Nikita Shabalkin

There was a lot of good mixed in with quite a bit of bad from Nikita Shabalkin today as well, although in contrast to most guys, he actually played better at the end of the day when most of his teammates were struggling fatigue.

Shabalkin has been awfully quiet throughout the entire game so far, and the first game started exactly the same way Treviso has gone all along for him. The fact that he was barely getting any touches didn’t help matters too much obviously. Shabalkin really came alive in the decisive fourth quarter though, scoring on a swooping hook shot, playing the pick and roll nicely to receive and finish quickly inside, and putting the ball on the floor. He wasn’t very active besides that, though, only coming up with 2 rebounds in 28 minutes of action.

In the 2nd game of the day—against the Italian U20 team, Shabalkin did a much better job. He showed off his nice shooting touch with a baseline jumper and then a catch and shoot 3-pointer, while also displaying extra soft hands make tough passes around the basket and pulling down 8 rebounds in 23 minutes. Shabalkin’s biggest issues revolve around his lack of quickness and explosiveness finishing around the basket, often getting caught in no-man’s land around the many 7-footers here when he tries to go up at the hoop without a pump-fake. He’s really the kind of guy that needs to play in a system alongside a good point guard to really be effective, as he’s not the most naturally active guy in the world who will go and look for his own stuff. All in all we expected a bit more from Shabalkin based off the tape we watched coming in here, although he certainly hasn’t played poorly.

Ponkrashov’s biggest rival for this “award” was his countryman Nikita Shabalkin, an all-around power forward with an impressive skill set that we already had seen in Zaragoza in the summer of 2004. He can evolve in the low post thanks to his great footwork, he knows how to finish near the basket, has a very effective jumper, can pass the ball or put the ball on the floor, and he’s smart, tough, and shows plenty of character… basically the complete package. However, his combination of size (6-9 on shoes, although with a 7-1 wingspan) and athleticism seriously damage his stock. Still, he should become an excellent player in Europe.