By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
According to the latest mock draft of Draft Express, Anzejs Pasecniks, who had a great work out with NBA executives watching. climbed to the 26th pick and there’s already an obvious comparison with his fellow Latvian 7-footer Kristaps Porzingis.
Rodions Kurucs is also riding the hot Latvian wave and he is projected to be picked at No. 29. That’s good news for Barcelona which is expected to keep the player in its roster at least for the next season.
Still, Finnish Lauri Markkanen from Arizona – who is compared to Dirk Nowitzki – and French point guard Frank Ntilikina of Strasbourg are expected to be the lottery picks from Europe, currently at numbers 7 and 9 respectively, according to the same mock draft.
German Isaiah Hartenstein who is currently competing with Zalgiris Kaunas for the Lithuanian league championship title is expected to be picked before the two Latvians at number 25.
French big man Mahias Lessort of Nanterre and Greek-American Tyler Dorsey are the only other two names with a euro-connection mentioned for the second round of the same mock draft.