Yogev Ohayon, who stepped up this last week to lead Galil Elyon to the Israeli League semifinals. Ohayon matched his scoring career-high with 24 points in the penultimate game of the regular season, a decisive showdown against the other contender for that last semifinal spot, Ironi Nahariya. He also added 3 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals. A few days later, he recorded a career-high 11 assists to go along with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals to solidify the semifinal appearance. Actually, Ohayon has enjoyed a strong final rush in the regular season, with 17.7 ppg in the last four games.
Ohayon is very much the same played we saw at the 2005 U-18 European Championship, a classic distributing point guard with limited physical and athletic gifts, but more than enough talent to effectively run a teams offense.
At 6-2, the lefty Israeli playmaker is a bit undersized and not particularly athletic. He wont light up most defenders with his quickness, but relies on his very solid skill repertoire to get the job done (even if sometimes its not enough). A very nice ball-handler, Ohayon uses both hands and a variety of direction changes to beat his opponents, particularly crossover moves and reverses, showing excellent footwork in the process. Hes a poised and smart player who rarely gets out of control and likes to involve his teammates in the offense. Yogev enjoys remarkable court vision that he puts on display to feed his distributing vocation. His ability to dish assists off the dribble after beating his match-up and force defensive rotations is beautiful. But he can also play from the perimeter, feeding the big guys and generating ball movement. All in all, he has the makings of a real floor general.
Ohayon can score points as well. He has been steadily improving his perimeter stroke over the past few seasons, although theres still work to do. Anyway, he shows nice quick mechanics to release the ball. Hes rather effective from the mid-range area, even shooting off-the-dribble. Around the basket, hes quite skilled delivering left-handed layups. Not the best defender around, he logically suffers from his physical shortcomings, but still he does a decent job.
Obviously this doesnt look like the profile of a NBA player. But still, its fair to expect Ohayon to become a very nice player in Europe, even a premier point guard if he maximizes his potential.
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