Vladimir Veremeenko

Vladimir Veremeenko - 48th pick, 2006
In the back end of his career and going down the levels. 9.0 ppg and 5.3 rpg in the FIBA Europe Cup for Nizhny Novgorod this year; smart and skilled inside, but slow, and defends via the foul only.

Vladimir Veremeenko - 48th pick, 2006
A layups and fouls specialist in the German league who can no longer keep up with Euroleague play, let alone NBA play.

Kazan's strength lies in their depth. There would be enough talent in those aforementioned 8 for most Eurocup teams, yet Kazan have more quality to add to that. Former Wizards draft pick Vladimir Veremeenko plays good minutes at the forward spots, used largely for rebounding and interior finishing, but sometimes able to turn in good defensive performances, and occasionally effective as a floor spacing big man. He is also a good passer of the ball, particularly when it comes to finding Maciej Lampe. Former Kings draft pick Ricky Minard provides the big and athletic slashing option from the wing, along with good defense, solid playmaking, and a mild outside shooting threat. And Slovenian Hasan Rizvic, while unable to play big minutes due to his constant foul problems, plays the best interior defense on the team, hustling and energetic, while also providing some interior finishing and pick-and-roll play. There's an option here for every occasion.

Vladimir Veremeenko (48th pick, 2006)

- It's not possible to trade someone or something for nothing; each team must always send something out. This is true in every deal, even those designed to be complete dumps for one party. For this reason, Vladimir Veremeenko was an unimportant yet important cog in the summer time trade that saw Kirk Hinrich, Kevin Seraphin and cash go to the Wizards in exchange for nothing significant at all. In lieu of anything significant, Veremeenko's draft rights were the vehicle of dreams that allowed this morally neutral trade to go down. Had the Wizards sent something like a nominal amount of cash back to the Bulls in a trade in which they would have received cash, that would have been too weird.

Veremeenko is a 6'11 combo forward who was drafted by the Wizards with the 48th pick of the 2006 NBA draft. He's a face-up scorer that is too slow to defend the wing positions in the NBA, which is one of the reasons why he will never join it. (The other is that he's not good enough.) He's also not especially strong or physical, which means he can't defend power forwards particularly well, either. For a 6'11 guy, Veremeenko is a good ball handler and a legitimate face-up power forward; it is that combination that made him intriguing enough to be draft. Veremeenko is also a pretty good shooter, and capable of taking players similarly athletic to he off the dribble, where he has decent touch at the rim and a mid-range game. Unfortunately, such players are rare in the NBA, even more so now that Austin Croshere has retired. Veremeenko also takes an unnecessarily large number of bounces before every free throw; this isn't important, but it is kind of annoying.

Veremeenko is with Unics Kazan, who currently top the Russian league and have a very good chance of breaking CSKA Moscow's monopoly over the competition. They are also still going strong in the Eurocup, making it through to the quarter final stages. Veremeenko is a big part of both campaigns, averaging 8.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in Russian league play, alongside 8.1 points and 4.9 rebounds in the Eurocup. He's a good player. He's just not an NBA player.

Chances of making the NBA expressed as an arbitrary percentage: 2%

- Vladimir Veremeenko

Wizards draft pick Veremeenko has spent another year with Unics Kazan, still doing his impression of an entry-level Linas Kleiza. His numbers were slightly down this year on a deeper Kazan team, averaging 8.5ppg/4.2rpg in the VTB United League, 8.5/5.3 in the Eurocup and 7.6/4.1 in the Russian Superleague.

He is the only Belarusian player we will be covering.