“Drafting European juniors is a rarity in recent years” – Basketball – Sportacentrs.com

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Robert Bloom, born in 2005, is currently playing his first season in professional basketball. In 32 matches of the Latvian-Estonian league, the defender stood out with an average of 12.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists, portal “Sportacentrs.com” expert assessment being recognized as the best young player of the season.

“If we really only look at the young players, which included players born in 2002 and younger, which I no longer consider young players, because the 2002s are already playing in the NBA, finishing universities and moving on in life. It would be said that the new player is U20 – like Robert, who can still play in the youth championships or in the first year of the game after finishing the youth league. If we look at this category, he was by far the best player this season among Latvian club basketball players. Will that be enough? I think it’s feeling the waters. Of course, we won’t see him in the draft predictions,” said Guntars Yonans about Blum’s performance and the chances of being selected in the 2024 NBA draft.

”If I have to make a prediction, I think that shortly before the draft, the name will be withdrawn. A little marketing will do. As far as we know, he is aiming for college,” said Arthur Schönhoff. Reinis Lācis added to what he said: ”I think it is directly related to the desire to study in the USA. Getting there [pirmsdrafta] names, the world there is much more interconnected than if you live on the other side of the world. Will participate in training, its language and words can quickly flow around. You know, through some kind of chain, you can become more interesting for colleges.”

“I would draw parallels, it seems according to the statistics, with one guy who was a year older and scored 12.9 points in VEF, with 40% accuracy from long shots, 10.6 points in the Champions League. Artūrs Kurucs. He was a year older then. In the away match in Bamberg, even several scouts from NBA clubs had come to watch. Arthur worked purposefully on it that year, then participated in all NBA training sessions. There are differences in type – Robert is a much more aggressive seeker of his shot, but some similar parallels can be drawn,” Lācis continued.

“Neither of them really has an NBA body for their position,” Yonans objected when talking about the comparison between Blum and Kuruc.

“In recent years, it’s generally very rare where a truly European kid is drafted,” Lācis said.

Schönhoff compared the talented young player with the former American basketball player JJ Redick and his physical parameters, but Lācis pointed out that the players are in different positions and that Redick is a non-dribble basketball player, unlike Bloom, who tends to create situations after the dribble.

“It’s been a long time since Redick was drafted. The game has changed. Let’s remember that Redick for much of his career came off the blocks and made long layups. It’s also not really relevant anymore. He threw more long shots towards the end of his career,” said Lācis.

As the second brightest young basketball player in the last season of the Latvian-Estonian league, “Údenszeļļļi” highlighted Blum’s peer Stefan Vāks in the ranks of “Viimsi”. ”In any case [Blūms ir] the brightest surprise of this season’s Latvian-Estonian league. He and Vaaks. Who will have a better career? This is an open question. What is more impressive for Robert is that it is rare for a young player to show up in such a very strong team. However, Vaaks’ team is not fighting for anything and he knew that he would play. When Roberts started the season, I don’t think he was promised or guaranteed anything. He just won his place. He had a very impressive season,” commented Schönhoff.

“If we look at the last drafts, the most analogous examples when you are a European and you are not a physical monster are the two Italians Gabriele Prochida and Mateo Spagnolo, and the Lithuanian Roks Jokubaitis,” Lācis outlined the situation with European defenders drafted in previous years. Jonans, on the other hand, pointed out that both Procida and Spagnolo are very fast and athletic defenders.

”Nothing else even comes close to comparing. The Europeans, who were chosen in the second round, were a couple of years older, but already at that time in the Euroleague, they collected something to that side in terms of statistics, while Roberts did it this year in the Latvian-Estonian league,” concluded Lācis.

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