Question for International Basketball fans. Who are top prospects from your country?

[Sofia]

A few second rounders this year in Rocco Zikarsky, relatively mobile 7’3 18 year old, Alex Toohey is a 6’8 wing who has good skills but need to shoot better from range, Ty Proctor started at Duke as a 40% 3p shooting guard with decent size

Dash Daniels in 2026 is where it’s at

Do you believe in Zikarsky? I know he looked super promising in youth tournaments as 7'3 unicorn type, but I heard he was not good at all in men leagues so far, but of course he is young. So what do you think, he can still be unicorny good, or is he just typical youth mediocrity who just dominated kids cause he had huge size advantage?

Dash Daniels looks dope.

I saw Zikarsky in last years Albert-Schweitzer Tournament. I dunno...At the end he always had great statistics and Australia of course also played well. But I never had the feeling he really dominated. He was just somehow "there", his size helped a lot and of course his shooting touch is really great for his size. But how translateable is all of this this to mens basketball, especially on international level?

That’s a pretty good summary of his play that I’ve seen in the NBL so far - he’s there, but he’s not dominating. His team was a bit of a mess in his rookie year, and he seems to share minutes more than I would hope, but that’s also more along the style that minutes are distributed in the NBL as a 40 minute game.

His body should fill out a bit too, which will help him be a bit more physically intimidating, he has a frame that doesn’t look like he remain a stick for his early 20s (any Aussies remember Sam Harris?)

[Sgt Major]

Nikola Topić - no idea how will he develop, as a nasty injury kept him away from the court all season. Given how Oklahoma played this year and what they've done, I wonder if he will get any significant minutes onward.

Nikola Djurisic - honestly, I don't know anything about him, as he didn't play for Partizan or KK Crvena zvezda FMP Beograd Diva Pudlica Zeleznik, but he's 21 and drafted by the Heat, so we'll see how that goes.


Of course, there's Nikola Jovic as well, but he's a seasoned NBA player now, so no need to talk about him here I guess.

Heat??? Dont you mean the Hawks? Thats where he got injured right?

From his Wikipedia page:


Career information
NBA draft 2024: 2nd round, 43rd overall pick
Drafted by Miami Heat
Playing career 2020–present


Damn: But you're right, he's on the Hawks:

On 27 June 2024, Đurišić was selected with the 43rd overall pick by the Miami Heat in the 2024 NBA draft, however, immediately on draft night, he was traded along with cash to the Atlanta Hawks via a three-way trade with the Houston Rockets.

[Mr Puddles]

Honestly, when it comes to the Netherlands, there are too many solid options to choose from. But if you twist my arm and force me to pick one, then I’m going to have to go with Chriet Titulaer.

[Calvin Klein]

I have no idea.

[Mirotic12]

Neo Avdalas and Alex Samodurov are those types of young players that you can obviously just see have talent and potential.

But they are also the types that might not ever reach potential. Avdalas intends to be a point guard. He intends to play with the ball in his hands as a point guard. He is developing his whole game and play style around being a point guard.

So that is going to make his trajectory much harder, versus if he just played as a three. But he does have the talent and skill to be a point guard. Nonetheless, being a point guard is going to be a harder career path for a 6-8 barefoot guy.

He should probably focus on being a three with good size, that has a good handle, can create for himself and others, and that can score at all three levels. That's what he clearly has the potential to be, and that's an easier developmental path than trying to be a huge point guard.

Samodurov is thin, and too weak physically for a big. He can have a tendency to sometimes play soft and passive on offense, and also just stand and shoot threes too much, despite that he's 6-11 and very mobile and athletic.

If he develops his body a lot, he could be a modern style stretch five with mobility, athleticism, and explosiveness. If he doesn't develop his body, he's a stretch four, where he won't be as valuable in terms of athleticism and mobility.

So both of them could end up being really good, or just be really talented guys. They both definitely fit the molds of what the modern NBA wants though.

[Mirotic12]

Vangelis Zougris is a workhorse and physical beast. He's so competitive and tough, and really smart.

He has a great basketball IQ, great fundamentals all around on offense and defense. His level of physicality, hustle, and motor are really impressive.

He rebounds like a beast, he defends like a beast, he attacks the rim like a beast.

The beast word gets thrown around for a lot of players, but he's truly a beast. He's playing the game to just physically destroy the other team. If he's on the floor, the other team has to deal with a massive body all over the floor, being as physical as possible against everyone.

