RADIO
This year's EuroBasket was one of the richest if we look at NBA players who featured in it. How a player performs for his national team can be a good cheat sheet come draft day. You may be able to get some value picks or even steals who smash their ADP as not too many fantasy players in the US pay much attention to what happens overseas.
We will glance at the stats of all NBA players that participated in the tournament through our Fantasy goggles and then take a closer look at some of the top performers. But before all that what's fair is fair. Here's a quick recap of the competition and a big "congrats" to the medal-winning teams. Especially the champions Slovenia.
A note for American readers: some of the numbers in this column may be written in the European convention, with a comma in place of a decimal. Since this is a EuroBasket special (and the editor is feeling too lazy to change them all), we will allow it.
Editor's note: Purchase an NBA Premium Pass (including Draft Kit and 250 days of DFS), and get MLB Premium for free! Whoa. Check out our NBA and MLB Premium tools, and crush your leagues.
Slovenia is #1 in Europe for the very first time
Under the leadership of veteran Goran Dragic, Slovenia stunned whole Europe by climbing on top of the podium to claim the gold medal. They beat the competition favourites Spain by a 20-point margin in the Semifinal and in a close final encounter with brave Serbia won the top prize. Dragic and Luka Doncic were the leaders of this team that poured their heart and soul into this gold winning effort.
My Serbia took home the silver. This was also a bit of a surprise following the cancellations of Nikola Jokic, Nemanja Bjelica, Milos Teodosic and a few other quality players. But the "Third-string" team as they were referred to by the pessimists and non-believers, lead by a star-in-the-making Bogdan Bogdanovic, proved them wrong and made all of us back home proud.
A Spain squad that included the Gasol and Hernangomez brothers, Juan Carlos Navarro, Sergio Rodriguez, Ricky Rubio were the favourites of the championship, but they lost steam when they faced the gritty, hard-working, never-stopping Slovenian team in the Semis. One of the greatest European national team generations of all time ended their last hurrah in 3rd place.
An Overview of All NBA Player's Tournament Stats
| Player | Team | Position | Min | FG | FT | Reb | As | To | St | BS | Pts |
| Dennis Schroder | ATL | PG | 30,9 | 8.1/17.0 - 47.9% | 5.7/6.4 - 88.9% | 2,6 | 5,6 | 4,7 | 1,6 | 0,0 | 23,7 |
| Kristaps Porzingis | NYK | PF | 27,2 | 7.9/14.7 - 53.4% | 6.1/6.9 - 89.6% | 5,9 | 0,9 | 1,7 | 0,6 | 1,9 | 23,6 |
| Goran Dragic | MIA | PG | 27,8 | 7.4/15.4 - 48.2% | 6.0/7.1 - 84.4% | 4,4 | 5,1 | 2,6 | 1,6 | 0,0 | 22,6 |
| Bojan Bogdanovic | IND | SF | 32.1 | 6.8/11.8 - 57.7% | 5.8/7.3 - 79.5% | 4,8 | 1,0 | 2,7 | 1,2 | 0,0 | 22,5 |
| Bogdan Bogdanovic | SAC | SG | 31,8 | 7.2/15.2 - 47.4% | 3.7/4.4 - 82.5% | 3,6 | 5,0 | 1,7 | 1,2 | 0,1 | 20,4 |
| Lauri Markkanen | CHI | PF | 27,0 | 6.7/12.5 - 53.3% | 4.3/4.8 - 89.7% | 5,7 | 0,7 | 1,7 | 0,3 | 0,7 | 19,5 |
| Marco Belinelli | ATL | SG | 31,9 | 5.6/13.7 - 40.6% | 3.1/4.3 - 73.3% | 2,7 | 2,0 | 1,7 | 2,1 | 0,0 | 17,9 |
| Pau Gasol | SAS | C | 26,3 | 6.4/11.8 - 54.3% | 3.9/5.5 - 70.5% | 7,8 | 2,6 | 1,6 | 0,4 | 1,5 | 17,4 |
