Ben Saraf

[arusinov]

Ben Saraf in Ulm till now:

8 games (4 EuroCup, 3 German BBL, 1 German cup), 6 starts, 6 wins/2 losses

23.9 min per game

13.75 pts per game on 45.1 FG% / 32.0 3P% / 71.4 FT% split - 49.5 eFG%, 53.2 TS%

4.75 assists and 2.12 turnovers per game - 2.24 ast/tov

2.25 rbs, 1.25 stl, 0.25 blk per game

38.38% AST%, 29.18 USG%

[lambchop]

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16 points, 3 threes, 2 assists, 4 TOs against the Trailblazers in preseason.

To me the main take aways were that his speed and craftiness looked fine against those guys. And he was comfortable shooting from NBA range.

[zzaj]

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16 points, 3 threes, 2 assists, 4 TOs against the Trailblazers in preseason.

To me the main take aways were that his speed and craftiness looked fine against those guys. And he was comfortable shooting from NBA range.

He seems to do that slight knock-knee thing when he shoots on C&S. It'll be interesting to see how his coaches deal with that to improve his power/quickness attacking closeouts.

[BlazersBroncos]

Worth noting that he was also being guarded by Toumari Camara / Rayan Rupert for most of the night. Both guys are 6'7-6'8 with ++ WS and lateral quickness he likely has not seen before from that size (At least not as his primary defender - likely only on some switches). And he still seemed quite poised / in control.

PDX IMO seemed to game plan to key on him and get the ball out of his hands. He handled it pretty well, albeit IMO he also tried to do too much at times.

Still see a Top-10 guy.

[Chi town]

Worth noting that he was also being guarded by Toumari Camara / Rayan Rupert for most of the night. Both guys are 6'7-6'8 with ++ WS and lateral quickness he likely has not seen before from that size (At least not as his primary defender - likely only on some switches). And he still seemed quite poised / in control.

PDX IMO seemed to game plan to key on him and get the ball out of his hands. He handled it pretty well, albeit IMO he also tried to do too much at times.

Still see a Top-10 guy.

Noticed the same thing about putting size on him.

He looked like an NBA player. He’s scrappy on D. Reminds me of Manu so much.

[arusinov]

Worth noting that he was also being guarded by Toumari Camara / Rayan Rupert for most of the night. Both guys are 6'7-6'8 with ++ WS and lateral quickness he likely has not seen before from that size (At least not as his primary defender - likely only on some switches). And he still seemed quite poised / in control.

PDX IMO seemed to game plan to key on him and get the ball out of his hands. He handled it pretty well, albeit IMO he also tried to do too much at times.

Still see a Top-10 guy.

Yes. After the game he said to Israeli Sport5 channel that he "needs to get used to size"

On NBA_draft reddit a lot people dismissed 16 pts game in pretty close loss, and concentrated on "athletic deficiencies" and "lack of rim pressure" and some others spoke that Saraf "didn't really look PG" as he only had 2 ast. (not speaking about weirder takes like "he's not good ball handler - did you see how Rupert rob him of ball?" - and this happened literally once in the game)

I think that it's very unfair to expect from player which never played against NBA players to be able to go through defenders and score at will in his first game against such opposition. Also it's not like Camara or Rupert were supposed to be his primary defenders all the time, there were minutes when Scoot guarded him... and actually Scoot wasn't good at this task, as Saraf went around him and got to his spots rather easily, so Blazers needed to stuck on him their good quick and big wing defenders. So it became much harder to beat them... still in fact he did several times but under basket Clingan was ready, and the options to make assists on drives which he has against smaller sized and slower teams don't pop as other Ulm players weren't able to get loose of their defenders.

Also people IMHO heavily underestimate Blazers defense, with Camara, Deni, Rupert on wing and Clingan at rim they can be really good defensively. It's not strange that Clingan hm... impressed Saraf so he got blocked once, and tried pass instead of finishing drive another time (and turned ball over). Sure he's never seen 7'2" guy which pretty quick and has very good defensive BBIQ. By the way I think that Clingan defensive potential is like... unlimited, he can became one of best (if not the best) defensive bigs in NBA.