He can guard the switches, out on the perimeter. He's a perfect guy for that modern day small ball five that can cover the switches on defense, run the floor on offense, and play as the rim runner on the pick.

But he's also got low and high post moves, a hook shot, the Georgios Printezis push shot that Vassilis Spanoulis worked on with him, and he's a really good passer and has great court vision.

The best thing about him for me is his motor. He's going to hustle, play tough defense, fight for loose balls, crash the boards, bang in the post, protect the paint, guard on the perimeter, go track down rebounds, run the floor, play help defense. He's got the kind of activity, awareness, and motor that is almost impossible to find in a center.

He was a personal project of Spanoulis for two years, and you can see it in how he plays. He's so very fundamentally sound on setting screens, on knowing what the point guard wants him to do on the pick, with his low post moves and footwork, with how he passes out of the post, and how he reads the defense in general.

But who knows how his career ends up, or how good he will be. He's an old school archetype that for the most part, doesn't really exist in the game anymore. A physical beast enforcer type, like an old school NBA power foward. He's also probably veiwed by a lot of talent evaluators as being limited to the modern small ball five role.

He's not good enough at shooting free throws, and he doesn't shoot 3s, long 2s, or even mid-range 2s. So for a lot of teams and coaches, he might not be seen as having a role on offense, other than setting screens and dives to the basket.

But a basketball purist has just got to love a player like him. If the NBA was still playing in the style of the '80s and '90s, he would for sure be a starting power forward in the NBA.

But in the modern NBA, I don't see players like him. In the current EuroLeague, he fits the small ball five role good. The thing is though, he's so much more skilled and fundamentally sound than any of the small ball fives in Europe. So it would be unfortunate if he is just limited to a role like that, due to his height.

[KGtabake]

Guy from NBA big board pod loves Avdalis. He thinks he can be point guard, but I know he is like 6'8, so I assume you don't see him as point in higher levels? I believe Avdalis himself compared his game to Luka's, of course he probably meant style of play and not level of play. I remember Avdalis being youngest player to ever play in Euroleague, but I mean by play, just to appear there for a few seconds I suppose, As Euroleague fan I don't remember him at all, but yeah, I know people who are very high on him and think he just had terrible opportunity to showcase himself so far in Greece.

Samodurov got some burn in that meaningless third place game, and he looked pretty fine, but he also fouled out in less than 13 minutes. That was first time seeing him for me, I was not sure he was greek tho since Samodurov sounds more Macedonian, slavic, I didn't know his first name was Alexandros, thats unmistakenly greek.

Avdalas has an NBA ready body. He's a gym rat and it shows. What he meant i guess is that he wants to be all around like Luka offensively, not just score. He can put the ball down and facilitate but i don't think he'll ever be that good to play point.
He will be a top15 pick next season i think. Lots of potential but if he doesn't work hard he will remain a talent. Got injured before the season ended and i wasn't able to watch him more.
Deni Avdija would have been a better comparison if Avdalas reach his potential.

Samodurov is the most intriguing. He has the shot blocking and rim protecting abilities and shows he has a range shooting wise which is the intriguing part.
He isn't too good in reading and reacting to picks yet.
He needs to bulk up. He's way too skinny at the moment. Once that is achieved i think he will be a great all around defender.
His offensive arsenal and potential is what makes him a great prospect.

Zougris is a hard working dude. He has passion and heart. Remains to be seen how hia game will develop even more in college. Haven't watched him that much either aside the National Team's Youth tournaments.

Outside of Giannis, seems like Greece never had players who would make or be successful in the NBA, do you think there is nothing to that, or there is something that just does not make greeks that much suited for NBA game? Greeks used to have some of the best non NBA players in Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Spanoulis and Bourousis, but none of them really make NBA. Greece famously beat USA in 2006 and their players were very very good, but they unmistakenly played different style form Americans.

In 00s, I always thought that outside Spain, teams like Greece and Lithuania were most dangerous opponents for the AMericans, because they just played that totally different, high IQ game, and if they force their style onto the match, Americans were in trouble. I remember seeing USA fans who are not familiar with European players think that teams like France are biggest threads, because they have more NBA players, but 00s France was athletic poor mans USA team, and I think they never threatened the Americans, because you can't beat USA at their own game, you beat them with guys like Papaloukas and Jasikevicius.

Greeks don't like living and playing outside Greece. And when they do, they're coming back eventually(Papaloukas or Sloukas for example).

It's the reason you didn't see many top players play in Spain or Italy or Russia.

