The under-16 level is where we've first evaluated most of the top international prospects over the last decade or so. Whether 2021 draft picks such as Usman Garuba and Alperen Sengun, 2020 prospects including Deni Avdija and Killian Hayes or childhood phenoms like Luka Doncic, international prospects at age 16 are already on the radars of a majority of NBA scouts, who gauge how they perform within their age group while periodically checking in on their development with their respective club teams after that.
With that in mind, we traveled to Cairo, Egypt, Sofia, Bulgaria, Novi Sad, Serbia and Skopje, North Macedonia to scout under-16 prospects from 26 different countries worldwide. Given the COVID-19 global pandemic, heralded national team programs such as Spain pulled out of its competition, while the U16 African Championship was missing powerhouse West African countries like Nigeria and Senegal. Even so, there were at least 11 prospects we scouted that have a chance to emerge as legitimate NBA hopefuls should they continue to develop as expected.