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Aleksander Vezenkov, Power Forward, 6’9″, 19 Years Old, Aris Thessaloniki (Greece)
The breakdown- Aleksander Vezenkov, born in Cyprus had one of the European basketball stat lines over the course of last year. During his time with the Greek League with his club team Aris, Vezenkov averaged 18 points per game to go along with 7.8 rebounds per game. At six feet nine inches, Vezenkov has textbook range and good fundamentals to give himself a solid base to play in the NBA. The hard part though is seeing how his game will translate from the European leagues to the Association. That entail lies the problem. Vezenkov will be making the biggest culture change once he comes to play professional basketball in the United States. He lacks athleticism at the basket and doesn’t have great footwork or quickness defensively.
Draft status: The good thing about Vezenkov is that any NBA team can never run out of a good three point shooter or someone that is solid fundamentally. If he can learn to become more agile before the NBA starts and counter his lack of athleticism with a stronger and leaner core then he could have a solid NBA career.
NBA Comparison: A poor man’s Andrea Bargniani.
Summary: For Vezenkov he’ll need to learn to play with the more athletic NBA players by drastically improving his speed and footwork. It would be one thing 6’10 and up and to guard centers, but at six feet nine inches he’s practically a small or power forward. At this point if he got to play this season he would be primarily a spot up shooter.
Prediction: Late second round.
