The BroadCast: 5/31/2018 ~ Draft Pod - Emmet Ryan Reports From Overseas

Type in Sixers podcast network that will take you to our feeds. We would love to have you as one of our subscribers if you are not yet one already. Emmett Ryan from Ball in Europe dot com is our guy for all things happening overseas. You can follow him on Twitter at bie underscore Basketball. He has great content related to all things European hoops. Fresh off covering the EuroLeague Final four in Belgrade, in which Luca don Chich rejected top five at the worst pick, did more incredible things,

we bring in Emmett Ryan to talk about it. Emmett First things first, have you recovered yet from Belgrade just about it just about like because I was straight back into my day job doing technology stuff as soon as I got back, and it was a really really really busy week in general in Ireland, like between sports stuff and politics stuff and me having to do my own job, I didn't have time to recover, but I just managed

about to manage to get through it. So Belgrade, but I would say is ring is actually were considering going for non basketball reasons. Great if you're single or if you're a couple, but if you've got kids, wait till they're grown up, because there is nothing to do with children there. Like I'm a single guy, I'm fine, but like anyone with kids is just gonna have four children

so fast. It's not going to go well for them, Like unless all I want to do is watch basketball, which in furnace with some of your listeners might be okay, they might have kids like that, there's nothing for them, all right, So I'm writing that down right now. No Seltzer Family Vacation twenty eighteen to Belgrade. Darn off the list.

It is well worth doing for everything else though, if you know, but you've got a family, it's like it's jumped out to me almost straight away, like as I traveled a lot between my day job and between ball and Europe, it was one of the few cities where I've realized there's nothing to do with a family here.

What was it just like from the atmosphere standpoint in terms of basketball vibes during the Final four weekend and how it took over the city fantastic, Like Belgrades one of the hardest cities in Europe to get to because it's not the best for flight connections, it is one of the best cities to have a basketball event and of any kind, to be honest, because the city just loves the sport and it's you know, it's a reasonly size city, like it'ld be about I think it's about

a million a million, one hundred one point one million people in the city. Like you know, basketball it's not the same as football, but it's a lot closer too as a soccer than it would be in most European cities, which really really helps, you know. And so when you've got that going on with the locals, even though their own team wasn't in it, they were obviously interested pure to be house. There was a few Serbian guys playing

as well, like I think someone did, Matt. I think it's like twenty odd of years since the Final four happened without at least one Serbian playing, So there's a long tradition of Serbians always being there when everything gets decided. And so in terms of the traveling fans, no debate

about it. Who brought the numbers freender Bache and they just dominated everybody, Like I thought that they'd have by far the most and a majority, but I actually figured Zalgerish Countess would bring a good few more than they did, and it still brought a couple of thousand. But I actually thought they might hit the four or five for the Friday, which is the semifinals day. But it seemed that more or lesson this has happened before Lithuanian teams.

The fans head of their bets and to decide to book literally the night before the final if they're going to come over fly in the following morning, which is very common with Lithuanian teams making finals. So it turns out that more than we're heading their bets, so like fender Batchet brought the numbers, and just for your listeners to explain, there was four teams, fender Batchey from miss Den, Bulls Algerish who are from Lithuania, Raal Madrid who were Spanish,

and Sheshka Mosco who were obviously Russian. And normally at most Final four is the way they do it is the game which will expected to have the smaller tenants will go first and when the bigger tenants will go second.

This time they switched it for the first instance twenty fourteen, where the one that we knew we were gonna have a full house for went first, and that was expected to lead to a really weird dynamic Brian where you know you'd have basically the crowd leaving during game two, but they didn't basically because they all seem to want to stay to watch, mostly Luca Dontt. I'll openly say

that that was definitely the main attraction. But then I figured, like, you know, we might as well watch the game as well, whereas normally they just go out and go into the bars, you know, understandably, but the kid was that much of an attraction. Most of the fender Batchian's Algerish fans stayed on afterwards to watch the game, and how big was the arena there. What type of crowd size are we talking? It's about twenty thousand, Like it's one of the biggest

in arenas in Europe. I think it's like top five or top six in Europe or size they got. They got two arenas there, and that's not the regular one for their teams, but it's the main con venue in Belgrade, and so it's like huge, really really big arena. Surprisingly sort of modern because it's not the youngest stadium. I've forgotten how old it is. I think about ten years.

