Rising international stars taken in NBA Draft

NEW YORK (NBA) - The Dominican Republic's Karl-Anthony Towns, Latvia's Kristaps Porzingis and Croatia's Mario Hezonja led the parade of foreign players selected in Thursday night's NBA Draft.

Towns, following one season with the Kentucky Wildcats, was taken first overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves and will now be a teammate of last year's top over pick overall, Andrew Wiggins of Canada.

Towns, 19, has already played for the Dominicans in international competition.

He was in the squad at the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and also helped the team one year later finish fourth at the FIBA Americas Championship to clinch a spot in the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

"He plays with a great passion," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said.

"He plays hard. He's multiskilled.

"When you see him warming up, you’re going to think we drafted a point guard."

Adding to the excitement of draft night for Minnesota was the addition of Tyus Jones, the NCAA Final Four MVP who played for USA coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

The T-Wolves picked up Jones, who also turned professional after just one season of college basketball, in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Jones has represented the United States at youth level, including in 2012 at the FIBA U17 World Championship for Men.

The T-Wolves also chose Turkey's rising star Cedi Osman with the first pick of the second round.

Osman played for Turkey at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and had a terrific year to follow with Anadolu Efes.

The New York Knicks selected Porzingis, who just wrapped up his third season in Spain's Liga Endesa with Cajasol Sevilla, with the fourth pick overall and Hezonja, following a breakout year with Barcelona, was taken fifth by the Orlando Magic.

Hezonja played for Croatia at last year's FIBA Basketball World Cup and also had a starring role for Barca in the Liga Endesa and the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

Knicks president Phil Jackson says fans will need to be patient with Porzingis, a sweet shooting 19-year-old who measures 2.16m in height.

This young man [Porzingis] is an eye-opening athlete. - Jackson

"We felt the risk/rewards were the greatest with this guy, perhaps, than the whole lottery," Jackson said.

As for Hezonja, he couldn't be happier to be a Magic player.

"I'm really, really happy about Orlando selecting me because they are a really good organization," he said from Spain.

"I’m trying to do my best on everything that I can do and do it at the highest level.

"For me, I hope to get all of the details of my game up to the highest level. Playing with that confidence, that’s just me. That pushes me every day to go even harder and it prepares me for the great things ahead."

Hezonja plays with swagger, despite being so young.

"[It] is basically just me and who I am."

The Denver Nuggets chose Emmanuel Mudiay, a 19-year-old from Congo, seventh.

Mudiay played this past season in China and revealed himself to be an aggressive point guard who attacks the rim.

The San Antonio Spurs continued their tradition of picking foreign players.

They selected 2.11m center Nikola Milutinov, a 20-year-old who is trying to make Serbia's EuroBasket 2015 squad.

The Spurs liked what they saw in the Partizan Belgrade man.

"Really good passer," general manager RC Buford said.

"The really interesting thing about him is that he is a better offensive rebounder than a defensive rebounder.

"You don’t see that with many people his size.

"There are parts of his game we need to develop.

"But from where he was a year ago to now, as a 20 year old, he’s come a long way.”

Milutinov played for Serbia at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship.

Spain's Guillermo Hernangomez, a teammate of Porzingis at Cajasol Sevilla, was taken with the fifth pick in the second round by Philadelphia.

The Sixers also took Arturas Gudaitis of Lithuania with the 17th pick in the second round.

The Atlanta Hawks used the 20th pick of the second round on Sweden's rising star, shooting guard Marcus Eriksson.

The Dallas Mavericks chose 2.18m pivot Satnam Singh Bhamara at No. 22, making him the first Indian to ever be selected.

A player who turned out for India at the last two FIBA Asia Championships, he spent last season playing at the IMG Academy.

The 19-year-old from the Ballo Ke village in Punjab said: "I just wanted to get picked. It didn’t matter where. Anywhere would do."

Ninetee-year-old Juan Pablo Vaulet, who is playing at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Heraklion (Crete, Greece, was chosen with the 39th pick by the Charlotte Hornets and traded to the Brooklyn Nets.

Other foreigners taken in the second round were Nikola Radicevic (Serbia) by Denver, Dimitrios Agravanis (Greece) by Atlanta and Luka Mitrovic (Serbia) by Philadelphia.

Mitrovic was a standout this past season with Red Star Belgrade in the Adriatic League and the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

He is in Serbia's preliminary squad for EuroBasket 2015.

Check out some of the highlights of the players selected in the 2015 NBA Draft in action for their respective national teams.

FIBA