Henri Drell

Henri Drell (born 25 April 2000) is an Estonian professional basketball player who last played for Chorale Roanne Basket of the LNB Pro A and in pre-season with Chicago Bulls. He also represents the Estonian national basketball team internationally. Standing at 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in), he plays at the shooting guard and small forward positions.

Henri Drell
Drell with Pesaro in September 2019
Free agent
PositionShooting guard / small forward
Personal information
Born (2000-04-25) 25 April 2000
Tallinn, Estonia
NationalityEstonian
Listed height2.05 m (6 ft 9 in)
Listed weight95 kg (209 lb)
Career information
NBA draft2022: undrafted
Playing career2015–present
Career history
2015–2016Audentes
2016–2019Brose Bamberg
2016–2019→Baunach Young Pikes
2019–2021Victoria Libertas Pesaro
2022–2023Windy City Bulls
2023Chorale Roanne Basket
2023Chicago Bulls
Career highlights and awards
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com
Medals
Men's basketball
Representing  Estonia
FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B
Bronze medal – third place2017 EstoniaU18 National Team

Early life and youth career

Drell was born in Tallinn, Estonia. He started playing basketball at age of 9 years old. He joined small club in Estonia. After that Drell moved to BC Kalev/Cramo youth.[1]

In July 2016, Drell moved to Brose Bamberg, Germany, where he started to play German Under-19 Youth Bundesliga (NBBL- Nachwuchs-Basketball-Bundesliga). In May 2019, Drell led his NBBL team (TSV Breitengüßbach) to silver medal.[2] On 27 February 2019, he was named to the 2019 NBBL All-Star Game.[3]

In February 2018, Drell played for Brose Bamberg's U18 team at Adidas Next Generation Tournament (ANGT) in Munich. He was selected to the All-Tournament Team after leading the event with 27 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists per game and a Performance Index Rating (PIR) of 26.3.[4][5] Later in June, he also attended the NBA Global Camp in Treviso, Italy.[6]

Professional career

Audentes (2015–2016)

In September 2015, Drell joined his hometown team Audentes/Noortekoondis.[7]

Brose Bamberg (2016–2019)

On 1 July 2016, Drell signed a six-year contract with German club Brose Bamberg.[8] He made his professional debut for Brose Bamberg on 18 March 2019, recording 2 points in a 100–74 win over Eisbären Bremerhaven.[9]

Drell mainly played with Baunach Young Pikes, the farm team of Brose Bamberg, in German 2nd Division (ProA). In 2018-19 season Drell improved his stats to 13.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game for Baunach in ProA action.[10] On 2 February 2019 Drell was named the ProA Youngster Of The Month. Drell eventually became second in Pro A Young Player Of The Year voting.[11]

On 19 April 2019, he declared for the 2019 NBA draft. ESPN ranked Drell 55th out of 100 draft prospects, later on Drell decided to withdraw from the draft to try to move up in the rankings for 2020 NBA draft.[12]

Victoria Libertas Pesaro (2019–2021)

On July 19, 2019, Drell signed with Italy's Victoria Libertas Pesaro of the Lega Basket Serie A.[13] He made his professional debut for VL Pesaro on 22 September 2019, recording two points and three rebounds in 25 minutes and a 72–80 loss over Fortitudo Bologna. He recorded his then Lega Basket Serie A career-high 16 points on 13 October 2019 against Virtus Bologna, shooting 6-of-11 from the field with 4 rebounds in 33 minutes. However, the season was cancelled prematurely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[14]

In his second season with Victoria Libertas Pesaro under coach Jasmin Repeša, Drell played in 24 games and started in 12 and averaged 16.6 minutes per game, he made huge improvements throughout the season, mainly in shooting.[15] He finished the season shooting 40% from the three-point line and 50% from the two-points range.[16] On 24 January, Drell recorded his then new regular season-high of 17 points, including shooting 4-of-4 from three-point range, with three rebounds in a 107–83 win over S.Bernardo Cantù.[17] On 12 January, Drell helped VL Pesaro to qualify for the Italian Basketball Cup after a ten-year drought for the team.[18]

In February 2021, in a prestigious Italian Basketball Cup, Drell had a break-out tournament, where in quarter-finals he recorded his LBA career-high 23 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the field, with five rebounds in overtime 115–110 win over Dinamo Sassari.[19][20] He helped his team to reach the seventh Italian Cup finals ever, by beating Happy Casa Brindisi in the semi-finals, but eventually losing to AX Armani Exchange Milano in the final, where Drell posted 12 points and four rebounds in 23 minutes.[21][22] Drell was named the „Best Offensive Player“ in the tournament. He finished the tournament averaging 12.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1 assist per game, Drell had also the best shooting percentages in the tournament: 63.6% from the two-point range and 62.5% from the three-point range.[23][24][25] He parted ways with the team on 30 November 2021.[26]

Windy City Bulls (2022–2023)

On January 15, 2022, NBA Draft eligible Drell was acquired via available player pool by the Windy City Bulls of the NBA G League.[27]

In April 2022, Drell made history in the Windy City Bulls, becoming tenth in all-time blocks in the franchise history, with only 17.3 minutes per game over 29 games in the season.[28][29]