| Cedi Osman | CLE | SF | 34,3 | 4.3/11.3 - 38.2% | 5.2/6.3 - 81.6% | 5,0 | 3,8 | 2,0 | 2,0 | 0,7 | 16,0 |
| Jonas Valanciunas | TOR | C | 27,2 | 5.3/8.8 - 60.4% | 5.2/6.8 - 75.6% | 12,0 | 1,0 | 2,0 | 0,8 | 1,0 | 15,8 |
| Evan Fournier | ORL | SG | 24,1 | 5.2/10.8 - 47.7% | 3.8/4.7 - 82.1% | 2,3 | 1,7 | 1,7 | 1,5 | 0,0 | 15,8 |
| Mindaugas Kuzminskas | NYK | SF | 23,9 | 5.8/11.8 - 49.3% | 1.7/2.5 - 66.7% | 4,3 | 1,5 | 1,3 | 0,8 | 0,2 | 15,3 |
| Dario Saric | PHI | SF | 32.4 | 4.7/12.0 - 38.9% | 4.7/5.7 - 82.4% | 6,7 | 2,5 | 3,2 | 0,8 | 1,0 | 14,8 |
| Nikola Vucevic | ORL | C | 24,6 | 6.3/12.8 - 49.4% | 1.5/2.5 - 60% | 8,0 | 1,8 | 1,3 | 0,7 | 1,2 | 14,5 |
| Omri Casspi | GSW | SF | 31,3 | 4.4/11.0 - 40% | 4.6/7.2 - 63.9% | 6,8 | 2,0 | 2,4 | 1,0 | 0,6 | 14,4 |
| Davis Bertans | SAS | PF | 23,7 | 4.8/9.5 - 50.9% | 1.5/1.7 - 90% | 3,0 | 2,0 | 1,3 | 0,8 | 0,0 | 14,0 |
| Marc Gasol | MEM | C | 24,4 | 3.8/8.3 - 45.3% | 5.2/6.0 - 87% | 7,2 | 2,3 | 1,6 | 0,6 | 1,4 | 13,6 |
| Timofey Mozgov | BKN | C | 25,2 | 4.3/7.6 - 57.4% | 4.7/6.1 - 76.4% | 7,4 | 0,0 | 2,0 | 0,8 | 0,6 | 13,3 |
| Tomas SATORANSKY | WAS | PG | 30,8 | 4.4/11 - 40% | 2.4/2.4 - 100% | 5,6 | 6,6 | 3,4 | 1,8 | 0,0 | 12,2 |
| Daniel Theis | CHI | PF | 23,8 | 4.0/7.1 - 56% | 2.3/3.4 - 66.7% | 6,3 | 0,4 | 1,0 | 0,7 | 0,7 | 10,9 |
| Joffrey Lauvergne | SAS | PF | 19,5 | 4.3/8.7 - 50% | 1.5/2.7 - 56.2% | 6,2 | 1,3 | 1,3 | 0,2 | 0,0 | 10,7 |
| Furkan Korkmaz | PHI | SF | 21,6 | 3.5/6.5 - 53.8% | 2.7/3.2 - 84.2% | 2,0 | 1,5 | 1,2 | 1,2 | 0,0 | 10,5 |
| Ricky Rubio | UTAH | PG | 22,7 | 2.9/7.0 - 41.3% | 2.2/2.3 - 95.2% | 2,7 | 4,9 | 2,2 | 1,8 | 0,0 | 9,4 |
| Boris Diaw | UTAH | PF | 25,8 | 3.7/6.5 - 56.4% | 0.5/0.8 - 60% | 5,7 | 3,5 | 2,0 | 0,7 | 0,3 | 9,2 |
| Juancho Hernangomez | DEN | PF | 19,7 | 2.4/6.0 - 40.7% | 2.8/3.6 - 78.1% | 5,9 | 0,7 | 0,8 | 0,4 | 0,7 | 8,4 |
| Willy Hernangomez | NYK | C | 13,9 | 2.9/5.6 - 52% | 1.8/2.3 - 76.2% | 5,9 | 0,8 | 1,1 | 0,7 | 0,1 | 7,6 |
| Dragan Bender | PHO | PF | 15,4 | 1.8/3.8 - 47.8% | 0/0.3 - 0% | 2,0 | 1,0 | 0,8 | 0,2 | 1,2 | 4,3 |
| Isaiah Hartenstein | HOU | SF | 9,6 | 2.0/3.2 - 61.5% | 0.0/0.2 - 0% | 2,5 | 0,3 | 0,5 | 0,3 | 0,3 | 4,3 |
| Boban Marjanovic | SER | C | 16,2 | 4.0/7.1 - 56.2% | 4.4/5.1 - 87% | 4,8 | 1,4 | 2,0 | 0,2 | 0,3 | 12,4 |
| Georgios Papagiannis | SAC | C | 10,3 | 1.6/3.4 - 45.8% | 0.3/0.3 - 100% | 2,3 | 0,6 | 0,7 | 0,1 | 1,0 | 3,4 |
| Alex Abrines | OKC | SG | 15,1 | 2.0/5.0 - 40% | 2.0/4.0 - 50% | 2,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,0 | 7,0 |
| Alexey Shved | KHIMKI, Russia | PG | 30,8 | 6.8/16.2 - 41.8% | 6.9/7.9 - 87.3% | 2,6 | 5,9 | 3,4 | 1,0 | 0,0 | 24,3 |
| Luka Doncic | Real Madrid, Spain | SG | 29,1 | 4.6/11.2 - 40.6% | 3.1/3.7 - 84.8% | 8,1 | 3,6 | 1,3 | 0,9 | 0,3 | 14,3 |
*Alex Abrines got injured after one game
**Alexey Shved and Luka Doncic do not play in the NBA at the moment but they were relevant in the EuroBasket
Top performers of the Championship
There were a lot of great players at the EuroBasket. We saw top-notch performances from fantasy relevant players like Porzingis, Valanciunas and Schroder, some great shooting from Bojan Bogdanovic and Marco Belinelli and rookies Lauri Markkanen and Cedi Osman turned a few heads. But a few were better than the rest and these five got the First EuroBasket Team honors: Goran Dragic and Luka Doncic from Slovenia, Alexey Shved from Russia, Pau Gasol from Spain and Bogdan Bogdanovic from Serbia.
