My 5 Favorite International Prospects I Watched This Summer

Across my first summer of full-time watching international and youth basketball, I learned a lot. I was previously interested mostly in the collegiate angle and the players soon to be in college, which was a lot of fun. But this year I looked further into the future. The FIBA U17 World Cup in June was a great kickoff for the summer to come, and I couldn’t help but fall in love with the games of a few special prospects. Some likely, others far from it. Today, I want to share with all of you my favorite players I learned to love over this summer and explain why they captivated me and the future I see in each of their careers.

Dwight “DJ” Gaines Jr., 5-foot-11 point guard, Puerto Rico and Nightrydas Elite (EYBL)
Hands down, the most captivating single player I’ve watched this summer was DJ Gaines Jr., and man, did I watch him a lot. I DMed DJ back in July about how long he had been on the road between Puerto Rico engagements and AAU ball, and he told me he hadn’t been home to his own place from May 30th to August 4th, which is just insane. In that time, Gaines participated in preparation and participation in the U17 World Cup in Istanbul for Puerto Rico, played in the EYBL Session IV and Peach Jam for the Nightrydas Elite on the Nike 17U AAU circuit, and practiced and played in the Santo Domingo Games for Puerto Rico’s U20 Basketball team, taking home gold in the process for his country. Gaines is ranked on most American recruiting sites outside the top 200 in his class, but I think pound for pound he belongs in the top 50.

Gaines is a crafty, fast, and incredibly intelligent guard. He is more than capable of running the offense as a court general and also has the bag of moves and finishing to create his own bucket when the opportunity arises. Despite Gaines’s heavy insistence on handling the ball each possession and taking it up the floor is never for selfish reasons; he simply sees what others cannot and provides that gift to this team’s offense. Defensively, he does struggle to contest against larger guards, but his quick hands and sense for jumping into passing lanes get him enough steals to make the tradeoff even. Gaines has a great shooting stroke, very fast first step that allows his to drive to the rim and score, and incredible improvisational awareness, as shown by a cut back, bank off the backboard to himself layup he pulled off at the U17 World Cup.
Gaines plays like and acts like the main character, a tall task for any player to live up to, but to me he has earned it. He’s smart, tenacious, seemingly very coachable, and grossly overskilled for his age. Gaines has 12 Division I offers at the moment, with that number sure to rise as the high school season starts back up; any high- to mid-major college coach would be foolish not to at least try to get this kid on their team.

Ngaba Yaya, 6-foot-9 point guard/center, Chad

I first stumbled across Ngaba Yaya in May on a fuzzy and thoroughly messy broadcast of Chad against the Republic of the Congo in U18 AfroBasket Qualifiers, and it was clear I was looking at somebody who didn’t belong on that court with the rest of those players. Yaya was a step above in just about every way, the kind of player that can turn the tide of the whole game by subbing in and subbing out. Yaya took home U18 AfroBasket Zone 4 MVP after averaging an absurd 24.2 points, 22.8 rebounds, 3.0 steals, and 3.8 blocks per game, capped off by a heroic 27-point, 28-rebound double-double in the championship win over Gabon to punch Chad’s first-ever ticket to the U18 AfroBasket in Abidjan.

There, he kept things up, even single-handedly carrying Chad to historic upset wins over Egypt and Nigeria on his way to All-Star 5 honors and a number of firsts in Chadian history. In the tournament, Yaya averaged 17.3 points, 14.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 3.2 blocks, and 1.8 steals per game, doing everything on the floor. He was officially listed as a point guard on Chad’s roster in the tournament despite being mostly a 6-foot-9 rim protector on the defensive end, but it was hard to disagree that he was the heliocentric patriarch of Chad’s offensive and defensive attack. It is still shocking to me that he hasn’t been scooped up by some talent academy in the United States or a competitive club in Europe by now.

Yaya is a lengthy and instinctual defender with a great vertical leap and good coordination on rebounds and blocks. He can dribble pretty well for a man his size and occasionally pulls out a between-the-legs stepback move that always leaves his defenders dumbfounded. Yaya is a fast player with the speed of a wing and, if I were to guess his raw vertical, I would put it close to 36 inches because he can get over halfway up the backboard on a chase-down or hard-fought rebound. He’s also a great finisher around the rim and a solid shooter in the mid-range, from the free-throw line, and isn’t awful from deep, though he may take a few too many. He’s as efficient as they come offensively, he’ll chase every rebound, he’ll contest every shot, he’ll steal every lobbed pass, he’ll behave himself in the huddle and on the court, and he’ll take pride in every facet of his game, to me, he’s the best player in the world right now that doesn’t have a serious club or school attached to him.

