The Euro stories of the NBA season: superstars, rookies and recoveries / News - Basketnews.com
Credit AFP, AP - Scanpix Here we are at the end of the NBA regular season and the playoffs are just about to begin. If you are wondering which days should you choose to sacrifice your nighttime sleep for basketball, you are in the right phase of the season.
Luka Doncic
Team:Dallas MavericksPosition:SGAge:23Height:201 cmWeight:99 kgBirth place:SloveniaProfileNewsStatisticsFrom the lens of the European basketball perspective, we saw so many stories unfold from October to April and it is not possible to bring them all in at once.
Honestly, it was really hard not to mentionJakob Poeltl's excellent season atSpursin detail where the Austrian proved how underrated he is as an NBA center.
Likewise,Evan Fournier's story of taking over John Starks as theKnicksfranchise single-season record for 3-pointers made needs special attention.
The Trail Blazers finished the season trailing for tanking but Jusuf Nurkic once again showed his big value as an NBA center with a solid effort.
Goran Dragic's comeback with the Brooklyn Nets, Sabonis' new adventure with the Kings, Isiah Hartenstein's silent efficiency at the Clippers, Omer Yurtseven breaking into the rotation of Miami Heat, Cedi Osman finding a new momentum alongside Ricky Rubio's showtime business at Cavsuntil the Spaniard closed the season with an injury, all need special attention.
However, we had to make the tough calls and bring the best of the Euro stories to give a nuanced picture of how the season unraveled for the Euro-NBA stars. Here we go.
The Superstars: Lukamagic, The Joker, and the Greek Freak
There is nothing shocking about the three Euro superstars of the NBA dominating the headlines and racing all the way for the MVP race.
Currently, Luka Doncic is one step behind the trio of Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid for being selected as the top player of the regular season but that hardly means that he had a season worse than the previous. Just the opposite.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
MIN:32.9PTS:29.88 (61.79%)REB:11.61As:5.79ST:1.07BL:1.36TO:3.27GM:67ProfileNBA2021/2022With the introduction of Jason Kidd as the head coach position of the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic, as well as the rest of the Mavericks, struggled to adapt to a change of focus in the first months. The offense was down, the defense was ok and Luka did not look very fit.
But once all the Covid-19 waves are wiped out and Doncic finally found some shape after suffering various injuries from the ankle and knee, things started to roll. The Porzingis trade that brought the Spencer Dinwiddie-Davis Bertans duo to the Mavericks, proved to be a productive decision for better team chemistry, furnished around the Slovenian magician.
After the trade, Doncic averaged an amazing 32.0 points 9.5 rebounds, and 8.1 assists through 25 games where Dallas got an 18-7 run and eventually climbed up to the 4th spot of the West to have the home-court advantage against the Utah Jazz.
Doncic’s traditional stats did not differ from the previous season to a great extent, apart from the jump in the rebounds per game from 8.0 to 9.1 but he reached 44 double-doubles in the process, which is a single-season record for him in that category.
Besides, Doncic also broke into the list of Top 10 names for career triple-doubles in the NBA, reaching 46 overall with adding 10 more this season. He also wrote some more history by sending the 3rd 3-pointer buzzer-beater of his NBA career early in the season against Boston Celtics and tied Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, and Damian Lillard in that category, too.
Are we going to see some more of these from Doncic in the playoffs series? Nobody can claim otherwise but first, he needs to deal with the late injury that he suffered in the very last game of the regular season against the Spurs.
Currently, his case is not clarified but he might be out of the entire first-round series.
Nikola Jokic
Everybody gives their own accounts regarding the MVP race contenders -like Kevin Durant pointing to Joel Embiid- but the Euro stars have their own reasons to deserve the honor.
Nikola Jokic was a lonely man for almost the entire season, expecting Jamal Murray and Micheal Porter Jr. to be back from their devastating injuries, just in vain. In the process, he carried a big burden on his shoulders but somehow manage to put the Nuggets in the 6th place in the Western Conference.
The Serbian big’s impact is impeccable. It would not be wrong to claim that this was effectively the best regular season of Jokic as the efficiency numbers suggest. His usage of 32.3% (highest in his career) coincided with a career-best 134.5 points per shot attempt and 62% Effective FG%.
