By Eurohopes
After spending three days in Treviso, Italy scouting some of the top draft-eligible prospects in European basketball at Adidas Eurocamp 2013, we report back with our thoughts and present our reports on the best big men, featuring Vitalis Chikoko ('92) from TBB Trier and Augusto Cesar Lima ('94) from Unicaja Malaga.
Vitalis Chikoko (6-10, C, TBB Trier, 1991, auto-eligible NBA)
Flying a little bit under the radar, auto-eligible Vitalis Chikoko (’91) was relatively unknown at Adidas Eurocamp, however 6-10 center from TBB Trier hold his own against more experienced and skilled prospects in Treviso. There is no doubt that Chikoko with his lanky, but wiry 6-10 frame and massive 7-4 wingspan is NBA specimen and one of the most physically gifted big men in this year’s draft. Because of his team was loaded size-wise, Chikoko was forced to play mainly on small forward spot, what exposed his shortcoming.
Nonetheless big man from Nigeria is an intriguing one. He’s not the most skilled, lacking experience, feeling to the game and strength for the highest level, but he’s great closer, leaping up for dunks only given any opportunity. Eurocamp was not the best exposure for him actually, because due to running SF he was supposed to finish some open looks from perimeter in catch-and-shoot and create his own offense off the dribble, while these two aspects aren’t definitely his biggest strengths. What Chikoko brings to the table offensively are his energy, high motor, competitiveness at the rim, proper screens and decent shape on his jump shot from the elbow. Having that said, Chikoko is quite limited and still raw offensively, but given his age (turned 22), there isn’t that much room to improve that. Defensively, Chikoko possesses high ceiling mainly thanks to his excellent foot speed, fluidity and mobility. He’s great pick-and-roll defender with above average lateral quickness, what allows him to hedge aggressively on the screen or even to switch and contain more explosive guards. Surprisingly he did a decent job chasing small forwards at Eurocamp, getting low on his stance, denying dribble penetrations and doing great job getting through screens chasing shooters. Chikoko might become even a game changer in the painted area down the road, where he appears to be always at right spot to contest shot and protect the rim, however he shows quite poor fundamentals looking after rebounds, relying more on his leaping abilities than boxing out.
Chikoko musts weight up and strengthen himself as well as to polish his fundamentals to become a real one-on-one threat, nevertheless given his unique background, work ethic and quick improvement, he might be worth to invest late second round pick in just to stash him in Europe and monitor his development.
Augusto Cesar Lima (6-10, PF/C, Unicaja Malaga, 1991, auto-eligible NBA)
Coming off up and down season in Spain affected by disappointing performance by Unicaja Malaga, auto-eligible Augusto Cesar Lima (’91) took an advantage of participating at Adidas Eurocamp 2013. Coming up with strong show in Treviso, particularly on the day 2, Brazilian big man increased his NBA stock, showing some little things some franchise might like to invest in.
Standing at 6-10 Lima is really athletic big man with above average quickness, mobility an high motor. Offensively, he’s not creative by no means, relying exclusively on what his teammates prepare for him. However, Lima does a great job staying active off the ball, running the court up and down, trailing the transition, setting screens. He’s decent finisher in drive-and-dish situation, finding the right angle and going all the way to the basket, using his 234-pound frame. Even though he shows smooth release and mechanics on his jump shot, Lima is only average in catch-and-shoot situations, with fairly limited range. Defensively, Lima impresses with his versatility as he’s capable of defending true back-to-the-basket centers, stretch fours as well as combo forwards playing on the perimeter. Making great use of his lateral quickness and mobility, even lacking terrific leaping abilities, Lima gets in low stance, displaying an ability to contain ball handlers at the top of the ball screen.
Moreover he’s tremendous rebounder, particularly on the defending board, crashing the glass aggressively, showing nice understanding of the game, positioning, footwork and smartness. Even though Brazilian doesn’t cause an excitement as he used to 2-3 years ago, he’s still intriguing prospect, who didn’t get a legit opportunity to show his skill-set at full display yet.
