International Division I Prospects Part 2
Let's dive into the world of up-and-coming top prospects from across the pond. Here are five names college coaches will recruit between now and two years.
Introduction
College basketball coaches face significant challenges in scouting talent during their busy seasons, which limits their ability to personally evaluate prospects across the Atlantic.
Consequently, there has been an increased reliance on specialized scouts and agents based in Europe to identify and connect with promising players. The introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights has fundamentally transformed the landscape of college basketball. This change makes the U.S. collegiate system more attractive to young European athletes, offering them the opportunity to pursue a degree on scholarship while simultaneously earning income from their basketball skills.
As a result, Ersin's NBA Draft Newsletter will continue to spotlight emerging talents from various European countries. By doing so, I aim to guide these prospects towards the collegiate route, which not only promises academic advancement but also provides a platform for basketball development, setting a strong foundation for their eventual professional careers.
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1. Vasileios Kazamias (#7) — Aris Thessaloniki (2025)
Wing — 6’7” — Greece
Date of Birth: 10 March 2007 — 17 years old — Player Bio and Stats
In today’s era, more programs seek plus-sized ball handlers and decision-makers. That’s Kazamias’ role in a nutshell. He has a long and slim build but shows a decent core strength that helps him to use and move fluidly. His hip mobility is one of the advantages of his profile. This helps him to expand his game to being a threat in the post outside of his ball-handling and playmaking duties on the perimeter.
Kazamias is an improving shooter. He’s not looking to be a volume shooter on the perimeter but prefers to put pressure on the paint to utilize his advantage creation. He has decent burst and lateral quickness, but more importantly, he shows good handles and craftiness to generate paint touches. He’s an active passer who seeks others before prioritizing his finish if needed. He shows good touch at the rim, where he finished over 60% of his attempts at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament. Regardless, handling physicality against the better athletes stateside maintains a risk in his profile.
Defensively, Kazamias’ size helps him to defend against guards and wings. He’s a decent screen navigator, but the lack of strength brings risk when fighting through screens against older and more experienced centers. Regardless, Kazamias is one of Greece’s up-and-coming names. His unique selling point is the pass-first plus-sized point guard archetype that’s harder to find, especially for mid-major and low-major programs.
Video Source: Antonio Diás
Potential: a legitimate four-year prospect for a mid-major program.
2. Mark Morano (#1) — Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (2025)
Guard/Wing — 6’6” — Slovenia
Date of Birth: 5 February 2007 — 18 years old — Player Bio and Stats
Morano fits the modern ball-handling wing mold. He has a strong frame and broad shoulders, which hold more value considering his quick feet. Morano is a crafty but physical scorer who shows variation between angle-creation in the post while also thriving on playing physically as a face-up scorer. His handles are a tad too loose, which is one of his main areas of development for college coaches to focus on when he comes over stateside.
Morano is best with the ball in his hands as a scorer. His physicality, composure, and footwork helped him to create angles closer to the basket, as he has an advanced jump shot in his arsenal. The release is slow, but he has shown consistency throughout the entire Adidas Next Generation Tournament. Overall, Morano is a good athlete who’s playing beyond his years, considering the well-filled frame that helps him unleash the potential of his quick feet. His profile has more intrigue considering the extra playmaking he offers, while he’s good at using his size to see over defenders while using his physicality and toughness as gravity to draw help early in his face-up actions.
Defensively, Morano’s size helps him to rotate from defending against threes and fours, where he can also switching to the two spot. He’s decent at recognizing rotations but needs to improve the consistency on that end. The impact he’s making is mostly due to his physicality. I expect Morano to draw high-major interest. Despite his level of dominance among his age group, it’s still uncertain if his game translates when playing in a college basketball environment that focuses on athleticism rather than Europe’s fundamentals-first approach.
Video Source: Eurohoops Scouting
Potential: a clear high-major prospect from day one.
3. Ognjen Brajovic (#11) — SC Derby Podgorica (2025)
Power Forward/Center — 6’10” — Montenegro
Date of Birth: 6 February 2007 — 18 years old — Player Bio and Stats
We see more college programs run four, or even five-out sets. As a result, the glaring need for more floor-stretching forwards who can serve as hubs inside the arc forces lots of decision-makers to their search in Europe. Brajovic is one of the highly-touted Europeans ready to make the transfer to the United States.
At 6-foot-10, he has a long, wiry build. However, he has great mobility thanks to his fluid hips. He doesn’t have quick feet, but his footwork compensates for a lot, as he’s a gifted angle creator when he’s looking to score in the post. The physical value comes from his long wingspan. There is no official measurement available, but I project it to be at least six inches more than his listed size.
However, Brajovic should be considered as a four-year recruit. While he has a fluid fadeaway midrange shot in his arsenal, his range hasn’t translated to the three-point line yet. But that’s irrelevant to his recruitment process, as the process of developing into a shooter is showing good progress. For the short run, teams should focus on utilizing his playmaking as a hub from the interior and when he’s on the perimeter.
