Love his game
A real nice 3 level scorer. His defense?
How many games did he play? Any way to calibrate the competition level for the tournament?
I think his shooting is going to translate because it looks smooth and he has a really quick release - which is critical for his size. I also like his activity overall with dribble handoffs, ball screens, and steals - there can be a risk for a player like him to turn into a “chucker” and he’s clearly more engaged within the framework of the system to be more than that. I’m also not worried about the “weakness” highlighted in the video of shot selection because I think that is situational with that team and his role to a point.
What I was hoping to see a little more of was size and athleticism. I didn’t expect those to be a strength, but I was hoping to see some progress in those areas since the last time I watched him. He still seems like the smallest player on the court and his ability to free up space for himself still falls into the “crafty” category and not the “impressive” category.
I am still positive about his potential and excited to see him mature next year and arrive at Michigan - I just don’t know what his ceiling is as a bit of an undersized combo guard.
Seven games:
I would say it varies wildly by game. 3rd place is a good finish for Germany, though.
More like 2 level scorer? I don’t think you’d project him to have a ton of success at the rim at the next level.
Are any of the teams as good as, like, Montverde or the other elite NIBC/Geico Nationals type high school teams?
Certainly not talent wise
I’m not an expert at international hoops but I wouldn’t imagine they’d be close to that level.
NIBC or EYBL teams are basically all college-caliber players… FIBA stuff might have 1 or 2 on most teams. Many with zero.
really? I mean, wouldn’t larger programs like France/Germany/Spain have 12 D-1 caliber kids in a two year age bucket? There’s 23 french kids in D1 right now, nevermind the kids good enough who are just playing academy ball in europe. Do they not show up to u18’s? NIL will probably cause some shift, but most of Europe’s best prospects traditionally don’t come here for college.
Check out Stephen Curry: Underrated. I am certainly not saying CA is Steph. So far, no one is, but, according to his critics in high school and even while still in college, he “didn’t have enough size,” he “didn’t have enough strength,” he “wasn’t athletic enough,” he “couldn’t score around the rim.”
If you haven’t seen the documentary, it’s well worth the watch. Obviously, Steph is an amazing talent, but no one thought that when he was in high school or early on at Davidson when he looked so small, kinda like a little boy out there. I thought about Christian Anderson as I watched. I thought about Jaelin Llewellyn as I watched. And I thought about all of the “analysis” of those guys and the critiques of those guys, as I watched Steph Curry make fools of his critics.
We don’t know for sure who CA is gonna be. We also don’t know who JL is gonna be, but we sure have a lot of opinions about them. People had opinions about Steph, too. I’m just gonna wait and see what happens, and I’m just gonna stay positive and encouraged about these guys. And seriously, for anyone on here, the Steph Curry film is a great and an inspirational one to watch, for lots of reasons.
Okay, now do Croatia, Poland, Turkey, Sweden, Greece – the lesser teams that Germany played.
There are always 10-15 really good players and prospects at these events. The average team is still not anywhere up to the level of athletic ability and talent of the EYBL or NIBC or that level.
This year’s field was also even more diluted because of the U19 World Cup in the same summer.
NIBC and EYBL games feature multiple guys who are clearly high-major talents, on both teams. That’s not the case in most of these FIBA games.
Not that it isn’t important or can’t be a tool, but it is wildly different.
Ernie I’m more on the positive side than a lot of people here. I’m more encouraged with Dug, GW3, and even JL than a lot of the posters. Maybe it is just off-season dream casting, but still. I am also still excited to see what Christian Anderson looks like on a college court because I think his shooting and knack for big plays will translate. But physically he still has a long way to go and while the Steph comparison is the pinnacle of potential for guys like him, Steph is listed at 6-3 and has elite quickness.
If CA can hit threes however, there’s always room on the team for that. I almost wonder if he’s an ideal Vinny Johnson style 6th man where he can play a little of either guard spot, score in bunches, but maybe not a guy you want starting and playing 30 minutes. Good news is that we still have a couple years to find out while he develops!
He can definitely hit threes.
I think so too Dylan - but hitting them in the B10 within the framework of the offense is still a little different than this FIBA tournament you just pointed out has very few actual D1 prospects in it. Also different than EYBL. I don’t want to sound like I’m negative for CA - just the opposite in fact. But my point in all of my posts today was to try and calibrate his performance. You pointed out that the competition wasn’t great and the video points out that his shooting was relatively modest in terms of percentile relative to others. Sample size caveats abound…
He is one of the hardest recruits to figure out because he’s had success for years on the court - but questions come up about size, position, athleticism, competition level, etc. The video stats don’t do a lot to dispel those. I take it from your mild snark in the reply that you think his shooting will translate to Michigan? That’s good to hear.
No snark intended. Just simply stating that his perimeter shooting is his elite talent. I wouldn’t ever look at what percentage someone shot from three in a FIBA tournament or something as a meaningful data point.
Whether or not he’s good in the Big Ten depends on everything else except for that.
The question isn’t whether his shooting translate to the Big Ten, it is whether his game translates to the Big Ten enough that he can play at that level.
Haha that’s what I thought - but this video from the European Championship shows him somehow scoring a fair amount around the rim
He’s shooting pretty rarely there and the stuff I did see that went in were like totally uncontested layups that he didn’t really create for himself. I dk, I’m not putting much stock in it.
Yeah sorry I was pretty sure the median team wasn’t much but was curious about the best competition Anderson played here and how it mapped to high level US talent. I just don’t know enough about the level but guessed that the very best teams were maybe just under those NIBC schools?
If there’s some obvious “this team is maybe about as good as _____” fill in the blanks that would be nice to know. Especially if I decide to go back and watch, which I might.