Dragos Lungu led his country to claim FIBA U20 EuroBasket Division B crown after a decent freshman year at San Diego. Romanian prospect has selected to the tournament’s All-Star 5 and became the MVP of the competition. He stood out with his quickness, crafty handles and impressive effort in the paint which made him 10th in the RPG rank even he is playing in guard position almost his full minutes. So, what’s Lungu displaying on the court technically? Let’s take a look at it.
General Informations :
- Team: San Diego Toreros (NCAA Division I)
- NBA Draft Eligible: 2027
- Past Experiences: NBA Global Academy (Canberra, Australia), ANGT (2021 / Belgrade)
- His older brother Tudor, who is 3 years older than him, is also a basketball player and plays for the Romanian NT.
- Position: PG – SG – SF
- Nationality: Romania 🇷🇴
- Birth Year: 2004
- Height: 6’6 / 198 cm
- Active Hand: Right
Strengths:
- Decent physicality, can finish with contact against the defender who has nearly equal size. Sometimes having some troubles against more physical opponents. However, I need to mention, he is very smart finisher. So, he can draw fouls in the paint and shows it very simple.
- Brings energy to the court. Always active on both ends of the court and follows the ball. Grabbed 7.9 rebounds per game in FIBA U20 EuroBasket Division B even though he is a shooting guard.
- Fast and explosive on open court. He can use all lanes of the court and his both hands when he finishes at the rim.
- Decent athleticism. He can go the rim very flexibly and nimbly. Displays his athletic abilities with dunks, alley-oops, putbacks…
- Very creative. He has many tricks in his bag on offensive end of the court. Fade aways, foaters, windmill lay-ups, midrange jumpers… Creates angles in the narrow places.
- Has crafty handles, beats his defender with quick hesitations and crossovers.
- Great court vision, shows himself in the off ball movements and cuts. Fills the lanes well on transitions and spreads the floor.
- Moves well laterally and navigating through screens well.
- He can put lots of pressure on 1v1 defense. Looks very eager on defense and very concentrated in off ball defense. Good at close outs.
Improvement Areas:
- Poor BBIQ. Questionable choices and shot selections. I mean it’s good to be confident but he doesn’t afraid to drive against two players into paint. The result is not bright too much in general, sometimes blocked shot or turnover. Needs to be more aware when he should pass, drive or shoot.
- Needs to add post ups to his skillset. Standing at 6-foot-6 and has good shape of body. So, he can turn this into an advantage against defenders.
- Struggles on help defenses.
- Tends to dribbling too much and forces unnecessary shots.
Overall; In a very low-level competition and absent from big prospects, FIBA U20 B Division, Dragos Lungu displayed his quality and skillset which separates him from the other players (especially guards) in the tournament. Very talented, has a lot of things in his repertoire and wide offensive palette. However, in some of the sequences, makes bad decisions, forces shots and tends to dribble too much. Still needs to be more mature on the court.
To sum up everything that has been stated so far, Dragos Lungu promising to be very solid offensive player who also use his physics on the defensive end of the court.
2023-24 NCAA Division I Stats:
- 24 GP
- 4.9 PTS
- 41.8% FG
- 24.0% 3FG
- 63.3% FT
- 2.6 REB (0.6 OFF)
- 1.9 AST
- 0.3 STL
- 1.8 TOV