Diamantidis and Papaloukas didn't want to play in the NBA.
Diamantidis even said once that he wasn't good enough and Obradovic couldn't believe it.

Papaloukas had an offer to join the Celtics in the summer of 2007. He wanted to leave CSKA. He preferred Olympiacos. That summer the Celtics traded for KG and Ray. And after Papaloukas denied the offer, Rajon Rondo happened.
Who knows how would history be written if Pap had joined Boston back then.

Spanoulis wanted to play in the NBA. But he wasn't patient. Yes he didn't succeed on the first season with the Rockets but if he tried more, he would have stayed and have a good career imo.
If not on the Rockets, somewhere else.
He preferred to return to Greece and Panathinaikos.

Giannis above everything has created a love for the NBA league. I think youngsters nowadays see him as a role model above Diamantidis or Spanoulis etc.
And that's great because it can help the national team. Our disadvantage the previous 15 years aside from the drop-off in talent has been that we didn't develop the game more. We stayed with the ways the game was played 20 years ago.

Greece hasn't got shooters. In the era of shooting the country doesn't have shooters.

That next generation has talent but that doesn't mean much. I hope that playing overseas and develop different skills can help.

I only feel bad for Giannis. He gave so much, yet he was unlucky to play when all the greats had stopped.

[tbhawksfan1]

France is sending them over in waves and tsunamis the last few years

[TheGeneral99]

The international powerhouses for most of the 2000s and 2010s were Spain, Argentina and Lithuania.

Today it's France, Canada, and Serbia.

[UcanUwill]

Avdalas has an NBA ready body. He's a gym rat and it shows. What he meant i guess is that he wants to be all around like Luka offensively, not just score. He can put the ball down and facilitate but i don't think he'll ever be that good to play point.
He will be a top15 pick next season i think. Lots of potential but if he doesn't work hard he will remain a talent. Got injured before the season ended and i wasn't able to watch him more.
Deni Avdija would have been a better comparison if Avdalas reach his potential.

Samodurov is the most intriguing. He has the shot blocking and rim protecting abilities and shows he has a range shooting wise which is the intriguing part.
He isn't too good in reading and reacting to picks yet.
He needs to bulk up. He's way too skinny at the moment. Once that is achieved i think he will be a great all around defender.
His offensive arsenal and potential is what makes him a great prospect.

Zougris is a hard working dude. He has passion and heart. Remains to be seen how hia game will develop even more in college. Haven't watched him that much either aside the National Team's Youth tournaments.

Outside of Giannis, seems like Greece never had players who would make or be successful in the NBA, do you think there is nothing to that, or there is something that just does not make greeks that much suited for NBA game? Greeks used to have some of the best non NBA players in Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Spanoulis and Bourousis, but none of them really make NBA. Greece famously beat USA in 2006 and their players were very very good, but they unmistakenly played different style form Americans.

In 00s, I always thought that outside Spain, teams like Greece and Lithuania were most dangerous opponents for the AMericans, because they just played that totally different, high IQ game, and if they force their style onto the match, Americans were in trouble. I remember seeing USA fans who are not familiar with European players think that teams like France are biggest threads, because they have more NBA players, but 00s France was athletic poor mans USA team, and I think they never threatened the Americans, because you can't beat USA at their own game, you beat them with guys like Papaloukas and Jasikevicius.

Greeks don't like living and playing outside Greece. And when they do, they're coming back eventually(Papaloukas or Sloukas for example).

It's the reason you didn't see many top players play in Spain or Italy or Russia.

Diamantidis and Papaloukas didn't want to play in the NBA.
Diamantidis even said once that he wasn't good enough and Obradovic couldn't believe it.

Papaloukas had an offer to join the Celtics in the summer of 2007. He wanted to leave CSKA. He preferred Olympiacos. That summer the Celtics traded for KG and Ray. And after Papaloukas denied the offer, Rajon Rondo happened.
Who knows how would history be written if Pap had joined Boston back then.

Spanoulis wanted to play in the NBA. But he wasn't patient. Yes he didn't succeed on the first season with the Rockets but if he tried more, he would have stayed and have a good career imo.
If not on the Rockets, somewhere else.
He preferred to return to Greece and Panathinaikos.

Giannis above everything has created a love for the NBA league. I think youngsters nowadays see him as a role model above Diamantidis or Spanoulis etc.
And that's great because it can help the national team. Our disadvantage the previous 15 years aside from the drop-off in talent has been that we didn't develop the game more. We stayed with the ways the game was played 20 years ago.

