By Eurohopes
After spending five days in London, England scouting some of the top 1995 and 1996 born prospects in European basketball at Nike International Junior Tournament finals, we report back with our thoughts. The second part contains scouting reports on UC Irvine commit Luke Nelson ('95) and Ludde Hakanson ('96) from FC Regal Barcelona.
Luke Nelson (6-3, PG/SG, UC Irvine, 1995)
The youngest person ever to be selected as Player of the Year for English top senior division, Luke Nelson (’95) has finished Nike International Junior Tournament with averages of 15.7 points, 5.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2 steals for Team England. Standing at 6-3 UC Irvine (NCAA) commit Nelson possesses all necessary tools with his length, quickness and explosiveness to become at least very solid college players. He’s quite skinny and his narrow arms do not leave too much room to fill out his upper-body though. Due to poor frame, Nelson struggles to hold his own offensively inside the paint (had only 38.9% from 2-point FGs) and often losses a balance while leaping to the basket on contact.
However, he’s really gifted and polished scorer, capable of getting buckets on variety ways. His go-to move is undeniably pull-up jumper. Taking advantage of his crafty crossover, Nelson shakes his defender and separates well, creating some extra space with quick footwork. English guard shows deep range, including NBA 3-point line, on his jump shot, nevertheless, still might become more prolific shooter. From time to time Nelson appears a little bit hot-headed and takes some crazy shots under a pressure instead of going all the way to the basket, however - as he showed in the game against INSEP, tying the game for an overtime at the buzzer - he’s capable of hitting those one-legged, machine gun-tempo shots. His playmaking skills are still in a progress however. Nelson is great in an open court, speeding up a pace only when given the opportunity, nevertheless he struggles to control and organize an offense in half-court. Even though he averaged almost 6 assists per game, Nelson too often hogs the ball and dribbles pointlessly with a shot clock going down.
Anyway, he’s gifted passer with nice court-vision, capable of creating a tunnel at will. Most of his damage on the offensive ends comes from operating on a pick-and-roll. Nelson knows how to take an advantage of ball screen and given a little bit of space does not hesitate to knock down jumper. Defensively, Nelson is a solid, but not an excellent one. With his quick feet, explosiveness and nice anticipation, bulking up he might turn out even a lock-down defender down the road, however in London Nelson didn’t show neither high intensity nor aggressiveness on the defensive end.
Ludde Hakanson (6-3, PG/SG, FC Barcelona, 1996)
Hyped and matured in really young age Ludde Hakanson (’96) from Sweden finished Nike International Junior Tournament with averages of 7.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 22:45 and seems to be looking for a niche on the higher level with junior Barcelona squad. Standing at 6-3 with decent strength Hakanson possesses physical tools to play PG at senior level, although it appears not much upside left for him either body-wise and in terms of skill-set.
Swedish talent is only an average athlete what limits his potential defensively. Lacking an elite quickness, it was very hard going for Hakanson to contain more explosive ball handlers. With that said, Swede doesn’t show high intensity neither aggressiveness defensively (had only 5 steals in 8 games) On the other hand, he possesses off the charts feel for the game, rarely turns the ball over and shows nice decision-making with his first-pass mentality in the half-court offense. In addition, he controls the tempo well, plays within clock, score and possessions, taking advantage of his high basketball IQ and international experience. Despite having only average leaping abilities, Hakanson display an ability to separate himself from his man on the dribble to hit a midrange pull-up jumper. Given his average length and motor, it might appear much more difficult to create his own against longer and more athletic opponents though.
At this point he’s reliable (33.3%) from the downtown, showing good selection and follow-through, but not too high release. Hakanson is at his best with the ball in his hands, however he doesn’t dribble pointlessly and does a nice job getting involved his teammates in half-court with skip passes or breaking the first defensive line on the dribble. He executes well high pick-and-roll reading well defense approach and reacts in no time to create an advantage.
Photo: FIBA Europe/Cosmin Iftode