And to add to all this that the game was his 3rd in 6 days, short time after long flight, so he certainly was half-exhausted which limited his driving

[Pistol King]

His game against the Blazers has shown me he has some areas he needs to work on, but I also saw stuff I really liked. Let's touch on both.

You see on box score he ended up with only 2 assists in this game, but he is much better than that:

Ball handling mechanics and pull up creation look good:

Flashes on defense:

I even liked his competitiveness trying to contest a fast break dunk of Scoot:

For the most part of the game he didn't look fast, but he has flashed a good first step potential some times:

But there were some bad stuff as well. Offensively, he didn't put pressure on the rim in this game almost at all. In the second half in particular he looked gassed and too passive. I'm reminding myself this game was his third in 5 days (Ulm played Bamberg on Saturday, Besiktas on Monday and Blazers on Wednesday) all while traveling 6200 miles to Portland from Besiktas Istanbul, when the game was 4 a.m on Germany time (jet lag), so maybe the combination of this condition and the size he was facing for the first time made him look more fatigued than how he'll look against NBA teams early in his career. Regardless, there are some clear stuff he would have to improve.

The most noticeable stuff for me he should work on right now are his off hand use (especially passing, but also finishing and dribbling), finishing through contact, improving stamina (he tends to have good moments in spurts and then to disappear for other stretches), adding muscles, and it would really help him to strengthen athleticism elements like burst and explosiveness to take his rim pressure game to the next level, though he already has a good base of body control, craftiness and dribble moves that I believe will help him get there in one way or another when he gains more experience. I'm hearing some people who are concerned about his shooting, but I personally not really concerned about it long term. His shooting looks good to me at least in the eye test, and his touch looks good to me too. I'd be keep following him in Ulm to see if there are improvements in his weaknesses areas until draft night. Still high on him and to be honest I'm not convinced yet Traore is a better prospect. But let's see.

[arusinov]

Ben Saraf in Ulm till now:

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11 games (5 EuroCup, 5 German BBL, 1 German cup), 9 starts, 8 wins/3 losses

24.0 min per game

13.7 pts per game on 45.1 FG% / 34.3 3P% / 73.8 FT% split - 50.8 eFG%, 55.3 TS%

4.6 assists and 2.6 turnovers per game - 1.77 ast/tov

2.7 rbs, 1.1 stl, 0.3 blk per game

38.9 AST%, 28.9 USG%

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Since previous update: Saraf missed one game (small injury / rest after heavy load of playing games every week in both EuroCup and German BBL ... and in middle of this - flying to US for Blazers' preseason game), there's some minor changes (some improvement in scoring efficiency but ast/tov ratio became worse) but generally speaking - production of Saraf is remarkably shows stability at a constant high level.

Most important: Saraf clearly established himself as the leader of Ulm - not only because he's 2nd in scoring and 1st in assists but mostly because he is the player which has the ball and takes all important decisions in clutch. And I don't think most people understand how rare is it for 18 y/o to be the leader of EuroCup team.

Another big positive development is focus on work on known deficiencies: he's finishing stronger (more dunks and and-1s) and there's major improvement in his driving and finishing with off hand as the season progress.

Here're last two games (both wins) highlights

German BBL game against SC Rasta Vechta:

https://youtu.be/k-YyirJyTiU?list=LL

EuroCup game against Trento:

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[arusinov]

Ben Saraf playing for Israeli NT in FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers
Israel needed win in the game against Ukraine to ensure qualification, and succeeded to achieve it pulling off in 4th qtr after slow start. Ben Saraf played 11 last minutes entering game at 54:54 draw, end result was 88:75 with Saraf scoring 9pts in 4th.