Greece hasn't got shooters. In the era of shooting the country doesn't have shooters.

That next generation has talent but that doesn't mean much. I hope that playing overseas and develop different skills can help.

I only feel bad for Giannis. He gave so much, yet he was unlucky to play when all the greats had stopped.

I could have sweared it was the Lakers who offered Papaploukas big contract, almost 7 million dollars, which was a lot at a time for a guy who never played in the NBA, but at the end, Papaloukas declined. Papaloukas and Diamantidis were definitely NBA caliber players, I think they were more NBA material than Spanoulis, with Spanoulis you can see why he wouldn't be very good there, of course as you said, he was inpatient. Some people who crap on Euro ball, till this day bring up Spanoulis, but you really think Spanoulis couldn't have figured out this league, the same size was like 32 games with him. Also, back in 2006, Spanoulis was far from his prime, he peaked in the 10s.

I never thought of Greeks as ones not wanting to leave Greece, It is definitely the case with American and Russian athletes, it is very clear, but those countries have very strong domestic cultures and they kinda live in a bubble, where they do not know how outside countries are a like and they want to stay home fopr the most part.

[UcanUwill]

The international powerhouses for most of the 2000s and 2010s were Spain, Argentina and Lithuania.

Today it's France, Canada, and Serbia.

Serbia was always a powerhouse, they had two major down years in 2005 and 2006, but then they retooled around Teodosic generation and were instantly great. I would also call Germany a current powerhouse, no one would want to paly them and they are world champions. Australia would be in my top 5 also.

[KGtabake]

Outside of Giannis, seems like Greece never had players who would make or be successful in the NBA, do you think there is nothing to that, or there is something that just does not make greeks that much suited for NBA game? Greeks used to have some of the best non NBA players in Diamantidis, Papaloukas, Spanoulis and Bourousis, but none of them really make NBA. Greece famously beat USA in 2006 and their players were very very good, but they unmistakenly played different style form Americans.

In 00s, I always thought that outside Spain, teams like Greece and Lithuania were most dangerous opponents for the AMericans, because they just played that totally different, high IQ game, and if they force their style onto the match, Americans were in trouble. I remember seeing USA fans who are not familiar with European players think that teams like France are biggest threads, because they have more NBA players, but 00s France was athletic poor mans USA team, and I think they never threatened the Americans, because you can't beat USA at their own game, you beat them with guys like Papaloukas and Jasikevicius.

Greeks don't like living and playing outside Greece. And when they do, they're coming back eventually(Papaloukas or Sloukas for example).

It's the reason you didn't see many top players play in Spain or Italy or Russia.

Diamantidis and Papaloukas didn't want to play in the NBA.
Diamantidis even said once that he wasn't good enough and Obradovic couldn't believe it.

Papaloukas had an offer to join the Celtics in the summer of 2007. He wanted to leave CSKA. He preferred Olympiacos. That summer the Celtics traded for KG and Ray. And after Papaloukas denied the offer, Rajon Rondo happened.
Who knows how would history be written if Pap had joined Boston back then.

Spanoulis wanted to play in the NBA. But he wasn't patient. Yes he didn't succeed on the first season with the Rockets but if he tried more, he would have stayed and have a good career imo.
If not on the Rockets, somewhere else.
He preferred to return to Greece and Panathinaikos.

Giannis above everything has created a love for the NBA league. I think youngsters nowadays see him as a role model above Diamantidis or Spanoulis etc.
And that's great because it can help the national team. Our disadvantage the previous 15 years aside from the drop-off in talent has been that we didn't develop the game more. We stayed with the ways the game was played 20 years ago.

Greece hasn't got shooters. In the era of shooting the country doesn't have shooters.

That next generation has talent but that doesn't mean much. I hope that playing overseas and develop different skills can help.

I only feel bad for Giannis. He gave so much, yet he was unlucky to play when all the greats had stopped.

I could have sweared it was the Lakers who offered Papaploukas big contract, almost 7 million dollars, which was a lot at a time for a guy who never played in the NBA, but at the end, Papaloukas declined. Papaloukas and Diamantidis were definitely NBA caliber players, I think they were more NBA material than Spanoulis, with Spanoulis you can see why he wouldn't be very good there, of course as you said, he was inpatient. Some people who crap on Euro ball, till this day bring up Spanoulis, but you really think Spanoulis couldn't have figured out this league, the same size was like 32 games with him. Also, back in 2006, Spanoulis was far from his prime, he peaked in the 10s.

