Cenk Akyol

Cenk Akyol - 59th pick, 2005
Never developed his game beyond becoming a shooting specialist, and while this is useful in his homeland, he is not close to being an NBA calibre one.

Cenk Akyol (59th pick, 2005)

- Akyol was drafted by the Hawks aged only 18, on the off-chance that he would flourish into an elite European big point guard in the mold of someone like Milos Teodosic. In the years hence, Akyol has developed as a player, but not so much as a point guard. Playing for the stacked Efes Pilsen, Cenk averages 5.2 points and 0.9 assists in 12.2 minutes per game in the TBL, used primarily as an three point specialising off-guard. Minutes in Efes Pilsen's backcourt are crazily difficult to come by; Akyol was joined in the backcourt by Flip Murray, Ender Aslan, Sinan Guler, Andrew Wisniewski, Igor Rakocevic, Bootsy Thornton and Kerem Tunceri, all established veterans of demonstrable talent, and all higher on the pecking order than Akyol. Because of the wealth of options available, Akyol is used only in TBL games, and did not play in the Euroleague between November and March. He was healthy, but he was surplus. Of those 8 guard options, Akyol was eighth choice. Wisniewski has left, but that still leaves Akyol seventh.

Akyol is still only 23 years old, and will be around for a long time yet, but the Hawks seem to have shown no interest in him for several years.

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

- Cenk Akyol

After at least 7 years there, Akyol finally left Efes Pilsen in his native Turkey this summer, and moved to Italy to join Air Avellino. He missed six weeks due to injury, and has appeared in only 6 of 11 Serie A games for the team, but he's averaging 7.0 points and 2.2 steals in 21 minutes per game. The 17% three point shooting is not a great start, and nor is the 5 total assists, but Akyol is still young. He's only 22. Feels like he shouldn't be by now.