I might be wrong with those. Apologies then to the Serbian listening, but it's like, you know, not the newest of new arenas, but still pretty pretty well up the speck and was really it felt like a basketball arena as well. Like I've been to these sort of you know, some eurostadiums which are very very large, but they don't feel like an MBA gym. They don't even feel like a college gym, Like they feel very much like they're a concert venue first and they happen to have sports there.

This one definitely was a basketball gym. We're gonna dive definitely into Luca Doncher talk in just a second. But I've got to tell you, I'm not sure if it's good for your health. I think it is great for my health. I need more. I feel like I need more smoking Emmet on periscope in my life. I promise I'll keep doing it until I quit smoking. I hope you quit smoking for my own sake. So and if I do quit, I'll replace it with something and maybe Emmett does lollipops on it. I don't know. Like it's

a Russian friend of mine, Alex Basic. He screen grabbed it when I was just having a smoke while doing the video after game at europe Basket, and now people are upset that they don't see a cigarette, so I have to smoke on camera. I'll be honest. Last year during EuroBasket, Charlie Wittis and I were talking in the office just how awesome it was. Again, certainly not if it's a habit that you want to kick, we prioritize

and support that. But it just like it definitely oozed and dripped the type of intensity that I guess the atmosphere brought on. It was a it was a look that put your mind in the right type of place. I felt, Yeah, definitely, especially for that time as well as a knockout phase where you know it's like you're running out because even as a nuteful, you're so you're

finding it so intense. You need to calm down, like you know, like because I guessaid I ended up a dog in the fight in eurobost and even I was getting worked up, like you know, just like some of the games. That was kind of cool, all right, Well down to more serious pertinent manners. Seventy six ers for the first time in a couple of seasons will not be in position to draft someone of Luca Donche's pedigree, at least that high at the moment in the draft order.

But I still definitely want to talk about him. How much have you actually been talking about him as of like how much does dontech talk dominate the daily life of Emmett Ryan An awful lot, to be honest, especially in the basketball side, because even though in Ireland, Blake, where your league isn't that big, they've all heard of him and think so they're asking because they know me as the earlyage guy in Ireland and said they'd be

asking me a lot. Then obviously, you know, I do a lot of you know, sort of American readers as well as obviously people like yourself, Brian, like on the media side, and he's a first name that comes out of their minds and also from a European perspective, like for us as like, you know, we're all very sort of we I think garden is the wrong word, but we're like sort of, you know, we'd probably be accurate

in the terms we used to describe him. Were not necessarily saying he's the best European prospect ever, because we don't want to message any historians said, we're saying he's easily the most observed European prospect ever, Like no one's

ever had this much discussion around him. You know. It's also you got ever, like he's been playing tier basketball in Europe for three years and three full seasons now and so we've seen a lot of them, and it's really you know, we have to remind ourselves, you know, that he's only nineteen years old, like that he does make kid mistakes. And it was even funny like when he was kissing his girlfriend after the final, it was very obvious that he's nineteen because any mac haven't kissed

that bad since I was a teenager. You know, it's like you're a reminder. He's definitely young, but you know, it's like it is sort of that stuff when you're kind of going, he's the same age as Marquel Fulls, Like,

you know, it's like he's young. He's that young. But he's been playing top tier for three seasons and it's still mind blowing to me to this day because the way he played this season where he had to come in, you know, Serio Yuey, who was beyond the radar of some of your listeners, I was because he was considering the Rockets a couple of years ago. He was done for most of the season with an ACL came back

in the playoffs in April. So basically he had been sort of the boss of the backcourt and happily to the fair to Luke at certain times, but like Luca had to be the boss of the backcourt. There was no debate because there was no one else to do it that was of the sufficient quality of, particularly defensively speaking for the role. And so the veteran players on his side, and you're time with some guys who are like,

you know, not exactly close to thirty anymore. Like they're well north of it now and they said, yep, that's fine, and trust the kid because if we don't, we have no we have no backup plan. And it worked, to be honest, it worked really well, and so and Rayals got their fitness their healthiness together at the right time.

Like you know, obviously, had they stayed unhealthy for too long, they wouldn't have made the playoffs, but they manage to keep healthy enough long enough and then you hit their stride with a pretty much fully healthy roster coming into the final four weekend and it worked out fantastically for them.