Jean-Philippe “JP” Oka, 6-foot-8 wing, Ivory Coast

The most dazzling athletic freak I saw on the FIBA circuit this summer, Jean-Philippe Oka is guaranteed to produce a million-view highlight reel in his lifetime. This past week, the 6-foot-8 wing participated in the Basketball Without Borders Next Up camp in Istanbul, while there he recorded a 42.75-inch verified maximum vertical jump; that’s the same as Vince Carter and Nate Robinson, except he is closer to seven feet than six. When you watch Oka play, you immediately know you are watching somebody who will become great, and it is rare to say that about a prospect 3 classes from their projected graduation date- oh, I didn’t mention it? Oka is a part of the Class of 2029!

Oka is an above-the-rim menace throwing down poster dunks, alley-oops, and flashy windmills whenever he has the chance. He’s a long player with an 8-foot-7-inch standing reach, a solid defender who can swat balls when given the opportunity, and a fast-break nightmare for opponents. At the FIBA U17 World Cup in June, Oka averaged 13.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 2.0 steals, and 2.0 blocks per game for the Ivory Coast and took home gold with “Les Éléphants” at the U18 Afrobasket later in the summer. Oka has a 5-star prospect written all over him, especially from the eye test. His biggest downsides at the moment are his pedestrian positional awareness on defense and his shooting abilities. In the U17 World Cup, he shot 3.9 three-pointers per game and made just 18.5 percent of them; at the line he only shot 60 percent as well. He has plenty of time, and if Oka can develop a legit shooting stroke, Côte d'Ivoire may have a top 5 NBA pick on their hands.

Emiliano Catalán, 6-foot-4 forward, Guatemala

The only truly off-the-radar pick on my favorite players list this summer is 19-year-old Guatemalan forward Emiliano Catalán. For those who don’t know, Guatemala isn’t exactly a recruiting hotbed around the world; they have yet to produce an NBA player and, as of right now, don’t have a single NCAA Division I men’s basketball player actively playing. So it is entirely possible for a very strong prospect to fall through the gaps in such a low-visibility environment. That is exactly what happened to Catalán.

A bulky yet athletic 6-foot-4 forward, Catalán utterly confounded his competition in the 2026 Santo Domingo Central American & Caribbean Games this summer. Across the tournament, he averaged 17.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.6 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game. Get this: Catalán led Guatemala in EVERY ONE of those categories, subsequently being named to the tournament’s U20 basketball All-Star 5 team.

He plays substantially larger than he looks, at 6-foot-4, maybe 225 lbs; Catalán bullied defenders in the post, boxed out effectively on rebounds, and rose up to block cutting players in the paint. Before looking him up in the roster, I would have sworn he was 6-foot-6 or taller. He also plays with a soft finesse, shooting mid-range shots, dropping in fadeaways, and passing to anybody he sees open to set them up, with a Kenneth Lofton Jr.-like finesse.  Catalán plays in the Guatemalan Liga Metropolitana, the second-highest league in Guatemala for the club PSN. Last season he averaged 19.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 3.2 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game on 68.2% shooting inside the arc.

Catalan was born in September 2006 and is thus not eligible for this site, but for all JuCo, NAIA, D3, and D2 coaches out there, I think there is a gem worth finding down in Guatemala City.

Lewis Uvwo, 6-foot-11 center, Nigeria & Nightrydas Elite (EYBL)

The player who has aptly been nicknamed “The Jubilant One” is undoubtedly one of the most awesome youth players in the world right now. Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, and only beginning to play the sport a little over 2 years ago, Lewis Uvwo is what you would describe as a natural. In addition to his long 6-foot-11 frame with a 7-foot-7 wingspan and an impressive 9-foot-3 standing reach, Uvwo is the single best defensive prospect in the high school ranks today, as evidenced by his Peach Jam run with the Nightrydas Elite where he took home EYBL Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-EYBL honors. After starting the summer ranked outside of the top 80 players in the nation on 247Sports, Uvwo rocketed up recruiting boards to sit at number 6 and the number 1 big in the 247Sports consensus rankings for the class of 2027.

Uvwo now has offers from Duke, Kentucky, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Louisville, Michigan, North Carolina, USC, and even more than that to choose from this upcoming year, but that’s why he does all of this. Uvwo’s most unique ability isn’t his shot blocking, his strength, or his wingspan; it’s his infectious whimsy and fun-loving nature that brings out the best in himself and everybody around him. To him, being in the U.S. and competing in a game that he loves in front of thousands of fans is a dream come true and something he couldn’t have imagined happening even two years ago, so he smiles, laughs, and emotes through everything he does. That, personally, is what makes him one of my favorite young players to watch. Well… that and the fact that he is the best shot blocker in his class, an elite rim protector, a strong dunker, and one of the few players who enjoys defense more than offense, but mostly the smiling thing. I can’t wait to watch more of him at Prolific Prep this year and hopefully interview him for an article on this site.

I know this article was different and far more subjective than the normal articles, but I, as a scout and lover of the game, wanted to share some of my favorite players from an exciting and fun-filled international summer with World Basketball Scouting. I’m very excited for what’s to come and to bring you even more insightful international youth basketball player rankings and scouting.