Attaining such figures simultaneously is not easy because those variables are usually counter-cyclical; the larger the volume, the higher the error margin. Not for Jokic.
His artistic dishes do not need any explanation but his assist rate is a career-best 38.8%, which is the fifth-best rate in the entire league among the ones who played at least 50 games. The most astonishing part is when you realize all the others (Doncic, Young, Paul, and Harden) are guards while Jokic is a “point center”.
Jokic also put 66 double-doubles and 19 triples doubles, both are also career-best.
If we imagine for a moment that Jokic was not there, the Nuggets are estimated to suffer in offense by +19.5 points per 100 possessions. That is the biggest differential estimate about a single player’s impact on the team among the ones who played at least 1000 minutes.
I’m not even mentioning the game-winning shots, assists, or the blocks he has made throughout the season.
This is literally hacking the game. In other words, that was an insanely good regular season for Jokic but it remains an intrigue how much he can go further with that colossal effort.
Giannis Antetokounmpo
We mentioned the Herculean effort of Nikola Jokic but did Giannis Antetokounmpo put less effort than that? Arguably, no. He had his own spells alone while Khris Middleton and Jrue Holliday were absent at the very beginning of the season and Brook Lopez could not even come back from the injury that sidelined him after the first game.
Giannis’ offensive LEBRON score is even higher than last season's 4.39 (compared to 3.55 in the previous) despite not being career-best and he improved the point per possession as a rolling man in the pick and rolls, rising his rate to 1.34 PPP.
Beyond those offensive outposts, he was still defensively very impactful with D-LEBRON being the sixth-best in the league, with a respectable block percentage of 2.0 and top 10 defensive rebounding percentage of 26%.
This kind of holistic combination is very hard to find.
He had 34 games with 30+ scoring out of 67 games he played and led his team to 51 wins and ultimately, to the 3rd in the Eastern Conference.
But perhaps more importantly, he delivered when the Bucks needed him the most: 44 points apiece against the Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets, 36 points against the Celtics to inspire his team to come back from a double-digit 4th quarter deficit, 40 points against the breathtaking duel and eventually the game-saving block against Joel Embiid and the 76ers, all leading to wins.
Finally, it might come trivial but his free-throw percentage was 72% with 11.4 attempts per game, the best figure given the largest volume.
The Rookie - Franz Wagner
Ok, this season was an insane one regarding the rookies. Some people even argue that it is the best rookie class after 1996, and it is not hard to understand why there are such comparisons. Evan Mobley (Cavaliers), Cade Cunningham (Pistons), Scottie Barnes (Raptors), and Jalen Green (Rockets) are the most highlighted ones but the list is much longer than that.
Josh Giddey (Thunder), Herbert Jones (Pelicans), Davion Mitchell (Jazz), and Jonathan Kuminga (Warriors) all had great seasons where they both developed and played very meaningful minutes and took quite a responsibility with their teams.
The incoming European talent did not disappoint, take Franz Wagner.
It is hard to label this season as a positive one for the Orlando Magic, they had 22-60 seasons, the second-worst winning % in the league. But at least they had some reasons to be hopeful for the future, and Wagner is coming on the top of the list.
The No.8 pick from Michigan, Wagner played with 15.2 pts, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game, he was among the leading scorers for the struggling Magic alongside Cole Anthony and Wendell Carter.
He had to miss the tail end of the season with an ankle injury but managed to play 79 games and showed great consistency as well. Those 16 games with 20+ points and a career-best night against the Bucks where he shined with 38 points.
Honorable Mention - Alperen Sengun
If Wagner was the Rookie of the Season amongst the Europeans (in my opinion), No. 16 pick Alperen Sengun was the one who stole the highlights with some mesmerizing moments in his very first NBA season.
It did not take much time for Sengun to break into the rotation with some big minutes and the Turkish center kept improving his shooting, his footwork, his passing, and his defense day after day.
He also got accustomed to his new environment, developed his language skills, and built good relations with his young teammates at the Rockets like Jalen Green and Usman Garuba.
