Overseas Round-Up: Early-Season Sleepers

The international basketball season is reaching the one-month mark and some prospects have already started making their case ahead of the 2023 NBA Draft.

As many international basketball leagues hit the one-month mark, some names that weren't initially projected to be NBA prospects have been standing out in their respective domestic leagues. In this edition of Overseas Round-Up, we take a look at two different international prospects, their play in the early stretch of the season and how they project as potential NBA Draft picks.

Is Armel Traore Hidden in Plain Sight?

Imagine that you are a young player and you are teammates with the most over-analyzed NBA Draft prospect since LeBron James. The good news is, you have a clear opportunity to be noticed, considering that everybody in the basketball world is watching your games. However, the fact that people are watching your games doesn’t necessarily mean they are paying attention to you, specifically.

Armel Traore is a 6-foot-8 forward who plays right next to Victor Wembanyama in Metropolitans 92. Traore, who will turn 20 years old in January, has been a stand out for a number of years in the European youth basketball circuit, mainly due to his impressive physical tools and athleticism. This year, Traore seems to have taken the next step, turning what once was raw athleticism into actual tools that contribute to winning.

In his final game before heading to the US for two very publicized match ups against G League Ignite, Traore exploded for 16 points while adding six rebounds, two steals and a block in a win against Le Portel. Traore showed his athleticism by finishing at the rim with power, but also on the defensive end of the floor, where he was a factor not only as a rim protector, but also as a perimeter defender, containing drivers in with his lateral mobility.

Went back and watched some of the minutes from Armel Traore 🇫🇷 (2003) from early in the season and there's a lot to like there. Explosive 6'8" forward with potential as a versatile defender and an improving catch-and-shoot game. A potential sleeper to track during the season. pic.twitter.com/RJnqX1rtNz

— Ignacio Rissotto (@eyreball) October 20, 2022

It’s still early in the season and Traore hasn’t played nearly enough to corroborate if those flashes of potential are actually sustainable: since the Le Portel match, Trarore has averaged just about nine minutes per game. If he can find consistent minutes in Metropolitans’ rotation and is able to maintain his productivity, it’s easy to envision a team being interested in his profile as a 3-and-D forward with optimal physical tools. All that is needed is for a team to look his way.

Marek Blazevic and the Value of Specialization

The late second round of the NBA Draft is often referred to as a “crapshoot”, and as such, some of the low-floor/high-ceiling bets of the draft are made between 45th and the 60th selections in the draft.

When it comes to international prospects, however, there are a few examples of players selected late in the second round who break that mold. Generally older, medium-floor/low-ceiling players who are drafted after having at least one full season of solid production under their belt, while playing major minutes in a top-tier international league. The common thread between those players is generally their consistency at one specific basketball skill which could turn them into specialists down the line.

One prospect who is starting to play his way into that conversation is Marek Blazevic, a 21 year old, 6-foot-11 Lithuanian center who is currently playing for Obradoiro in the Spanish ACB. He has been very productive during the early stretch of the season, averaging 9.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.8 blocks on 57.3% True Shooting.

Blazevic plays as a traditional offensive center who is extremely polished at making shots around the basket. He shows a combination of size, footwork, coordination and touch below the rim which makes him a scoring threat in the paint both in post-ups and in easy catch-and-finish situations despite not being especially explosive as a finisher at the rim.

Compilation of Marek Blazevic 🇱🇹 (2001) scoring on the interior in the current ACB season. While his archetype might not be extremely enticing from an NBA standpoint, his ability to create his own shot in the paint with his combination of touch and footwork is undeniable pic.twitter.com/FGeutSHmFg

— Ignacio Rissotto (@eyreball) October 21, 2022

Despite his productivity, Blazevic’s case as an NBA prospect begins to turn flimsy when looking at his defensive profile. His impact when defending away from the rim ranges from non-existent to negative, as he is not really switchable in space, and even his rim protection is limited given his lack of explosiveness off a standstill.

The bottom line is that Blazevic does one thing really well, which is scoring at the rim, and NBA teams have shown they value older international specialists (like 2017 Draft pick Sasha Vezenkov or 2019 pick Vanja Marinkovic) enough to draft them in the late second round. It sounds like a stretch, but at the end of the day, it just takes one team who values Blazevic and his interior self-creation enough to overlook the defensive limitations.

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