And we were counting back because they won like twos their third titles since the early nineties, but it's their first title in Europe that wasn't one in Spain since nineteen eighty the contact the city was back then was known as West Berlin, not Burlin, where they wont it because the wall was still up by with a few years to go yet. So that's how far back and going for Yale's last win of the biggest title in Europe outside of Spain, so like where the finals wasn't

earned Helen Spain, so quite quite a long time. That is some crazy perspective, and it was interesting the way that you framed it that Dantage among the media over there is viewed as the most observed prospect perhaps to come out of Europe. So how has he handled that aspect of all this remarkably well, I've got to say. So we have their immedia sasition before the games on

a Thursday. The games are on a Friday, and everybody knew going into this because the same as last year, Dontage was just going to get covered with bodies and he was grand like we all got our bit. He was talking in three languages, Laveni and Spanish English, and he was totally relaxed. Anyone asked an NBA question, he come on, ask me Sunday. You know, It's like because it was going to be around Sunday no matter what, and he was there listening all to care about this

weekend is winning this. And then by Sunday even he was like very relaxed with the NBA related questions and he was kind of yeah, listen, I just wanted yearly, I wasn't going to do now to celebrate. To come on, lads. In episodes, he's like, you know, he doesn't care if he goes first, isn't care if he goes second. Like I've seen some guys thinking he could drop down to fifth all the way. Personally, on an entirely selfish level, I would love for him to drop to a city

which happens to have a direct group from Dublin. I think it's lost three and five. Have those you know in the top five, so I we can go third. I think Atlanta third and like the MAVs are five. Yeah, I can take that. That'd be great, Like Phoenix is hard to get to two warm from my for my sort of skin now, Brian, to be honest, although you know Zacto probably more more tempered, I could manage that a bit better. He just had done did a phenomenal finish.

Have you, in your years covering basketball in Europe ever covered a finish like that. I mean, we're talking about a superfecta of honors here between Rising Star MVP, Final four MVP and then the Champion of course with Rayal. I haven't seen anyone do it in a long long time. Someone has done the Rising Star in MVP in the same year, but I don't think even won the Final

four MVP that year, which says at all. But like also he won all the all the Spanish league honners as well, like everything you just described there, he won all those in Spain two of the national league. There so apart from sorry the finals MVP, which he will win in about three weeks, I think, because when he wins the final Finals MVP, doing the rough timeline on it, and you know it's actually it's because if the series, it's actually one fun one for those of y'all who

are going to be watching the drafts. In most of you, he is a very good chance he won't be at the draft because game four of the Spanish finals and its best to five, so it could be over by then, is the day after the draft. And of course Frank Nika from France went over last year and flew back.

It's been made pretty clear to everybody that Luca Dongge is not going to do that, not least because Frank was absolutely exhausted looking on the floor and that the siding game in the French finals, and Luca Dodgage is all into trying to win a Spanish title and so you know, leave a champion from Spain on the way out. And also because he knows that being there won't affect

where he gets picked. Like the way people are making this year, the personal factor isn't going to be as much in terms of on the day, Like he's met all the executives, like, you know, the the guys from the Sons have been over, the guys from the Kings have been over. I'm pretty certain the six year over back when you didn't know what you're going to be doing this year last year, Like everybody's been over and he's met them all. Like so there's no oh, this

kid's self it or anything like that stuff. It's gates of No, this kid wants to win for the team he's still employed by, and most NBA executives seem to be aware that that's an actual thing. So that so he won't be over for the draft unless they win the Spanish title in a sweep. Do you think there's any chance he returns to Royale No, I think it's

very at every chance. He claims he will though in order to get some more leverage going into the draft, but in actuality, if he gets drafted, no matter where he lands, he's going to go there and he'll show up first day training camp and all that or whatever. You know, the first year you're expected to turn up voluntarily, even he'll be there. I just think if he's smart. I guess if I was him, which is a long time making, I'm much younger and much healthier, Brian, Uh,

you know I would. I would also be making sure there's like sort of you know, if I'm if I was thinking, maybe I want to go to Sock too, maybe I want to go somewhere else. I'm putting the feelers out that i'd consider another year in Spain, you know, just to sort of, you know, see if I could use it as leverage, like you know, it's a sensible thing to do. You know, that's a smart work from the agent. Let's talk about these skill package that Luca

