[lptitle title=”Begin the countdown”]
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By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
The NBA is getting ready for the playoffs and some of the biggest stars of European basketball will fight for the title. Eurohoops looks at what the Europeans that compete in the best league in the world have done and presents in four parts what they have achieved this season and what we expect from them to do. It’s time for the Western conference teams that didn’t make it to the playoffs.
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[lptitle title=”Denver Nuggets“]
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Denver has three excellent European players and what they need is to stay healthy. This is especially true for the Italian Danilo Gallinari, one of the most gifted European scorers, who up to this point has struggled a lot with injuries. The French Joffrey Lauvergne and the Serb Jusuf Nurkic have “small” contracts but they are quality solutions near the basket and they are expected to make an impressive progress.
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[lptitle title=”Minnesota Timberwolves“]
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Pekovic and Rubio, with contracts until 2018 and 2019 respectively, are both star members of the team. However, they didn’t have the best season since they both struggled with injuries. Rubio may miss the Eurobasket for this reason, since Minnesota would prefer for him to be perfectly healthy on the team’s training camp. Miroslav Raduljica found himself playing for Minnesota for five games, still cashing in on his decent presence in Milwaukee last year.
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[lptitle title=”Oklahoma City Thunder“]
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Spanish-Congolese Serge Ibaka has a contract until 2017 and remains one of the best bigmen in the league with steady numbers and court presence.
Turkish center Enes Kanter is a peculiar case of a player, with very good numbers that don’t translate into success for his team. He’s a restricted free agent, the minimum offer that Oklahoma has to make in order to keep him is 7,8 million dollars and it’s very likely that they will give him this amount – maybe even more – in order to decide next year when the team will be complete with Durant’s return.
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[lptitle title=”Utah Jazz“]
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Rudy Gobert proves to be one of the smartest draft selections of the last few years and he can develop into the best center that France has ever produced. Extremely gifted in defense, he’s still working on his game and his ceiling looks to be very high. Starting with last year’s FIBA World Cup, he’s had an excellent season.
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[lptitle title=”Los Angeles Lakers“]
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The Lakers after the era of Gasol have been left without any Europeans, they are under general reconstruction and it remains to be seen whether they will include a European in their roster.
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