During last week in L’Hospitalet took place the prestigious XXXIX Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) qualifiers. Event was eventually won by Joventut, in the final vs Barça, but some more interesting teams such as Herbalife Gran Canarias or the ASVEL Villeurbanne participated. Personally I think the level shown by 2001 born guys has been superior comparing to the one given by ’00. Still, we could see some prospects who may appear in NBA Draft boards next years. Below my look at the best prospects from each team.

FC BARÇA LASSA

Luka Samanic (208 cm) from Croatia plays Forward for Barça. He is actually the best prospect of his generation from the tournament and maybe the only one beside Sekou Doumbouya of 2000 guys in general that can be first rounder in 2019 NBA draft. He was named unanimous MVP of the contest averaging 23.3 points, 14.8 rebounds, and 3 assists.

He has been doing a good tournament overall being undoubtedly the leader of his team taking the full responsibility as Tom Digbeu performed so so. Croatian prospect made strides in shooting and was able to score with a good percentage, even being well defended.

His desired physical profile makes him able to defend with a good strength. Moreover he has proper timing in defensive rotation as he made many blocks (2.8/game).

He also has good IQ, usually takes good decisions and has a good reading of situations on the post. Besides, what strongly surprised me is his big leadership attitude, willingness to be clutch and full engagement on defense.

DIVINA SEGUROS JOVENTUT BADALONA

Arturs Zagars (190 cm) from Latvia plays Guard for Joventut and averaged 14 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.3 assists.

Arturs has a good IQ and offensive organization capabilities thanks to good and creative passing. Also he plays really smartly and can dominate opponents with fantastic ball handling.

Overall I liked how he was able to make good decisions on the PnR knowing who to assist or when to shoot. Also he has some good shooting skills from the outside which he showed in the game against Hospitalet (7/9 on 3FG%). Despite that his resources to score when he’s not accurate on his shooting are a bit limited.

Think it’s interesting to talk about ‘01 Vinicius Da Silva (212 cm) from Brazil who finished the tournament averaging 8 points and 6.8 rebounds as well.

Vinicius recently joined the team in the Center role so it’s been short period but still has shown quite good adaptation.

He has been playing basketball for not a long time, so he still has room to improve.

Long skinny body still to develop but shows some good instinct to defend and intimidate. His shooting is not bad at all. He displayed some good offensive moves and aggressiveness around the rim.

PROMITHEAS PATRAS

Eleftherios Mantzoukas (204 cm) from Greece finished the tournament averaging 7 points and 5.7 rebounds.

Mantzoukas has such an impressive physic for a kid of his age. He was able to show good maturity and toughness (must take into consideration that he was playing against 2&3 years older guys). Due to his height, he was grabbing many rebounds.

He was also able to shoot from outside with a good efficiency and had a smart playing style what helped him to get some easy buckets.

ASVEL

Malcolm Cazalon (197 cm) from France plays Shooting-Guard for the French team and finished the tournament averaging 17 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 1.3 dimes.

Malcolm surprised me quite much. I was foreseeing him to do a good tournament but his appearance on it has been even better than expected.

He showed some amazing and privileged athleticism making him capable of dunking and making good slashes. Also he had a good instinct on creating his own shots, sometimes forcing the situation too much but still usually getting good results.

But his role in the game does not finish on what he does on the court. Even from the bench his attitude is leader type as he communicates with teammate and encourage them to put in extra work.

HERBALIFE GRAN CANARIAS

Olek Balcerowski (215 cm) from Poland takes the Center role and averaged during the tournament 12.3 points, 6 rebounds.

Olek has made a fair tournament even though I clearly expected something more from him. Obviously he has been dominating the zone due to his impressive height but he was looking somewhat soft in his approach for some stretches.

Despite that, his potential is amazing especially if he’s able to play with more toughness. He has lots of interesting moves and good IQ. Big time talent.

CB HOSPITALET

Adrián Rodríguez (185 cm) from Spain is guard for the hosting team who averaged 18 points, 4 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the tournament.

This guy was the main player of his team. He was scoring regularly and organized the game for his team. Nearly all possessions were starting on his hands.

Quite an electric guy with decent quickness who likes to speed up the game and had good decision making on fast breaks. He also excelled as a passer and was not highly individual. Made some really flashy plays. Not a bad shooter even though he needs to improve the decision making in that regard. Could also read the defense better  in half court and pass the ball instead of trying a hard layup.

His height and body may make it difficult for him to defend some kind of guards at pro level. He lacks strength and height.

VIRTUS BOLOGNA

Mikk Jurkatamm (195 cm) from Estonia plays Shooting-Guard for the Italian team. He averaged 19 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists.

Undoubtedly Mikk possess the shooter profile and his game style is based on the three-point stroke. He was carrying the offense of Virtus most of the time having good shooting selection and was a clear threat to the opposite team on the perimeter as well. Does not need the ball a lot so other players can try to score too. However when nobody else is able to take the responsibility he is reliable option.

Good body but his legs aren’t great and he can’t defend consistently quick guards.

UNICAJA MÁLAGA

Jesús Carralero (199 cm) from Spain played Small-Forward for the Andalusian team and finished the tournament averaging 15 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Carralero has a good physic. He was neither top scorer of his team nor had a good shooting from three. Despite that he has been, in my eyes, the guy with the biggest impact for his team. He was quite regular and got his buckets mainly thanks to his tough penetrations. Also he was getting a good number of rebounds but what I think surprised all of us has been his jumping capability. That combined with his aggressive attitude on the court on both ends made him able to block shots (2.5 per game) and produce some highlight reel dunks.