I never thought of Greeks as ones not wanting to leave Greece, It is definitely the case with American and Russian athletes, it is very clear, but those countries have very strong domestic cultures and they kinda live in a bubble, where they do not know how outside countries are a like and they want to stay home fopr the most part.

Hundreds of islands and beaches. Sunny 8 months per year. Mediterranean climate and cuisine. And lots of models.

Why go to Florida when you can have it on your backyard?

On a side note, that's the reason i always laugh when i hear that Giannis would prefer to play in Miami over Milwaukee for example.
The guy is from Greece. Night clubs, beaches, weather and models are the last thing he seeks on his non holidays life.

[Mirotic12]

I could have sweared it was the Lakers who offered Papaploukas big contract, almost 7 million dollars, which was a lot at a time for a guy who never played in the NBA.

It's a complete myth. There was an interview some years back with Diamantidis and Papaloukas and they were asked about why they didn't accept NBA offers.

They said they never got any NBA offers. Papaloukas said he never was given any NBA offers.

Diamantidis said he did try for the NBA a couple of times, and his agent let it be known to NBA teams, but his agent never received a single offer from any NBA teams.

All of these supposed NBA offers that were turned down, or they didn't want to play in the NBA are just myths. They never got an offer from the NBA, so that's why they never played in the NBA.

From that same era, Navarro and Spanoulis did turn down a couple of NBA offers. And also Fran Vazquez of course. However, it's a myth that Diamantidis and Papaloukas did.

[AleksandarN]

The international powerhouses for most of the 2000s and 2010s were Spain, Argentina and Lithuania.

Today it's France, Canada, and Serbia.

Serbia was power house in the 2000s

[Mirotic12]

Serbia was always a powerhouse, they had two major down years in 2005 and 2006, but then they retooled around Teodosic generation and were instantly great. I would also call Germany a current powerhouse, no one would want to paly them and they are world champions. Australia would be in my top 5 also.

Serbia was power house in the 2000s

Serbia's national team didn't really start until 2007.

FR Yugoslavia was a power in the early 2000s. Regardless though, it wasn't the same team as Serbia's current national team.

I know every Serbian basketball fan claims it's the same team, but it really wasn't.

[Mirotic12]

For Greece it's Samodurov, Avdalas and Zougris.

I'd add John Poulakidas.

[AussieCeltic]

Do you believe in Zikarsky? I know he looked super promising in youth tournaments as 7'3 unicorn type, but I heard he was not good at all in men leagues so far, but of course he is young. So what do you think, he can still be unicorny good, or is he just typical youth mediocrity who just dominated kids cause he had huge size advantage?

Dash Daniels looks dope.

I saw Zikarsky in last years Albert-Schweitzer Tournament. I dunno...At the end he always had great statistics and Australia of course also played well. But I never had the feeling he really dominated. He was just somehow "there", his size helped a lot and of course his shooting touch is really great for his size. But how translateable is all of this this to mens basketball, especially on international level?

That’s a pretty good summary of his play that I’ve seen in the NBL so far - he’s there, but he’s not dominating. His team was a bit of a mess in his rookie year, and he seems to share minutes more than I would hope, but that’s also more along the style that minutes are distributed in the NBL as a 40 minute game.

His body should fill out a bit too, which will help him be a bit more physically intimidating, he has a frame that doesn’t look like he remain a stick for his early 20s (any Aussies remember Sam Harris?)

We have to remember he was 16 when he first started playing NBL and he held is on for the most part in limited mins.

His IQ wasn’t too great but that’s what you’d expect from a big man that age playing in the pros.

He’ll never be an all star but I believe he can be a rotational big at some point. It will take 4-5 years, but he’s got the work ethic, size, mobility and shooting touch for a guy that size.

[Mirotic12]

Neo Avdalas is a talented player with a lot of possibilities, if he properly pans out. But he had one of the greatest choke jobs I've ever seen in the quarterfinals game against France, at the Under 20 EuroBasket.

[BarbaGrizz]

Brazil have Mathias Alessanco Vasquez, a 17yo 6'9 SF playing in Spain and that already visited Texas and Michigan. If he keeps progressing at the current rate he´s a lock for a Top 10 pick.

As lesser prospects we also have Samis Calderon, a rookie playing for Kansas and Eduardo Klafke, who´ll be a sophmore for Ole Miss.

[penggemar]

I'm not French, but I have lived and worked there so they have a special place in my heart and always support and wish them success. The next batch of better French players are Hugo Y. Moukouri, Nathan Soliman, and Sayon Keita.