Averages of 9.6 points and 5.5 rebounds are already impressive for the rookie center but it was those Jokic-like dishes and court vision that earned him a reputation. 2.9 assists per game corresponded with a 19.2% assists percentage, which is a top 10 percentile in the entire league among all centers.
His shot-blocking and ball-stealing skills also gave some talking points about his developing defensive skills. And this is just the beginning. The future looks bright for Sengun.
The Progress - Deni Avdija
The first campaign in NBA ended prematurely with an unfortunate and horrific injury for Deni Avdija but thanks to his perfectly consistent display for the entire season, those images where he had to leave the court with medical assistance are long gone in our minds.
The Israeli forward’s defensive contributions were already a big reason why the Wizardsselected him and he kept being his team’s toughest perimeter defender and league’s second-best wing stopper per D-Lebron index among the players who at least played for 1000 minutes in total. He is only behind Herbert Jones of the Pelicans, the defensive rookie of the year contender.
But Avdija also showed great progress in his offensive output figures, jumping from 6.3 to 8.4 points and 1.2 assists to 2 assists per game, while improving his shooting skills from 41% FG to 43% FG and tackling the Free Throw problem by lifting his accuracy from 64% to 75%.
Avdija offered double-digit scoring support in 19 of 29 games he played after the 10th of February, the day Porzingis joined the Wizards via trade. The Wizards gave a courageous run for the play-in spots and ultimately failed but Avdija was one of the good stories of that late-term. More to come.
Honorable Mention - Aleksej Pokusevski
This was an elusive and transitionary season for Oklahoma City Thunder where it is hard to prove any cases in terms of consistency, other than Josh Giddey.
However, towards the end of the season, the entire team put down a bona fide international exhibition with Jaylen Hoard (France), Georgios Kalaitzakis (Greece), Vit Krejci (Czech Republic), and Olivier Sarr (France) founding some minutes in their early NBA careers.
Meanwhile, their intriguing Serbian big Aleksej Pokusevski played for 61 games in his second season in the league and showed some good indications for development.
First and foremost, his overall efficiency in the offensive end looked considerably better as 0.7 points per possession from the previous season, jumped to 0.81 with FG rate moving from 34% to 41% and effective field goal increasing from 43% to 47%.
His shooting still needs to get better behind the three-point arc (remained stagnant at 29%) but at least, he is much better in corners (32% is somewhat more close to being an acceptable rate for a big) and also, developed finishes around the rim from 52% to 66%.
Perhaps more important, Pokusevski’s on-court presence made a big impact on the below-the-par defense of the Thunder as he gave the second-best impact with 5.2+ points per 100 possessions, among the ones who played 1000+ minutes.
It remains a mystery whether Pokusevski can find himself a true position as a PF or C and has a future in NBA, but it would be unjust to overlook his effort, especially in the latter part of the season.
The Leader - Rudy Gobert
There are a few arguments things that people can hardly come up with any objections about Rudy Gobert. First, the French center was still the top “anchor big” defender when it comes to blackening the paint zone in the league, and second, he is impeccable for the Utah Jazz.
Per second spectrum data, the opponents only dared shoot with 34% frequency below 6ft to the rim (effectively, around the rim zone) the lowest rate of the entire league. He defended 51% of those shots which is the third-best figure after Jarrett Allen and Jaren Jackson Jr. 49% and 50% respectively.
One should not also forget that his dominance on the boards helped the Jazz keep their opponents away from second chances as Gobert had the second-best rebounding percentage after a specialist; Andre Drummond.
Besides, his offensive output is not something to be overlooked: 143 points per shooting attempt is an extraordinary rate among the centers, and 73.2% true shooting percentage is the league’s second-best after Robert Williams.
His presence in the offense is not only good when he gets close to the rim but also, he improves the spacing issues. When Gobert is there, the Jazz shooting +2.3% from the corner. All that adds up to Defensive Lebron and Offensive Lebron indexes.
He was simply among the league’s very best players and the Jazz sorely missed him when he was not available, as they were 8-9 win/loss when Gobert was missing.
