Although the Final Four of the Euroleague is over with Panathinaikos Athens reaching the European title, playoffs in national leagues are just starting or even to be started. That means that the season for a bunch of prospects for this year's draft is not over yet and if you have some time between watching NBA playoff and discussing new coach and the draft, below is a short summary of the players who are still in the game in Europe. As the cohort of European players who might reach the NBA seems to be really weak this year (with an exception of Rubio and Jennings being a top10 picks), I will limit the story only to the players tha have been mentioned on this page recently, i.e. on Rubio, Jennings, Llull, Casspi and Claver.

Ricky Rubio ended the regular season strongly, helping Joventut to fight for the fourth place in the Spanish league and thus for having the home-court advantage in already-sure duel with Real Madrid (Madrid won the final regular-season game at Ricoh Madresa as well and secured the fourth place, eventually). Rubio had 16 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 6 steals and 8 received fouls in 31 minutes, having one of his best performance this year. He was also awarded as the second best pointguard of the Spanish league this season (behind Pablo Prigioni) despite his injury-shortened season, however, the award consisted of proportional voting from coaches, journalists, players, but also public and he received much hype from public voting.

As I wrote, Joventut will play against Real Madrid in the first-round of the playoff (eight teams advanced to the playoff). Real won both games this season, however, Rubio missed the first game in November because of the injury and in the second game, he recorded 15 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists in 26 minutes. Real has good players at the pointguard position with Raul Lopez (the third pg of Spanish roster at the Olympics) and Sergion Llull (a secound-round prospect of this draft) plus couple of other fine players such as Felipe Reyes (recent MVP of the Spanish league) and Alex Mumbru, both having played at Olympics for Spain.

The schedule is now on and they will play (in the best-of-three series) on May 16,18 and possible 23.

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Sergio Llull will play against Rubio in the series for Madrid. I wrote a short comment on him here and have very little to add to that. He used to play a good amount of time for Real Madrid recently (20-30 minutes per night), coming from the bench behind Raul Lopez, often however playing along with him with Real playing two pointguards. He still preserves his efficient game (good A/TO ratio - 2.26 in the Spanish league, 2.80 in the EuroLeague), but it seems to be more the result of his careful and risk-free decision-making and the presence of other players who are offensice leaders of the team. Under 5 assists per 40 minutes (even under the European rules) is really not that much. Moreover, unlike Calderon, for example, Llull is not that particularly good shooter with the season average under 40% for three (although with a good efficiency for two - he is a fragile but good and athletic finisher - still not enough for the NBA, I guess). He is propsoed as an early second-round pick, but (despite being unable to compare him to US college players) I doubt he is worth that much, especially being almost 21 years old already. Maybe his status of European player and the possibility that he could develop and come to the NBA later might give him some pros, but not necessarily with as high second-rounder as Kings have...

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The third prospect playing in Spain is Victor Claver, playing for Regasa Valencia who finished seventh in the regular season and will have tough times playing against FC Barcelona in the first round of the playoff.

Because of the leg-fracture, Claver missed most of the season from late December to the middle of April and this makes his assessment a bit uncertain. He was actually considered to be the second-best prospect from Spain and a possible first-round pick. Despite poor bal-handling, Claver is a very good shooter (unable to create his own shot) and a very good and athletic finisher (again, not a good penetrator on his own because of his ball-handling, hence, too few free-throw attempts), somehow stuck between SF and PF (actually a SF with bad ball-handling, he is a solid rebounder also). His height is recently listed around 6'10'', or 208 cm being 20 years old (21 in September).

Claver declared himself for the draft but said the he would probably decide after the season will be over, which means that his performance in the playoff (probably just two or three games considering the strength of Barcelona) will be crucial. He played only five games since November with the total of 68 minutes and might be considered a risk now, especially for the position in the draft he was expected to reach before the injury. I have not managed to see him since his return in April and it would be wuite interesting to see what progress he is doing. Especially against Barcelona with a bunch of talented forwards such as Ersan Ilyasova (who has improved a lot and might be heading back to the NBA), David Andersen or even Fran Vasquez.

The schedule for the series is 17, 19 and possibly 24 May.

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Brandon Jennings and his Lottomatica Roma have comfortably secured the second place after the regular season in Italy with 20 wins and 10 losses (Montepaschi Siena won the regular season with 29 wins and just one loss - not from Lottomatica). They will play against Angelico Biella in the first round of the playoff which is (unless I'm wrong) played in the best-of-five format with games scheduled on 14, 16, 18 and possibly 20 and 22 May.

Much has been written about the development of Jennings recently, especially about his im/maturity and mental development. Draftexpress gives a statistical break-down of his play which is quite interesting. In last eleven games of the season, Jennings has not managed to score at least ten points, on the other hand he has a pretty impressive numbers in steals (2.1 per game in 17minutes per game) and his assists ratio (2.3 or 5.3 per 40 minutes) is the 23th best in the Italian league. On the other hand, his stats in the EuroLeague had been a bit better. His still struggles with his outside shot, though. I think the rest (athleticism, mental awareness etc.) is a good part of any discussion about Jennings and it makes no sense to include it here.

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Finally, Omri Casspi is another early second-round prospect from Europe. 20 years old and 6'8'' tall, Casspi is known for a good movement and mobility, solid body for a SF, basketball IQ and especially energy and toughness he brings to the game. He played an important role for a traditionally strong Maccabi Tel-Aviv in the Euroleague.On the other hand, his basketball-skills and especially ball-related are a bit questioned.

The play-off in Israel has already begun but it is a bit less dramatic event than in Spain or Italy, probably. Maccabi have actually won the Israeli title 47 times in 54 years including 14 times in the last 15 years. On the other hand, they lost in the finals last year to Hapoel Holon (by one point). Maccabi (led by Carlos Arroyo) defeated Ashkelon in the first round in four games (best-of-three series) with Casspi averaging solid 15 points and almost 6 rebounds per game.

The play-off in Israel now advances to the final four which starts (I think) on 21 May.

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Finally, there was a mention in one of the threads about how many games per season a player plays in Europe. I took a look at Rubio's last season and it seems that he played 16 games in the ULEB cup (the second best international European competition), 34 games in the regular season in Spain and 5 in the play-off, and 3 games in the Copa del Rey (a 'final eight' style additional competition in Spain for the best eight teams). That makes 58 official games plus Olympics and some pre-season games. I am not sure what an average number for a college player might be, but 58 games (despite playing only like 20-25 minutes per night) is a pretty solid for a 17-years old boy (and Joventut won two of the three aforementioned competitions that year).