Petro fueling draft stock
By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
TREVISO, Italy -- The Reebok Big Man camp officially ended on Tuesday. Pavel Podkolzine is heading to the United States, meaning all of the talk of 7-foot-5 big men doing cross overs can finally stop.
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On Thursday it was on to the Reebok Eurocamp, where 50 of the best young players in Europe, regardless of size, began duking it out. Ironically, the buzz of the camp centered on three guys who all stood 7-feet or taller.
France's Johan Petro, Serbia's Mile Ilic and Lithuania's Martynas Andriuskevicus were the star attractions. All three players are in the draft and all have first-round potential. A couple of other draft-eligible players like Roko Leni Ukic and Croatia's Marko Tomas were also the center of much attention.
Here's a break down of who scouts were watching on Friday.
Martynas Andriuskevicius, PF/C, Lithuania
We gave you the skinny (literally) on Andruskevicius on Wednesday. He continued to show the same gave savvy, ball handling and shooting on the perimeter. However, on the 5-on-5 games in the camp, Andriuskevicius was forced to play inside and his lack of strength in the post continued to make him ineffective. He was guarded by Petro in the first game and struggled to get real position anywhere near the basket.
Petro was physical with Martynas and clearly it bothered him. In the second game on Friday morning, Andruskevicius was matched up against Ilic. Ilic is a much weaker defender than Petro, but Andriuskevicius still struggled. Only when he got out on the perimeter did he show flashes of what he's capable of doing. Everyone liked his effort in both games, but, as we said on Wednesday, he's probably several years away from being strong enough to make it the league.
My guess is that he'll pull out of the draft. The one team that would have to give him serious consideration is the Suns. But Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni insisted to me on Thursday that the team didn't give him a promise. That should be enough to push him back to Lithuania for another year.
Johan Petro, C, France
On Thursday the buzz centered on Petro. Petro worked out privately for the Jazz on Tuesday and then did a private head-to-head workout with Podkolzine in front of the Nuggets on Wednesday. After the workouts both teams came out with positive reviews of Petro.
On Thursday everyone else got to see why. Petro (who measured 7-1, 258 with a 7-2½ wingspan in Treviso) looked the part. He's tall, long and muscular with big hands and a decent base. He's a good athlete who can run the floor, elevate and he's not afraid to get physical. Physically, his body resembles a young Jermaine O'Neal. But he doesn't quite have the athleticism that O'Neal has.
With so few athletic centers in the draft with that type of body, the buzz was understandable. With that said, Petro still has a long way to go. Petro is a good, but not super athlete. He isn't very bouncy and is a little thicker than the elite athletes in the league. His vertical jump measures just 24 inches. He also still lacks great basketball instincts. Like Pavel, he often hesitates before going into his moves. He's not as raw as previous scouting reports have claimed, but overall he's still far from polished.
In Thursday's second five-on-five session, he was matched up against Andriuskevicius. Defensively he was pretty good and caused Martynas some problems. Offensively he really struggled. His reads were off, he had some embarrassing turnovers and he missed several layups because he miss-timed his jump. He played very hard, but was not aggressive at all on the boards or with his shot blocking.
On Friday morning it was a similar story. He showed a little ball handling, made some nice passes and had a few good moves in the paint, but for the most part he didn't make his presence felt.
A team that drafts him is going to want to probably keep him in Europe at least one more year, maybe two, to give him more game experience and playing time. Unless he was drafted by a really bad team, he probably doesn't play anyway.
I could see a team like the Hawks at No. 17, the Nuggets at No. 20, the Jazz at No. 21 or Blazers at No. 23 giving him a strong look. His agent claims that a pick in that range would probably be enough to keep him in the draft.
To me he's another Pavel -- an interesting prospect with great upside because of his body and athleticism. But he's still a long, long way away from being an impact player in the league.
Mile Ilic, C, Serbia
Ilic is one of the oldest prospects here in the camp and it showed. His maturity level, feel for the game and basketball instincts are more developed than most of the big men we've seen. Like most European centers, he has a very nice shooting touch, can handle the ball a little bit and is very effective working the pick and pop. He's a decent athlete for his size and runs the floor pretty well. He got some real playing time in Serbia this year, which helps.
On Friday he played better against a weaker opponent, Andriuskevicius, but still largely faded into the background. His feet aren't great, his lateral movement is just OK, and the few times he did make some nice moves around the basket he didn't finish. The good news is that he was a lot more aggressive on Friday. He attacked the rim offensively and was more active on the boards defensively -- but in reality there are 15 to 20 prospects here who just look better.
The two biggest issues for Ilic are his strength and his position. Ilic looks like he's never seen the inside of a weight room. He has zero muscle definition and is pretty thin. His frame is OK, but he's never going to be the type of big guy who will lower a shoulder on his defender. Because of that he spends a lot of time on the perimeter. Although he doesn't shy away from post contact, it isn't his strength.
