FanHouse PetteriKoponen

A few years ago, when I began to get interested in European basketball, it was difficult to grok just how important a tournament Eurobasket is. In the United States, the only international competition we tend to care about is the Olympics, with the World Championships an event that usually registers as a blip instead a marquee. But it's really different in Europe.

The championship of Europe -- Eurobasket, a biannual tournament -- is as big as the Olympics or the Worlds for ballers in the Old World. Legends are made in the tournament, and reputations earned. This year's European Championship kicks off in September. But beginning today, six teams will battle to grab the last spot in the tournament.

Note: Update at the bottom.

HOOPSWORLD reports the Blazers will announce the addition of Shaun Livingston to the roster later this evening (4PM EST). To be honest, Carl Landry's Charlotte offer sheet is the bigger news in real basketball terms (as in, Houston would lose a lot by shrugging Landry off), but Livingston's a big name 'til he retires, so a lot of ink will spill on this move.

Portland's point guard set fascinates me. Steve Blake is the incumbent, a crafty but restricted shooter who defends better than the others. Clearly, the Blazers aren't satisfied starting him. Sergio Rodriguez had planned to be the flower of the Northwest, but he and Nate McMillan have some sort of disconnect (likely to be defense-related). In successive years, the Blazers have drafted 19-year-old PG prospects: Finland's Petteri Koponen -- a kid the franchise almost brought over the sea for this coming season, someone both McMillan and Kevin Pritchard appear to be very high on -- and Jerryd Bayless out of Arizona. Pritchard moved up in the lottery to get Bayless at #11.

Blake's got to be trade bait if Bayless develops or McMillan gets Livingston minutes at the point. There is, of course, the possibililty Livingston has been acquired to add depth at the swing positions. As Livingston has made his recovery, murmurs that a loss in quickness from his gruesome injury would force Shaun to small forward or two-guard made the rounds. Without Koponen and with Rodriguez in flux, the Blazers would surely like an able point guard should Blake be jettisoned -- Bayless has a learning curve ahead of him. But this could also be a move for the next couple years, where -- should Portland move Travis Outlaw -- depth behind Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez and Martell Webster becomes a concern. Roy, Fernandez and Livingston, in particular, are flexible players who can run the offense or play off the ball. There's a lot McMillan can do here, and it'll be interesting to see how it shakes out (assuming HOOPSWORLD's report is accurate).

UPDATE: The Oregonian disagrees with HOOPSWORLD's report, and says Pritchard has told the media Livingston won't be signed. Timberwolves, Heat: you're back on the clock.

The sheer comedy with which Billy King botched Philadelphia's huge draft keeps getting more laughable. I might remind you that after taking Thaddeus Young at #12 and Jason Smith at #20 (both decent picks), King traded the team's #30 and #38 picks for the #42 and the #58 picks in separate deals. ... I'd write a joke, but seriously? Look at that.

And now, to make matters uglier, the Sixers cut the #42 pick, Derrick Byars. Philadelphia obviously didn't need the pick. (Never mind Byars is a good player.) So they paid Byars some amount to hang around during summer league and training camp. After they drafted him, they reportedly asked him to play overseas (keeping a spot and some salary open while the team retained his NBA rights). He declined. You know what the funny thing is? The #30 pick King traded to Portland for Byars became... Petteri Koponen. And what's Koponen doing this year (and likely next)? Playing overseas. Costing the Blazers nothing. Taking up no roster spot on a deep young team. All those things Philadelphia needed out of one of its late picks. A 19-year-old Finnish guard and a 23-year-old from Tennessee -- hmm, I wonder who will be more willing to play overseas? What a conundrum!

I said it in March, and I'll repeat it today: You can have all the young studs and hope and potential cap room and bright future in the universe. If Billy King is running your team, it means nothing.

As I prepared to attempt to parse Nate McMillan's new roster, Henry Abbott posts this scoop at TrueHoop:

Kevin Pritchard told the Portland media last night that the team has essentially completed another trade that can not be announced owing to league restrictions.

"I'm probably getting fined already," he says, in press conference audio on Oregonlive.

For Portland, Pritchard says the move will bring a small forward.

Abbott also points to this post by Blazers employee Mike Barrett which has James Jones (a small forward) heading to Portland in conjunction with the Rudy Fernandez pickup.

So is Channing Frye or Petteri Koponen or another Blazer headed back to Phoenix? Is Jones the small forward Pritchard refers to, or is there another one he's seeking?

With something like 17 players by my count under contract, Portland's got to keep wheeling. I'd venture to say Pritchard's trying to spring Darius Miles by packaging him with some of these youngsters.

Crystal Ballin' takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 28th NBA Draft.

Needs: The Suns need to strengthen their bench so they can play more than seven people on a nightly basis. Oh, and it would be nice to get some players that are familiar with that "leaving the bench rule."

Best Case Scenario: Phoenix is taking a serious look at trying to move up in this year's draft. Need some proof? Check out the fact that they are working out Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, and Jeff Green today, all of whom are slated to go in the top 10. The best of the group for the Suns might be Noah, but they'd probably have to get Milwaukee's pick at 6 to guarantee themselves a shot at him.

More Likely Scenario: It's looking more and more like the Suns will somehow improve their position in the draft. In case they don't, here's what they're looking at with their 24th and 29th picks: international players. Phoenix doesn't see any immediate help for their team this deep in the draft, so they'll focus on players like Tiago Splitter and Petteri Koponen who can develop their game out of the country and off of their roster.

Some prospects aren't getting enough respect on draft boards. PLEASE DRAFT ME aims to change that.

If you are a faithul FanHouse diner, you'll remember an earlier ode to Finnish point guard Petteri Koponen -- a tribute centered around one silly alley-oop and a trunk of hype from Chad Ford. You probably expected Koponen's stock to hover a while, then drop once more teams got ahold of him and realized he's years away from contributing to an NBA roster.

That ebb is still missing. Koponen has wowed scouts all over the place -- Memphis, Phoenix and about a dozen teams who showed up to his workout last week in NYC. He newly seems a lock for Round 1, and could go in the top 20.

Pro scouts aren't the only fans, though.

Every June, names fly out of nowhere to land on the draft boards of guys like Chad Ford. If you don't pay attention, you'll show up to Madison Square Garden on June 28 to hear names like Maciej Lampe for the first time.

We have our first entry in the 'Draft Who?' playbook for this season: Finnish point guard Petteri Koponen, seen above firing a fairly ridiculous banana bomb at France's Nicolas Batum at the Nike Hoop Summit a few months ago.

Koponen got great reviews at that Hoop Summit, but his real boost came in last week's workouts, where he reportedly wowed several teams... and yes, Chad Ford.

Koponen, according to multiple team sources, stood out with his poise, shooting and ability to adapt his game to the speed of the workout. One executive went so far as to say he saw enough to rank Koponen as the fourth-best point guard in the draft.

According to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic, Koponen worked out for Phoenix on Thursday. His idol is Steve Nash, and he speaks good English (which is pretty important for point guard). If the Suns keep any of their late first round picks, Koponen should be there. At long last, the Nash replacement? Maybe.