Cavaliers International Scout Q & A

[Karma]

Cavaliers International Scout Chico Averbuck
Searches the World for Hoops Talent

How do you plan your scouting trips to see certain players? What’s the schedule like?
Chico Averbuck: Internationally, there are events and there are leagues that, over a 365-day calendar period, go almost all year round. There’s always something going on.

And now with basketball being such a worldly sport, you don’t have countries taking two or three months off after the league ends. Their national team starts practicing, their junior national team starts practicing and their cadet team starts practicing (right after the season ends). You have teams traveling in the United States against some of our top AAU high school teams. So there’s always someone, somewhere to see.

But again you have to look at it and make sure the trip is going to be worth the trip. You can’t just go to Moscow to see one player and fly back to San Francisco. You have to make sure that the trip is worthwhile. So usually, my trips internationally – especially on the European side and South American side – can last between 12 to 14 days straight. There’s usually so many players in those areas that you need to get around to see everyone instead of making four, five, six trips for two or three days. That’s just not productive.

What are some of the Cavaliers international players up to this summer?
CA: Sasha (Pavlovic) is playing for the Serbia & Montenegro national team this summer for the European National Championships. Anderson (Varejao) has commitments with the Brazilian team that plays in Championships in the Dominican Republic. (The United States will send a team.) And Jiri Welsch will play with the Czech Republic Senior team this summer.

So those guys have very, very little time off. They practice twice a day and they play a ton of friendly games. But their “friendly” games are a little bit more than just practice games. (laughs) They take it a little bit more seriously. So those three players have summer commitments and they’ll be playing straight through.

How does the organization feel about their players going all year round?
CA: There’s really not much you can do because for an international player, the pride that they carry to represent their country and put the uniform on for either Brazil, Serbia or the Czech Republic, that means so much to those players that I think it would be difficult to for (the Cavaliers) to say you can’t play for your international team.

There’s really a sense of pride for international players to represent their countries no matter what the event is. It goes much, much deeper than basketball. I think it’s in their heart and in their blood to represent their country.

Are you sent to a certain country to scout a player? Who gives you the tip on a player or a team?
CA: I’m extremely fortunate that I am my own boss. I have to mind the international store for the Cleveland Cavaliers. (Of course, that may change with the dynamics of management.)

But I’m basically responsible for internationally knowing every single draft prospect along with any other players over 22-years-old. Maybe if they’re an international player or maybe it’s an American playing abroad. And so I sort of pride myself in making sure that I know international basketball leagues as well as, say, (Cavaliers interim GM, Mark) Workentien knows the collegiate leagues and which players can play. And it starts at the same age as when we begin to follow players here.

When they hit 14 or 15 years old and you see them in these cadet or junior tournaments, and you make a note of them – a scouting report – and if they really jump out on the page, you know you’ll be following up on them in two or three years to come and you can see their development. And in most cases, those players sort of rise to the top and are signed by the top 20 to 25 clubs internationally and so they’re already in an environment where it’s actually easy to follow them, almost as if they’re with North Carolina or Duke.

Is there a “hot” country or region where you do a majority of your recent scouting?
CA: I don’t think it’s a particular area. It would be more so countries trying to cultivate a grass-roots program, one that has the facilities and the coaches and in some areas, such as old Yugoslavia. Now, you’re seeing an influx from South America, with Nene, Varejao, (Leandro) Barbosa, (Manu) Ginobili, (Andres) Nocioni.

So there are some areas that are cut and dried. But the world is big and you have to make sure you cover it, because you can’t let one slip through the cracks that you didn’t know about.

I saw Sasha play in the United States for Serbia & Montenegro in something called the “Global Games” in Dallas four years ago and he played extremely well. So I knew then that he was a must-see prospect that I had to follow up on in the next eight to twelve months – which I did – and he continued to evolve into an NBA player.

So, you have to pick the places that you feel will produce NBA-caliber players and certainly in Serbia & Montenegro’s case it speaks for itself on how many players have played in the league from that country.

There’s certain countries or areas of the world which have produced NBA players, so you already know that you'd better make sure that your spending more time cultivating relationships in those countries than maybe in a country that hasn’t begun to develop their program.

Some of the big spots now are China, Africa, South America, Europe, and New Zealand/Australia . The continents are now seeing the influx of basketball; that it’s now this worldly sport. It’s everywhere now. So you have know the entire globe and have people that you can trust in terms of evaluating prospects, cultivating relationships with coaches, assistant coaches and general managers.

And you’d be surprised at how much you can help them, because they’re trying to put a product on the court with maybe one or two American players, so it’s sort of reciprocal. If they have a question about a college player who may not yet be good enough to play in the NBA, they'll ask me: ‘Chico, how do you feel about this kid? How would he fit in? Could he help our team? What kind of person is he? Can you get me a video on him? Who can I talk to at the university?’

A few years ago, the Mavericks made one of the great all-time trades, sending Tractor Traylor to Milwaukee for an unknown named Dirk Nowitzki. Did that trade up the ante on recognition of international talent?
CA: I think Nowitzki might have been the pre-cursor to the international scene. I think more recently, the emergence of a guy like Tony Parker being picked 28th by the Spurs and who's now vying for another championship. I think this put up a flag with NBA teams that said, ‘We can’t let a Tony Parker slip to 28 or pass on Nowitzki in that type of scenario.’ I think it’s just more awareness with covering the world – you’re not just covering it, you’re targeting it – and I think that’s maybe what’s changed the most.

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http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/globetrotter_050607.html