By Dimitris Minaretzis / info@eurohoops.net
After all, the current financial standards and raised salaries have changed the field toward this direction.
This doesn’t seem to be changing, unfortunately, though there are players who prefer the EuroLeague over the NBA (or China) and who make the best competition in our neck of the woods more attractive. Eurohoops rounded up ten athletes who are leaving the NBA and who will grace the courts of the EuroLeague with their presence this season.
Alec Peters: From the Suns to Moscow
For the power forward position, Dimitrios Itoudis chose a player with an excellent shooting ability but a brief stint in the NBA. In his rookie season, Peters played in 20 games with the Suns and in that time he got an impressive career high of 36 points!
Alec Peters was selected with the 54th overall pick in the Draft (2017) by the Phoenix Suns but has decided to play in Europe with CSKA, taking his skills (excellent long-range shooting, good game in the post and the ability to see the court with ease) to Moscow.
Tyler Ennis: The “bomb” dropped by Fenerbahce
Tyler Ennis decided to follow the opposite route and play in the EuroLeague with Fenerbahce, and he’s expected to fill the big gap left by Brad Wanamaker, who signed with the Celtics.
Fenerbahce’s management moved quickly in their acquisition of the Canadian guard, a 24-year-old player whom perhaps we weren’t expecting to leave the NBA so soon. He’s an excellent ball handler, fast, good in the pick and roll as a creator or executioner, he can drive and is energetic in defense. Ennis played in 186 games in the NBA, averaging 4.2 points and 1.9 assists.
Georgios Papagiannis: The return!
Georgios Papagiannis’s stint in the NBA was short-lived even though his selection with the 13th overall pick in the 2016 Draft suggested things would turn out differently. The Kings decided to waive him in February 2018, then he was acquired by the Blazers for the remainder of the season, but in the last Summer League he played very little and, in the end, was waived.
Panathinaikos didn’t miss out on the opportunity. Papagiannis himself wanted to return to Panathinaikos and so it looked like a done deal. His return means a lot to the Greens, not just because they got a young and hungry player from the NBA (39 games, 4.2 points and 3.9 rebounds), but also because they reinforced their Greek core even more. Which has been a goal for them in recent years.
Jordan Mickey: Bartzokas’s new, strong move
This is one of the strongest signings of the summer and it was made by Khimki and Georgios Bartzokas, who is good at picking good foreign players! Khimki’s big-budget certainly helped in bringing a notable big man who played 23 games with the Heat last season, with 4.0 points and 3.6 rebounds, and who has played in a total of 64 games in the NBA (the rest in Boston).
Mickey is good in the pick and roll and an excellent rebounder, but certainly, a lot will depend on his collaborations with Khimki’s guards. It’s obvious that Bartzokas seeks in the face of the American the successor of Thomas Robinson, who had also left the NBA for Khimki and was impressive until he got injured midway through last season.