A team that drafts him will want him to be a better rebounder and shot blocker. I just don't see how he's done enough to make it into the first round here. I know several NBA teams are fond of Ilic, but given the plethora of bigs in the draft, I think he'll get lost in the shuffle. I won't be shocked if he decides to pull out of the draft.
Roko Leni Ukic, PG, Croatia
Ukic made a splash at the Hoops Summit with his stellar defense on Sebastian Telfair. However, he was equally poor offensively, which probably ended up hurting his stock more than it should've.
In Trevisio, Ukic (6-foot-5, 183 pounds) seemed to have regained his offensive groove. He attacked the defense relentlessly and either dished off the pass to a teammate for a wide open jumper or attacked the rim. He's not known as much of a 3-point shooter, but Ukic was nailing shots from the perimeter all day Thursday.
He's got great size for a point guard, has excellent court vision and really excels when he's in the open court. However, he too struggled in 5-on-5 play on Thursday. Ukic is very quick and likes to push the ball, but at times he played out of control and sent passes flying out of bounds. He just had way too many turnovers. When his coach put in another point guard and moved Ukic to the two, he became less aggressive and passed up some wide open looks. While his shooting is as good as I've seen it, it's pretty clear he's still uncomfortable from deep range.
On Friday Ukic was better. He had several cross over moves that broke the ankles of his defenders, and got to the rim more effectively. He's the most polished point guard in the camp and has a great feel for what's going on the game. Scouts still think Ukic is an intriguing prospect because of his quickness, experience, aggressiveness and length at the position, but his erratic play probably means that he didn't really help his stock. The NBA scouts who I talked to all liked him a lot and felt that he had a shot at going in the late first round. However, chances are he too pulls out of the draft and tries again next year when he's more firmly planted on NBA scouts' radar. Ultimately I think Ukic will play in the league. I'm just not sure it will be this year.
Continued.............
By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider
TREVISO, Italy -- The Reebok Big Man camp officially ended on Tuesday. Pavel Podkolzine is heading to the United States, meaning all of the talk of 7-foot-5 big men doing cross overs can finally stop.
<LI>
On Thursday it was on to the Reebok Eurocamp, where 50 of the best young players in Europe, regardless of size, began duking it out. Ironically, the buzz of the camp centered on three guys who all stood 7-feet or taller.
France's Johan Petro, Serbia's Mile Ilic and Lithuania's Martynas Andriuskevicus were the star attractions. All three players are in the draft and all have first-round potential. A couple of other draft-eligible players like Roko Leni Ukic and Croatia's Marko Tomas were also the center of much attention.
Here's a break down of who scouts were watching on Friday.
Martynas Andriuskevicius, PF/C, Lithuania
We gave you the skinny (literally) on Andruskevicius on Wednesday. He continued to show the same gave savvy, ball handling and shooting on the perimeter. However, on the 5-on-5 games in the camp, Andriuskevicius was forced to play inside and his lack of strength in the post continued to make him ineffective. He was guarded by Petro in the first game and struggled to get real position anywhere near the basket.
Petro was physical with Martynas and clearly it bothered him. In the second game on Friday morning, Andruskevicius was matched up against Ilic. Ilic is a much weaker defender than Petro, but Andriuskevicius still struggled. Only when he got out on the perimeter did he show flashes of what he's capable of doing. Everyone liked his effort in both games, but, as we said on Wednesday, he's probably several years away from being strong enough to make it the league.
My guess is that he'll pull out of the draft. The one team that would have to give him serious consideration is the Suns. But Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni insisted to me on Thursday that the team didn't give him a promise. That should be enough to push him back to Lithuania for another year.
Johan Petro, C, France
On Thursday the buzz centered on Petro. Petro worked out privately for the Jazz on Tuesday and then did a private head-to-head workout with Podkolzine in front of the Nuggets on Wednesday. After the workouts both teams came out with positive reviews of Petro.
On Thursday everyone else got to see why. Petro (who measured 7-1, 258 with a 7-2½ wingspan in Treviso) looked the part. He's tall, long and muscular with big hands and a decent base. He's a good athlete who can run the floor, elevate and he's not afraid to get physical. Physically, his body resembles a young Jermaine O'Neal. But he doesn't quite have the athleticism that O'Neal has.
