greg4012 wrote:Since we're in the midst of a bit of a deep dive on Ben Saraf, I wanted to better understand the context around his FIBA U18 Tournament MVP. From what I can gather, this is an annual FIBA European Championship for U18 players from all Euro nations that usually gets the best of the best. It has been going on for over 20 years.
Last year's U18 tournament included potential first round picks in this year's draft, including Noa Essengue, Kasparas Jakucionis, Nolan Traore, and Hugo Gonzalez.
While Israel came in 4th (?) in the tournament, Ben Saraf was named the MVP of the 7 game tournament putting up 28.1 ppg, 5 rpg, 5.3 apg (2.4 topg), and 5 stockspg while shooting 45% overall (36% 3pt on 6.7 3PA per game; 76% FT on 8 FTA per game). You can find his stats here:
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-u18-eurobasket-2024/teams/israel/295661-ben-sarafThe next highest scorer in the tournament was at 21.6 ppg.
From my count, over the past 20 years only 28 players have averaged over 20 ppg in this FIBA U18 tournament and Ben Saraf's 28 ppg was the highest of them all.
During this span, the following NBA players have all taken part in this tournament:
Nikola Topic (15 ppg & 5 apg)
Tidjaune Salaun
Santi Aldama (18 ppg)
Franz Wagner (13 ppg)
Alperen Sengun (11.9 ppg)
Sekou Dombouya (17.8 ppg)
Isaiah Hartenstein (14.7 ppg)
Frank Ntilinkina (15 ppg)
Lauri Markkannen (18.2 ppg)
Furkan Korkmaz (16.1 ppg)
Ivica Zubac (15.8 ppg)
Domantas Sabonis (15.9 ppg)
Dario Saric (25.6 ppg)
Jonas Valanciunas (19.4 ppg)
Davis Bertans (~15 ppg)
Evan Fournier (12.4 ppg)
Enes Kanter (19.1 ppg)
Kostas Koufos (26.5 ppg)
Ricky Rubio (19.1 ppg & 5 apg)
Omri Casspi (21.4 ppg)
Nic Batum (14.3 ppg)
You can look thru the tournament stat history here:
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/history/263-fiba-u18-eurobasketDefinitely an impressive data point for Saraf. Doesn't mean everything, but it means something to see him operate as a high level scorer among the best of his age group throughout Europe (and see how that compares contextually to other NBA players). In particular, I appreciate seeing the good 3pt shooting for this stretch and wonder if he was playing more of a SG role in this tourney and thus allowed to hunt some more perimeter looks offball.
I think I'm trending towards buying into Saraf as a similar and slightly better prospect than Nikola Topic from last year (chosen 12th by OKC)
Saraf played at every position including minutes as center in Euro U18 because Israel U18 had best guards (Omer Mayer is half year younger than Saraf and may be 2026 2nd round prospect) and worst forwards/centers in tournament.
Anyway speaking about his performance which arguably was the best performance by any player on Euro U18 in many years
It's not just that he scored 28 pts. He had 2 40 pts games in playoff- against Spain and in heartbreaking semifinal 2OT loss to Serbia (Saraf scored go-ahead ISO basket 2 sec to the end of first overtime, Serbia tied after questionable foul call... At the end Serbia won with 3P on buzzer). The most interesting game though was QF against France with Essengue, Traore, and Beringer. Saraf got into fouls trouble (argued with referee about questionable call - got both foul and tech...) so he was limited to 25 min. He still managed 23 pts (7/19 FG, 4/8 3P, 5/6 FT), 5 rbs, 5 ast (0 to), 2 stl, 1 blk (on Traore), +/- +16. Israel won rather easily 85:72. Essengue had good game with 28 pts, 7rbs. Beringer was mostly invisible with 8 pts, 7 rbs... Traore was smothered by Israeli defense 12 pts (4/10 FG, 2/5 3P, 2/6 FT) , 7rbs, 9 ast - but 8 turnovers, +/- -12.
To get feel what stats other prospects comparing to Saraf's in same tournament:
Ben Saraf 28.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 5.3 apg (2.4 topg), and 5.0 stockspg , 44.7% overall (36.2% 3pt on 6.7 3PA per game; 75.9% FT on 8.3 FTA per game)
vs
Kasparas Jakucionis 19.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 5.3 apg (4.4 topg), and 2.3 stockspg , 46.6% overall (31.9% 3pt on 6.7 3PA per game; 80.6% FT on 4.4 FTA per game) - same number of assists but huge amount of turnovers, same number of 3PA with less success, 5% better FT%
Hugo Gonzales 20.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.6 apg (3.6 topg), and 4.7 stockspg , 43.6% overall (20.8% 3pt on 6.9 3PA per game; 68.8% FT on 6.9 FTA per game) - horrible 3P shooting, more turnovers than assists, considerably worse FT%
Nolan Traore 14.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 9.3 apg (4.7 topg), and 2.0 stockspg , 49.4% overall (42.9% 3pt on 3.0 3PA per game; 61.9% FT on 3.0 FTA per game) - led in assists by a lot with ast/to > 2, good 3P shooting but on low volume, bad FT also on low volume and generally low usage
Noa Essengue 17.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.4 apg (2.3 topg), and 2.0 stockspg , 49.4% overall (8.3% 3pt on 1.7 3PA per game; 69.1% FT on 8.0 FTA per game) - efficient 2P scoring due to athletic advantage on players his age (let's not talk about 3P%), ok-ish FT% for PF, 17 ast to 16 tov
Joan Beringer 9.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg,1.0 apg (0.3 topg), and 1.4 stockspg , 68.9% overall (0/2 3pt ; 2/6 FT for whole tournament) - efficient in very secondary role
Dame Sarr 13.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.7 apg (3.1 topg), and 3.8 stockspg , 34.1% overall (21.2% 3pt on 4.7 3PA per game; 59.2% FT on 7.0 FTA per game) - very raw in every possible way with horrible shooting splits.
