By Alex Molina, Antigoni Zachari / info@eurohoops.net
Thomas Heurtel remained sidelined in Barcelona’s Tuesday EuroLeague makeup game against Olympiacos, raising questions about his position in the team, while there’s a noticeable change in his role as the seasons progress.
Sarunas Jasikevicius was asked about Heurtel’s absence from Tuesday’s game and mentioned there is no injury involved in him missing the game.
“He has no injuries. Thomas was in a difficult period, we thought we had to be better in defense and I think that Thomas, being a very good attacking player, maybe in this game we didn’t need him as we scored enough points. It is better to come out with the pressure of Bolmaro, who was doing very well in recent weeks, the truth is that him and Hanga, marvelous today”, stated Jasikevicius after the game.
With the arrival of Jasikevicius in the team and the signing of Nick Calathes, Heurtel’s role on the court has been limited so far in the 2020-21 campaign, and there seems to be a general decline season-by-season with the Blaugranas both in EuroLeague and the Spanish Liga Endesa.
| EuroLeague | Minutes | Points | Assists | PIR |
| 2017-2018 | 23:38 | 11.3 | 6.4 | 13.9 |
| 2018-2019 | 21:07 | 10.4 | 4.8 | 11.1 |
| 2019-2020 | 13:21 | 5.3 | 4.7 | 7.3 |
| 2020-2021 | 14:28 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 2.2 |
| Liga Endesa | Minutes | Points | Assists | PIR |
| 2017-2018 | 24:07 | 12.8 | 6.3 | 15 |
| 2018-2019 | 21:46 | 12.9 | 5.4 | 14.8 |
| 2019-2020 | 19:59 | 8.4 | 5.6 | 9.5 |
| 2020-2021 | 18:18 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 7.8 |
Heurtel, a two-time Spanish Cup champion and MVP (2018, 2019) and the fifth-best player in EuroLeague history in assists dished seems to be struggling to find a spot for him in the current rotation, as the numbers above show.
Jasikevicius was brief when also asked about possible changes in the team’s roster concerning. “Do you think I’m going to talk about all the rumors that surround Barça? At FC Barcelona it has to be official or nothing”.
However, reports by Chema De Lucas mention that Barca is interested to recruit another guard, with Yogi Ferrell being the main candidate. 27-year-old Ferrell has played 249 games NBA games between Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks and Sacramento Kings. As Eurohoops sources further report, Barcelona has saved a significant budget for a possible addition.
The French guard still has one season on his contract with Barcelona (he signed an extension last season), with a 400.000$ out-clause in case the club opts to end their co-operation early.
Heurtel’s frustration was visible on the bench on Tuesday night, as he was the only player of the squad that did not step foot on the court at all, hinting that there is an underlying issue in the club that needs to be addressed.