The amount of international talent flooding the basketball market is at a level never before seen.

In the space of a few decades we’ve moved from a European, Asian or Australian player being in the NBA being something nearing a sideshow to the main event, to the top three MVP vote-getters in the world’s premier basketball competition all being international stars – only one of which attended college.

The melting pot nature of international basketball is, quite possibly, most easily seen within the NBL Next Stars program. The recent announcement of Cairns’ Bobi Klintman and New Zealand’s Mantas Rubstavicius has seen the breadth of international talent in the competition hit a level we’ve never seen before.

From high school prospects like AJ Johnson, more NBL-known – yet still young and draft eligible – talents like Ariel Hukporti, from lottery projected picks to second round fancies, ESPN Insider Olgun Uluc says the spread of talent across the NBL has NBA teams watching closely. 

“Practically every NBA team is preparing to come to Australia at some point this season because the breadth of young talent is so wide,” Uluc said on The Marketplace.

“[It’s] not just the amount of prospects that are joining this program, or the level of these guys. We’re talking about lottery picks to late second-rounders – there’s a really interesting range of level – but also the variety.

“You have Americans coming out of high school, Bobi Klintman is a Swedish big man out of Wake Forest, you’ve got Mantas Rubstavicius who’s a Lithuanian wing.

“You’ve got such an interesting array of players.”

The signings of Rubstavicius and Klintman indicate the high development standard at which the NBL is currently held worldwide.

Both players were strong chances to be selected in the upcoming NBA Draft, but have elected to hold onto their draft eligibility with the hopes that a season in Australia will see their stock skyrocket.

“Right now he (Rubstavicius) is a mid-second rounder. He’s hovering around that area,” Uluc continued.

“I think they have really good processes in New Zealand, they’re adding to their resources from a coaching perspective and beyond to really be a place you can go an develop.

“The hope is, for them, that he can rise and get into that first round.

“They’ve had a really good history of bringing in quality Next Stars and developing them in a really elite way.

“That’s the expectation with Rubstavicius as well.”