Nanjag brings to the court. Puts up great, versatile, diverse numbers. In your opinion, what has been the reason why he's been able to generate this much hype and attract this much attention. It's a versus Hilly, it really is, because he does he is sort of you know, multi talented player, Like we've got the initial hype was everything, but his defense is how I put it, like, so he's got the shot he can. He's got this this speed despite

not the explosion. That's there's a difference there. His timing is brilliant, his passing is great, so you know, but also he's got that multipositional option, like if you're gonna go three guards set, he fits in. Well, if you're gonna go regular two guards set, you can go to one or the two. Because if you put him beside you know, say, you know a bog Down Bogdanovich bo Don as a shooter, but he's also a creator Luke, you can take some of the shooting load. You'll put

him beside a bucker in Phoenix. He's happy to have a shoot first, you know guy beside him as well. So there's so many sort of situations you look at sort he can be the one, he can be the two, or he can be the hybrid. It's not like your typical hybrid where he's not enough of either. Luca Done is enough of both to be either. And like frankly, you can put him at the three und as well, like you know the three on defense, which is you know,

quite a versatile mix. So when you've got that options defensively offensively, like I said, he can just you know, get everything through. And like most people I've spoken to with a sort of any NBA interest to all has said the explosive thing is massively overblown. Like he's built up a good bit in the last three years as it is, and we've seen with the likes of Christopsperzingiz

who one year of NBA conditioning. Because the type of bodies that work in the NBA are necessarily the ones that work in Europe and vice versa, you know he'll be basically, as you know, big and powerful athletically speaking, as he needs to be to get by. Like I'm not concerned about it less him at all going over You bring up something that I was just about to

ask you in terms of toughness physicality. It seems like you can only get so much looking at highlights over here and even streaming and watching games, but what about the toughness factor for him? Well, in the playoff series really showed that because Panath and Ikas, who have a very the toughest home arena to go to in Europe, they targeted him early and often they were just going after him and we're trying to beat him up. On Game one, he got his ass kicked, there's no doubt

in that. But in the next three games led to the reverse sweep that he was just on top basically like he was necessarily necesarily getting any shots off, but he gets kept getting to the line. And that's it's you know, it's one of the more borings. That's the followers foul to draw, and especially as for a rookie season, it's not going to help you much because rookies don't

get calls in the NBA. But as he develops as a player, like when you see him at that year three four player, he's just going to be a foul

drawing machine. Like in the NBA, it's gonna be ridiculous because his year three four, remember his twenty two, twenty three, you know, so it's like he's just going to be ridiculous to look at in that respect where you're just going to see this Kip get to the line so often because it's not just that he draws files and he can draw them in so many different ways in places and it sort of can get teams in trouble. And this is like you know, probably is like seventh

or eighth best attribute. This is the bill just get to get to the line, and so you put it all together with him, it's like there's nothing particularly weak about him, and there's enough a lot of things to like. The only thing I would say for a lot of fans is where I reckon some patience is he's I wouldn't got him streaky. It's more that he's very very consistent, only has like, you know, a down game for as

many super up games. So he's gonna have games where he's putting up like, you know, five of six from three and some crazy numbers like that, and then he's going to have a one of nine from the field

period of games straight afterwards, you know. So there is that little bit of very instill in this game, whereas more often than not, he's just a guy who shoots very much like his average number suggest and as well, like he's gonna frankly not get the same level of attention in his first season in the NBA as he got in Europe because he was seen as the primary threat for Rayal Madrid when he had the ball, and

you know he's gonna be a rookie next year. I'm sure that you guys wanting to give him the physical attention but the bottle lids. You put him alongside a guy who's a non proven shooter and no improven score, that guy's the one getting the attention, not Luca donchet. So I think he's gonna find his rhythm pretty pretty comfortably in the NBA. You mentioned the age thing. It really is incredible that he's still right now closer to

eighteen years of age than he is twenty. And the fact that he made his proe debut with Rayal and ACB what was it two months after sixteenth birthday, and

he's been doing this for such a long time. In the period that you've been tracking and covering him, in what areas of his game, would you say he's made the biggest strides and leaps comfortably decision making, like when it comes to like knowing when to pass, knowing when to like sort of also call his own number, like because you know, he sort of he saw the youthful both exuberance and nerves at Amerily on where if he had if he had a down streak, he would just