Honorable Mention - Bogdan Bogdanovic
It would be not very misleading to claim that Atlanta Hawks had their season in the way they would like to have but at least, they managed to bounce back and made it to the play-in, at least.
Bogdan Bogdanovic’s rising form and good company with Trae Young was a big impact on the recovery.
Plagued with injuries and Covid-19 problems, the Serbian shooting ace struggled to find his best shape until February but once he got the rhythm, things started to roll.
After the trade deadline, Bogdanovic came to himself with 20+ games 12 times, which also include those two big games against the Knicks and the red-hot Grizzlies where he scored 30+ two times.
That was very supportive for the leading scorer Trae Young after John Collins finished the season early with a nasty injury.
During February up until the end of the regular season, Bogdanovic averaged 17.7 points, 3.4 assists, and shot 38% behind the arc, being one of the sharpest secondary ball handlers in the league.
Regarding the latter, the Hawks are in the top 3 three-point shooting team with a three-headed monster Kevin Huerter, Trae Young, and Bogdanovic himself.
The Pleasant Surprise - Jonas Valanciunas
It is hard to point out Jonas Valanciunas as a career recovery story at Pelicans because he was already coming off his best season in Memphis the previous year, but we need to take a stand: the Lithuanian big was perhaps better than the expectations.
Originally thought of as an accompanying partner to help Zion Williamson operate more effectively in the offense, Valanciunas already found himself leading the scoring unit in the first weeks, due to the injury of the 2019 No 1 Draft. Until the end of December, he was averaging 18.5 points and 11.9 rebounds with a staggering 45.3% accuracy from deep.
That was the part where he got the nickname “Dirk” Valanciunas, after shooting 7/8 three-pointers against the Clippers.
Eventually, his role got a little bit diminished towards the end of the season after CJ McCollum joined the team and Brandon Ingram got back healthy. But Pelicans’ coach Willie Green’s interesting idea to play Jaxson Hayes and Valanciunas at 4 and 5 worked very well.
Valanciunas finished the regular season with having the 50 double-doubles, other than anyone in the league but Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert. He also found himself the league’s third-best putback scorer after Mitchell Robinson and Rudy Gobert and fifth-best defensive rebounding percentage per Second Spectrum.
The adventure goes on as the NOLA advances to the second game of the play-in stage where Valanciunas scored 22 points and got 14 rebounds to hold back the Spurs. They are just a step away from the first playoffs for the franchise after 2018.
Honorable Mention - Lauri Markkanen
Let’s face it: Not many people expected the Cavaliers to be this competitive, this season. Even some of the players. Ricky Rubio expressed his feelings of disappointment when the news arrive at him that he has been traded, again. He was tired of it.
Cavs were tired of losing, too. Their mission for recovery was intervened by the unfortunate injuries of Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio. Both were doing well and had to cut the season short in a tragic manner.
But credit to the JB Bickerstaff, he blended well the good parts coming together to build good team chemistry. He resurfaced the idea of the tall ball. Jarrett Allen at the center, the rookie of the year contender Evan Mobley at the power forward, and Lauri Markkanen, who signed with the Cavs in a three-team deal, after a disappointing season with the Bulls, at small forward.
It turned out to be a great coaching decision that created a win-win situation for both the Cavs and the player himself. Despite missing out on 21 games because of injuries and getting stuck in shooting slumps at times, Markkanen could be deemed as having a good recovery season in his career.
The Finnish forward’s meaningful minutes were higher than last season (30.7 to 25.5) but his role in the Cavaliers’ offense was no larger than his days in Chicago when it comes to using the possessions (17% Usage, more or less the same as the previous season). Nevertheless, he reached 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game, which are all improvements.
But Markkanen’s importance for the team is not being reflected in the boxscore stats. Interestingly, he appears as the second most impactful player in offense after Darius Garland per on/off RAPTOR index.
This probably stems from the 2.11 guy’s ability to stretch defenses by standing as a towing threat in the wings, as the team’s most frequent spot-up shooting option.
He did not shoot that exceptionally well for the entire season (3 FG 36%, effective field goal 54%) but he operated in a tidy way with a mere 7% turnover rate and perhaps, that was the thing the Cavs needed the most.
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