Danko Cvjeticanin, the Nets international scout, is highly respected within the Nets front office. So when Cvjeticanin shows up for a game anywhere in Europe, bloggers take note. Sunday, he was in Cholet, France, on a typical scouting trip, looking at two promising 19-year-olds.
For Avery Johnson, it was a chance to coach anyone...and he looked thrilled to be doing it. For Mikhail Prokhorov, it was a chance to begin fulfilling his promise to use the Nets expertise to help Russian basketball. Johnson and Popeye Jones spent time Wednesday working with both Russian kids and Russian coaches.
A report in a Croatian sports journal states that the Nets top international scout told Billy King in his scouting report that Bojan Bogdanovic,, taken in the second round by the Nets, could be a combination of Peja Stojakovic and Carlos Delfino.on arrival in the NBA.
In a video that's now gone down the NBA memory hole, Billy King credited Danko Cvjeticanin with a big part of the Nets Draft Night success. Who? The Nets' international scout, that's who. He highly recommended Bojan Bogdanovic, a fellow Croatian, who Chad Ford has said may be the "steal of the draft", even if the Nets have to wait.
Although Nets officials have said they expect Bojan Bogdanovic to join the Nets in Brooklyn in 2012-13 , he tells a Croatian website: "I will certainly do the two years contract with Fenerbahce, and then we'll see. I want to play in Europe, even thrive. There is time for the NBA ."
With as many as a third of the first round picks from overseas, the Nets have dispatched their top scout to Italy where he'll meet up with the team's international scout to watch European prospects this weekend at the Adidas Eurocamp outside Venice. Gregg Polinsky and Danko Cvjeticanin are expected to spend two days at the camp.
