Abramo Canka Scouting Report
I’m Kuzey, 19. I’ve been writing about basketball since I was 9. I have been working in Eurosport Turkey for the last 1,5 years. I have written on various sites and magazines before. I’ve been working as a freelance scout for three years. I worked as a consultant. I have interviewed dozens of prospects such as Theo Maledon, Deni Avdija, Henri Drell, Aleksej Pokusevski, Arturs Kurucs, Yves Pons, and dozens of notable basketball people such as Luis Scola, Xavi Pascual, Jonathan Givony, Dimitris Itoudis, Sasa Obradovic, Joan Plaza, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Derrick Williams. I write an article every day. I live in Turkey, I go to all the Euroleague and Youth League games. My main areas are all of age group in Africa and from U12 to U20 European and NCAA. MY BIGGEST GOAL IS SCOUTING! Anyway, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and feel free to DM!
Team: Kedainai Nevezis (loan from
DBO: March 17, 2002–18 years old
Nationality: Italy
Shooting Hand: Right
Primary position: Shooting guard
Secondary position: Small forward
Offensive skills: One-on-one scoring, slashing, cutting, mid-range shooting as a creator or spot-up shooter.
Defensive skills: On the ball defense, switch to PGs, SGs and SFs.
Abramo Canka is one of the basketball talents that grew up at Stella Azzurra Basketball Academy. Canka, which has been on the radar of many scout teams since 2016, showed a good improvement curve until 2018.
He was one of Italy’s best players at the 2018 U16 Euro Championship and played in Legadue Gold for Roseto Sharks in the following season.
After his excellent performances in both Munich ANGT and Legadue Gold in 2019, he received a contract offer from Lokomotiv Kuban. Canka signed with the Kuban, but for this year he will play for Nevezis (Georgios Kalaitzakis made a jump at Nevezis last year. This year, Canka is a team roster with another notable 2002-born prospect, Ariel Hukporti. Panagiotis Kalaitzakis is also in the team roster.) in the top Lithuania Basketball League.
From the statistics window, Canka averaged 16.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.2 steals, three TOs while shooting 40% from the 3-points line in 1.25 per attempt and 61% from the court in 6.25 per attempt at the ANGT Munich. He had a great micro-role last year in Roseto Sharks and did a lot of good job on the offensive end in my opinion.
Background
Abramo Canka was born on March 18, 2002, in Genoa, Italy.
His father leaves his mother when he was young. Afterward, Canka and his mother live together against all the difficulties of life. AC’s mother’s work discipline and love for himself affected Canka a lot. He thinks he’s good at basketball thanks to his mother’s faith and hope.
Canka tried many sports until the age of nine, but after playing basketball at a sports festival at the time, he decided to stay entirely in that sport. Canka grew up in the great academy of Stella Azzurra.
He has no clear idea of the NBA Draft yet. He wants to take a decision according to his performance this season. His favorite player is Kobe Bryant. He also enjoys watching Matise Thybulle. Watching soccer is one of his hobbies. He also likes to watch movies but does not neglect to study. Canka, a fan of Sampdoria. He studying sports management and wants to do something about it after retiring from basketball. The Blind Side is his favorite movie.
Italian assistant coach who works on the Top Italian Basketball League, told me that about him.
“Canka is a true, real hard-worker. He knows what lacking in his skill-set, and when he sees that others are doing well about his lacking things, he does not leave the basketball hall for long periods of time. Doing his best and being calm, fun off the court and caring for his family is his perfect identity.”
