No country for short men: Why EuroLeague guards fail to flourish in the NBA / News - Basketnews.com

The NBA has been a tough place to be for EuroLeague guards. In this article, only available to BN+ members, we take a look at the reasons so many perimeter players have returned to Europe this season after having very short stints in the world's top basketball league.

Credit: Jason Miller/Getty Images; ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic Credit Jason Miller/Getty Images; ABA League j.t.d./Dragana Stjepanovic

For European guards, the 2000s and early 2010s looked like the place to be.

Wade Baldwin

MIN:26.24PTS:14.07 (49.08%)REB:3.21As:4ST:0.93BL:0.07TO:1.93GM:14ProfileEuroLeague2022/2023

Those were the times when some of the EuroLeague legends dominated the competition. The era of Sarunas Jasikevicius, Theo Papaloukas, Juan Carlos Navarro, Dimitris Diamantidis, Milos Teodosic, and Vassilis Spanoulis.

No team without at least one European guard at the helm had won the continental title until David Blatt's Maccabi appeared in 2013-14. With two Americans (Ricky Hickman, Tyrese Rice) leading the way, the Israeli powerhouse staged an unforgettable comeback that vindicated both their coach and star players.

That was the start of a new era, although several teams that followed Maccabi were based on European guards. CSKA Moscow had Teodosic and Nando De Colo, Fenerbahce had Kostas Sloukas, Real Madrid had Sergio Rodriguez, Sergio Llull and -yes- Luka Doncic. Even Anadolu Efes' clutch player up to this day is no other than Vasilije Micic.

Shane Larkin has a fair share of credit for what the Turkish squad has achieved, but it's still Micic who pulls the strings and makes sure everyone is where coach Ataman wants. That's why he recently said he doesn't even have to speak with Ataman. They understand each other perfectly, and it shows.

While the EuroLeague is still dominated by guards, with the exception of Micic, no major European star has surfaced from the continent since Doncic left. Most of the stars of the past are either retired or on their way to retirement (Llull, Rodriguez, Teodosic).

Some are struggling, while others have managed to be effective and adjust to playing less.

Nick Calathes is making some of his miraculous passes for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, but the 33-year-old point guard is a player formed and developed in the USA. Calathes came to Europe in 2009, when he was 20 and already a star with the Florida Gators in the NCAA.

But Europe not producing enough guards isn't the only issue here. The US isn't producing enough big men, either. Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jonas Valanciunas, and Domantas Sabonis have been the most dominant inside players in the league for quite some time.

Gone are the days when the American centers/power forwards terrified their opponents in the paint.

At the start of the 2022-23 season,120 international playershad joined the ranks of 30 NBA teams. Only 27 of them had played in the EuroLeague for at least one season before they moved overseas.

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