basically stop shooting. It would be only passing the course that was being telegraphed. Likewise, if he was too hot, he'd be pushing it that little bit too much. Like even last hee's me so bitter than that when he was always very exciting but still a little bit you know, undefined. This year, his decision making on both sides has just gone up so so much at also the last year. It's his defense, it's just it's and again it's not

necessarily the physical side. He can be physical, but it's his spacing, it's his positioning, it's his knowing how to make a guy's shot worse without even touching him, you know, without even like you know, putting his hand in his face,

just my pure positioning. Like he's just gotten so much better at that over the last year, whereas that was a big question mark going into last summer, and I remember, like you know, you know, even the guys I was talking about it, what's going on, dude, he's eighteen, He goes, yeah,

trying to fix that, like you're older. There's time to fix that was the classic thing with the defense, And sure enough, in time he's fixed a largely speaking, just being around old Chuck widdows a lot, you hear about Luca pretty frequently. But if we can retrace the timeline, when did his star really start to rise in terms of media attention surrounding him, and did you remember what it was a season or a tournament anything like that that prompted the needle to move in respect to him,

I suppose in Europe, even with the hardcore. The big one was sort of the under eighteen qualifier for the under eighteen Yearly Tournament in twenty fifteen, which is going back a good bit where he lit at that up in Spain, and so a bunch of guys who were like hardcore youth trackers were saying, you got to watch

this kid. And he gets to to Madrid actually was where it was, which of course where he was living and playing, and so you know, guys like me who wouldn't follow prospects as much, we're going along kind of going, okay, yeah, this kid's good, this kid's good. And then but it was really apposed for mainstream European media in terms of

basketball media. There was a game against Chescom Moscow the following season where he went in after this famously aggressive time out, you know, ranked by his coach Pablo Lasso, and immediately like nailed two threes as a sixteen year old. Everybody kind of going Okay, you're just doing that sight to the best team in Europe as you do. You know,

it's like, you know, casually enough. But I think really for most people, it was start of last season when that season just done, the one before the twenty sixteen seventeen season, where you suddenly realize he's not just a guy who's going to be you know, growing in minutes.

He's going to have starter minutes this year. And it was through preseason when you know, in Spain, which was like it was like early Facebook Live in terms of facebool living thing where they were showing all the preseason games on Facebook Live, and he was going out there and playing hard minutes from the start, and you're kind of going, oh, oh, oh, they're featuring them this season, you know, because we weren't sure, like and then it's like, oh,

they're they're they're all in. They're all in, like surge, every dygas has gone, It's Luca Dante's time. And you know, that was sort of when yeah, we're just going to be all in and this kid for the year. So and that was most even most of you know, so to people like yourself would have been talking to me as well about him. Because obviously I told Harry about him back in twenty fifteen and saying to get on

the radar. But it was really the start of that twenty sixteen seventeen season where sort of you know, American journalist who weren't big on the draft. The best way to put it, like for whom the regular MBA is their day to day, which is understandable as well, we all have different parts in our jobs. That was when they started to hear about him. Actually, he's the son, Luca is of a former pro basketball player in Slovenia

and someone who dabbled in coaching as well. In your opinion, how much of what we're seeing from don Chich is developed talent over the years and how much of it is natural gifts that some of the stuff he just has. Oh, I think his dad, based on admission, would say it's definitely more developed talent, you know, the entire IQ because his dad was you know, one a couple of Slovenian leagues,

but he wasn't. He never reached the heights that Lucas already reached a nineteen, never mind what he's hopefully going to reach further on. You know, I'm sure daddy Dante would agree with me on that one. I definitely did help coming from a family which was heavily involved with the big club in Slovenia and his dad won won

a Slovenian tambit tip with Goran dragged. So Luca had gore on sort of there a sort of a mini metro when he was a very very very young boys and like you know, it's still single digit age young and so he had he had that going for him, and you know, like, but also I think it was the dad knowing the like Madrid was a good place for his kid to go, because you know, there was the right discussion, Like he knew that that was a kid that was a team that could look after him.