Physical Tools and Athleticism
Standing 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan and 185-pound frame, Abramo Canka has nice size for 18 years old guard. He has a lot of room to get stronger but Canka glides up and down the court with ease, especially in transition. Two years ago he had a 155-pound frame in the FIBA U16 Championship, but in the last two years, he has improved in both length and strength. Nice width and average strength on shoulders that allows him a good biceps and triceps and makes him a pesky defender. Also has very active hands, good eye-hand coordination, body coordination, solid stance, ground balance. Good wingspan for a guard, plus 3. Long but lack of strength on arms, nice smoothness and solidness on wrists. Not good strength on chest, also, needs work on core muscles. I think that this kid’s upper body is good in terms of length and base but has a lot of room to get stronger. On his lower body, great quickness, nice vertical pop offensively (can dunk, can finish above the shot blocker but on the defensive end, he is not a rim protector or elite shot-blocker) very quick off of his feet. I’m not a big fan of his lateral movement, needs work here in my opinion. He has great athleticism package for his position. After getting the ball in the corners, he can use burst/eye/body/pass/shot fake and quickly pass his opponent and dunk. Abramo Canka can also make highlight dunks on the open floor. Not an elite smooth athlete in tight spaces but showed that he can finish in traffic with using his hips. Has good stance explosion. I mean, he squares his back to the defender and shifts his weight to his back leg. So he can change direction in the air easily, also, thanks to his strong first step, Canka can change direction/can use Euro step to go to the basket — has a basic crossover, spin around crossover skill-set. Overall, Canka’s work discipline and Nevezis’ training programs great pluses for his improvement physically. Also, he is just 18 years old, he projects to be still growing at least four years, which is great. Last nte, his all physical tools remind me of Danny Green’s St. Mary’s period. I think same base, same strength problems, and same dazzling athleticism package. Right now in the NBA, a shooting guard who can finish above the rim, can run on the open floor quickly, has work-ethic to improve, can change direction both on the ground and in the air, is very important for all 30 teams. So, if Canka will stronger in two-three years, his NBA ceiling is really will high in my opinion.
Offense
Abramo Canka is a scored first and an adequate ballhandler. Canka does much of his best work on the offensive end as a one-on-one and around the basket finisher. Lack of elite soft touch but solid and smart touch work. Can finish both hands at the rim but usually uses his right. Strong, very strong step which allows him a change direction ability on the ground. Nice hop before jumping off of one foot (he also jumping off of two feet and can absorb the contact, can finish with using snake skill-set but not consistent) thanks to his almost elite body coordination.
He usually finds his buckets around the basket or as a slasher, from right-wing or top of the key. He dribbles from these areas usually. He is not an elite smart finisher but has some tricks here. Has constant speed changed to control the pace. So, he dribbles the ball fast-low-fast and breaks his opponent’s mind, opponent’s defensive line after that goes to the basket, gets in from of the defender (so doing with this, he protect the ball and close his opponent’s shot blocking angle), jump and finish with using the glass smartly. Limited pop in the paint in traffic but as I said, showed some promising flashes. Lack of elite upper body strength and elite last touch hurt his finishing skill-set. Also, sometimes he forces the game but overall, unselfish, talented and smart finisher in my opinion. Very quick in transition situations both on the ball or off the ball player. A capable driver, Canka has not a crafty or shifty dribble the ball skill-set in the half-court. But when things come to spontaneous, out of action things, Canka’s quickness, deceptive ballhandling ability make him a great player. However, the game is not always run out of motions, so needs improve here.
Off the ball motions: Good in my opinion. He knows how, when and where to where cuts as an off the ball scorer or pass to assist player. He reads his teammates’ movement, reacts well (uses his burst and body fakes very well like JJ Redick) and if he sees a good space after taking the ball, he dribbles to the basket, but if there is no space he knows how to pull the defenders on him and create space for his teammates. As a shooter in off the ball motions showed some spot-up shooting flashes but inconsistent.
Abramo Canka is able to generate his own shot around the mid-range, mostly using a crossover or burst fake before elevating for a jumper. Also, after cuts to the middle section, he can hit the 2-points jumper quickly, while doing it, he reads his opponent’s footwork and reacts well. Has good BBIQ on his shots.
His shooting form looks solid, nice set-up on feet, good angle on knee, nice shot pocket (eye test: parallel to shoulders and a little bit above the rim) and good pop. However, I think AB has room to polish his shooting stroke because the ball doesn’t come out smoothly on his 3-points shots every time and also generally, he doesn’t transfer energy from his hips to his shooting form, uses his upper body but as I said, his upper body is not strong yet.
