There is some serious under estimation of euro teams going on here. Top Euro pro teams are way better than the NCAA let alone high school teams. They consist of adults who play basketball professionally not kids going to school as guys like Jennings and Tyler found out. Drafting guys who are successful there is probably a safer bet to succeed in the NBA than guys who are successful in the NCAA.
That's fairly subjective but a pretty good list. 3 Euros 17 products of American high schools and colleges. I just don't see where its a safer bet to select players from a Euro team. First off, only the best of the best Euros can even think of making it over in the NBA. Also, the "men" playing in Europe are not the ones being drafted, the Euro kids are. The Euro "men" are players that decided to stay home and play or knew they weren't good enough to play in the NBA or tried and failed playing in the NBA, for the most part.
So it comes down to where is the talent and are they properly prepared. As the above list shows, the talent is in the USA, for the most part. And the colleges and prep schools don't seem to have a problem creating professional basketball players out of that talent for the NBA, they have been doing it for 60 years.
So until I see a statistical study telling me its safer to choose a Euro than a American kid, I will just refuse to believe that. Then again, I am not sure of the connotation of safer here. Does that mean they are less likely to not make it in the league? Does that mean they are more likely to meet pre-draft scouting expectations? Does that mean they have a higher incidence of eventual success as compared to their piers chosen in the same spots in the draft? And will this study reflect that many Euro draft selections are not based solely on talent but have a lot to do with affordability and availability of these players because of the contracts they have already signed in Europe?
1. Only the best of the best ANYWHERE can play in the NBA. Most guys in college and high school cannot play in the NBA.
2. The competition in Euro is nothing like the competition at the NCAA. The NCAA is a bunch of kids playing for a make-believe championship that's worth nothing. The Pro leagues are making a living playing basketball. We are not drafting grown men, but kids who learned how to fight against grown men.
3. If your argument is that most talented players in the world are produced in America, no one is arguing with you. That is an obvious fact because a) Basketball is an American sport. b) America is ahead of the world in sports science c) America has a hundred times more youth training and funding.
4. I was not one of the people claiming that it is "safer" to pick an Euro. However, if someone is successful in Europe that is a much better indication to me that he is ready for the NBA than if some one is successful in the NCAA. A lot of the Euro "busts" are not guys who are successful in Euro, but kids drafted on potential like Anjinca and Vesely. These guys are projects just like Drummond or McGee.
Drafting Rudy Gobert, and to some extent Dario Saric and Giannis Antetokoumpo would be mostly on potential. While drafting Dennis Schroeder or Sergey Karasev would be taking guys who have shown they can succeed against pro level competition.
I think Yogi's point about potential is a very good one. Maybe it's too simplistic to look at Europe as a single entity, and generalize. Guys who have top league experience or are older are pretty safe bets.
However, most of this year's Euros seem to be more of the "potential" types: Giannis, Gobert, Schroeder, Saric, Nogueira etc. are all very young and/or have played in leagues below the top ones. Even Schroeder's league is strictly a "B" level of competition for Europe.
Hard to view any of those guys as coming from the "safe" category.
Karasev seems to have the most top-level experience. He seems to fall more into the safe group. But I'm certainly no expert on these guys.
Topic: Euro league picks are becoming the safest in draft (where i think DA looks) (Read 5910 times)