You know, it's because there are places where they got good repped for youth, but it turns out they don't get many minutes. Like look at anyone who's gone through Barcelona in the last few years. It's just a disaster, you know, frankly for any youth player in the last while. You know, of understatement, actually keep on losing guys, where as real they've shown it's not just developing NBA quality guys, it's developing yearly quality guys, but they're going their minute's

still quite young. So if you're good enough, they will give you that shot. But also they'll find a way to give you a shot as much as they humanly can as well, so for development being in that system in real Madrid, like like he's their best ad Ford, but he's not their only at obviously Morota was there as well, and a few other guys, but like Luca's basically, if you come here as a young man, they will

do right by you. And there's not much more you can say than that when you look at what Lucas gonna what's gonna happen with Luca a couple of weeks time in the draft. You know you touched on this earlier, but pretty safe to say that consistent could be a word to describe the presence that NBA executives have had over in Europe scouting him over the last couple of

months and couple of years. Oh, absolutely, the absolutely, Like you know, there's been plenty of the classic one as well as like any local journalists, they see somebody sort of who knows who's recognized from from an association franchise, they're like, you know, tweet the photos say they're in the building lads tonight and you know so and like with Luca, like it's just been comic a lot of times, like sort of you know, okay, you have teams who

have no hope of drafting because you knew they were going to finish way up, and even they be over to watch them just in the off chance there was a move that happened that somebody offered them something. You know, it's like, you know, it was worth like having having

the sort of the body there. And again the ways the European scouting networks are as well for the NBA now like what they are these days compared to even seven eight years ago, it's just so much more mature now what what you what you guys have over here in terms of scouting networks and so as a result, like you know, a player liked on which is not just getting like you know, talked up like sort of you know, in the way you have even like kind

of pubkhuse conversation. There are guys you know, sort of all over continent going back to their bosses in the cities, would do tail sort of breakdown data sheets like the real nerdy stuff and you know, that's getting the attention back home, because those guys aren't paid to big up Europeans. Those guys are paid to, like, you know, find real players who can make real differences. I think that Luke is excited about the possibility of coming to the NBA.

Have you gotten any sense of that just in observing him, talking to him, seeing him in his media availabilities. Yes, But at the same time, I think he's trying to enjoy the last bit of Europe he has in his career as much as he possibly can, because you know, there is again he's you know, it's a big move. I think actually one thing that will stand to him is he had that big move as a much younger teenager from Lubiana to Madrid, So who's gonna have this

other big move now? But as a much older person like you all be at, still under twenty across to another continent, there's definitely excitement there because he likes to test himself, he likes to challenge himself. He even saw that when he was going against Porzingis and EuroBasket, he was going for Christas because he knew this is the guy who's maybe the start of the tournament. And he's like,

this is my tournament. It was his attitude, which is great obviously to have that he wants to go after the the top dogs, and you know it's yeah, it's like there's definitely an excitement there, but I think it's a calm as well, like you know, as because he knows in his own heart he can be a very

very good player at the top level. And it's like, you know, he wants to have the fun as well, but like you know, the kid kids used to winning championships, so you know, that's a big thing to bear in mind. He's used to being a factor, so it's gonna you know, he knows he's got to get readjust his equitations in the short term so he can get what he really wants in the long term, regardless of where he ends up.

Can't wait to see him. Just a really fascinating story in someone that you know you've been tracking for a long time. Other than that kind of a light draft, it's looking like Emmett in terms of euros this year. Yeah, it's a bit unfortunate that, to be honest, Like I think, you know, there's a few guys who will be on the radar for like you know, the next year's draft, you know, but like this year, Yeah, it's like we

were looking. I think it's because like last year, Ibou was he We had a load in the second round, a couple of obviously on your books, which will will always mentioned one in the second But yeah, it's not a very euro deep draft this year, which is a little disappointing. But aspos it's year a heavy one by our standards last year that they sort of they tend to come in waves, so like and the classes coming through oddly the classes saw at the junior tournament this year.

