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Fran Fraschilla: Brooklyn Nets "serious about developing international talent"

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Russian Basketball Federation

Fran Fraschilla is the guy ESPN turns to on Draft Night when a team selects a player with an unpronounceable name from an obscure team overseas.  He's also the guy Lenn Robbins and Alex Raskin turned to Monday after the Nets introduce Bojan Bogdanovic, their fifth international player, a record.

Fraschilla likes what he's seen of Bogdanovic in Europe but says beyond that, the Nets are now in the global player development game, in fact, near the top.

"His main strength is his outside shot but he’ll prove to be a better athlete than people think," Fran Fraschilla, a Brooklyn native, told Robbins. "His ability to stretch the floor with his shooting gives him a chance to play early in his time in Brooklyn. I think he’s got the potential to be a solid NBA rotation guy on a good team."

He told Raskin that the Nets are now looking at European and other international players as a way to compensate for a lack of picks and a lack of flexibility after their (European) owner decided last year that the future is now.

"I would say they're as serious about developing international talent as many in the NBA have become," he told Raskin, explaining: "[The Nets] have recognized the value of finding another source of talent."

It's not just Bogdanovic or his fellow Mostarci, Mirza Teletovic. He had high praise for the Nets decision to press Cleveland to include Sergey Karasev of Russia in the Jarrett Jack deal.

"I see him as a skilled off-guard who can handle the ball," Fraschilla said of Karasev, who averaged 13 points a game in 19 D-League appearances last season. "He's a coach's son, so he understands the game and makes the right plays.

"As crazy as it sounds," Fraschilla told Raskin, "he'd have been a top-five, top-six, top-seven pick this year. He's very talented. I don't know if the situation in Cleveland was dysfunctional or not, but I also would tell you that at 19, he was not ready for the NBA last year." Now, he says, that has changed.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Andrei Kirilenko has his first piece of advice for Karasev: be aggressive. "He must understand and realize that today and now is his time. Often he must take the initiative in his own hands, and not just play along with the rest."

The advice, Kirilenko, works both for the Russian national team as well as the Nets.

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