in the league. When he has it going he can score with an effortlessness I rarely see. Lauri and Wendell might both rebound their games under Donovan. Boylen was the worst possible coach for both of them. Donovan could have picked other open jobs. He came on board because he thinks the Bulls have potential. And having just drank the Kool-Aid I think so too.