After going undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft, he signed an NBA Summer League contract with the Chicago Bulls. Drell helped Chicago Bulls Summer League squad to finish with 4 wins and 1 loss while averaging 5 points per game, in 14.7 minutes per game.[30][31]

On October 12, 2022, the Chicago Bulls signed Drell to an Exhibit-10 contract and immediately waived him on the same day.[32] He later re-signed with Windy City Bulls and ended the season averaging 11.6 points and 6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.[33]

Chorale Roanne Basket (2023)

On April 9, 2023, Drell returned to Europe signing until end of the season with French club Chorale Roanne Basket of the LNB Pro A.[34]

Chicago Bulls

On September 12, 2023, Drell signed with the Chicago Bulls,[35] but was waived on October 12.[36]

National team career

Junior national team

Drell competed for Estonia first time at the 2016 FIBA U16 European Championship in Radom, Poland. He helped Estonia national under-16 team to be saved from relegation while averaging a team-high 14.1 points, 7.1 rebounds per game.[37][38]

Drell played at the Division B tournament of the 2018 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship, where he was named to the All-Star Five after ranked third among all players with 19 points per game and helping his team finish in fourth place.[39][40][41]

Senior national team

He made his debut for the senior Estonian national team on 21 February 2019, in a 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifier against Serbia, scoring 4 points in a 71–70 home victory.[42][43]

In February 2021, Drell posted 12 points including a game-winning shot and three rebounds in 28 minutes in a 105–101 victory over Italy, resulting Estonia to reach their third Eurobasket tournament in the century.[44] He finished Eurobasket 2022 qualification averaging 7.8 points and 2.4 rebounds in 5 games.[45][46][47]

As a member of the senior Estonian national team, Drell had a break-out tournament at the Eurobasket 2022, where he recorded 20 points, shooting 8-of-12 from the field, with three rebounds in a blowout win against Great Britain, earning him "TLC Player Of The Game" award.[48][49] Drell finished the tournament averaging 8.6 points while shooting 40% from three point line and grabbing 5 rebounds per game, in 25 minutes per game, helping small Estonia to finish 19th out of 24.[50]

Personal life

Henri Drell is from basketball background. His father was a former professional basketball player who played for Kalev. Also his mother and sister were professional basketball players and were part of Estonia women's national basketball team.[51]

Career statistics
Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  PIR  Performance Index Rating
 Bold  Career high

Domestic leagues
Season Team League GP MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2015–16Audentes/NoortekoondisKML416.0.444.250.4002.01.2.5.04.5
2016–17Baunach Young PikesProA68.1.429.0001.0001.5.0.2.02.0
2017–182416.3.496.340.6491.6.8.5.06.1
2018–192928.8.394.297.6733.91.61.2.413.1
Brose BambergBBL38.1.500–.5001.0.7.0.02.0
2019–20Victoria Libertas PesaroLBA1517.1.351.235.6672.11.1.3.44.7
2020–212416.6.459.400.6112.5.5.4.35.8
2021–22712.4.286.200.6001.3.4.3.01.7
Windy City BullsNBA G League2917.9.372.308.5003.01.2.91.05.2
2022–23 3031.2.472.333.7565.92.61.2.611.7
Chorale Roanne BasketLNB Pro A623.2.425.2631.0003.31.8.7.310.0

Estonia national team
Year Tournament National Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2016 2016 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship Estonia U-16 7725.1.376.294.8187.11.92.1.614.1
2017 2017 FIBA U18 European Championship Division B Estonia U-18 8824.3.416.314.8334.42.11.2.612.5
2018 2018 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship Division B Estonia U-18 7726.8.469.333.8615.71.71.4.719.0
2019 2019 Basketball World Cup qualification Estonia 2013.8.545.333.833.0.51.5.09.0
2020 EuroBasket 2022 qualification Estonia 5018.5.438.462.5562.4.8.8.67.8
2022 EuroBasket 2022 Estonia 5525.0.459.4001.0005.01.81.4.88.6

Awards and accomplishments

Professional career

References
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  2. "Bamberg: NBBL ist deutscher U19-Vizemeister!". Nachwuchs & Jugend Basketball Bundesliga - NBBL & JBBL (in German). 27 May 2019. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  3. "easyCredit - ALLSTARS der NBBL". www.easycredit-bbl.de (in German). Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  4. "MVP Nakic of U18 Real Madrid leads Munich all-tourney team". ADIDAS Next Generation Tournament. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  5. "DRELL, HENRI - Welcome to EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL". www.euroleague.net. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  6. "Scariolo will be the head coach of the U18 team of the NBA Global Camp". Eurohoops. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  7. Korvpalliliit, Eesti. "Mängijad". www.basket.ee. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  8. "Eesti noorkorvpallur sõlmis Euroliiga klubiga 6-aastase lepingu" (in Estonian). Delfi Sport. 1 July 2016.
  9. "Henri Drell tegi Bambergi eest Bundesliga debüüdi ja viskas esimesed punktid" (in Estonian). Korvpall24.ee. 18 March 2019.
  10. "Spieler – BARMER 2. Basketball Bundesliga" (in German). Retrieved 8 September 2020.
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  14. "Italian Basketball Federation officially ends LBA 2019-20 season". Sportando. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
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