Scout’s Take On The Spurs Prospects In Europe
From Tony Parker to Manu Ginobili to Tiago Splitter the Spurs are legendary for their ability to find and cultivate talent overseas. Since Tiago’s rookie season in 2010, the Spurs have been on a bit of a dry spell bringing prospects over (there was that year and a half of Nando). However, since the 2011 draft the defending champs have been rebuilding the European pipeline and that couldn’t come at a better time as a time of transition is coming sooner than later.
Scouting Europe from the U.S. with the internet as your only tool can be tricky, but I felt like we were long overdue for a Euro update. Sam Meyerkopf is both a college basketball and European scout who runs the website Euroleague Adventures. He’s spent a bunch of time overseas and was kind enough to give me scouting reports on Davis Bertans, Adam Hanga, Deshaun Thomas, Nemanja Dangubic and Livio Jean-Charles. This is the one time you will read the name Ryan Richards in this post and that is to say the crew at 48 Minutes of Hell has given up on him. Anyways, here’s Sam.
Davis Bertans (F, Baskonia, 11.2 ppg, 37% 3P):
Elite, elite shooter. Stretch 4, I guess he could play some 3 too but he’s a stretch 4 in Europe. One of the best shooters in Europe. Caja has had kind of a crazy season. Tons of signings and cuts but they have settled down some and are in the Euroleague Top 16 and are coming on in the ACB.
I wouldn’t say Bertans is a good defender, he’s not that quick. Nikola Mirotic (Note: I asked if Mirotic was in any way a good comparison) is a way better all-around player and accomplished a lot more over in Europe. Mirotic also played just the 4 in Europe. Bertans, if the Spurs want to bring over an off the bench scorer would fill in nicely. He did have the acl injury last year so some concerns but has looked good this year.
Adam Hanga (G/F, Avellino, 10.5 ppg, 2.1 spg):
Hanga is an athlete. Saw him in Spain a couple years back and he had some real rim rattlers. Really Manresa is one of the lowest level teams in Spain and Hanga wasn’t quite ready for the jump to Vitoria. Plus he had major leg surgery in the summer and wasn’t healthy till after the season had already begun. At this point it will be tough for him to make the NBA. Lega A (the Italian league he’s currently playing in) is few notches below the ACB in terms of talent and quality of teams.
Deshaun Thomas (F, FC Barcelona, 8.26 ppg, 52% FG):
Thomas is having a really good season for FC Barcelona. A lot of people were surprised he got the bump up to Barcelona this summer after only one season in Europe and especially because he was signed to be a 3 and was normally a stretch 4 and even 5 at times in France his rookie season. But Thomas has proven to be a physical force rebounding and defensively at the 3 and has been shooting well enough to make it work. Still not sure if he’s an NBA 3 but has proved a quality role on one of the best teams in Europe this season.
Nemanja Dangubic (F, Zvezda, 4.9 ppg, 15 mpg):
He isn’t playing much because Red Star is a really good team and he isn’t quite ready to be a high-level player on a team that good. He’s playing off the ball mainly but isn’t hitting his shots. Dangubic came on the scene last year and is still seen as pretty raw. He’s young, athletic, and has shown good shooting potential but it all hasn’t come together yet as he’s taken a step up in the quality of team he is on this season.
Livio Jean-Charles (F, Asvel, 2.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg):
I loved Livio when I see him live at Hoop Summitt. Wrote a bunch about him at the time on my site. He was MVP of the game but all week was the main hustle guy at practice. Rebounding, hit mid rangers, doing a bit of everything. Injury really hurt his progression. Out all last season and hasn’t found his role this year. Team has had a weird season. Almost won Euroleague qualifying tournament but lost championship game and started a downward spiral. Bad performance for one of highest budgets in France, fired their coach, transferred their star player (Edwin Jackson) to Barcelona. But Livio still doesn’t have one way in the NBA or Europe really to score consistently and will need a fair amount of time to develop. But don’t lose all hope. He’s a 1993 but I’d say more likely plays his career in Europe.
A couple of things that surprised me from what Sam had to say. First was that Bertans is primarily playing power forward. I think that’s a good thing because ultimately he’ll never have the lateral quickness or the ball handling ability to play small forward. Now he just needs to gain some weight so he can defend power forwards. Second thing that stood out is how well Deshaun Thomas is playing at small forward. That’s not surprising on the offensive end. Whether it was in college or the last couple of summer leagues, Thomas’ offensive skill set shined through. But to hear he’s become a presence on defense is encouraging, even if there is an athletic difference between Spanish ACB and the NBA. Still, it sounds like he’s learning to use the physical attributes he does possess on defense to compensate for what he lacks. To me, that sums up the kind of intelligent player the Spurs crave. Finally, it was encouraging to see that Sam hasn’t given up on Livio Jean-Charles. The numbers are so discouraging, but Sam’s right, Livio is young and sometimes young guys just don’t get that much run in Europe.
There’s a peak at the future. Some of it’s encouraging, some of it makes you shrug your shoulders, but that’s kind of how it goes when you’re evaluating prospects.