As the video below shows, he’s a crafty and consistent passer who launches motion around him while putting the ball over his head, where his overhead passes are efficient and quick. Programs that run sets with the constant motion from the other four players on the court need an extra playmaker Brajovic fits that mold as he’s comfortable in deciding to pass or attack the rim with the capability to be a straight-line driver where his midrange shot holds enough gravity to keep defenders on their heels.
Video Source: Eurohoops Scouting
Potential: a four-year starting mid-major big man
4. Ömer Ege Ziyaettin (#11) — Fenerbahçe (2026)
Point Guard — 6’2” — Türkiye
Date of Birth: 20 May 2008 — 16 years old — Player Bio and Stats
Ziyaettin is one of the best pure point guards in Europe. His creativity, solid handles, and ability to run an offense make him a highly sought-after archetype as a floor general with enough scoring prowess. Despite his slim build, Ziyaettin is banking on his quickness and handles to turn a lack of physicality to his advantage when driving into the interior. He’s a high-feel player who knows how to draw contact and get himself to the charity stripe while also putting opposing forwards into foul trouble.
His game is built on fundamentals. On the defensive end, Ziyaettin is a good screen navigator who loses the battle when ball handlers find their way to the interior due to a lack of physicality. That’s the risk when projecting his game in an environment with more athleticism around him. Regardless, his plays out of ball screens as a scorer and passer are beyond his years. Adding his handles and creativity to that, Ziyaettin can be a high-volume scoring guard at the low-major level as a freshman.
Defensively, his advanced feel for the game helps him to effectively impact passing lanes, especially when he’s defending away from the ball. Despite the short wingspan, Ziyaettin’s intangibles compensate for most of the lack of physicality and athleticism. He shows a decent burst, but even on the European level, Ziyaettin had to find other ways to impact the game than banking on his physicality. That makes his game more mature compared to his age group, which gives collegiate decision-making comfort, knowing they can afford to spend playing minutes on a freshman in an older-becoming college basketball.
Ziyaettin made the most of his opportunity at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament in November 2024. I expect him to draw lots of interest from low-major programs as his development continues at Fenerbahçe, one of Türkiye’s powerhouses and one of Europe’s highly respected youth academies.
Video Source: Can Peker Pekcan
Potential: a four-year low-major starting point guard with enough potential to grow to the mid-major level.
5. Yalin Yildiz (#35) — Karşıyaka Basket (2026)
Point Guard — 6’1” — Türkiye
Date of Birth: 31 January 2008 — 17 years old — Player Bio and Stats
Yildiz is a pass-first point guard who utilizes rim pressure to serve play-finishers and outside shooters. Comparing him to other guards in Europe, Yildiz is one of the best passers I’ve evaluated in the last two years. He plays with an attitude and pure focus. He’s not shying away from higher-risk passes and still manages to keep good care of the ball. Despite his young age, his playmaking reads are advanced, and it’s clear that he spends a lot of time in the film room studying angles and how to set others up in a tougher-becoming game as he gets older.
Offensively, Yildiz’s main value is on the passing end. To support a team’s offensive rating, he’s solely focusing on his outside shooting. Therefore, it’s vital that teams pair him with enough playmaking around him to feed him open opportunities. When he’s slashing or attacking the rim with the ball in his hands as the main creator, Yildiz can recognize angles to finish at the rim, but the lack of physicality makes it a challenge for him to be a consistent scorer. He’s tough and gritty, but that doesn’t compensate enough when projecting his game against better athletes in college basketball.
More mid-major and low-major programs seek experience and thus focus on JUCO, NAIA, or the other divisions. However, Yildiz’s decision-making while keeping his handles alive after hard hedges or even blitzes was the first thing that stood out. Fundamentally, he’s working hard to continue to stay one of the best among Turkish prospects. That improves his value as it’s a scarce group of pure point guards who master angles and make plays out of ball screens while showing a high-end level of handles.
Despite his confidence, Yildiz remains a questionable free-throw shooter, where he’s finishing just over 60% of his attempts. That’s remarkable, considering the pureness of his shooting stroke and consistency of his three-point shooting, where he converts over 40% of his attempts. Regardless, Yildiz’s decision-making and grit puts him on the charity stripe with ease. That’s mostly due to his high understanding of angles where he’s using the gravity of his passing treat to make defenders bite on fakes and jab steps, thus opening up opportunities to dive into a defender’s arm and draw fouls.
Defensively, Yildiz is a decent screen navigator who needs to get stronger to fully utilize his status as a point guard. He’s consistent in his rotations but looks often overwhelmed when having to stop taller and stronger players. Therefore, it’s the early conclusion that teams are primarily buying their floor general in Yildiz’s profile, as the physical development will determine if he can reach the high-major level. In terms of maturity, intangibles, and skillset, he’s no doubt among Europeans one of the best pass-first point guards available in his age group.
Video Source: Can Peker Pekcan
Potential: a four-year floor general who can transfer up to a power-five conference later in his career.
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