REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - Beginnings are always exciting. There is the prospect of the future; the anticipation of the unknown; and the awareness that ups and downs will occur. At times it also represents the start of greatness. FIBA EuroBasket 2017 has been a chance for that as six high-level teenagers tipped off their senior national team careers.

Here are the grades for those six teens - with Luka Doncic the last one remaining standing as Slovenia prepare to play in the Gold Medal game.

Luka Doncic - Slovenia - Grade A+

Doncic really has been everything that the Slovenian faithful had hoped for when he announced last September that he would in fact play for his home country.

Slovenia's 18-year-old Wunderkind had already wowed European fans throughout the past season with Real Madrid and is actually playing in his first FIBA tournament after never having played for Slovenia at youth level.

That made the Slovenian fans that much more hungry to see their young superstar play in Helsinki, where he teamed up with retiring veteran Goran Dragic in a one-two backcourt punch unparalleled in the competition.

He delivered across the board, averaging 15.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, a 3.1 assist to 1.4 turnover ratio and 1.0 steals. He didn't shy away in his first game with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists against Poland and then had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in the Round of 16 versus Ukraine and tallied 27 points - including four free-throws in the final 21 seconds - with 9 rebounds in the thrilling Quarter-Final win over Latvia.

We all know that Dragic is leaving the international game which has made it that much more fun watching this Dragic-Doncic go-round. But worry not Slovenia fans, Doncic will be around for a long time.

Dino Radoncic - Montenegro - Grade B

Another player born in 1999 at the tournament is Dino Radoncic from Montenegro. Radoncic, a German-born son of a former Yugoslavian and Bosnia and Herzegovinian international handball player, he has already appeared in the Spanish ACB for Real Madrid. Radoncic did not get the playing time that his Madrid teammate Doncic did, but the playmaking small forward had been productive in his previous appearances for the Montenegro national team in the FIBA EuroBasket Qualifiers.

In Cluj-Napoca and Istanbul, Radoncic averaged 3.0 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 12 minutes per game over five appearances. His big game came against Romania in the final Group Phase contest, scoring 13 points with 3 rebounds and 3 steals.

Sure, he was only 18 years old and one needs to remember what they were doing when they were 18 years old. But Radoncic shot just 38 percent from the field including 25 percent from long range. The 1.0 turnovers per game were not bad and he showed with 1.2 steals that he was willing to work on defense to get on the court.

Radoncic will have a long career with Montenegro and one in which he plays a major role on the team. This was a solid debut.

Goga Bitadze - Georgia - Grade Incomplete

Neither Doncic nor Radoncic were the youngest player at FIBA EuroBasket 2017 though. That honor went to Georgia's Goga Bitadze, who only turned 18 on July 20. The big man from the mountains of Georgia played two years younger at the FIBA U20 European Championship 2017, Division B and was tied for second in scoring (10.9 points) for the team and their top rebounder (6.3 rebounds per game) and second-best shot-blocker (1.0 blocks per game). Bitadze arrived in Tel Aviv dealing with a groin injury and never actually got playing minutes.

Still, he drew praise from the Georgia senior national team leader and NBA champion Zaza Pachulia. "He's really a rising star. His future is bright if he continues to work hard. Hopefully he's going to learn and it will be an amazing experience for him," Pachulia said.

Without any playing time it's not fair to give Bitadze a grade, so he receives an incomplete.

Isaiah Hartenstein - Germany - Grade B+

Isaiah Hartenstein, meanwhile, served as a back-up at center and power forward and was effective when he got on the court. The Houston Rockets draftee was the only 1998-born player in the tournament and gave German coach Chris Fleming many options from the big man spots as he can rebound, block shots, pass and score around the basket and from long range.

"He definitely earned his spot," Fleming said about Hartenstein making the German team after missing out on playing for his country at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017 due to NBA Draft preparations.

Eurobasket: Schröder lobs it to Rocket stash Hartenstein pic.twitter.com/HmAohiT1UI

— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) September 6, 2017

Hartenstein made his debut in the second game against Georgia and made a major difference with 4 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist in 16 minutes. He also picked up 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block and a steal in 16 minutes of action against Lithuania. All told he averaged 4.3 points on 61 percent shooting with 2.5 rebounds in 9.6 minutes a game.

Tryggvi Hlinason - Iceland - Grade C+

The other two teenagers at the tournament are among nine players born in 1997. But Iceland's budding star big man Tryggvi Hlinason and Dragan Bender, considered part of the next generation of young aces for Croatia, arrived at the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 with different sets of expectations from outsiders.

Hlinason, who will turn 20 on October 28, had emerged as a dominant force, grabbing a spot on the FIBA U20 European Championship 2017 All-Star Five as the competition's top performer in efficiency while leading in blocks and third in rebounds.

Hlinason got a lower grade because he came in with higher expectations and wasn't able to do as well as maybe many had thought. He averaged 4.2 points on 50 percent shooting with 2.6 rebounds in 11 minutes per game. He did give good energy on the offensive glass with 1.6 offensive rebounds a game (which ranked second on the team) and had only three turnovers in 54 total minutes of action. But it seems expectations were a bit high.

Dragan Bender - Croatia - Grade C

Bender meanwhile arrived with the Croatian national team after an unspectacular rookie season in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, averaging 3.4 points and 2.4 rebounds in 43 games. Bender, who won't turn 20 until November 19, missed nearly all of the second half of the season but did play the final five games of the year.

With Croatia, Bender averaged 4.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 15.4 minutes. He mainly served as a shot blocker, though he had one big game against Czech Republic with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks in 28 minutes. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough of that quality in the rest of the games to merit a better grade.

David Hein

FIBA

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