In the yearly no one where who stood out as being a guy who's going to make it over in association. But you know, it's definitely there's like guys on the radar. Obviously I've mentioned the Charlie before that the one I'm looking forward to. He's like a top fifty prospecting high school in the nation, Aidan, Harris, Sicker, Horndkin and Dublin going into He's been offered a few different schools full

rides already for next year. You know, he's the best chance at the first that being the first Irish born player in the NBA since Pat Burke of the Sons and Magic. That's the big hope from Arland at the moment,

and I thank goodness for editing. So outside of that though, yeah, the European side, yeah, it's kind of weird because there are definitely prospects coming through, But I think there's a cycnical nature to it as well, like there's always gonna one or two drier years than others because I'm a glass year at Laurie Marketing as well, who all rookie as well over Goet. So you see sort of all those guys coming through and it's like there's going to be the year where it's not as amazing. So that

jumps out. But obviously we mentioned the sixties with last year's draft that are in Europe. Not a European but

he's playing in the EuroLeague this year. Jonah Bolden, now what sixty Times may not be aware of it is his season nearly ended a lot faster than everybody was expecting because, without getting into the reasons behind it, there was a strike by the Israeli players in the Israeli League, which looks to have killed the season because there were a certain timelines or it had to be done by and it looked like they had managed to basically spike at the exact perfect time to ruin any hope of

doing that. And now the season is saved and the playoffs are on again. But there was a very good chance Jonah season was already over if you had asked me this, like Brian, if we'd recorded this three days earlier, we'll be talking about how John Bolden seasons over, you know, whereas instead, oh no, he's actually got the playoffs and he'll probably get into the Israeli Final four and we'll see how he gets something there. But it was a very very weird end of the season, like his maccaby side.

Not a great year for them, no playoffs, clearly still they're going in loosely the right direction, but still need an awful lot more work to do, it seems though. Looking at it from Afar, Jonas definitely held his own this season, had some flashes in good moments. What's been your impression of where he's at right now? Development is

looking great? Yeah, because again he moved up a step as well as year to McCabe from FMP and he looked like he belonged at that level, which I think it's a major question when it's a guy moving up from very much lower standard of basketball in Europe, despite being an impressive player at that level, when you're moving up to the top tier, the look a guy who belonged on the court was a great sign. Obviously seeing

if he's going to be NBA's in or debate. But you know, I know, you know, six Ers heads are massively high him because of his overall tools tools that what I would hope for is assuming McCabe or firing air coach no matter what this season, which the broad impression is they are that he is in a situation coaching wise next year that is more suited to his development, not just because you know, he wants to go to the NBA, but because that's the type of coach mccabey

needs right now when he's actually gonna, like, you know, work around the strength of the players rather than sort of, you know, just here's a ball and hope for the best, which has been a little bit of what we've seen, like you know, have been a few too many egos in a team which doesn't really deserve to have that many egos. As we were discussing Luca don Chechi's in

a class in and of himself. But if you looked at some of the pi R numbers and statistics of Rising Stars trophy qualifiers in your ear league play, Yeah, Jonah Bolden who was in fourth place as the vote getter, and then Matthias Sort who was in third. So it seems like some of the prospects of the sixers acquired last year, who have been plying their trade over in Europe,

they've been moving in the right direction. Oh, it's we definitely saw, especially front end of the season, we saw a lot of you know, the he belongs to your type big man moments, which is very important really for a young guy in your early because young big men are going to get targeted because they're young big man as the nature of the sport, and so he was

really able to establish his authority early. Like his team's Vezda, they're not in the best plays right now, they're not on in your early next year, it's gonna be interesting to see if they keep him, because he'd be better off moving and they'd be better off moving him on not because of quality, because of finances for them, that would make more sense for them to like take in a cheaper at it than Matthias and for him it'd be better obviously still playing early next year before he considers,

you know, going over to the six years. Like I think we've had this chat last season when we're discussing a Lasors, like I was saying, the guy's backup center

material in the NBA for like years and years. It's a big guy where you plug a manager backup center on the bench and you can feel comfortable for the next five six years without having a need to fill that role in essentially, which you know, it's like not a bad thing to have considering the price of backup center is like then the reliability of them more than

anything else. And with as possessionis, who spent the season with Grand Canarios, sounds like might be exploring the opportunity to go to a higher level of competition, the likes of which as you said, Bond did this past year and Les sort also with the yearly club. That's right, and well as a recording that said we're going to be finding out in a couple of hours times if the seconds is going to help Grand Canaria not Barcelona

out of the Spanish playoffs. So that's a good their season's going, that's only best at three in the first round. And grank had got a huge win on the road in Barcelona in Game one Barcelona out there this evening and is like again it's a case of if ever there's a guy where you know, the eating and dieting and overall training of NBA will help his physique. He is the definition of whatever it's about Luca, Like, you know, for him, I want to see the guy you know,

