By Eurohopes
After flying a bit under the radar at Nike International Junior Tournament qualification tournament in L’Hospitalet Alberto Abalde (’95) emerged as a fierce competition and led his Joventut Badalona to win it all in London, never scoring below 16 points in the final round. Even given his solid season in domestic competitions, Abalde’s explosion is a kind of a surprise. From averaging 9.8 points on 35,3% FG in L’Hospitalet, Spanish wing was Joventut’s go-to guy and eventually the tournament’s MVP with 17.8 points on 56,9% FG in much about the same playing time.
Standing at 6-7 with somehow skinny frame and average, not an elite athleticism, Abalde doesn’t wow at first glance with his physical profile. He has solid size for a small forward by European standards and solid body structure with a room to fill it out nicely. He’s definitely not a strongest one, but plays quite physical, though, drawing contact, getting on his opponents and showing toughness on both ends of the court. Extremely confident and constantly hungry, Abalade was undeniably the most enjoyable scorer at NIJT Finals.
Although he gets streaky from time to time, Abalde is highly efficient in half-court. Capable of getting his own shot, Spanish wing shows great form and follow-through on his jumper. Mostly he did a great use of a ball swing in well-organized Joventut’s offense, hitting wild-open 3-pointers, however he was unstoppable in isolations with his pull-up jumper. Abalde lacks the highest degree of explosiveness, but displays an ability to create a space with one-dribbled crossover and is capable of pulling up with his pure footwork to shoot midrange jumper with a high arc, even having a defender on his face.
6-7 swingman shows a nice handle for his size. He displays an ability to get low on a ball and makes a good use of his strength to protect it, so from time to time helped his guards to bring the ball up the court. On the other hand he didn't show much in the way of creating for others or advanced ball-handling, as he plays primarily with a scorer's mentality. Abalde got only six times in total in four NIJT’s games to a free throw line. He showed mature decision-making in open court and was really effective in transition, though, does not always go all the way to the basket. Despite being below the rim finisher, Abalde is really hard to contest at the rim with his ability to find a right angle. Slashing to basket he takes an advantage of a spacing and shows a little Manu in him, finishing with crafty footwork, including eurostep, tear-drop and reverse lay-up. However, his lack of elevation limits his ability to score at rim, what will be even more visible against higher level athletes.
Defensively, Abalade has the ability to be very effective. However, he doesn’t have appropriate lateral quickness, what makes him fairly ineffective to stay in front of quicker guards on the perimeter. Nevertheless, he crashes the glass offensively (5.8 rebounds in 26:09 minutes per game), shows nice anticipation on passing lines and does a good job fighting through screens.
The way how he will translate his scoring prowess the next season and the role he will take in Spanish junior national team at European Championships U18, will tell us more about his ceiling, as there are some question marks about just how far his hot hand, Joventut’s sophisticated motion offense and his competitiveness tools can carry him. Nevertheless Alberto Abalde possesses all necessary tools to become a legitimate ACB-level player in 2-3 years.
