Fran Fraschilla, ESPN’s draft guru, knows the international basketball scene from top to bottom: from Frenchman Frank Ntilikina, the top international prospect in this year’s NBA draft, to the most obscure, Ognjen Jaramaz of Serbia — both of whom were selected by the Knicks.
After the Knicks made Ntilkina a lottery selection with the No. 8 pick Thursday, they took the 22-year-old Jaramaz of the Serbian League with the 58th pick.
Fraschilla said he expects to see Ntilikina manning the point for the Knicks for the next 10 years, though maybe not as a rookie.
“I don’t see an NBA All-Star, but in a year or two, I see a solid NBA starter,” Fraschilla said. “He does a lot of things — nothing elite. Jeff Van Gundy would call him a no-mistake guy. Great IQ, good passer, size, length, very good feel for the game. An above-average athlete. Do I see an All-Star? No. At [No.] 8, it’s a 30 percent chance, but a very solid starter that helps you win games.”
Jaramaz plays for Mega Bemax and was not in the draft guide handed out to the media. Sports Illustrated’s pre-draft coverage, however, picked “Ognjen Jaramaz’’ as the most exotic-sounding in a list of top 100 prospects.
If it appeared Fraschilla knew little to nothing about the guard, it only was because he was being both kind and entertaining.
Instead of a scouting report on Jaramaz after the pick, Fraschilla held up for the viewers a replica of the flashy pink-and-yellow jersey his Serbian club dons. Fraschilla regaled the audience about the team’s unique history: It is owned by an agent who has produced several NBA draft picks, most notably current Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
The Serbian League has produced nine draft picks in the past four years, including Jokic. (The league also produced the Knicks’ 2003 draft bust, 7-foot-5 Slavko Vranes).
“Nobody at that hour wants me talking about the 58th pick, they’re trying to get off the air and get onto ‘SportsCenter,’ ” Fraschilla said. “It was more fun to talk about the jersey. The club sent me one because I’ve talked well about the team. Our national audience doesn’t want me to be talking about the player.”
Jaramaz, 21, is expected to be a European stash pick, but will be on the Knicks’ summer league team in Orlando, Fla., which will hold its first practice Wednesday.
“Chances are he’ll never play in the NBA and Knicks fans will never see him other than summer league,’’ Fraschilla said. “He’s an older international kid, very limited upside. He’s a hard-nosed competitor but not really a great athlete or shooter.”
Fraschilla said he was most excited about what the Knicks did after the draft in signing Vanderbilt’s 7-foot-1 senior center Luke Kornet to the league’s new two-way deal — a feature of the collective bargaining agreement that begins July 1 in which teams get two extra roster spots they can use on players who will be shuttled between the NBA and the developmental league.
“I thought [Kornet would] be drafted in the second round,” Frashilla said. “He’s going to be a two-way player who will get called up a few times. He’s a shooter and rim protector and his transformation is the most amazing ever. He was 6-7 ¹/₂ in his high-school senior year. He fits the modern NBA, [with a] high basketball IQ and [was] an engineering student [with a 3.7 GPA].”