Ante Tomic

Ante Tomic - 44th pick, 2008
An NBA calibre centre who, given how well he is doing in the Euroleague, does not have an awful lot of incentive to become one.

Ante Tomic (44th pick, 2008)

- Tomic has made the step up to Real Madrid, and is a productive scorer. Using his touch, footwork and IQ, A-Tomic is dropping bombs, averaging 9.7 points in 18.9 minutes in ACB play, alongside 9.7 in 19.7 in Euroleague play, with decent rebounding and shotblocking to boot. He has also improved throughout the season, and is shining in Real's series against Valencia; in the four games played thus far, Tomic has totalled 55 points in 81 minutes, shooting 22-40 from the field. Consider for a minute that Valencia's centre duo are the aforementioned Sergei Lishchuk and Robertas Javtokas, two premier defenders, and that achievement looks even better. Put more concisely, Tomic can play.

As for whether he could play in the NBA.....well, he's probably better than Kyrylo Fesenko. And Stanko Barac. And Kosta Perovic. Offensively capable 7 footers to whom you can regularly turn are not easy to find. But Tomic struggles to defend anybody at the Euroleague level, and would find it no easier at the NBA. Maybe he could, but maybe he shouldn't.

Chances of making the NBA expressed as an arbitrary percentage: 20%

The mainstay of the frontcourt, Felipe Reyes, is still doing his thing. He's scoring around the basket, hitting mid range jumpshots, occasionally venturing out slightly further than that, and still rebounding prolifically. As he's ageing, Reyes is beginning to struggle more defensively, yet he is covered in this regard by the rest of the frontcourt. Real's centre tandem of Ante Tomic and Mirza Begic stand a combined 14 foot 4 inches tall, ensuring that whenever you drive the lane, someone will be there to block the crap out of you. Begic, a midseason pick-up from Zalgiris (where he had averaged 2.3 blocks per game in only 21 Euroleague minutes per game), does not play much for Real. Yet that does not mean any less of a shotblocking onslaught, for ex-Maccabi big D'Or Fischer is also on hand, turning away 1.6 of his own in less than 20 minutes per contest. While Fischer does not have the height of the other two, he has far more athleticism than them both, and uses it to block shots and rebound prolifically, while also making a few midrange jumpers on offense.

- Ante Tomic

Tomic was signed at Tomas's former team KK Zagreb to begin the year, averaging 17.5ppg and 8.2rpg in the EuroChallenge. Those numbers were sufficient for a big time midseason move to Real Madrid, where he averaged 11.0 ppg and 3.6 rpg in the Euroleague, and 7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 2.0 apg in the ACB. But if he is destined to follow Tomas's path and move to Cibona one day, it's not going to be for a while yet, because Tomic is headed towards big things.