We will take a quick glance at the two non-NBA top-five players and the NBA players who didn't make the cut, but performed well at the Tournament as knowing their form should prove valuable to you while deciding who to select in your draft. We will also look a bit closer look at what qualified Dragic, Gasol and Bogdanovic for the First Team honours and what to expect from them coming into the new NBA season.
Alexey Shved is a known name in the NBA as he used to play for the Timberwolves, 76ers, Rockets and Knicks before returning to Europe in 2015. He was a monster for Team Russia as he lead them to the Semis averaging 24.3 points and 5.9 assists in 30.8 minutes a night. Shved, Mozgov, and company ended up in 4th place, but Shved was deservedly named in the First Team of the Tournament.
Luka Doncic is an up-and-coming star who is in serious contention for the #1 overall pick for the 2018 NBA Draft. He is an 18-year-old marvel in the making. At 6'7" playing SG/SF for Real Madrid of Spain, he is showing the potential to be one of the best players in the world someday. He averaged 14.3 PTS with 2.1 3PM, 8.1 REB, 3.6 AST, 0.9 STL, 0.3 BLK and 1.3 TO in 29 minutes per game in the Tournament and along with Dragic, he is the main reason Slovenia won the gold. Luka even hit some clutch threes in the game against Latvia and showed that he is well on his way to be a great player and a real leader.
Dennis Schroder played a big role for the underdogs Germany and led them to the Quarterfinals by averaging 23.7 PTS with 1.7 3PM on 47.9 FG% and 88.9 FT%, 5.6 AST, 2.6 REB and 1.6 STL in 31 minutes per game. He put a dent in his fantasy outlook, as he always does, by turning it over 4.7 times per game. That is about what you can expect from Schroder on this rebuilding Atlanta team this season.
Kristaps Porzingis was big for Latvia with averages of 23.6 PTS and 1.7 3PM on 53.4 FG% and 89.6 FT%, almost 6 rebounds and almost 2 blocks in 27 minutes per game. Arguably his best game of the Tournament came against Slovenia in the Quarter-Finals where he scored 34 points on 12 of 21 from the field (just 1 of 7 for three) and 9/11 from the line and grabbed six rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the future Champions stormed through.
Bojan Bogdanovic led Croatia as always, but once again his teammates couldn't handle the pressure and they lost to Russia in the Round of 16. Not even his 28 points in that game were enough, as Dario Saric and other Croatian players just couldn't find their rhythm. Bojan was great as he always is for his national team averaging three 3-pointers and 22.5 points per game on almost 60% from the field along with almost 5 rebounds and over a steal per game. He did play 32 minutes per game which is a tough task for him to match, even in the rebuilding Indiana roster.
Dario Saric wasn't too bad statistically for Croatia, averaging 14.8 PTS, 6.7 REB, 2.5 AST and 1.8 combined BLK+STL, but he disappeared in the Round of 16 when it mattered the most, and we all know he is a better player than that. It will be fun watching "the process" in Philly finally begin.