Last not on his shooting ability. Canka is not a shooter who has the ability hesitation dribble, stop on a dime, attack left/right, pull up or give pass but his smart shooting choices and some flashes on catch-the-ball are promising.
Good, very good passer. Not a crafty passer like Arturs Zagars or Leandro Bolmaro, but when he takes defenders on him, he gives the ball open man quickly. Also, he showed a lot of things on pocket, drive-and-dish skill-set. I think his scoring first mentality gives him a “forcing the game” identity sometimes, he is an unselfish player but really needs some balance.
Not a pick-and-roll player. Has a lot of room to learn find score as a pick-and-roll handler in my opinion. Really, the Italian prospect almost has nothing here.
Defense
Based on what I’ve seen from Abramo Canka so far, his defense is way ahead of his offense in my opinion. A pesky defender knows how to use his great length to make intense defense on his opponents, really, totally focused and active defender.
He slides laterally to cut off the ballhandler, absorbing contact on ISO situations. Also, his one hand is always up and his other hand is down, so, he avoids foul easily. Solid stance, turns hips and back square to contest his opponent’s situation. If his man change direction, two feet hop and hip rotate help him here. By pressure the ball, Abramo Canka can really control his man’s offensive vision and force him to expose the ball with smartly around the perimeter.
But things aren’t always good on the defensive end for him when the game comes around from the perimeter to the basket. Since Canka does not have elite lateral and upper strength, he cannot defend stronger players in motion. But players who are faster than him can defend them thanks to his stance movement — low to high or high to low, quick and has great timing. Also, his active hands and great body coordination help him here.
An aggressive, high-level motor defender, Abramo Canka has good team awareness on the defensive and. I think he has the potential to be a defensive playmaker at high-levels. Because he reads game very well, has great defensive BBIQ, nice positional defender, doing impressive things being right place on the court, keeps hand out taking away passing lanes when he’s off the ball in help. Also, the Italian prospect does a good job following his man around the screens, tagging the cutter in help and then getting back to his matchup but sometimes gambles too much around the baseline and under the basket. Showed great rotating down but his high gaming excitement, willingness to do anything, and his lack of experience cause him to do the wrong help defense. He can overhelp despite his man waiting strong side… Needs some balance and clearly needs experience.
Good pick-and-roll defense thanks to his BBIQ and coordination which I talked about first paragraphs. His biggest improvement area on the defensive end is closeouts in my opinion. Canka does really good job closing space on the shooter thanks to his length, pop, athleticism package and BBIQ but has not great reacts timing on closeouts. He is also very quickly believing by his opponent’s shot/pass/burst fake and makes the wrong closeouts rotate. As a rim protector and shot blocker, just one thing. Occasionally blocks shots from the help side.
As a rebounder, Canka is great thanks to his vertical pop, game reading ability and length. Has grab and go ability, finds score for himself or can create something for others after grab defensive rebound. On the offensive end, he uses his quick second jump and can finish with one hand touch in the air.
Questions
What levels will his hit percentage be when his volume increases on 3-points shots?
Will he be able to use his offensive aggression to become a killer-scorer?
Will he be a lockdown defender at high-levels?
Overall
Abramo Canka is an energetic scorer guard who has great one-on-one scoring package, decent shooting, good awareness, aggressiveness, pass the ball skill-set and has athleticism to make score. On the defensive end, Canka is a pesky, hardworker and has great engine. Also, his off-court life is really very good.
I think he can find a good place in the NBA and be a mid-rotation player. But he needs to strengthen his upper body, he has to play a little more balanced on defense, he must definitely level up in 3-points and learn to be a little more killer-scorer. As a final note, I think the position where Canka’s career ceiling will be highest in SF. Like Matisse Thybulle, he can bring a lot to the table with his energy and athleticism. So yes, his skill-set like Thybulle and his body like Danny Green in my opinion.