By Eurohopes

With less than 2 weeks to the 2013 NBA Draft Giannis Antetokounmpo (’94) is a mystery man to most of NBA fans. Although 18-year-old has been playing only in Greek second division, all NBA teams made it sure to evaluate this talented teenager, while most of the experts expect him to be drafted in late 20s. Even though he’s at least 2 years away from becoming impact in the league, Antetokounmpo posseses all tools, displaying intriguing combination of natural-born talent, work ethic and mentality. Eurohopes staff had an opportunity to scout him at International Tournament in Jesolo, Italy in early June. Is Antetokounmpo a real deal?

Standing at 6-9 Antetokounmpo has lanky and skinny, but wiry 196-pound frame to go along with terrific 7-3 wingspan. With that said, his enormous hands allow him to palm the ball effortlessly, making him remarkable gifted in catching, finishing at the rim and handling the ball. Antetokounmpo lacks the highest degree of explosiveness, but he’s fluid and smooth athlete. He definitely needs to weight up and strengthen, however possesses promising frame with wide arms, which should fill out nicely. Greek talent displays terrific body balance and coordination, getting in very low stance and containing smaller guards at will.

Despite being the highest one in Greek U-20 national team and starting at power forward spot, Antetokounmpo was bringing the ball up the court and saw most of his touches outside the paint. He’s not a pure point guard, though, in terms of playmaking draws some resemblance to Boris Diaw, with his tendency to push the ball up the court. Given his age and experience Antetokounmpo displays terrific court vision and ability to create off the dribble. Having terrific handle, Antetokounmpo does a great job getting his teammates involved, looking sometimes even too unselfish. He's just another piece of the team, not demanding the ball excessively, rarely stopping the flow of the ball movement. With that said, most of his touches comes from pick-and-roll execution. He is capable of reading mis-matches and directing his man on a screen, however often lacks strength to go all the way to the basket. On the other hand, Antetokounmpo shows nice lift and follow-through on his jumper, however is still really inconsistent, occasionally airballing 3-pointers. Taking into consideration his size, ball-handling and playmaking abilities it’s hard not to picture him isolation nightmare in Kevin Durant mold down the road. 

18-year-old is still in early stages of learning the game with quite poor understanding, walking from time to time while starting a dribble. Moreover flow of the games appears sometimes too quick for him and shows miserable spacing and positioning off the ball. Anyway Antetokounmpo displays tremendous feel to the game, poise and competitiveness. Given fact that the tournament in Jesole, Italy was first international and such a competitive competition in his career, Greek talent has shown promising learning curve, drawing conclusions from mistakes and adjusting his game to the higher level at once. The game against Turkey with match ups with experienced internationally Oguz Savas and Nets 2012 draftee Ilkan Karaman was probably the most demanding and meaningful contest in Antetokounmpo's life so far. He held his own fair enough, however his lack of experience was evident. Although got pushed around several times, allowed to rip the ball away from him on defensive glass or bit up on pump fakes, Antetokounmpo stayed fouces, ready to give back with his competitive nature.

Defensively, Antetokounmpo draws some similarity to young Nicolas Batum with his impressive physical tools. Given his length, wingspan, leaping abilities and mobility, Greek is capable of defending both wing positions. He’s terrific rebounder, controlling the defensive board, however relies to much on his leaping abilities than boxing up and struggles to hold the ball, occasionally allowing to rip it away from him. With his lateral quickness Antetokounmpo is extremely versatile pick-and-roll defender, capable of defending the ball screen on several ways: from hedging through helping and recovering to switching and containing ball handler. His weak frame makes Antetokounmpo easy target to post up for more back-to-the basket big men, nevertheless he shows nice attitude, displaying an ability to front and deny an entry pass or simply stay behind and trying to contest the shot. On the other hand Antetokounmpo shows competitive nature, however too often is focused only on his own man, helping late from the weak-side or rotating not on time.

With that said, by far the youngest one in this year’s draft Antetokounmpo is more a project than a legit basketball player, nevertheless with proper coaching and seasoning he already possesses all necessary physical tools and natural-born talent to become NBA-level player. Nevertheless at this point skill-wise he reminds more of a senior high school than his European peers and needs at least 2-3 years to develop physically and polish skill-set.. Even though Greek is one question-mark, given his age his upside is too evident as well as intriguing to pass on him in first-round. On the other hand, Antetokounmpo might never live up to expectations. He has already signed 3-year deal with CAI Zaragoza and stashing in Europe makes sense, but if a team drafting him hurries up the process, Antetokounmpo will never acquire proper mentality, what will definitely affect his ceiling.