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[font=verdana, arial, geneva]Johan Petro[/font]Most importantly, he plays like a center on offense in drills and practice. Though Petro owns a fairly consistent jumper from 12 feet in, he likes to hang around the paint, lowers his shoulders into guys and was pretty aggressive attacking the rim. He dunks well off both two feet, blocks shots, rebounds and can be a solid defender when he wants to be. With so few athletic centers in the draft with that type of body, the buzz was understandable. With that said, Petro still has a long way to go. Petro is a good, but not super athlete. He isn't very bouncy and is a little thicker than the elite athletes in the league. His vertical jump measures just 24 inches. He also still lacks great basketball instincts. Like Pavel, he often hesitates before going into his moves. He's not as raw as previous scouting reports have claimed, but overall he's still far from polished.
In Thursday's second five-on-five session, he was matched up against Andriuskevicius. Defensively he was pretty good and caused Martynas some problems. Offensively he really struggled. His reads were off, he had some embarrassing turnovers and he missed several layups because he miss-timed his jump. He played very hard, but was not aggressive at all on the boards or with his shot blocking.
On Friday morning it was a similar story. He showed a little ball handling, made some nice passes and had a few good moves in the paint, but for the most part he didn't make his presence felt.
A team that drafts him is going to want to probably keep him in Europe at least one more year, maybe two, to give him more game experience and playing time. Unless he was drafted by a really bad team, he probably doesn't play anyway.
I could see a team like the Hawks at No. 17, the Nuggets at No. 20, the Jazz at No. 21 or Blazers at No. 23 giving him a strong look. His agent claims that a pick in that range would probably be enough to keep him in the draft.
To me he's another Pavel -- an interesting prospect with great upside because of his body and athleticism. But he's still a long, long way away from being an impact player in the league.
Mile Ilic, C, Serbia
Ilic is one of the oldest prospects here in the camp and it showed. His maturity level, feel for the game and basketball instincts are more developed than most of the big men we've seen. Like most European centers, he has a very nice shooting touch, can handle the ball a little bit and is very effective working the pick and pop. He's a decent athlete for his size and runs the floor pretty well. He got some real playing time in Serbia this year, which helps.
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[font=verdana, arial, geneva]Mile Ilic has some polish, but looks like he's never seen the inside of a weight room.[/font]However, in the five-on-five games on Thursday, Ilic was pretty disappointing. He didn't get involved offensively or defensively in either game. He wasn't rebounding, shot blocking or doing things in the post. He had a couple of shots from the elbow that went in, but for the most part the performance was bland at best. On Friday he played better against a weaker opponent, Andriuskevicius, but still largely faded into the background. His feet aren't great, his lateral movement is just OK, and the few times he did make some nice moves around the basket he didn't finish. The good news is that he was a lot more aggressive on Friday. He attacked the rim offensively and was more active on the boards defensively -- but in reality there are 15 to 20 prospects here who just look better.
The two biggest issues for Ilic are his strength and his position. Ilic looks like he's never seen the inside of a weight room. He has zero muscle definition and is pretty thin. His frame is OK, but he's never going to be the type of big guy who will lower a shoulder on his defender. Because of that he spends a lot of time on the perimeter. Although he doesn't shy away from post contact, it isn't his strength.
A team that drafts him will want him to be a better rebounder and shot blocker. I just don't see how he's done enough to make it into the first round here. I know several NBA teams are fond of Ilic, but given the plethora of bigs in the draft, I think he'll get lost in the shuffle. I won't be shocked if he decides to pull out of the draft.
Roko Leni Ukic, PG, Croatia
Ukic made a splash at the Hoops Summit with his stellar defense on Sebastian Telfair. However, he was equally poor offensively, which probably ended up hurting his stock more than it should've.
In Trevisio, Ukic (6-foot-5, 183 pounds) seemed to have regained his offensive groove. He attacked the defense relentlessly and either dished off the pass to a teammate for a wide open jumper or attacked the rim. He's not known as much of a 3-point shooter, but Ukic was nailing shots from the perimeter all day Thursday.
He's got great size for a point guard, has excellent court vision and really excels when he's in the open court. However, he too struggled in 5-on-5 play on Thursday. Ukic is very quick and likes to push the ball, but at times he played out of control and sent passes flying out of bounds. He just had way too many turnovers. When his coach put in another point guard and moved Ukic to the two, he became less aggressive and passed up some wide open looks. While his shooting is as good as I've seen it, it's pretty clear he's still uncomfortable from deep range.
On Friday Ukic was better. He had several cross over moves that broke the ankles of his defenders, and got to the rim more effectively. He's the most polished point guard in the camp and has a great feel for what's going on the game. Scouts still think Ukic is an intriguing prospect because of his quickness, experience, aggressiveness and length at the position, but his erratic play probably means that he didn't really help his stock. The NBA scouts who I talked to all liked him a lot and felt that he had a shot at going in the late first round. However, chances are he too pulls out of the draft and tries again next year when he's more firmly planted on NBA scouts' radar. Ultimately I think Ukic will play in the league. I'm just not sure it will be this year.
Continued.............