Lauri Markkanen gave some credit to the much disputed Chicago Bulls move which saw Jimmy Butler traded to Minnesota. The young Fin hit 1.8 threes a game on his way to averaging 19.5 points on 53.3% shooting from the field and 89.7% from the line, with 5.7 rebounds. Finland lost in the Round of 16 to Italy.
Marco Belinelli was the leader of the Danilo Gallinari-less Italy with 18 points, 3.6 threes and two steals and not much else in 32 minutes a game and it was enough for a Quarter-Final exit agianst Serbia. With him joining Atlanta he might see some boost in playing time. I doubt he will crack 30 minutes and he probably won't be as free to shoot as he was in his national team but he can be your low-end triple specialist. Gallinari, meanwhile, was out for Italy due to a hand he fractured punching an opponent in the face in a friendly leading up to EuroBasket. He's expected to be ready for the start of the season with his new team, the Clippers.
Jonas Valanciunas led his team in almost every category, but Lithuania ultimately disappointed their fans by falling out to Greece in the Round of 16, despite having the #1 seed in their group. To make matters worse, Greece was without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Evan Fournier did his part as he scored 15.8 PTS with 1.7 3PM on 47.7 FG% and 82.1 FT%, 1.5 STL and not much else in 24 minutes per game, but France was, along with Lithuania and Croatia one of the biggest disappointments of the EuroBasket by getting eliminated by Germany in the Round of 16.
Nikola Vucevic did fine for Montenegro with 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in 25 minutes per game, but they were routed by the hot Latvian side in the Round of 16. Vooch has the opportunity to lead the awesome frontcourt of the future (with Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac) in Orlando so we have to wait and see how he does.
The Hernangomez brothers - Juancho and Willy played their small role in the stacked Spain rotation, but showed potential and they're both in for a big jump this year.
Ricky Rubio did what he does. Stole a lot of basketballs, made a few assists, didn't miss much from the free-throw line, did miss from the field, and ended up with the bronze.
Marc Gasol was useful as always but didn't do too much, scoring 13.6 PTS, grabbing 7.2 boards and getting 2.0 STL+BLK in just 24 minutes a game, but was best when it mattered in the Quarter-Finals against Germany. Spain was trailing in the 3rd quarter but Marc put on a show and finished the game with 28 PTS with 4 3PM on 10 of 15 from the field and 4 of 5 from the line, 10 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 2 BLK and 2 TO in 30 minutes. He is still a useful all-round contributor and an early round target if you're in a re-draft league.
NBA Members of the All-Star Five
The (Non)Aging Pau Gasol
The big brother Gasol was dominant for Spain as always with 17.4 PTS on 54.3 FG%, 7.8 REB, 2.6 AST and 1.9 combined STL+BLK in just 26 minutes per game. He is always a great per-minute contributor, but the problem is, he is now 37 and in San Antonio. Gregg Popovich is notorious for resting his older stars late in the season, which is a real value kill for fantasy owners so, as good as Pau is, he is just a late round target for this season.
New Star is Made - Bogdan Bogdanovic
Team Serbia suffered quite a few setbacks with a lot of players cancelling on coach Sasha Djordjevic, but they still managed to fight their way to the Final. Bogdan Bogdanovic was the main reason for this upset as he led the way with 20.4 PTS and 2.3 3PM on 47.4 FG% and 82.5 FT%, 3.6 REB, 5.0 AST, 1.2 STL, o.1 BLK and 1.7 TO in 32 minutes per game. His 3-pointers just weren't falling ans he shot just 29% from beyond the arc, but he hit an astonishing 67.7% for 2 points, most of which were difficult drives to the basket or tough off-the-dribble shots which he made for himself. He was great in the clutch moments once again and was the main motor for Serbia offensively. Vlade Divac loves this guy, as well he should, and he has an opportunity on the rebuilding Kings to be one of the leaders of this Sacramento team for years to come.
The MVP - Goran Dragic
Dragic's stats in this tournament have been flashy, with him piling on over 22 points, four rebounds and five assists on very efficient shooting. But those stats do not tell the whole tale. The tale of how a true leader can take his band of brothers from Slovenia, a country of around 2 million citizens (that is four times less than New York City), to the very top of Europe in his final showing for his national team. In the Final, when it mattered the most, Dragic scored 35 points going 12 of 22 from the field and 8 of 9 from the line, adding seven rebounds, three assists, two steals with just three turnovers in 28 minutes. If Dragic can translate this performance and that on-court hunger and "sacrifice" in his return to Miami, he can be a valuable top-40 fantasy asset for his owners and maybe even turn the Heat back into a winning team.
