Olympic NBA Prospect Power Rankings: Semifinals
Eliminated in Quarterfinals
6. Domantas Sabonis: After an encouraging start to the Olympic basketball tournament, the Thunder rookie regressed significantly in Lithuania’s last three games, all of which were losses.
The 20-year-old played well in the first three games, making plays in crunch time and going up against formidable opponents head-to-head.
It was a disappointing finish to say the least for Lithuania and Sabonis is not the only player whose performance took a turn for the worse beginning with the loss to Spain.
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It’s unfortunate that many of Sabonis’ highlights and great plays will be forgotten and all that most will remember about Lithuania’s run in Rio is the epic collapse of the team as a whole, but there were some promising moments from the No. 11 pick of the 2016 NBA Draft.
Sabonis averaged 5.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals over the course of six games, but he went from playing roughly 22 minutes per game in the first four contests to playing only 24 total minutes in Lithuania’s last two contests.
5. Mindaugas Kuzminskas: The Knicks’ prospect performed well individually in most of Lithuania’s games. Unfortunately, when the stakes were the highest, the small forward did not make as big of an impact.
Kuzminskas started off the tournament putting up a couple of solid performances, scoring eight points and five rebounds in back-to-back games.
His best game of the tournament came against Argentina, when he exploded for 23 points.
Even in a blowout loss to Spain, Kuzminskas scored 17 points and shot 7-for-12 from the field, a small positive in an otherwise ugly all-around night.
Lithuania’s last two games were of a significant magnitude. The team had a chance to clinch the top seed in Group B, but lost to Croatia and fell to third. Kuzminskas scored only three points in the game.
Lithuania faced a tough Australian team in its quarterfinal match on Wednesday, in which the 26-year-old scored six points, grabbed six rebounds. Lithuania lost by 26 points.
Despite the disappointing finish, Kuzminskas showed flashes of what he can do when he joins the Knicks.
If his play in Rio is any indication of what to expect from the Lithuanian rookie, he should provide a spark off the bench, can create instant offense in short bursts, knock down open jumpers, as well as clean up offensive rebounds and finish near the rim.
4. Patricio Garino: The 24-year-old showed the world what he can offer when he joins the San Antonio Spurs for the 2016-17 season.
The shooting guard earned a reputation for his solid defense, playing roughly 25 minutes per game for an Argentina team that lacked depth and was the oldest in the field.
Garino averaged 6.3 points, shot 52 percent from the field, and swiped one steal per game over Argentina’s six games.
Going forward, Garino will be a key piece of the young nucleus for Argentina, as Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, and Andres Nocioni each played in their final Olympic game on Wednesday.
Spurs fans have plenty of reason to be encouraged by Garino’s play in Rio and it won’t be a surprise to see the rookie make meaningful contributions off the bench in the upcoming season.
3. Dario Saric: The 22-year-old was at the top of our rankings for the last week because of his tendency to show up in big moments; his versatile, all-around game; and the way he led a team that was not stacked with talented players from the top to bottom of the roster.
Taking nothing away from the Philadelphia 76ers prospect’s great overall run in the Olympic basketball tournament, his performance in the quarterfinals against Serbia was underwhelming.
Saric scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds in a must-win game that his team lost by three points.
Give credit to Serbia’s frontcourt, featuring Nikola Jokic and Miroslav Raduljica, that did a great job of containing the young star, but if Saric would have made a bigger impact, Croatia could be heading to the semifinals.
It doesn’t all fall on Saric, but when the team had success in the tournament, Saric was at his best.
The power forward averaged 11.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists over six games.
His most memorable moments include blocking Pau Gasol‘s shot at the buzzer to upset Spain; a 19-point performance with 10 boards and seven assists against Argentina; a 15 point-performance in a win over Brazil; and 18 points in a critical win over Lithuania, which gave Croatia the top seed in Group B.
Croatia’s unexpected run was due in large part to the great play of Saric along with teammate Bojan Bogdanovic, but if one word described Croatia’s performance in Rio, it’s “inconsistent.”
Nevertheless, Sixers fans have reason to be excited to see the young star arrive in Philly to play alongside a talented group of players with loads of potential.
As we move on to take a look at the last two players standing in Rio, it should be noted that regardless of the outcome of the semifinal matches, each of these players has two more games left in the tournament.
The player whose team wins on Friday will be on the court fighting for a gold medal on Sunday.
The player whose team loses on Friday will be on the court playing for bronze on Sunday.
We could even see these two players facing off on Sunday, for gold or bronze.
Next: And Then There Were Two