SCOUTORY

Talent Matas

Image: Kamilė Linkevičiūtė

Younger Jogela brother comes close to orchestrating Zalgiris upset

When Lithuanian giants Zalgiris were recently eliminated in the semi-finals of the 21/22 LKL playoffs by Lietkabelis, it sent shockwaves through the basketball world. But the Green-Whites had already struggled mightily in their quarter-final matchup with BC Neptunas and only narrowly made it to the next stage by winning Game 5 in the best-of-five series.

One of the key figures in the surprising upset berth was a familiar face for Zalgiris fans. Matas Jogela had played for the club's farm team from 2016 to 2018. The versatile swingman had been identified as a major prospect early and put himself on the NBA radar with a great showing at the 2018 FIBA U20 European Championship where he put up 16ppg/4rpg/2.5apg/2spg.

Afterwards, his development stagnated a bit as he made the rounds through smaller LKL franchises but at 24, he seems closer to being ready for the next step. Still somewhat inconsistent, he brings an intriguing mix of positional size at the wing, athleticism plus on- and off-ball qualities. If he can up his three-point percentage to the mid-thirties, which should be possible given his solid FT shooting and decent mechanics, we can see him have a career on the higher levels of European basketball.

Big Data

SCOUTORY Database Relaunch

Our Player Database, heart and soul of SCOUTORY, has undergone a substantial facelift. It now features statistics on around 15,000 players from all of the world's major leagues. Stats are sortable for close to 30 categories. The new DB also features filters so that you can narrow down potential options. You can filter by name, passport, position, role, shooting percentages, SOS (SCOUTORY Overall Score), SOS POT (SCOUTORY Overall Score Potential) or availability. All players with a link have a full SCOUTORY profile including strengths, weaknesses, breakdowns of offense and defense, miscellaneous info, social media links, agent and feedback contacts and video links. You can save your...

Virginia is for Lovers...

...of Prospects

The historic Portsmouth Invitiational Tournament is an annual mainstay of the NBA's prospecting calendar. Every April, NBA scouts and overseas pro basketball executives flock to Churchland High School to evaluate the latest class of college seniors (or super seniors…or super super seniors). Yes, they changed the seating inside the gym (making it even more uncomfortable), but other than that, the 2024 PIT was pretty much business as usual. We scout the tourney from an overseas perspective, so our standout picks might differ from those mainly looking for NBA upside, skill sets and measurements. Here are some of the players we liked (some names might not appear due to a realistic immediate...

South of the Border

The Top Young Players in LNBP Mexico 2023

Even with the Mexican national team taking part in the World Cup, the country's domestic competition LNBP keeps on going. We have taken a look at some of the younger prospects in a league dominated by veterans with the emphasis being on players that have not taken their talents to Europe before. Christian NegronPanteras' Puerto Rican smallball 5 might be the most athletic player in the competition. Dunks everything around the basket and offers switchability and rim protection on D. Needs to develop more of a PF skill set to elevate his ceiling. Joao Vitor FrancaCorrecaminos UAT's late-blooming center from Brazil. Comes with intriguing tools. Long, athletic and mobile. Shotblocker w...

Beats by Tray

Boyd bound for bigger Bloom

Less than 24 months ago, Tray Boyd toiled in virtual obscurity. Yes, the former ETSU combo put up big numbers in the alphabet soup of US minor leagues - the TBL in his case - but aside from friends, family and a few nerdy overseas scouts, almost nobody was watching. Not even two years later, the lefty bucket getter finds himself on a rocket trajectory towards the top levels of European basketball. So what happened in between? Boyd's 21/4/5 campaign for the Tampa Bay Titans had him noticed by Aanekosken Huima of the Finnish 2nd division, confusingly called 1st Division. Up north, he dismantled the - granted not overly talented - competition and put up videogames numbers of 35 ppg, 6 rpg,...

Back to the Future

BC Prievidza and SCOUTORY enter into strategic partnership

With six national championship titles (four in Slovakia, two more in former Czechoslovakia), frequent participations in European competitions and more than 75 years of history to its name, BC Prievidza ranks among the country's most storied basketball programs. The last silverware dates back to 2020 when the club won the Slovak Cup. Recently, the going has become a bit tougher, mainly due to post-Covid financial challenges. However, the organization's leadership is determined to restore the club to its former glory. In this context, they have decided to enter into a strategic partnership with SCOUTORY, mainly seeking assistance on the field of roster management and player recruiting. SC...

Draft-and-Stache

Zac again: Seljaas on ProA MVP Trajectory

When in late June 2022 Tigers Tuebingen mentioned that they were still looking for a Ryan Mikesell replacement - the former Dayton forward was off to ProA France after an MVP-like 21/22 - Zac Seljaas immediately came to mind after we had scouted him in Superleague Georgia.Seljaas has since taken the German 2nd Division by storm and is a strong candidate for a Mikesell-esque career trajectory this upcoming summer. He ranks among the most efficient scorers in all of Europe statistically and has shown an impressive arsenal of offensive tools. Plus his coach lauds him for consistent effort and poise. His numbers in the past six games: 24.7 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 3.5 SPG, 59.4% 3P (3.2 3PM) - that's...