basically brought to a Denny's very quickly. You know, he's like still too, He's like I see him working out far more. Like in his current physique, he can't really be a five of the NBA, even though his skill set is already suited to it, Like he could be fine as a four. Like but even then him kind of going, if he's gonna be a Davis Birstand type four, I want more meeting him, like you know, maybe like you know, get to Davis Birstand's type size. But you know,

he's definitely the skills to be a five. I just think he needs to, you know, just get eating. Like and France Christaps was that way when he went over as well. He was a scrawny little fellow like people forget that he was a string being and he started eating fast like. But again, you know a lot of that is down to the conditioning. But he's in a great place in Grancin area, like he gets his minutes,

he's in a good organization and like the coach. Famously, he led to the greatest upset in Spanish playoff history about twenty years ago at Manreitha. Who are if you're saying I've never heard of those, that's kind of the point. They managed to win a Spanish title out of nowhere, and you know, so the good coach situation as well. So yeah, I'd like to see who move up. But if he does move up, I hope he's very careful where he goes because he does need a place where

they will give him reps. You know, with Grandca, he's guaranteed that at the moment. Obviously, different teams in Europe have different sort of priorities, like who get offered a conference to say by fs who are in Istanbul, and they might offer him a lot of money. But the bottom line is Bryan Dunson is there starting center, and if he's still there, Peschekness is not seeing the floor that often during the game, and that's going to stunt his development. All right, and you always leave us with

terrific pearls of wisdom. But as he wrapped this thing up, one final question which I probably should have asked you you towards the start, that could have helped us contextualize how we look at the production and output of some of the players that we've been discussing over in Europe.

Can you explain to us PI R and just how the index rating is used over there as a statistical measure relative to per game averages, whether it be points, rebounds, assist, that sort of thing, because it seems like when there are conversations about prospects in Europe, the index rating is something that frequently comes up. Yeah, it's it's a strange one because it's not Pe or just for starters. It's it's nowhere near as mathematically complex. It's essentially based on

all round performance. So it's there's a formula based on free throw make miss, make make make miss, feel regular field goal and three pointers, rebounds, assists, steels, turnovers. Obviously it's very raw arithmetic, but so as in the best describe it is, while I wouldn't read too much into it. If a guy's got like a pr you know that's above say fifteen for the season, he's had a pretty good year because the odds are means you be doing a lot of everything all year. If it's over twenty,

he's had a great year. And if frankly, if it's over thirty, he's a miracle worker, you know, as in like the second coming up. Both it's like, you know, we've we've found a way to perfectly still the ultimate basketball player, you know, and absolutely every tools because very much it's an all round stat. I'm not a huge fan abot because I guess why they have it because it's because there's not enough games ready for pear to be an efficient actual you know, measure at European level.

But if we ever go with a full close league, I think it would be worth re examining that pi R is much better in small sample sizes, is the

best way to describe it. And what a thirty game season, he's a small sample size compared to an NBA season obviously, and yeah, it's like it's fine, like it's you know, personally, if if you guys want to learn more, the best option is to google it because rather than actually asking me, which you know it sounds weird, but like it's easier for you to see for yourself and sort of almost take performance from Marquel, from Simmons, you know, from Joel and see sort of how you know, sort of if

you use pi R you compare three different players in their games, but they're all around. Contribution was essentially well, listen for a guy who's not taking a mathematics course, since I want to say, really junior year in high school. That was explained simple and straightforward enough for me, so it sounded good on this end. The short version is

Luca's number is high enough because he's very good. I like that is the type of analysis we come to Emmett Ryan for plus all of the things eurohoops related ball in europe dot com. He is the man from overseas keeping tabs on what we can expect in this year's draft, perhaps from Luca don chich and also with some really helpful updates on six Ers prospects over in Europe. Emmett great to chat as always, Thanks so much, man, that's a pleasure, Brian always good. Welcome to him. Att.

Emmett is the best and his insights ain't too bad either. Once again, Ball in Europe dot COM's Twitter handle is at bie underscore Basketball. Big thanks to him for taking the time and talk about Luca Dontchich and given us updates on the seventy sixers talents overseas in Europe. Coming next week, more full fledged draft coverage on the podcast as we continue to move towards June twenty first, and also some pre draft workouts in Camden with the Sixers.

Have a great weekend, talking next week here on the podcast. See