11 Pts - 5/9 FG, 1/1 3P, 3 Reb, 4 Ast, 0 Tov , 19:13 min

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Some Saraf's highlights from Ulm games

Scoring:

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Passing:

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[FarBeyondDriven]

He reminds me of a less athletic Lonzo Ball. He badly needs to hit the gym but he has elite BBIQ to somewhat make up for it. If he fills out and puts some muscle on his frame which would allow him to absorb contact and keep defenses honest due to threat of driving I could see him as a starting PG.

[arusinov]

He reminds me of a less athletic Lonzo Ball. He badly needs to hit the gym but he has elite BBIQ to somewhat make up for it. If he fills out and puts some muscle on his frame which would allow him to absorb contact and keep defenses honest due to threat of driving I could see him as a starting PG.

Well. Lonzo Ball never was even somehow dominant scorer - including in college. Saraf is probably the most dominant scorer in history of European youth tournaments in history. So in some ways he's more like LaMelo than Lonzo

[Chi town]

He reminds me of a less athletic Lonzo Ball. He badly needs to hit the gym but he has elite BBIQ to somewhat make up for it. If he fills out and puts some muscle on his frame which would allow him to absorb contact and keep defenses honest due to threat of driving I could see him as a starting PG.

Well. Lonzo Ball never was even somehow dominant scorer - including in college. Saraf is probably the most dominant scorer in history of European youth tournaments in history. So in some ways he's more like LaMelo than Lonzo

Yep. Zo has no offensive game inbetween the 3pt line and hoop. Most of his passing was throw ahead not drive and kicks or drive and lobs.

Saraf looks to have the makeup of elite on ball lead guard. Harden Lite. His D is aggressive and gritty like Manu.

Kid is a winner. I’m high on him. See him 4-7. High floor and solid ceiling. He’s playable day one because of his D and playmaking. He fits so easily with every team.

[arusinov]

Eurocup GMs midseason survey: Ben Saraf is frontrunner for EuroCup "rising star" award

It should be noted that "rising star" award is not ROTY award: it can be awarded to any player younger that 22 y/o with any number of seasons experience in EuroCup (or any other tournaments)

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[FarBeyondDriven]

He reminds me of a less athletic Lonzo Ball. He badly needs to hit the gym but he has elite BBIQ to somewhat make up for it. If he fills out and puts some muscle on his frame which would allow him to absorb contact and keep defenses honest due to threat of driving I could see him as a starting PG.

Well. Lonzo Ball never was even somehow dominant scorer - including in college. Saraf is probably the most dominant scorer in history of European youth tournaments in history. So in some ways he's more like LaMelo than Lonzo

Yep. Zo has no offensive game inbetween the 3pt line and hoop. Most of his passing was throw ahead not drive and kicks or drive and lobs.

Saraf looks to have the makeup of elite on ball lead guard. Harden Lite. His D is aggressive and gritty like Manu.

Kid is a winner. I’m high on him. See him 4-7. High floor and solid ceiling. He’s playable day one because of his D and playmaking. He fits so easily with every team.

Don't currently have him as a first rounder. Next to zero chance he's a lottery pick

[EvanZ]

Que Saraf Saraf

[SNPA]

What am I missing? Kid looks good. How is he not an NBA lead guard? Someone talk me down.

[SNPA]

Asking again….isn’t this guy a lead guard hiding in plain sight?

[Chi town]

Asking again….isn’t this guy a lead guard hiding in plain sight?

I think so.

Question is off the bench or starter.

See him as off the bench or secondary playmaker as a starter.

[SNPA]

Asking again….isn’t this guy a lead guard hiding in plain sight?

I think so.

Question is off the bench or starter.

See him as off the bench or secondary playmaker as a starter.

He goes lotto? I’m seeing him mocked lower. I’m not understanding why.

[Chi town]

Asking again….isn’t this guy a lead guard hiding in plain sight?

I think so.

Question is off the bench or starter.

See him as off the bench or secondary playmaker as a starter.

He goes lotto? I’m seeing him mocked lower. I’m not understanding why.

Shot has a ways to go and it’s always tough projecting well a guy that isn’t a great athlete.